KidLit Connection: Getting to Know Author-Illustrator, Kari Percival

An illustrated page spread of Kari Percival's book, HOW TO SAY HELLO TO A WORM. Four children dig in the dirt and pour water in a community garden bed.
A spread from Kari Percival’s picture book HOW TO SAY HELLO TO A WORK: A FIRST GUIDE TO OUTSIDE

In the second of the KidLit Connection blog series, I interviewed illustrator, writer, and environmental educator, Kari Percival. Kari has studied art, environmental science, and teaching. Her education combined with her work as a science teacher, running a local preschool gardening program, and experience as a parent has helped shape her unique perspective when creating books for children. 

Author/Illustrator and environmental educator Kari Percival works with young children in the community gardens during her Early Birds Garden Club program.

Kari creates colorful woodcut prints that show dynamic relationships between kids and nature. Her storytelling inspires small children and their grownups to make a positive difference in the world through connecting with nature. Her picture book HOW TO SAY HELLO TO A WORM: A FIRST GUIDE TO OUTSIDE (published by Rise x Penguin Workshop) is a perfect guide for preschoolers who love to get their hands dirty, play in nature, and learn all about how plants grow. 

In this post, Kari tells us about the experiences that have shaped her work as an illustrator and storyteller and what inspires her to create books for children. I really loved hearing about all the interesting pieces of Kari’s life that have made her the book creator she is today.

Kari’s Interview

First, let’s talk a bit about you as an author and illustrator. Could you tell us more about what inspires you and what you love about being a creator of books for kids? 

As my extended family is cleaning out old storage boxes, they send me these little picture books I wrote when I was a child, that they’d tucked away, that I hadn’t seen for 40 years. Little stories about nature, local wildlife, or my pets. When I was in grade school, I guess our teachers had us make books a lot, bound and covered in wallpaper samples. I could write and draw whatever I wanted in them, and I gave them as gifts to family members a lot. I guess when I write and illustrate picture books, its like I am still making and giving gifts out, except now its to the children of the world. 

As an environmental educator AND picture book author/illustrator, how does each type of work relate to and inform the other?

Children and parents working in the community gardens at the Early Bird Garden Club run by Kari Percival.
Children and parents working in the community gardens at the Early Bird Garden Club run by Kari Percival.

Teaching informs my writing, but also, my writing is motivated by my love of learning and my love of ecology, of a deep wonder and love for all the beautiful, vulnerable, magical and amazing life on Earth. I am an artist, but I went to graduate school to learn to be a science teacher. Although I love art, and it comes easily to me, I don’t think everyone should be forced to make art if they would rather play basketball or whatever thay love to do. But I do think its imperative that every young person learns about ecology, and biology, and environmental science, because every young person will grow up to be a voter and decision maker, and they need to know how we are all members of the web of life, and how our decisions affect all life on Earth. I worked as a science teacher in public schools for 10 years, and I hope to maybe go back someday, but I took a break when I had children, and that is when I started thinking of books I wanted to write.

How did you first get into creating children’s books? What made you want to pursue this type of art? 

When I had my own children, I really enjoyed re-entering the world of children’s picture books as a parent. There are so many wonderful books, classics and new. There were also gaps: so many books I thought were missing from the shelf. I thought maybe I could apply my art and storytelling skills to making books to fill where I thought some gaps were. It seemed like a long shot, but maybe worth a try. 

Let’s talk about the most recently published book you wrote and illustrated, HOW TO SAY HELLO TO A WORM: A FIRST GUIDE TO OUTSIDE. Can you tell us a little more about the book and what inspired you to write it? 

I’m an environmental educator and so inviting kids outdoors and learning to grow food – even just to learn where food comes from – and see how we are made of food that is made of sunshine and how we share the world with other living beings, inviting and empowering very young children to become immersed in hands-on outdoor learning, edible education – that is my goal with this book.

When my kids were small, I started Early Birds Garden Club, a meet-up for toddler and parents that wanted to learn to grow food at our local community garden. Though leading the group, I learned what questions toddlers had about learning to garden, what questions they had about nature, and what gardening activities they enjoyed doing. My cracker jack agent, Teresa Kietlinski of Bookmark Literary, suggested I should write a book on how to garden for toddlers.  She knew that I would know just where to start, because I knew just what types of questions curious kids that age had. So then I wrote HOW TO SAY HELLO TO A WORM. They say “write what you know” and that was true for me with this book.

A spread from Kari Percival's Book, HOW TO SAY HELLO TO A WORM. Children dig in a garden and pick up worms. The text reads, "How do you say hello to a worm? Gently, very gently. Hello, Worm!"
A spread from Kari Percival’s book HOW TO SAY HELLO TO A WORM: A FIRST GUIDE TO OUTSIDE
Kari’s sketch of the above spread prior to creating the final artwork.

What was your favorite part about creating HOW TO SAY HELLO TO A WORM? And what was a challenge you had to overcome while working on it, if any? 

Botanicals: I loved drawing portraits of plants! And I loved the “casting call” – creating and getting to know all the characters of the little children who garden in the book. I also loved thinking of writing the book from the perspective of what questions the youngest garden explorers would wonder about. A challenge was cutting images that I wanted to include. Cutting is the hardest! Originally, I wanted more of the pictures to contain lots of kids doing lots of gardening activities, but the design team focused each composition on a certain interaction with fewer children and more space for the words. And that was actually probably good anyway when it came time to produce the final art on a tight timeline!

You also have a new book coming out soon called SAFE CROSSING, which will be published by Chronicle Books. What is that book about and what can kids and their grown-ups learn from it? 

SAFE CROSSING is an informational fiction story about a family of community scientists who volunteer with an amphibian migration team in springtime.  They help salamanders and frogs cross the street to avoid getting crushed by cars. When they realize that more needs to be done to protect these small creatures, they rally their community to build a wildlife tunnel so even more amphibians can cross safely. The story models grown-ups listening to kids ideas around protecting animals from harm.

What is your greatest hope for your work as a creator of books for kids? 

As a parent and a teacher, I know how – after a long challenging day when you have given your all, are running on fumes and you have no more ideas of what to say to your child or your students, – what a relief it can be to hunker down and read a picture book togther. I am so thankful to all the picture book creators who help caregivers and teachers explore interesting, wonderful or difficult topics with their children, with beauty and sensitivity and humor and honesty. My hope is for my work to give caregivers and children more ways to find joy and meaning together, and to honor their impulses to share wonder and love of our beautiful world and life on earth.

What is something you’d like to tell aspiring picture book authors/illustrators? 

Work or volunteer regularly with children in the age range of your target audience, doing something you love. Read books currently being published in the genre (within the last 5 years.) Find a community of writers or illutrators in the genre you aspire to publish in. Connect with them and ask them questions. Join critique groups in organizations like SCBWI, 12×12 or take classes where you can share work in a supportive environments where you can exchange feedback with others.  Use your best manners, experiment a lot, share your experiments, note what work you do that people respond most to, and do more of that.  Read you book outloud to yourself in the mirror and to young test audiences, notice where eyes glaze over and then edit those spots. Enter contests, be humble, and learn, learn, learn. Develop effective time habits, and organizational habits so that when opportunity knocks, you are ready with bells on. Ask someone knowledgable to look at a contract for red flags before you sign it.

A page from Kari Percival's book HOW TO SAY HELLO TO A WORM. Two children play under a play hut made from pea plants and have a tea party. The text reads: "But when will there be peas? See how the play hut is shady? See the flowers? See the bees? You'll see pea pods next."
This page from HOW TO SAY HELLO TO A WORM explains to young children when peas will start growing in the vegetable garden.

See More from Kari Percival

You can learn more about Kari and see more of her work online. Check out the links and be sure to follow her on social media!

Are you a published or soon-to-be published children’s illustrator or author/illustrator who’s interested in being interviewed as part of the KidLit Connection series? If your work has a focus on nature, the environment, animals, or mindfulness, I’d love to chat with you! You can get in touch with me using the contact form on my site.

Nurturing the Artist’s Soul with Nature

All of us as creative beings need something to nurture our creative souls. Every human has the potential and capacity for creativity, even those who think they have lost it. As I’ve talked about before, being creative is like breathing. In order to breath out, you must breath in. In order to create something new, you must also take inspiration in. For me, one of my favorite ways to breath in inspiration is by spending time out in nature.

I’ve mentioned the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron in the past—a 12 week program to nurture your inner “artist child”. I keep bringing it up because it’s a program that has helped me through some of my artistic ruts and given new life to my creative spirit. One of the weekly assignments when doing The Artist’s Way is an “Artist’s Date”. It doesn’t really matter what you do on your artist’s date, but the criteria are as follows:

  • You must go on your artist’s date alone
  • Your artist’s date is something that you want to do for you
  • Your artist’s date will help inspire your artist child

Some examples of dates I’ve taken myself on include:

  • Going to the local botanic garden
  • Going to an art museum
  • Watching a new movie I’ve been wanting to see (by myself)
  • Buying a cheap bubble set and blowing bubbles in my front yard
  • Going for a long hike on a new trail I’ve never been to before
  • Taking photos at a local park or garden
  • Browsing the plants at a local garden center

Connecting With Nature

The possibilities for artist’s dates are endless. But, of all those possibilities, my favorite ones are the dates where I really get to connect with nature. Take the time to observe. Here are examples of things I’ve noticed while out in nature:

  • Feeling my feet on the trail and how the pine needles give it a soft springiness.
  • Stumbling upon a huge grove of ferns under a forest canopy. 
  • Discovering the variety of bees attracted to mountain mint flowers.
  • Feeling the warmth of sunshine on my face when I close my eyes and breath in fresh air.
  • Stopping to notice the number of species of oak trees in a particular area.
  • Being surprised and charmed by wildlife scurrying by while sitting quietly on a boulder.
  • Greeting a green frog in a pond while watching the red-winged black birds across the way.
On the left, a photo from the ground of a woman standing on a forest trail. On the right, a drawing inspired by the photo by artist Victoria K. Chapman.
At the top, a photo of a green frog in a mossy pond. On the bottom, a drawing inspired by the frog photo by artist Victoria K. Chapman.
On the left, a photo of a leaf from a red oak tree. On the right, a drawing of a red oak leaf by artist Victoria K. Chapman.

Similar experiences can be had for yourself when embarking on a solo trip into nature. It doesn’t even have to be a long adventure. Is there a local trail nearby? Go explore it for half an hour. Is there a lake or pond within walking or driving distance? Go there, sit, and observe. Bring a sketchbook or notebook to jot down ideas that might come up. Bring a camera if you wish to capture something that way. But mostly, focus on the moment of being present with nature, however that happens for you.

The important piece of going on your nature date is finding some way to connect with nature, be it big or small. And the most important part is just doing it. Don’t let limitations and excuses get in your way. Even exploring your own back yard can be a date. Put out some bird seed or a hummingbird feeder and see what happens. What’s under the rock over there? What does the lichen growing over on that tree really look like up close? Be curious. Be open. Be willing to take in whatever comes to you. And most of all, let your artist child explore the wonders and joy of nature. Nurture your artist’s soul.

A sketchbook with pen drawings of wood ferns held above a patch of actual wood ferns. By artist Victoria K. Chapman.
On the left, a photo of a feather from a red-bellied woodpecker. On the right, a pen drawing of the feather inspired by the photo by artist Victoria K. Chapman.