ABSTRACT
As an author of picture books, I am in the unique position of initiating an idea but not seeing it through to the end. As a writer, I do most of my work at the beginning stages of the publication process. It is the illustrator—working with the editor and art director, rather than directly with me—who brings the elements of my idea to fruition. In this pseudo collaborative partnership, it is sheer trust in this oddly constructed creative process rather than good communicative skills which propel the relationship forward. But I do not mind. After going through this process now some half dozen times, I have come to marvel at it, especially the unpredictable ways of the illustrator whose job it is to communicate directly—vis-a-vis visual images—with a young and lively reading audience rather than with me.
