Lucy Ruth Cummins is an author, illustrator, and art director of children’s books. She was happily paired with Jean Reidy for both Truman, which was named a New York Times Best Children’s Book of 2019, and Sylvie. She also is the author-illustrator of A Hungry Lion, or A Dwindling Assortment of Animals; Stumpkin; and Vampenguin. Lucy has swum in creeks, streams, gorges, rivers, swimming holes, pools (above- and in-ground), lakes (both Great and Finger), decorative fountains, and oceans. Her very favorite place to swim, however, is at her community pool in Brooklyn with her sons and her neighbors.

Q: Your upcoming picture book Our Pool, is perfect for the summer season. What was the inspiration for this story?

I had the idea for Our Pool one day when I took my son Nate swimming at our neighborhood swimming pool, McCarren Park Pool, here in Brooklyn. I'd been taking him since he was a baby on very hot days in the city. A couple of years ago I was there with him in the shallow end, feeling so grateful to have a free place to cool off, and I looked around at all my neighbors in the pool with us and thought—this is such a perfect place to spend a hot day. And then my writer and illustrator brain switched on: this is not only the perfect place to spend a hot day, it's beautiful, on every level. I knew that this shared experience would translate really well into a picture book, and I started sketching that night.

Q: Our Pool focuses on a community pool in the city. What are some of your favorite community resources from your hometown and why do you believe they are important? 

Since becoming a mother for the first time in 2015, I really discovered all the good that comes from a community that meets the needs of its residents. It's especially true when you have a child in tow, but I think everyone knows the good that libraries, public parks, playgrounds, public pools, and other shared free spaces make in a neighborhood. On a given weekend, especially in the summer, we tend to spend a whole day bouncing between the wonderful children's area at our local library reading picture books, to one of the many playgrounds, and on to the pool when the heat really turns up! It's amazing how much fun you can have for free, when your community emphasizes that as part of the overall quality of life of the people who live there. We think of infrastructure as being the main thing that keeps us connected, but recreational spaces where we can connect with others are just as important!

Q: Many of your picture books touch on the themes of friendship and community in some way, how important is that for you to teach young readers?

I try to write my world, as often as I can, and so I often find myself setting stories in the community I live in Brooklyn—the street scenes, the mass transit, the corner stores. It feels neat to be able to render this reality for my own children and other city kids, but it also feels like a way of sharing our world with folks who live in different looking communities. A friend once remarked that having read Stumpkin with their children, as a non-city person, it was fascinating to their children how we get pumpkins (at the corner store)!

I started reading many more picture books in earnest when I had my older son, and I remember how moved I was when the heart of a story was on connectedness, too—finding one's place in the world, being understood, being loved. It's so at the heart of everything. So thematically, it comes through in what I write, because I know that children are navigating that each and everyday, as they grow and accept their quirks and their strengths, and as their relationships grow and change along with that.

Q: Your art features a lot of adorable animals, what is your favorite animal? 

I am a dog person, deeply, having had wonderful dogs in my life since our childhood Newfoundland—a giant black bear of a dog named Bully, through to the dogs my husband and I share our home with before we had children. We had in succession two lovely little puffball Pomeranians with big personalities, first Peanut, then Penny. Dogs have a way of being your friend that is unlike any other creature, and I feel like they deepen your empathy and open your heart up as big as it can be. And they also break it when they eventually "cross that rainbow bridge." I'd never take back those bonds to be spared that pain, though, the friendship and connection is so worth it.