Author Annie Barrows and illustrator Sophie Blackall, the duo behind the Ivy & Bean chapter book series, which has also been adapted into Netflix films, are not only collaborators but also good friends. After creating 12 books about the titular protagonists—two seven-year-old girls with wide interests, big personalities, and a penchant for trouble—they have embarked on a new project. The Stella & Marigold series stars seven-year-old Stella and four-year-old Marigold, two bright and curious sisters who embark on glorious adventures together. Barrows and Blackall spoke with PW about creating their characters, working together, and crafting stories for budding readers.
As friends, it must be great fun to create books together. What can you share about your creative process?
Annie Barrows: When Ivy & Bean ended, it was so terrible to contemplate not seeing each other that we immediately went to work thinking of a new project we could collaborate on. For the Stella & Marigold series, the creative process involved a lot of walking in bucolic seaside settings, a lot of yakking, a pretty impressive amount of eating, and then, the astonishing experience of actually making words and pictures in the same room at the same time.
Do you ever disagree?
AB: I can’t remember us disagreeing. One of us might say, “I think this element should go like X instead of Y.” And then the other one generally says, “Okay.”
Sophie Blackall: Except for that time a million years ago when we nearly came to blows over vanilla versus chocolate milkshakes. I mean, who orders a vanilla milkshake? Then I met my husband, who ALSO defends the vanilla milkshake... I still don’t know what to make of the fact that I disagree so vehemently with two of my most beloved people.
AB: It means we’re right.
A great many kids grew up reading the Ivy & Bean series. What do you think makes the series so enduring and relatable to young readers?
AB: I think authors never really know what their books mean to readers, but since you asked, I’ve always believed that the primary appeal of Ivy and Bean is that what they want is never wrong. They might not have the correct information, but their longings and their view of the world are essentially and elementally correct. My guess is kids—who are constantly told they’re wrong—really enjoy that.
SB: I think it is Annie’s ability to create characters who are so true and recognizable they feel real. Even to me. I know we made Ivy and Bean up and that they live between the pages of their books, but I also think of them as real. I picture them going about their business, forever seven, stapling things to other things, making potions, tormenting Nancy...
Did you base Ivy and Bean on your childhood selves? Or did you draw inspiration from other children in your lives?
AB: All of the above. I get stories from my own past, from my daughters’ childhoods, and from random kids on school visits. I always tell them that I’m there to steal ideas from them, and they shriek.
SB: When my children were in elementary school and lots of their classmates were reading Ivy & Bean, I would occasionally bribe kids by promising to put them in a scene. There was one fourth grader, Rafael, who found reading a bit daunting. I told him he’d have a starring role in book seven if he got through book six. It was a solid deal.
What can you share about Stella & Marigold? What was your inspiration for creating the new books?
AB: Stella & Marigold is the story of a pair of sisters. When Marigold was born, Stella promised to tell her all the secret things she needed to know. Now seven, Stella keeps her promise, and Marigold, at four, is her comrade and coconspirator in a variety of real and imaginary adventures.
When Sophie and I first talked about what kind of book we wanted to make together, it was pretty clear that we are both fascinated by the way kids explain the world to one another, specifically their willingness to entertain impossible explanations right alongside “real” ones. This inherent narrative flexibility is a trait most kids have and most grown-ups don’t, and Stella & Marigold is our celebration of its wonders.
SB: As kids, and grown-ups, are spending more and more time on screens, we also wanted to make books that were beautifully designed, in full color—tactile books that kids would want to pick up and read, and read to each other.
In the case of Ivy and Bean, their differences are part of what draws them together. What can you share about the dynamic between Stella and Marigold?
AB: The world of Stella and Marigold, as sisters, is very different from the Ivy and Bean landscape. There’s an intimacy to sisterhood that is completely different from friendship. Stella has in many ways created the world that Marigold lives in, and in that kind of relationship, nothing is fully real unless your sibling knows about it.
You bring such tenderness and awareness to the relationship between Stella and Marigold. Did you both have siblings growing up?
AB: Yes, we’re both younger siblings, and as a result, we are both kind of mushy about the belief and trust that little sisters can feel for their elder brothers or sisters.
SB: And while we’re being mushy, Annie is like a sister to me. She is way smarter than I am, so she can explain things like Roman civilization and sonnets and how to store leafy greens.
AB: I will tell you all the secret things I know. Forever and ever.
In both the Ivy & Bean and Stella & Marigold books, the illustrations blend so seamlessly with the writing. Do you think your friendship contributes to this harmony on the page?
AB: The first three Ivy & Bean books were published before we ever met or talked. Our publisher tried to keep us apart, thinking that we would get up to no good if we were in cahoots. But because Sophie seemed to understand so perfectly, so astutely, what I was trying to do, I knew for sure that we were soulmates and needed to be dear friends. And I was right! All it took was one meeting, and we’ve been in cahoots ever since.
SB: Nothing makes me happier than when I draw the first character sketches and they just appear on the page exactly how they’re meant to look, and I send them to Annie—or slide them across the table if we’re together—and she recognizes them immediately and laughs out loud. I can’t quite explain it, but I think it’s the product of all that walking and talking and percolating we’ve been doing for 20 years.
Annie, from your perspective as the author, how do Sophie's illustrations accentuate your storytelling? Can you imagine the Ivy & Bean or Stella & Marigold series without her amazing art?
AB: I honestly think I would not have written Stella & Marigold without knowing that Sophie was going to do the art. I wouldn’t have been able to trust anyone else to understand so clearly—and then depict so beautifully—the world they share.
Sophie, what do you love most about Annie's writing?
SB: Annie cracks me up. She’s the funniest writer I know. And she loves kids the same way I do, with wholehearted admiration and kinship. Her books give us characters who feel alive and worlds we want to return to again and again. She also hands me wonderful, beautiful, hilarious things to draw.
