One impetus for Jeffrey Brown’s participation in BEA is the new trilogy he’s launching with Lucy and Andy Neanderthal (Crown, Aug.). The other is that Chicago is his home. In fact, Lucy and Andy were inspired by his own meanderings in the city’s Field Museum.
The new series is about a brother and sister Neanderthal (pronounced “neandertal,” as readers will learn), whose family lives 40,000 years ago. “My inspiration was my interest in prehistory, and I am really into dinosaurs,” he explains. “Visiting the Field Museum with my son, going past the human ancestors, I was interested in looking behind the real science, as a lot of liberties are taken with that information.”
Lucy and Andy’s story seems like a natural progression for an artist and illustrator who got his start writing nonfiction and biographical comics for adults, and moved on to write stories geared toward adults and kids about families in the Star Wars universe. The latter turned into the bestselling Jedi Academy series. Brown’s interest in facts, science, and the comedy found in family dynamics is on full display in his new book.
Getting the facts right is important to Brown, who notes that he wanted to create a “fun, entertaining story for kids, which is scientifically accurate.” Brown is sticking with the middle-grade age range of Jedi Academy for this new series, wanting to present “concepts and stories that are complicated,” without being “too childish. Hopefully, it will be a series that kids can read on their own or, if they’re on the younger side of the age range, they can read with their parents—and parents can enjoy it, too.” Brown says, though, that throughout his career, and even in writing for children, he tries “not to worry too much about the audience.”
Brown is currently at work on the second volume in the series, which will cover the Ice Age. He’s hoping to tackle evolution in the third book. For now, he’s enjoying the challenge of taking scientific concepts and making them accessible and humorous. “In the first book, there’s a bit about how we figure out the dates of things, and how that has to do with atomic theory,” he says. “Trying to be accurate but simple enough to get across to kids is a challenge.”
As for the Chicago local’s advice to out-of-towners descending for BEA? The museum campus downtown, the site of the Field Museum, which inspired the series, is a spot he suggests visitors check out: “The whole area fuels a lot of my intellectual interests, and it’s a great place for kids and families.”
Fans will find Brown at the Random House Children’s Books booth (2433) today, 10:30–11:30 a.m., where he’ll sign ARCs of Lucy & Andy Neanderthal. This afternoon, he’s taking part in the “Graphic Novel/Super-Heroes Creators Unite!” panel, 2–2:30 p.m., on the Uptown Stage.
This article appeared in the May 13, 2016 edition of PW BEA Show Daily.
