In last year’s Children Make Terrible Pets, Peter Brown introduced Lucy, a young bear who has high, if futile, hopes of adopting a child as a pet. Lucy has another mission in You Will Be My Friend! due from Little, Brown in September with a 100,000-copy first printing. Determined to find a friend, Lucy discovers that’s a trickier pursuit than she expected when she wanders into the woods and discovers she’s too big to fit in the frog pond and accidentally ruins a giraffe’s breakfast. But just as she’s about to give up, a new friend finds her.
After finishing his first picture book starring Lucy, Brown had an inkling he’d resurrect this character. “I had so much fun with Lucy the first time around, since she was so relatable—funny, enthusiastic, and a bit naïve,” he says. “I think we all know a little person who is like her.” In Children, Brown also enjoyed experimenting with a new art style—a combination of pencil drawings, cut paper, wood-grain backgrounds, and digital effects. “I knew I wanted to revisit all of it: the character, her world, and this art style,” says the author of his decision to create a sequel.
Brown hopes the message You Will Be My Friend! imparts is a worthy one. “Everyone goes through times when they have trouble fitting in with others and making new friends,” he reflects. “During those times, I think it’s very important to be yourself, but you also want to be mindful of how your actions affect others. You may unintentionally make someone feel uncomfortable, like when Lucy tries to be helpful by attempting to clean the stink off a skunk. It always seems like good new friends appear when you stop looking for them, or when you least expect them. Hopefully, kids struggling to make friends will learn from some of Lucy’s mistakes and will be heartened by her success.”
Brown is currently illustrating a book by Aaron Reynolds and is “batting around some ideas” for his next solo project. “I’d say there’s no end in sight,” he says of his picture book career. “I’ll probably be doing this for the rest of my life. I really can’t believe I get paid to do this—it’s pretty awesome.”
The author is happy to be back at BEA, which he finds “a little overwhelming, though fun to see. It’s sort of like looking out into the cosmos and realizing we’re a tiny speck in the universe. Walking into BEA and realizing there are a million books being published, my own world seems pretty small. It’s a healthy perspective to have.”
Brown will autograph prints from You Will Be My Friend! today, 2–3 p.m., at Table 26.
