Student Proud Of “Scary” Children’s Book

By Amy Bentley-Smith
Features Editor

With little more than a semester left before she earns her Masters of Fine Arts degree, Sara DeSmet is experiencing her future as a professional illustrator.

The 28-year-old California State University, Long Beach, grad student recently had her first children’s book published. She was one of 12 up-and-coming illustrators to win book contracts from new San Diego-based children’s book publisher Red Cygnet Press.

“I got the first copy — preview copy — in August,” DeSmet said. “I was very excited to see it come together.”

DeSmet’s book, “Scared Silly,” is about a lonely possum that befriends a pig and an anteater but risks losing them when he plays too many tricks that scare them. They reunite after Pig and Anteater teach Possum a lesson — by scaring him.

“It’s about friendship and companionship,” DeSmet explains. “(It’s lesson is) that it’s fun to scare your friends but you can’t take advantage of them or play on their weaknesses.”

The influence of Maurice Sendak, author and illustrator of “Where the Wild Things Are,” is evident in “Scared Silly.” Her watercolor illustrations are done in muted, yet colorful, tones, and her characters fill each page against a wooded nighttime backdrop. DeSmet said Sendak is definitely an illustrator and storyteller she admires. She likes the slightly scary stories with a “happy” ending that he and other illustrators she admires, such as Stephen Gammell and Etienne Delessert, create.

“I’m drawn to that — the darker side,” she said. “It’s the fun of being a little bit scared but from the safe distance of a book. It’s good for kids to be a little scared. To protect them from anything harsh does them a disservice. It gives them the confidence that they can get over their fears.... Illustrators can make stories that are scary, but age appropriate.”

DeSmet said she has been drawing as long as she can remember. She grew up in St. Cloud. Minn., where she was the “kid in the class who was singled out to draw everything.”

“I knew I wanted to be an artist early on,” she said.

After earning her Bachelor’s degree in art and psychology from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., DeSmet applied for Master of Fine Arts programs across the country. She chose CSULB, she said, because it had a strong program in illustration, which is what she is most interested in drawing.

One of her professors told her about Red Cygnet Press’s book contest for young artists and encouraged her to submit her work. Red Cygnet’s mission is to provide young talent with their first break.

DeSmet submitted a manuscript and a couple of sketches in January and learned in February that she had been selected. While in the middle of the 2006 spring semester, DeSmet completed the book, which includes nearly a dozen illustrations.

“We really liked what Sara did with the story,” said Red Cygnet Press Publisher Bruce Glassman. “It was a strong story line that involved lots of themes that will captivate young readers.”

Along with the illustrations, DeSmet also narrated the story.

“I have a narrative style in my art that came out early on,” she said. “I didn’t know I would get to be a writer too, but I had this story in mind... But because my background is more in art, I do favor the pictures.”

She said her experience with Red Cygnet was very valuable. Although she has had class projects where she created stories and illustrated characters, this was truly hands-on learning like nothing she’d ever done. It taught her about how to submit ideas, the process of working with publishers to improve the story, and tight deadlines.

“I had from March to June to do the bulk of the book,” she said. “For me that was really fast, but it was good. It gave me the practice working on deadline. It was different than a class project. There was an end product.... I was so excited to get to do this while I was in school. I would love to do this as a career.”

“Scared Silly” is currently sold on the Red Cygnet Web site, www.redcygnet.com and through amazon.com, borders.com and barnesandnoble.com. Glassman said Red Cygnet is negotiating to get this and its other newly published books on store bookshelves.