Keep Up If You Can, with STANLEY! (Bonus Interview With Creator William Bee)

 With summer in full flow, you might be among the luck y folks who are served by a BOOK-MOBILE from your public library. Even some school libraries have taken up this approach to keep those fabulous shelves full of books in the hands of readers through the summer months. Wherever you get your books, you should know about very busy STANLEY, including this recent release.

PEACHTREE BOOKS, 2024

STANLEY's LIBRARY is one of many in the STANLEY series. Stanley (hamster) stars in an ongoing series of delightful books for young audiences. Just as early chapter books offer a transition from beginning readers to actual youth novels, STANLEY's stories, though appealing to even the youngest eyes and ears, offers a set of stories and characters with enough substance to engage longer conversations, questions, reactions,, and connections that reach beyond the basic naming concepts in most board books. The colorful, graphic, but detailed images focus on the topic-related materials and their purposes for each of the many topics. Though seemingly simplistic, Stanley takes young minds on journeys into the world around them, reflecting things they know and extending their awareness to think and absorb more while having a grand journey through the day. The impact of a template or pattern that carries through each story/Stanley structure builds confidence and connection, including not-quite-identical end of day pages. 

Side note, for anyone bemoaning the lack of analog clock faces in young lives, Stanley's bedtime clock is set each night, and the times are not the same. In fact, it's worth noting that the particular career he holds for that title is reflected in the time he is expecting to get up. I found that to be a wonderful example of the ways these seemingly simple books will transcend a few readings or even a few years. 

These were originally issued in the UK, but Peachtree Books has brought Stanley ton our shores with vibrant success. I was delighted to be offered a chance to see some oftheir newest STANLEY offerings, and to reach out to William Bee to reply to a few questions. (BTW, williambee is the way his name is used on published works, so I used lowercase initials to indicate his responses.) Some of my observations about the books have been incorporated into my questions for him.

SB: First, thank you for agreeing to reply to these questions. I'm linking some of my question content to prior interviews about this series, since I found them to be very informative and try to avoid repeating things you've already answered in other platforms. I hope readers will take a few minutes to read those, too.

In this interview from several years back, you indicated that Stanley’s origin story included wanting to create a series for very young readers. That led you to hamsters Stanley and then Hattie. Was Stanley (as we know him now) first a concept or did he/they come from exploratory images/sketches? 

wb: I wanted to create a series where the illustrations could be relatively simple and ‘graphic’. Dick Bruna being the inspiration. It just happens that that ‘look’ is best suited to younger readers. The trouble with books for that age group though, is that many of them are, frankly, inane. I couldn’t think of a way to solve this inanity, one day decided to do something I never do, just doodle a few characters and see where it took me. It took me from guinea pigs to hamsters pretty quickly - I realised if I stuck with guinea pigs I’d have problems differentiating characters. Hamsters are close in size to other small rodents, allowing me to introduce gerbils, mice etc. The ‘breakthrough’ came when I had the idea of Stanley having a different job in each book. This gave the stories more heft, and there was the bonus of only having to do one book about each job.

 SB: Each left-or-right profile/perspective for characters relies on seemingly simple line/dot expressions. These are  nearly identical, but closer inspection show they are not exactly. In fact, I was sensing distinct expressions in various situations with no understanding of how you do that! As stories unfold it seems clear that the characters are fully engaged and interactive. How did you decide on that approach? 

wb: What luck! I could say it’s laziness, by just using 'side views’ and simple mouths, eyes, and movements, I could get the characters designs and lives out of the way, and concentrate on the more interesting (and varied ) stuff - buildings, vehicles, objects.

I admit it is surprising how much expression you can get by just slightly moving an eye.

SB: My non-art-trained-background wonders if the nearness of each scene and characters and the bold clarity of details provides immediacy and connections to little ones. Can you say something about accomplishing reader connection?

wb: If it happens, it happens by accident. I do like a plain white background. If you have a story to tell - information to impart - why complicate it with busy backgrounds? Also why waste the time?

I also like to keep everything to one size. There are no close-ups or long distant views.

SB: You've indicated your admiration for the work of Richard Scarry. Many of his titles include intensely “busy” pages, filled with small items/figures, and characters who actively move about and wear clothes. How did you decide to take a static approach and limit your characters’ attire to accessories?

wb: I tried clothing, but it all looked too busy - all those extra lines. The nearest to clothing is Stanley in a life jacket. Scarry’s books are more like films, mine are more like stage sets.

SB: Your interview response with Stanley’s publisher, Peachtree, summarized this series pattern well:

“One joy of these books is that they all follow a pattern, so we have a vehicle on the cover, our “tool” pages, a building, the story, Stanley’s house, his tea or bath, and then bedtime. So the books are the same but different.” 

The pattern itself has a calming, reassuring effect on little ones but also on adults who share the books, at least on me. There is a pacing and rhythm to them that suits the characters perfectly. To a certain extent each title is stimulating (including a sort of “search and find” challenge using the tool page items) but are also bedtime books. They invite endless language development from earliest naming/labeling of objects and colors to complex dialogues about actions, decisions, predictions, and consequences. When working on each book, do you focus on the production of the images silently or do you engage in internal (or out loud!) interactions with the characters? 

wb: The text always comes first. So the pages are designed around that.

Certainly all text has to be said out loud - just as parents would read it. 

The structure of each book - the beginning  and ending spreads, mirror TV series. The layout of each page mirrors a stage set.

SB: Your bio and other interviews indicate that you express creativity in physical activities,  including skiing and race car driving. How does your creative process for picture books (Stanley in particular) compare to other creative pursuits?

 wb: I’m actually rather fond of being at home. Self employment, being my own boss, allows me to live on my own terms. Making books is a pretty solitary process. Although - to be clear - phone calls and the rare meeting with my editor and art director are very valuable. I am lucky to be doing something I enjoy for a living - to most people it must look like playing. So when I am doing something that isn’t work, it sort of makes sense for it to be very different.

SB: You indicated that ongoing books are a collaborative choice with the publishing team. Anything you can tell readers about future Stanley plans? Or any other picture books in an entirely different direction?

wb: Stanley - in some form or other - will be broadcast on television at some point in the future. The series has been filmed and finished with the BBC. When you have seen how TV is made, you realise how superior - in every way - books are.

SB: That is fantastic news, especially since many programs broadcast on BBC are now becoming available on our shores. Overall, I will always agree with you that books  are superior to TV, but since screens are so ubiquitous, even for the youngest, I'm delighted to thing Stanley may may new friends (and book-lovers) through that medium. Thank you so much for taking time away from Stanley and his friends to respond. All best in the endeavors that you (and Stanley and Company) pursue in coming months and years.