Monsters in the Briny

Written by Lynn Becker | Illustrated by Scott Brundage

 

What do you do with a grumpy kraken, a sickly sea serpent, and a tearful gigantic tortoise? You sing them a tune! Following the sea shanty rhyme of “What Do You Do With . . . ,” a ship’s crew has to contend with a coterie of mythical sea creatures, all demanding comfort and attention. As each creature threatens to swamp the ship, the quick-thinking crew knows just what to do to save the day, from serving pancakes to mopping a sweaty forehead. But what happens when the sailors have had enough?

Back matter includes information about the sea creatures featured, music and lyrics, and a brief history of sea shanties.

I’m thrilled to be talking with author Lynn Becker and illustrator Scott Brundage about their rollicking sea-going adventure – a story and sea shanty that you can read or sing with your kids! 

Meet Lynn Becker

Lynn Becker has been a reader and creator all her life. These days, when she’s not writing picture books or children’s book reviews, she’s hiking, doing crazy-long yoga classes, and dreaming up even more picture books. After growing up in New York, Lynn spent many years in the Southern California desert with her husband, children, cats, dog, and lots and lots of chickens. She now lives in Colorado. The chickens stayed behind, but a few mythical beasties may have followed her to her new home…! You can connect with Lynn on Her Website | Facebook | Twitter .

Hi Lynn! Thanks for dropping by to talk about your first picture book. I’m so excited to be sharing the first look readers have of this fun book! I’m sure everyone is intrigued to learn how your book came to be, so let’s get started!

You grew up in New York City but have spent many years in the South California desert and Colorado. Did a longing for the sea inspire your unique story?

Kathy, thank you so much for hosting this Monsters in the Briny cover reveal!

I’ve actually been in and around both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans quite a bit, and have always done lots of swimming. But my inspiration for this book absolutely came from my love of monsters. I’m drawn to mythological beings of all kinds, and always have been, maybe because thinking about them adds a dollop of fun and magic to real life. I grew up drowning myself in fantasy and fairy tales, folklore and mythology. My favorite stories tend to feature dragons. (Although I’m a sucker for vampire stories, and who doesn’t enjoy a good, witchy cackle now and then?!)

I knew I had to feature sea monsters in a picture book because, while writing a longer work (a bestiary/poetry collection), I decided to include a sea shanty. What else could I do but spotlight a kraken? And when my critique partners all demanded that this kraken star in a story of her own, Monsters in the Briny took off from there!

The sneak peek of your book is so enticing and really promises a madcap romp to come. How much fun was it to choose the sea creatures and match them with a problem? Can you take readers on the book’s journey?

Once I had my sea shanty format and my kraken, the song practically wrote itself. I used a famous tune that everyone should be familiar with (sorry in advance for any ear worms) and reworked it with my own rollicking, monster-and-kid-friendly scenario. Originally, the story was just about the kraken experiencing a variety of moods, but I got some terrific advice to try pairing each “crisis” with a different sea beast, and I think the story is much stronger for it.

It must have been so thrilling to see your story come to life through Scott Brundage’s illustrations and especially this awesome cover. Can you share your first reaction to seeing the final cover and the interior artwork?

You can’t possibly imagine how happy I was to see this art. I was in the supermarket when I first looked at the cover on my phone, and I cried, right there by the dairy case. It was so very perfect! But I had known from the moment I saw Scott’s website that he was the right person to illustrate this book. My editor, Barb McNally, and the entire team at Sleeping Bear Press (shout out to Hailey in Publicity!) has been a dream to work with, and I couldn’t be happier with the support and know-how they’ve brought to these Monsters. And I’m grateful to my wonderful agent, Lori Steel at Raven Quill Literary, for finding Kraken and Co. such a wonderful home.

You’ve previously worked in animation for films and TV, and Monsters in the Briny is your debut picture book. Do you find that your work in animation influences your writing for kids? What made you want to write for children?

For me, the best picture books are a perfect pairing of words and art. I’ve been enjoying—and studying—them for quite a while now, and for a long time I thought I might also illustrate my own work. Because I previously worked on films, my book dummies often felt like animation storyboards. However, I found that when I wrote a manuscript with no intention of illustrating it, my writing became a lot more interesting. In part because I’m not limited anymore to what I think I can draw! More importantly, without the images to rely on, the writing had to do a lot more heavy lifting. And, since this was about the time I realized I enjoyed the writing part more than the illustrating, this scenario worked out really well.

What are you most looking forward to when the book launches in March? Do you have any book events scheduled that you’d like to tell readers about?

The book launches on April 15 now and I can’t wait to share it with kids! I hope they get as big a kick out of it as I got while writing it. When it publishes, I have a number of blog posts and giveaways lined up. There will also be a book launch scheduled for around that time, and readers can check my website for information on these and other book-related events. I’ll be posting a musical track for the Monsters song, an animated book trailer, and other fun extras on my website. 

Meet Scott Brundage

Scott Brundage is a Brooklyn-based illustrator and character designer. As a child, his parents rightly decided he was far too indoorsy for his own heath and encouraged him to try various hobbies. When T-ball’s rules confused him and judo required too much coordination, he found his love for drawing cartoons at a local art class. Scott has sketched and painted ever since, eventually attending the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. His children’s books include Where’s My Cow? and The First Men Who Went to the Moon. His work has been recognized by American Illustration, the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles, and the Society of Illustrators. You can connect with Scott on His Website | Instagram | Twitter.

Hi Scott! Welcome back to Celebrate Picture Books! As soon as I learned that you illustrated Monsters in the Briny, I knew kids and adults are in for a special treat, and this cover is just the start as it really sparks the imagination!

Can you share what you loved about Lynn’s story from an illustrator’s point of view?

Well, I was sold at “Monsters.”  The Briny part was gravy after that. I’d jump at any opportunity to take a monster and twist it to fit a children’s audience. This book is just that, a fun twist on a sea shanty about the creepy things in the ocean. I think the cover makes a nice lure to get kids’ minds thinking of what could possibly be lurking deep in the ocean, and the book’s contents shows them just that, but also reassures them that they mostly just want some snacks or a haircut.

How many different versions of the cover did you design before the final one was chosen? I love how realistic the ocean looks in this illustration! Can you share your process in creating the cover and interior images? 

We had the rough idea of what the cover could be pretty early. The bare bones of illustrated text as old, submerged lumber from a boat, interacting with giant tentacles below a tiny ship. When I originally painted the final art, I had just come off several weeks of 16-hour days working on an animated movie. I gave myself one exhausted day to get it done and, unsurprisingly, I was given notes to revise it quite a bit. Sleeping Bear Press found a couple more weeks for me to work on it, which allowed me to rest a bit and give it it’s proper care. I’m glad too, I’m super happy with the final product, even though I was a shell of myself when I started it.

 

I had the interior sketches finished pretty early on, but my first pass had all the sailors as adults, since I was diving headlong into full on pirates. My art director suggested, very wisely, that they all be children, with a running musical gag involving an accordion player. Oh, right! This is for children. This is why art directors are great!

 

The way I normally work is to pitch a very rough idea of what the pages could be. Once that’s approved, I develop the sketches a bit more and send for approval. After any revisions or notes to the sketch, I develop a more finished drawing and print the clean drawing on watercolor paper, then paint it. Final touches in photoshop after that.

Did you need to do any kind of research before drawing the sea creatures? How or where did you do this? Did you discover anything surprising along the way?

I needed a bunch of research for the sea creatures, which was pretty easy to find. I wasn’t aiming to make anything super accurate in terms of specific types of animals, more a fun design that would work for the story. It was easy enough to grab a bunch of photos of snakes or turtles or old illustrations of hydras, then put my spin on how they could look.

The much more difficult part was researching the ship itself. I know very little about nautical anything, much less historical pirate ship shapes, types, how the rigging and sails work, etc. Luckily, another illustrator friend of mine, Gregory Manchess, had done a series of murals for National Geographic specifically about historically accurate pirates. He was kind enough to send me piles of ship reference, as well as pirate clothing reference.

So, what I discovered along the way is that those ships are waaaaaay more complex than I had previously guessed. Most of the finished pages would have been intricate webs of ropes and knots had I tried to be super accurate. So, instead… we have a ship that hopefully feels relatively similar throughout, but with a lot of liberties taken.

Did you have a favorite sea monster and/or scene to create? What made it your favorite? Can you give readers a little preview of one of the sea monsters?

I have a couple favorites, but the kraken is probably at the top. Tentacles are always fun to draw, they can feel long, elegant, and powerful in their gesture and shape, but also have those inherently upsetting but also sorta silly suction cups. And playing with the giant squid’s scale in relation to the ship adds fun aspect to designing the illustrations. The tentacles can literally hug the ship and highlight whatever I want to call attention to. There’s not much more an illustrator could ask for. Plus, it’s a ridiculous bright red, who isn’t a fan of that?

What would you like for kids to take away from your illustrations for Monsters in the Briny?

Well, for one, I hope the song gets stuck in their head. But that aside, I hope kids realize that giant sea monsters are fun and usually just need some music and a pancake to be your friend.

Sea monsters, an unforgettable sea shanty, and pancakes! I can’t wait to read the whole story – and I’m sure readers are hooked too! Thanks, Lynn and Scott, for stopping by to give us a preview of your treasure to come!

Monsters in the Briny will be published this coming spring. Preorder your copy now from these booksellers!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million | The Wandering Jellyfish

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