Spotlight on Anita Lobel

Anita Lobel’s name is synonymous with the best in children’s literature. She is the creator of such classics as Alison’s Zinnia and Away from Home, and she received a Caldecott Honor for her illustrations in On Market Street. She is the creator of three books featuring her cat, Nini: One Lighthouse, One Moon (a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book); Nini Lost and Found; and Nini Here and There. And she wrote Ducks on the Road, which The Horn Book called “cozy.” Her childhood memoir, No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Anita Lobel lives in New York City.

Q: How did the idea for 10 Hungry Rabbits come about?

I had been painting realistic watercolors of vegetables in a leather-bound book of fine paper. And, I thought: How about putting this doodling to use.

Plant based eating is encouraged every day for both adults and children. Why not put together a very simple but layered little book about color and fence it in with numbers from one to ten. The activity of gathering and accumulating the vegetables makes sense when you are dealing with numbers. The urgency to move the story forward is driven by the hunger. To the hunger add waiting for something good, the family that will help to take your hunger pains away and you have a social event ending in a cozy meal.

I could have made the family a people family. Rabbits and vegetables go together. Rabbits in costume become a theatre event. (The companion book about the Rabbit family, Taking Care of Mama Rabbit, is about giving and nurturing and that little book really ends in a theatrical performance.)

Q: What do you think the biggest theme is in the new book, and what do you hope readers take from the story?

A very young reader will probably focus on the reassurance of a cozy family. And be encouraged to eat vegetables? Personally, I like the logic and shaping of concepts. I have never indulged in propaganda books that teach lessons overtly.

Q: You have written so many children’s books since your first one, Sven’s Bridge, that came out in 1965. Can you describe what your writing process is like now compared to then?

When I did Sven’s Bridge, I did not think of myself as a writer of texts for picture books. I was a painter, a picture maker. I began with pictures of a central, very sympathetic character. I added the village and the landscape. When it was time for drama and a catastrophe a thoughtless villain was added. I really had no real difficulty with that. I managed to piece together the story to go with the pictures. Even at that early stage of my work in picture books, I had a sense of what to leave unsaid.

Q: What is one piece of advice you would like for young writers to know that you could have used when you were in their shoes?

My advice to anyone who writes and makes pictures: Always begin with something that really speaks to you. And do many, sketches and write many words that you have the courage to toss out if they don’t work.