Brandon Sanderson is the Hugo Award-winning author of several fantasy series, including the Mistborn saga, the Stormlight Archive novels, the Reckoners series, and the Skyward series. Kazu Kibuishi is the author-illustrator of the bestselling Amulet graphic novel series. He is also the editor, art director, and cover artist of the Explorer and Flight comic anthologies, and the creator of the webcomic Copper. Both Sanderson and Kibuishi make their picture book debut with The Most Boring Book Ever, the story of a boy who is having an ordinary afternoon—until an unexpected adventure takes him by surprise. We asked the co-creators to chat about their collaboration and their appreciation for interactive picture books.
Brandon Sanderson: Hello, Kazu! Shall we talk a little about the book itself, our process, and how this all came about? The book started with me. I am the proud parent of three very rambunctious boys. I was going to say little boys, but the oldest is 16 now, so they’re not as young as they used to be, but they still are my little boys. I love books of all varieties, but I only really got into picture books once I had children of my own. My favorite picture books have always been the really interactive ones. Even going back to when my kids were really young, there was the Sandra Boynton book called Fuzzy Fuzzy Fuzzy! I would say that my favorite picture book ever is Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! I’m not the only one, I’m sure, in that camp.
The idea of the child interacting with the story has always fascinated me. After reading picture books for the last 15 years, I started thinking about ways I haven’t seen people interact with a story before. This thought took bloom in my brain over several years, and one day, I just sat down and wrote it. How quickly can the kid pick up on the idea that the pictures and text don’t match in the book? Boring words and not-so-boring pictures.
Kazu, how did you get involved in this whole fiasco?
Kazu Kibuishi: Well, I got a call from my agent, and she generally says no to everything for me. Then this project came along. She said, “You should take a look at this request. I think it’s a good fit for you.” I had always thought about doing a picture book. It was something I had been wanting to do for the longest time. Of course, as most authors have, I grew up on great picture books. I was a big Bill Peet fan when I was a kid. I wanted to draw like him, and I collected a lot of his books, especially The Caboose Who Got Loose. That book had a huge impression on me. It was mostly the artwork that inspired me, and it led me down this road towards drawing my own cartoons.
You mentioned interactive books. I saw elements of that in our book, and I wanted to add the feeling of a grand adventure. I felt like there just hasn’t been a children’s book with a sense of big fantasy in a long time, and it’s the kind of work that I do when I’m working on Amulet—taking people to another world. This was a great opportunity to be able to do something like that.
Sanderson: One of the things that we see in picture books, in my experience, has been more experimentation than you often see in books for older people. I feel like in our book, you see a lot more risks being taken. It’s very fun to read these books to kids and see them start to get it. I remember when my 12-year-old came home with The Book with No Pictures. Have you ever read that, Kazu?
Kibuishi: The one by B.J. Novak? That’s a good one, too.
Sanderson: I had never experienced that book, and watching the light and joy in their faces as they made me read The Book with No Pictures was so wonderful because of how fun it is to be in on the joke. And that’s what I love about The Most Boring Book Ever. At first, as a kid, you’re nervous, but as you get further and further in, the nerves disappear, and by the end, you’re taking it and sharing it with your friends because then you’re in on the joke. And that’s just a wonderful thing to teach children. Media and books are something you interact with; they’re not necessarily something presented to you. I always tell fans of my adult books, “I love books because I don’t give you everything.” I feel like I’m writing 80–85%, and the reader brings that extra bit to it. And even with a picture book or Amulet, how long you linger on a page and how long you think about the characters is all part of the experience. You have to interact with a book, even if it’s merely turning pages.
Kibuishi: Yeah, I agree. When I’m making a book, I never go with the first draft because there’s just no way I can understand the depth of the story or its possibilities. I have a minimum of five to seven drafts whenever I work on something because I feel like I’m designing an object or an experience. And with children’s books, I felt like the format was one of the spaces where that experience design is very elegant.
Kids are super bright. My kids loved The Most Boring Book Ever when they first saw it because it was just so funny to them. It’s one of their favorite things I’ve worked on. I have a 14-year-old and an 11-year-old, and they still enjoy this.
Sanderson: When I was working on this book and imagining who the audience was, it was my kids when they were a little older, and I had an eight-year-old at the time. And that’s like the perfect audience, seven to 14. They’re at that early age of doing homework, and that’s just who this is for. We did a beta read, and a lot of the adults were the ones who really loved the book as well,
So this was our first picture book—my first picture book and your first picture book. Any thoughts on the experience of doing this vs. a graphic novel?
Kibuishi: It was a lot of fun. When working on graphic novels, I don’t have much time to spend on drawing. There’s so little time. I’m writing them, I’m designing them, I’m promoting them. So, the drawing takes a backseat. I look at the Amulet artwork and think, oh, that’s a really quick sketch. And it’s true, I’m having to do drafts and re-drafts; I don’t just get time to spend on the drawing. This book provided me with the space to do that for 40 pages. I got to focus on making art and felt like a kid again.
Sanderson: For me, it was a strange experience; I’m used to thousand-page novels, right? I do very long books. I’ve written some short fiction. But this was even shorter. It’s like writing flash fiction—sitting down and being like, “Wow, I really do not have a lot of words to play with. And I need to write this, make it work, and do it in so few words.”
We’re almost out of time. We should mention that the book is available September 24, and we’re just so delighted.
Kibuishi: You know I feel the same way. I had a blast working on it.
Sanderson: Well, thank you, Kazu!
Kibuishi: Thank you, Brandon!
The Most Boring Book Ever by Brandon Sanderson, illus. by Kazu Kibuishi. Roaring Brook, $19.99 Sept. 24 ISBN 978-1-2508-4366-1
