I was so excited to see this interview, “Illustrating Love” with the brilliant Nicole Tadgell about her work on our picture book, Real Sisters Pretend. Nickie recently spoke to my Simmons College graduate Picturebook course, and she brought in process pieces and finished art, some of which you can see in the post. Many thanks to Terry Farish who recognized the power of Nicole’s art and wanted to highlight it on her blog. She writes:

“One illustration in particular held so much emotion and it led me to want to understand how these characters came to be and Nickie’s process to seeing them.”

The illustration she is refers to is the one we ended up using for the cover art, and it’s stunning.

I cried the first time I saw it. No matter what,  I am so glad (and humbled!) that my text prompted Nickie to create this gorgeous art, and this image in particular.