Drawing a Picture Book From Memory

The Making of ONE BOY WATCHING

Did you ride the bus to school? What do you remember about it? What did you see? How did you feel as a passenger?

These questions were the starting point for my picture book ONE BOY WATCHING, published by Chronicle Kids Books. ONE BOY WATCHING has received some recognition over the past few months: it was named a Charlotte Zolotow Highly Commended Book, a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard, a New York Times Best Children’s Book of 2022, and it won a Mathical Book Prize Honor.

Riding the bus was an experience that felt both personal and universal—the perfect subject for a story.

I was a passenger on Bus Number Four from kindergarten through 10th grade. From my neighborhood on the edge of the Wichita suburbs, the bus took me past fields and farms on country roads to my small-town school in Mulvane, Kansas.

The school bus could be a place of commotion and chaos. The long ride was often boring. But it was also a time of solitude, an time to watch and reflect on the world outside the window.

As a quiet kid, I was most content looking out at the passing landscape, daydreaming. On cool autumn mornings the windows fogged and dripped with dew, which I wiped away to take in the scenery. I looked, counted, and imagined to pass the time. I felt a sense of wonder at seeing the trees, fields, farmhouses, and wildflowers of rural Kansas. 

This lifelong habit of observation and reflection led to the writing and illustration of ONE BOY WATCHING. I wrote down my memories, good and bad, of riding the bus. The time we got stuck in a muddy ditch and had to get picked up by another bus. All the times a long train made us late for class. The nice seatmates and the not-so-nice ones. The loud teenagers in the back. The ever-changing soundtrack: upbeat 90s pop, sad old country music, moody alternative rock. And the ever-changing Kansas weather, as varied as the music.  

In an effort to immerse myself in the experience of a childhood bus ride, I even made a playlist of songs I remember from 107.3 KKRD, Wichita's Top 40 radio. Nostalgia can be a powerful creative force.

While planning the illustrations ONE BOY WATCHING, I retraced my old bus route with camera and sketchbook in hand. I pulled over next to a fields of rusty tractors and patches of roadside sunflowers to sketch and snap reference photos. I got strange looks from passing cars and a few pointed questions from farmers as I stood in the ditch examining their property. From my sketchbooks, I was able to capture small, realistic touches to deepen the world of the book.

The iconic yellow-orange American school bus was a fun challenge to draw. The bus itself became a character in the story, bumping down dirt roads and stopping to load and unload. One of the most difficult parts of making ONE BOY WATCHING was correctly drawing all the details of the bus: keeping the proper number of windows on each side, noting the exact placement of lights and mirrors, and matching seats with bus riders from page to page. 

I spent a morning at the local bus barn sketching and taking reference photos. I can confirm the vinyl seats still smell the same way they did thirty years ago. And there’s still not enough leg room for a tall person.

All the details help create a convincing picture book world, though I did have to create an impossible M.C. Escher interior for the scene of all the kids inside the bus. Please don’t try to match up the seats and windows on that one! Still, I think it captures the energy of a full bus as it approaches its destination.

To be a passenger is to be an observer. Learning to be a keen observer is the first step to becoming an artist. Perhaps the long morning rides of reflection helped lead me to my career as an author and illustrator. They certainly paved the way for this book.

I’m excited to announce that my next picture book will be published this fall by Chronicle Kids Books. It’s a companion of sorts to ONE BOY WATCHING, with a girl on a bicycle instead of a boy on a bus. I was directly inspired by my childhood explorations: the hours spent riding the streets of my hometown and discovering hidden patches of wilderness amid the city. You can pre-order signed copies of NOTHING EVER HAPPENS ON A GRAY DAY from my amazing local bookstore, or pre-order it worldwide wherever you get your books.

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