Hello, World!
7 FACTS ABOUT Whitney L Anderson Children’s books
#1 I was bitten by the storytelling bug back in 2018
Writing my first children’s book started more out of a necessity: a deep angst to express something near and dear to my heart. I wrote a whole blog about this in reflecting and expanding on my inspiration behind my first book Roku & Tanza (https://www.whitneylanderson.com/blog/Behind%20the%20creation ). Right then, I wanted to connect my art with storytelling. My subsequent children’s books have sprung up in different ways but they all still have that one thing in common: a strong vision that is bursting in my soul. I either come up with the drawings first and then create a storyline around that visual concept, or I will have a cool story I made up in my head and create the art around that story.
#2 Children’s picture books and movie classics have always been a powerful force of nostalgia in my life
I want to create classics like my favorite books growing up: The Napping House, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Johnny Apple Seed, and Down on the Funny Farm. Movies that inspire me in a similar matter are Fern Gully, Fievel Goes West, The Rescuers Down Under and Thumbelina.
#3 I have been expressing creativity outside of my art through writing for a very long time
When I was 19, I started www.whitneylanderson.com, my earliest digital house for my paintings. At 23, shortly after graduating college, I started blogging. At 24 I started writing poetry almost everyday—today, I have amassed over 70 pages. My mid to late 20s was an emotional chapter: coming of age into young adulthood, trying to make sense of the world around me, experiencing being alone most of the time, not settling, wanting more out of life. Its an ostracizing experience constantly swimming against the tides of societal mediocracy. Expressing my sentiments in poetry helped me navigate through love and heartache while I blossomed as a fine artist. No doubt those years of writing laid the foundation for the creation of my rhythm and rhyme storylines in some of my children’s books.
#4 My personality is conducive to writing Children’s books
My personality is naturally conducive to writing and illustrating in this genre /// After publishing my first book I imagined a waterfall of other storylines, mostly out of thin air. My corny and clever imagination gives way to my whimsicality. That term “whimsical” is what I’ve always described myself as an artist and as a person—even long before writing children’s books came into inception.
#5 My children’s books have no agenda, they are pure and simple.
I was recently doing a podcast with Joseph Haeker from “In Crowd” and he asked me what makes my books different from the rest. I replied simply with this: they have no agenda—that is why they are different from most modern children’s books on the market right now. They come from a place of art for arts sake, whimsicality for whimsicality sake, entertainment for entertainment’s sake, Sure there are light lessons one can draw from the books but my books are less about teaching and more about inspiring a child to use his own God-given imagination. Maybe he won’t be in the arts when he/she grows up but everyone needs an imagination to have hope in this world—seeing beyond our current reality and creating our own visions for life. It also spurs curiosity and risk-taking—seeking more than meets the eye. That is what imagination does for the young mind. There is no agenda or propaganda in my work, unlike other children’s books headlining the shelves today.
#6 My children’s books are a refreshingly clean visual experience, a keen reflection of the contemporary realism found in my fine art.
We live in an overly saturated over stimulating environement as it is. So, when adults comes across my more artistic work brought down to a child’s levels, even they will find the book subcouncioulsy refreshing—compared to the other books they read. My refined minimilistic style is something both child and adult will appreciate. I think that so many Children’s books look too “busy” and overstimulating. My covers and even content of the pages are clean and artfully rendered—but not too ostentatious. They give the adult and child something appeasing to look. My writing and illustrations form this juxtaposition between corny entertainment and modern refinement, something my readers will find delightfully novel.
#7 I have a subconcious need to leave a legacy for the younger generations to look back on—just as others have done in my life.
My knack for rich fine art illustration stemming from thousands of hours as an artist (in combination with my 15 years of blogging, creative essays and poetry) is what gives me so much drive to have one or more of my books become classics. I will never forget when I moved my little hand across the Caldecott Medal for the first time reading The Polar Express. I want mine to be this new generation’s favorite books that stick with them through adulthood. I want my stories to be filed in the backs of their minds and have them retreat to these stories as a strong memory of their childhood. That would be so special to me because I know that is how I always felt about my favorite books.