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A cattle rustler and his horse roam the desert, and a bear cub discovers the wonders of the changing seasons—neither of these situations exactly screams New York, but their creator, Queens-based author-illustrator David Ezra Stein, is a born-and-bred local. “Living in the city, I’d rather write about nature,” he says. “It’s the thing I long for.” That wistfulness comes through in his warm pastel pictures and simple but affectionately told stories. In his 2006 debut, Cowboy Ned & Andy, the equine character tries tirelessly to cheer up his best cowpoke when Ned falls into a funk on his birthday. The recent sequel, Ned’s New Friend, concerns the sudden appearance of a seeming threat to the duo’s relationship—the refined, well-intentioned Miss Clementine (spoiler: It all works out in the end). And in Leaves, in stores this month, an appealingly round-bellied young bear is genuinely perplexed by the onset of autumn. His concerned expression when he picks up the first fallen leaf and asks it, “Are you okay?” just might be the “Aww” moment of the year.
Stein followed a somewhat circuitous route to the realm of kid lit: He took a break from his studies at Parsons School of Design to work as a puppet maker and performer at Central Park’s Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre. After graduating in 2000, he continued as a consultant at the theater and picked up “whatever illustration work I could get,” for clients like The New York Times Book Review. He also designed sets for MTV and VH1, a gig that wasn’t as removed from crafting his books as it might seem. On-air set design is, he says, “expressive and emotional. It’s more about mood and impression than being technically accurate.” It was also, he adds, a good boot camp—he worked in watercolor, under strict time constraints.
Judging from the looks of his burgeoning output, Stein seems to have mastered the art of meeting deadlines. His next title, to be published in September, is a bit more in tune with music-television frenzy; the colors are saturated, the pictures kinetic. But the visual inspiration is, once again, rather unexpected. “I was taking a Japanese woodblock printing class and thinking about applying flat layers of color, specific shapes on top of each other,” he says. Those shapes became two creatures—one reminiscent of King Kong and the other, Godzilla—who romp and stomp underwater, atop mountains and across a suspension span that looks a bit like the Brooklyn Bridge (the first NYC landmark to sneak into one of Stein’s books). But as the title of i suggests, the roughhousing is all in good fun, and the pair are, in fact, playmates.
The author plans to continue his buddies theme in a new project, a book about two blue-footed boobies—best friends who hatch at the same time. “I have notebooks full of ideas, so I’m trying not to overwhelm people,” he says, somewhat self-effacingly. If the story and pictures are as sweet as his previous work, we say: Bring it on.
Leaves is in stores Thu 16.
