Peter Brown, THE WILD ROBOT ON THE ISLAND

[1:22]Zibby Owens: This is Zibby Owens, and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby. Formerly, moms don't have time to read books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest, best selling, buzziest, or underrated authors and story creators whose work I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't have to. Stay in the know, get insider insights, and connect with guests like I do every single day. For more information, go to zibbymedia.com, and follow me on Instagram zibby owens. Peter Brown is the author of the wild robot on the island. Peter has always loved telling stories. Growing up in New Jersey, he told stories by drawing whimsical characters and scenes from his imagination. As a teenager, he fell in love with writing and began telling his tales with words. While studying illustration at Art Center College of Design, Peter's love of both words and pictures led him to take several courses on children's books, and before long, he had found his calling. After graduating from Art Center, Peter moved to New York City to be closer to the publishing industry. He was working on animated TV shows when he signed a book deal to write and illustrate his first picture book, Flight of the Dodo. Peter quickly signed up his second and third books, and his career as an author and illustrator of children's books was underway. Since then, Peter has written and illustrated many books for children and earned numerous honors, including a Caldecott honor, a Horn Book Award, two Eby White Awards, a Critics' Choice Award for illustrator of the year, two Irma Black Honors, a Golden Kite Award, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award, and multiple New York Times bestsellers. The wild robot was recently adapted into a film. Peter lives in Maine with his wife, Susan, and their dog, Pam. Welcome, Peter. Thank you so much for coming on Totally Bucked to talk about the wild robot on the island and, of course, the wild robot series and all your other amazing work. Thanks so much. Okay. Your latest is a picture book about the wild robot. Discuss.

[3:28]Peter Brown: Yeah. So the wild robot was my very first novel that I ever wrote for kids after making a number of picture books. And, you know, so there are illustrations in the novel, but it's really about the words. It's really about using words to tell a story. And I love that story, and I love those characters so much. And I also love illustration. So I decided that it might be fun to rather than tell readers about how Roz becomes a wild robot, maybe it'd be interesting to show them through an illustrated picture book, you know, where the emphasis the storytelling is really about the pictures more than the words so that fans of the novel might find a new way to kind of connect with the characters by seeing them in a new light with these full color detailed pretty big illustrations. And then, of course, younger readers who might not have read the novel yet would have kind of a an entry point into that story world that's a little more age appropriate for them, you know. So, you know, there's a bunch of reasons why I decided to do this. The biggest one was just for me because I just wanted to have fun. I love Roz. I love the wild robot world, and I wanted to bring it to life in these full color big illustrations for for the fun of it, you know. Well, it is so just absolutely gorgeous.

[4:42]Zibby Owens: And you are just a master at just what you said, bringing these things to life. I mean, some of it is in our imagination. Some of it is in the movie. But having it here on the page where a child can just get lost in this book and this story, it's amazing. It's really great. My son, by the way, who is 10, loved the wild robot so much that every so often, he, like, makes me read a book he's reading because he loves it. And that's what it was for for him with the wild robot. He kept being like, mom, you have to stop what you're doing. You have to read the book. And so I did, and it was amazing. And he loved it. And then I said, you had a new book, but then he was a little disappointed this was the same story. He was like, when is the next story coming? So when is the next when is the next story coming?

[5:26]Peter Brown: Well, you know, these things take time. I for a long time, I wasn't sure if there'd be a fourth right now, there's a trilogy of novels plus the picture book. And I wasn't sure if I was gonna make a fourth novel. You know, these there's a lot of ways to write a series of books. A lot sometimes a writer will have a big overarching story that they're trying to tell, and they divide it up into parts, and each part becomes its own book. I'm kind of more exploring, you know, as I go, seeing what stories I think should be told as I go. I don't have necessarily an endpoint that I'm directing the whole story towards. You know? Each book is kind of its own episode of Roz's life. And so for a long time, I wasn't sure if there'd be a fourth novel, but over the years, you know, I just can't stop thinking about these characters. And so I started imagining this new scenario, and so I'm just now about to start kinda diving into a fourth wild robot novel. It doesn't even have a name yet the title yet. So, you know, it's early days, but I'm excited to get back in there and extend Roz's storyline, you know, and and bring her to a whole new environment, a whole new adventure, new characters. I'm having a lot of fun in this early stages of kind of mapping out the story. Is there one tiny little thing that I can tell my son so he can feel extra special? Let's see. Well, you know, the first book is really about Raza's life on this island. The second book, her world gets a little bigger as she's in kind of civilization with, like, a rural human civilization and then into a city world. So her world gets bigger in book two. Her world gets bigger in book three as she explores basically the whole kind of North Pole area. And all I'm gonna say is in book four, her world is gonna get bigger again, and she's gonna explore new places. So I'm gonna leave it at that because I have a lot of figuring out still to do. But I have I have I mean, I could tell you a lot more, but I'm gonna stop myself just because things change. You know? Like, I've learned the hard way that just when I think I've got a story figured out, I get a curveball and something doesn't work, and that makes me kinda back up and have to reimagine a lot of different things. So I'm I'm not talking about the new novel a lot for that reason. No pressure. No pressure. By the way, the fact that your first novel for kids ever

[7:45]Zibby Owens: blew up into this whole series phenomenon,

[7:49]Peter Brown: Academy Award nominated film, in most first novels for people do not go this well. What was this whole experience like for you? It's been pretty surreal. You know, I the funny thing is, like, I had no confidence when I was writing the novel, the first Wild Robot novel, that it would be well received at all. You know, like, I'd never written a novel before, obviously, so I it was new to me. I had a lot to figure out about my own writing style and my writing process and this particular story. And, you know, there was a lot of variables, and I thought, you know, it'll be a miracle if this thing even gets published, let alone be a success. And I remember before just before the book came out and was published, I I felt proud of what I had done, but I didn't know if anybody would connect with the story. You know? At the end of the day, if you it's kind of a weird story about a robot in the wilderness who adopts a goose and learns to speak with the animals and, like, I could see that missing, like, missing the mark easily. Then I had coffee with my editor a few like, a week before the book was published. And I was like, do you think this book is gonna do well? Like, what do you and she's like, I have no idea. She said she said, I'm really proud of you, Peter. You've done a great job. I love this story, but you just never know. And so neither of us knew what was gonna happen. So the fact that it's been as successful as it has was just sort of a dream come true, you know. So how did you teach yourself how to write a novel? Well, it had to be this novel. You know? I wasn't interested in I don't I didn't really set out to be a novelist, but I had this idea for this story about this robot in the wilderness, and I just couldn't shake it. You know? It was, like, one of those ideas that just lingered for years, literally. In between book projects, picture book projects, I'd try to figure out, well, what's next for me? And I'd always think, well, maybe I should do that robot story, you know? But I kept pushing it off for a long time as I worked on picture books. And in that period of time, I was beginning to develop the story and come up with ideas, do research. You know, I was watching documentaries about robotics and about nature. I was reading books on these subjects and learning about it and writing down little notes to myself, ideas and stuff. And then there came a point when I was like, alright. I think I need to do this. This I have all these sort of ingredients. I have all this research. So I set I rented a cabin in the woods, and I went out there for, like, ten days. And I got there and I sat down and I thought, alright. The only reason I'm here is to write is to begin this novel. So I have no excuses. Now's the time. Let's begin. And that's all I did. And it was pretty messy process, you know. But I believed in the idea so much. That was really the driving force was I just thought there's this idea is interesting. And, like, I think other people are gonna be interested in it also. And so even though I was stumbling through the early days and really just like, how do I write a novel? And I was reading a lot of kind of classic kids novels for inspiration because one of the things I wanted to do with this particular story was even though it's, I guess, science fiction, which usually takes place in the future, I didn't want it to feel dated. I didn't want it to feel I wanted it to feel classic and kinda timeless. And I thought that would be an interesting combination combining kind of futuristic world, technology, characters with a sort of timeless classic writing style. I thought would be kind of great for my audience. And and and so I did a lot of reading. I read a lot of books, you know, like, the incredible journey and a lot of Ursula Le Guin books. And, I mean, I was reading Bambi. I was reading, you know, the wizard of oz. I was reading a lot of really books just to kinda absorb a bit of the writing style, and I ended up kind of making it my own. I did this I decided really short chapters would kinda make it less daunting rather than worry about the whole big story. I could just worry about one little short chapter at a time, which ended up being really great for me creatively. And it also works really well for my readers because, you know, all different age ranges and reading levels are reading this book in part because it's broken up into these short bite sized chapters that most readers can handle. And so I had a lot of happy accidents like that, you know, like, where I just I made a decision at first for my own writing purposes and then realized it actually worked really well for the audience also. And so it was, like, kind of magical process. It was painful a lot of times, but but I kind of I was always I always felt like I was on the right track, you know, you know, if I could just stick with this, think I'll figure it out. And so but anyway, that doesn't I don't know if that totally answers your question. It was a it was a it was a bit of a free for all. I didn't quite ever know what I was doing and didn't never really had confidence as I was writing the first novel. Well, that makes More confidence came with the second novel and the third one because I'd already done it once, you know. So Did you go into the woods for all of them? You know, the second book takes place in large part on a farm. And so I spent a lot of time on farms, meeting farmers and, you know, wandering their lands and asking them farmers questions and stuff. You know, each book the third book takes place like in the North Pole. I did not go to the North Pole, although that would have been pretty awesome for research. But thankfully, these days there's so many great, like, beautiful documentaries. The BBC does so many great documentaries about nature in particular that I could I spent hours and hours, probably weeks watching every documentary I could find about the kind of northern landscape and animals and habitats. And so I was able to learn a lot without having to leave my home. Today's episode is sponsored by Quince.

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[15:57]Zibby Owens: So Roz the robot basically becomes a mother to Brightbill, who is not a robot, not that robots can even have children, but a duck who right? Who has to fly a goose sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah. A goose who has to fly south for the winter essentially. Yeah. So my son wanted to know about Brightville. He wanted to know,

[16:19]Peter Brown: did this type of separation come from personal experience of your own? Wow. That's a great question. Well, I mean, I suppose I have when I went off to college I grew up in New Jersey, and I went to college in Los Angeles. And so I think when I left home for college, it's kind of like Bright Bill going off on his migration, you know, like, it's a big adventure in store. You don't exactly know what's gonna happen. There's a lot of big feelings that get stirred up for parent and child. And so certainly that prob I probably tapped into that personal experience a little bit for that. You know? And that's you know, it's it's and and a bigger question is my how does my personal life factor into other parts of the story too? And it was really important to me to make these characters relatable. And so I dug into that stuff as much as I could. If any way I could make a relationship feel relatable and personal, emotional scenarios, I was, like, really trying to push this robot story as far as I could to surprise readers with how emotional it made them, you know, and how strongly they connected with these characters in these scenes. Once again, that was kinda part of my big plan from the start was, like, let's surprise people with how emotional I can make a robot story, because I don't think anybody was expecting that. And I wanted to surprise people. You know? A lot of people, for whatever reason, aren't interested in science fiction. I love science fiction. And so I I thought, well, I wanna win over people who typically don't like to read this science fiction. And the the way to do that is to make it feel make it relatable to them. And and so I I was I was really going back through my own life experience and imagining which scenarios were really kind of juicy as I call them, you know, like something that's really kind of emotional and using that for inspiration wherever I could. And I think it kinda worked. I think a lot of people are surprised at how, you know, people constantly tell me how much, especially adults, that they cry when they're reading the books. And to me, I just I love that. I love that these words could on a page could actually make people feel such big emotions. And create kids too. Kids cry at these books. A lot of parents tell me that the wild robot, especially at the ending, is the first time their kid has cried while reading a book. And to me, that's, the highest compliment.

[18:39]Zibby Owens: Aw. I first cried reading a book when I read Charlotte's Web, and I will never forget that moment. It, like, made me into a reader. Because once you you know, it hooks you when you feel that, and you realize a book could do that for you. It's amazing. What was the per what was the first book that made you cry? Do you remember?

[18:54]Peter Brown: I think it might have been Where the Red Fern Grows. I don't know if you ever read that, but it involves a dog dying. Aw. It's just always a heartbreaker. Right? So yeah. And I remember when I was a little kid I mean, this book this movie is way before my time, but my parents would watch would have me watch, like, Old Yeller. Oh, yeah. I think it's, like, from the fifties maybe or the sixties. And

[19:16]Zibby Owens: I remember the same thing. Dogs dying, forget I'm a mess. You know? I can't handle that. So even when I was a kid, I was, like, all choked up. Do not watch then Bad Dog Marley, by the way. I made the mistake of showing it to my kids and finishing it before preschool one morning, and, like, they were all sobbing, and I couldn't get them out the door. Anyway, it's it's a it's a cry fest, so just heed the boarding if you were scrolling through that one. You've done so much other stuff in addition to this series. Books that I have loved, by the way, with my kids, the whole creepy carrots and creepy pair of underwear. I loved Fred Gets Dressed. We read that like a thousand times. I mean, these books, they're all such different styles and messages and sort of, you know, what mood you're in. Right? Fred Gets Dressed is sort of more It's like a little quieter of a story in your mom's closet and all that versus, like, creepy pair of underwear and creepy crayons, all these things. You know, you go all over the place. Talk about how your approach to illustration really can tell the whole story. I mean, some of the stories you write, some you illustrate. Like, how do you how do you do that?

[20:23]Peter Brown: Well, in a picture book, especially, the pictures are meant to do most of the storytelling. And so it's been an interesting relationship with Aaron Reynolds who writes the creepy books. Because he writes the stories. I get a basically finished manuscript, and then I have to find ways of kind of enhancing it. Not only do I want my illustrations to reflect what is written in the words, but I want the illustrations to go even further, you know, and stir up emotions somehow, whether it's laughter or fear or whatever. I mean, those books are spooky. I wouldn't call them scary. But, you know, for little little kids, sometimes they can be a little scary. And, you know, that's not the worst thing in the world. I think reading a book and feeling all these a book is to me a perfect place to experience these feelings and kind of explore them. Even even scary, even feeling fear a little bit, I think. What better way than with a book where you can close it if it gets too much and walk away easily, you know. So I'm trying to do that and so so I'm always thinking about what art style will kinda capture the mood of the story. So my art style varies from kinda book to book. I think a lot about I'm almost I almost think about books as if they're and picture books as if I'm, like, a film director, you know, and I think about the camera angle. The creepy books in particular are supposed to feel kinda like film noir. So I'm doing a lot with lighting and camera angles, trying to make it feel really dramatic, which is part of the joke. The idea that this absurd, ridiculous story, creepy pair of underwear, are you kidding me, is treated like a Hitchcock film, you know, with, like, all this drama and and shadows and whatnot. That's pretty funny. Even though kids might not know what film noir is or what or Alfred Hitchcock is, you know, they get the the sort of inherent spookiness and drama that comes with these black and white illustrations and these dramatic camera angles and everything. And so it's a fun challenge, you know. And, you know, like Fred, Gets Dressed or some of my other books are a little quieter. The Curious Garden was a book I made years ago, which is you know, it was really just supposed to be this, like, love fest for nature in an urban environment. And so I painted it. I don't always paint my illustrations, but for that book, I painted the old fashioned way. I used a really bright, colorful color palette. And, yeah, it's a it's it's a really fun challenge each book to sort of figure out how can I tweak my way of doing things just a little bit to make it a bit more appropriate for this particular story? And it's fun. Yeah. It's a good job.

[22:57]Zibby Owens: So I was grilling you about the next book, and sorry about that. But in terms of illustrations, do you have other books? Don't isn't there another creepy book coming out? There is. Yes. Thank you for mentioning that. There's Aaron and I Aaron Reynolds and I have this new kind of spin off series of creepy books.

[23:13]Peter Brown: So the star of the picture books the three picture books that have already been published, the star of that series is Jasper Rabbit. Mhmm. And this new picture this new kinda early reader series is called Jasper Rabbit's creepy tales, in which he's kind of like the host. Almost like I don't know if you ever watched that old Twilight Zone show where Rod Serling is like the host of the show. He introduces it, and then it cuts away to this unrelated story, which unfolds. And then at the end, we see Rod Serling again to kinda close out the show. We're doing that with Jasper Rabbit. So you open the book, and there's Jasper who's like, I hope you're ready for what's about to happen because this story is about to get weird. Right? And then you turn the page and you meet this new character, not Jasper, somebody else. We see their whole creepy story unfold. And then at the very end, there's Jasper again who's like, and that concludes our story. I hope you survived. Do you, like, tune in next time? And so it's really gonna be kind of fun. It's a little older re for slightly older readers, slightly creepier stories for sure. So get ready for that. And and yeah. So we're really excited. The first one so the series is Jasper Rabbit's creepy tales, and then each book has its own individual title. The first one is called troubling tonsils. Look out for that. That's really kinda gross, but fun. Kids are gonna love it, and that comes out in September. And then we have two more in the series all kind of in the pipeline. And we'll see. Who knows? Though I wouldn't be surprised if we make more of them eventually. But,

[24:36]Zibby Owens: yeah, I'm excited to see kids. Kids really love those creepy books. So I think I think they're gonna love this new spin off series too. Amazing. Well, we've definitely had a lot of fun reading them out loud and having my father-in-law read them out loud. Oh, yeah. It's it's, you know, it's easy to act out. Anyway, maybe Jasper will have to find his way into a wild robot background. It's like an an extra in that series or something. Oh, yeah. What do you want kids to know? You are speaking to kids all the time in different ways, in different mediums, in words, in paint, and what is, like, something that you're like, if I could just communicate this to kids, my job here is done.

[25:16]Peter Brown: Yeah. I think the big theme throughout all my books, at least the books that I write I love working with Aaron Reynolds because he writes stories that I would never write on my own. And so he gets my my imagination to places I wouldn't have gotten to otherwise. But the I think the big theme throughout the stories that I write and illustrate myself is that we are all connected, you know, and that we all kind of need each other in in some way. Like, that we're part of a community. I made a book called mister Tiger Goes Wild where he's sort of going through this identity crisis on his own and has this sort of solo journey, and we're watching him get wilder and wilder. And and then eventually, he realizes that his wildness, he's so wild. He's out in the jungle by himself. He doesn't wanna be alone. And he realized it took him to that he had to get to that point for him to realize that actually what he really wants is to be allowed to be his true self in the company of his friends and neighbors. And so he goes back to the city where his friends and neighbors are, and they welcome him home, and he finds a sort of great equilibrium where he's part of the community, and he can be his true self. And that's I think that's the big theme. I mean, Fred Get Stressed is about a boy who feels free to explore and experiment, and he knows that his family loves him no matter what, and he can kind of do what he wants, and they'll be there for him. And he's part of this community of his family, you know, and he feels that, and we see it demonstrated. And it's a beautiful thing to watch. Even, you know, the wild robot books as well. I mean, they're all about community and about home, about where you belong, and finding a way to connect with unlikely characters. You know? So that's I think if I could if I could just really communicate one idea to young readers, it would be that we're all part of a community. Sometimes it can be hard to see that or feel that, but I think it's important to recognize that. Because once you remember that we're all together in this together, we're all part of this, like, global community. I mean, suddenly, it makes sense to take care of the Earth and the planet. Right? Because this is where we all live. We all will benefit if we take care of the environment. You know? We all will benefit if we take care of each other. And, so, yeah, that's a theme that I think I'll probably be banging away at for the rest of my career.

[27:32]Zibby Owens: Well, it's it's an amazing message and one a lot of grown ups need to hear as well. So Yeah. That's great. And by the way, congrats to your wife, and she's also now a successful

[27:43]Peter Brown: children's book, illustrator, and everything. I mean, you two are like the power couple. So congratulations. She is doing so great. Her name is she publishes as X Fang. Her first name is in Chinese, and it starts with an x, and so she just uses her initial. Her middle name is Susan, so most people call her Susan. But she is really I mean, it's impressive to watch her career take off. It's very different than mine. My my career was a very slow beginning, and I keep trying to, like, lower her expectations and be like, you know, you might might just take a while to get your first book deal, and your first book might not, you know, may not get much attention. And, like and every step of the way, every step of the way, she just keeps, like, blowing me out of the water and being like and I'm like, alright. Never mind. Forget it. Clearly, you don't need my advice, so I'm gonna stay out of this. You're doing so great. Yeah. Thank you. Oh, that's amazing.

[28:27]Zibby Owens: Well, Peter, thank you. Thank you for the hours and hours of entertainment you brought to my family, and I'm really quite grateful personally. So thank you.

[28:36]Peter Brown: This has been fun. Thanks a lot. K. Thank you. Congratulations.

[28:39]Zibby Owens: Bye bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Totally Booked with Zibby, formerly moms don't have time to read books. If you loved the show, tell a friend, leave a review, follow me on Instagram at Zippy Owens, and spread the word. Thanks so much. Oh, and buy the books.