How does a picture book come about when the subject is a difficult home situation? How can art make visible a child's experience, which the child often hides and is ashamed of? The Book of Stone and Water is the fourth joint work by its authors Katri Tapola and Selja Raudas – and at the same time an important point of discussion about a child's right to be seen. In the following, Katri and Selja open up about the process of making the book and talk about their dreams.
Where did the idea for the book come from? How did you start collaborating?
Katri:
The text for the picture book The Book of Stone and Water was created as it sometimes happens: clearly in picture book format and written in a spread-wise manner. I think of some texts as being created without a conscious decision to deal with a specific issue. Rather, they reflect both the author's current inner movements and the surrounding reality and state of society. We were living in the post-coronavirus lockdown period and I was thinking a lot about inequality among children and different family situations. The news reported the increase in domestic violence. At the same time, my understanding of my own trauma background expanded and my trauma awareness grew. I presented my first version of the text to Selja quite soon, with whom we had already made three books together and whose view of both the subject and the text in general was important to me.
Selja:
Did real events influence the themes of the book?
Katri:
The threshold is where everything changes.
When I open the door, the light is different.
Everything is different.
It's quiet.
Selja:
How did the main character come about? Was it easy to find the character's personality?
Selja:
I received a text from Katri to read, which captivated me right from the beginning. The text touched me deeply and it felt absolutely important to turn it into a book. It felt natural to do this work together, as there were discussions and a shared understanding of the topic behind it.
The theme of the book is broadly domestic violence/difficult home situations. These are complex themes and there are many forms of violence. Traumas are carried within children and adults alike. As far as I understand, it is possible to deal with these themes as adults through both therapy and art. I always write in a way that is close to myself, which does not mean that the events in the book are repeated to real events. Rather, the moods carry my own reality and I strive to find the right voice and language register for each work. Of course, it is always about empathizing with the child, the main character.
I wrote the first paragraph directly from my own experience and Selja's experience regarding the change in light:
I work as both a visual artist and an illustrator, and I have decades of experience as an art teacher for children and young people. I see and encounter a variety of children in my work. Even a sufficiently good childhood may include periods or stages when home conditions can be challenging. Recent government cuts have particularly affected low-income earners, those for whom it is difficult to cope in everyday life anyway. This and other challenges of working life and time further reduce the ability of parents to cope. The problems of families are visible in children. The book is timely and important in many ways, as it makes the reality and experience of a child living in a difficult home situation visible. Mirroring can be a turning point for a child who usually tries to cover up the matter and is ashamed of the situation.
When I was a child myself, for some inexplicable reason, I noticed right at the door that the lights burned differently when the atmosphere in the home was oppressive. The tone was an oppressive, heavy orange. Surely writing a book like this requires not only a good capacity for empathy and identification, but also some kind of lived experience with the subject.
When designing the character, I thought a lot about the nature of a child living in a difficult home situation. They often exhibit disruptive behavior themselves, and I wondered how I could make these tones recognizably emerge. It could also be that the child becomes petrified and stiffens internally, stiffens up, and is clumsy. At the same time, the main character should be relatable and sympathetic. I consciously ended up with a fairly gender-neutral type in the character, so that readers would have as much room to identify with as possible. Towards the end, the child's nature becomes more open and lively.
Katri:
Alongside conscious work, I want to keep a secret as a writer that is related to the nature of creative work: not everything needs to have an answer in the process of creation. The main character and narrator is a lonely child. Many experiences can be shared and can be touched by empathy and compassion. During the working phase, I read, among others, Gro Dahle and Svein Nyhus' Den Arge picture book (2009), and it reinforced my understanding of the ability of picture book art to also touch adults who carry within them the experiences of a child. I want to emphasize the picture book as an art form that is very broad in its use. The main character of the text, a child, tells his own truth and becomes stronger. There is change in the book, because movement and the possibility of change are essential when dealing with difficult issues. The main character's personality becomes more lively with his own words and the finding of support - personality is developing and growing, not a rigid or permanent structure. This requires sensitivity and nuances in expression.
What was the biggest challenge in making the book?
Selja:
I felt that the subject of the book should be treated honestly, yet with hope. Sometimes I wondered if a picture was too harsh. I had become familiar with Gro Dahle and Sven Nyhus' Den Arge picture book, whose description of a quarrelsome home is compelling and effective precisely because of its truthfulness. The support and feedback from experts was significant here, as were the countless discussions between the authors about both the text and the pictures.
Katri:
The book of stone and water also had its own special challenges, as the subject required a truly reasoned approach. I wondered how to combine the artistic level and the fact that the book would definitely appeal to child readers. I received discussion, encouragement and support at a very early stage from an expert from the Save the Children association. Every sentence was carefully reviewed, and the valuable feedback helped to reflect on and modify the tone of the text. At a later stage, discussions were held with experts from the THL Barnahus project, from whom we also received up-to-date instructions and contact information for the book. I also had discussions with the early childhood education department at a stage when we already had a layout in place. The support for our work was unconditional.
Is there a section or page in the book that is particularly important to you?
Katri:
For me, the biggest challenge is often finding and getting support for topics that are marginal. That's why the illustrator's understanding and dialogue with the illustrator is essential. I also knew that professionals need this kind of book because, for example, the effects of the corona times are visible in children and young people with a delay. Publishers often want something that is easy to market and sell. I find the margin to be both extremely meaningful and interesting. We have to think about all children, not some homogeneous 'child'.
I am very proud that this book exists. I am grateful to the Barnahus project, which, among other things, approved the safety skills task at the end of the book. It is important to me. I appreciate the illustrator's work and Selja's illustration art, especially with the very strong spreads, the creation process of which I know and the collage technique. For example, I thought the cut-out furniture and objects were a great solution. Adults are often the ones who are afraid that a certain kind of expression is too harsh.
Selja:
What inspires you in everyday life?
Katri:
After the initial oppressive images and moods, there is an opening in which a familiar adult asks the child how he is. The child's face opens for the first time, turned towards the viewer as he becomes seen and heard.
I am inspired by encounters, sharing and presence. It is inspiring to strive to face diversity – both in oneself and in the surrounding reality. These times are very challenging and we must fight for what is good. I like simplicity and not knowing, which enables a reflective and listening dialogue. Children and young people are inspiring because they have a love of life and the possibility of change. It is important that work makes it possible to feel meaningful. Sometimes, in the midst of different jobs, you need to retreat from the human world to nature and reach for peace and quiet.
Selja:
What would be your dream project?
Selja:
As an artist, the best moments are those when there is peace and space, both mental and physical, around you. The realities of everyday life include working many different paid jobs at the same time. There is little time left for the most important thing for you, creative artistic work. The energetic feeling after a good night's sleep, morning coffee and sunshine, an empty day on the calendar and the opportunity to focus on the essentials in your studio is the best. Of course, encounters and moments of sharing with others face to face or through art also inspire.
My dream would be to be able to do meaningful artistic work in peace and with focus. This dream, of course, goes back to the insufficient funding for the arts, which the current government continues to cut. As an illustrator, I am interested in picture books as an art form: it would be interesting to make and read more picture books for adults as well. A big dream would be to use art to change the world into a better place, to increase understanding and cohesion. Perhaps the dream can be achieved one small crumb at a time, also through this book.
Katri:
During the current cuts and the world situation, my personal dream is to be able to focus on artistic work, along with other work. It is not a given. Artists do what they can – we work and fight for our livelihood. At the same time, art is wanted and needed. Picture book art must also finally be seen as an art form that deserves its rightful place in the social conversation. My dream is to create something new in one way or another and stay in motion, to feel a sense of meaning and community. My dream is at the same time personal and connected to the world. One must dream that one's own work, one's own little stream, can give something and carry a meaning that is not exclusive but unifying.
Photo: Maikki Kantola