Gayle emailed me the manuscript and I accepted the job offer. I thought the story was well written and had a nice tone. It also had lots of opportunities for humor.

The first thing an illustrator does with a new manuscript is pace it into a format of 32 pages, the usual length of a picture book. The text (manuscript) come undivided. Pacing means assigning a block of text to each page. I go back and forth on some of the text until I think it has the right flow and gives me the opportunity to illustrate what comes to mind. The art director and editor both can ask for some alternate way of dividing the text up if they don’t agree with my way.