A little girl, a dark cloud, and a truly perfect beginning…
Illustration by Penny Neville-Lee
I distinctly remember how the manuscript for Dark Cloud came to be. It was January of 2020, I was watching a 12X12 webinar with Mac Barnett, and he was talking about not being afraid to explore darker subject matter in picture books.
Apparently, I needed to hear someone say that because I paused the webinar, wrote a first draft, then went back and finished watching his presentation.
I knew this book about a little girl struggling with depression was something special right away. I sent it off to my critique partners for feedback (thanks all!), and did some tweaking.
I also learned that one of my CPs, the talented Kirsty Rorke, is a clinical psychologist. She gave me invaluable advice and pretty soon the manuscript was ready to go.
I emailed it to my [then] agent, Moe Ferrara, and waited. About 15 hours later a response popped up in my inbox. The first line said: “This… this is gorgeous. Holy wow is this gorgeous.”
She had some notes and suggestions, but I knew she felt the same way I did about the power in this lyrical text. Fortunately so did Kathleen Keenan, the first editor who saw it.
Happy to hear she was going to take it to an acquisitions meeting, I tried to distract myself from constant email refreshing by scrolling through Twitter. That’s when I saw a post by illustrator Penny Neville-Lee.
Honestly it wasn't the greatest start to the week. I carried a small cloud with me all day, but I resolved to embrace the gloom and see what good things might come from it. So I drew this.#colour_collective pic.twitter.com/7Gi6THIr32
— Penny Neville-Lee 🇪🇺 (@PennyNevilleLee) February 28, 2020
It honestly felt like serendipity. I copied the link to the tweet and stuck it at the top of my manuscript in Google Docs. I knew that if Dark Cloud was acquired I wanted to make sure Penny’s name was at the top of my illustrator wish list.
By this time, the pandemic was in full force across the globe, everyone moved to work from home, meetings were rescheduled, and stress levels were off the charts.
The one bright spot was my dark little picture book manuscript, waiting, out in the world.
I got the exciting call from my agent that Kids Can Press was acquiring Dark Cloud, and they agreed to let me offer input on the illustrator. I knew, of course, the final decision would rest with their art director.
It took a few more months, but then came the incredible news that Penny had signed on.
It was going to become OUR book.
I headed straight to Twitter and sent Penny a message, telling her how powerful that image of the little girl holding her cloud was.
She responded, “I actually found it incredibly moving to read in words, exactly what I'd been trying to communicate in that drawing.”
Illustration by Penny Neville-Lee
When I wrote Dark Cloud in January of 2020, I had no idea what was coming, or the incredible emotional challenges our kids would be facing. When Penny posted her illustrations, the lockdowns hadn’t even started in the U.K.
The last couple of years have changed so much for so many of us, we’re going to need stories to help us make sense of it all.
I’m so happy to see editors looking for books like this one, that can help kids navigate difficult topics, challenging emotions, and offer hope.
