Please welcome kidlit friend Jami Gigot to Frog on a Blog! Jami is an author, an illustrator, and a Texture Supervisor at LucasFilm’s Industrial Light & Magic. I recently featured a Happy Book Birthday post for Jami’s brand-new picture book The World In Our Backyard, which was published in May. I also interviewed Jami way back in 2015 when her book Mae and the Moon came out with Ripple Grove Press shortly after my book did.

I’m excited to welcome Jami back during the month of July, which happens to be Park and Recreation Month, to talk about The World In Our Backyard. This lovely and imaginative book is all about spending time and having fun in the great outdoors, especially our own backyards, and features a diverse group of kids from the city, the suburbs, and the country. It’s perfect for summer reading! Let’s hear more from Jami, and be sure to read to the end for details about how to win a copy of her book!

Congratulations on the publication of your beautiful new picture book The World In Our Backyard! Tell us the inspiration behind the story.

JG: Thank you so much! This book was inspired by my love of nature and my constant awe of our incredible world. One of my favorite things about writing for children is putting my mind back in the state where I try and think like I did as a child, and it was wonderful to revisit my own childhood memories and feelings of exploration and play. I had the thought, what would the world look like to a group of insects? It dawned on me that a clover patch would seem like a forest to them, and I made a sketch, which eventually became the first spread of the book. From that initial image, the rest of the story began to unfold. I thought, well, if there is a forest in a backyard, maybe there is a mountain, or a desert, or an ocean and so on. It was important to me to also explore the idea of backyards themselves and expanded the definition to include not only suburban households, but balconies, city parks, community gardens, or wherever we find joy exploring outside. 

What was your process like when creating the illustrations for the book? And what’s your favorite spread?

JG: Whenever I start illustrating a book, I first sketch out a very rough version of the book in its entirety in pencil or on my tablet, blocking out the layout and text on every page. This helps me feel the pacing and overall balance of the book. In terms of final art, I never know exactly how it will work, but it usually ends up being a collage of traditional and digital mediums. Often I will use watercolor or colored pencil and then mix that with digital painting and do the final layout in photoshop. For the spread with the kids making chalk drawings, I incorporated some photos of the chalk art my children and I drew on the street behind our home. 

What do you hope kids will take away from reading the book?

JG: Kids already have incredible imaginations, and I hope this book reminds them of all the joys and wonders around us in our natural environments and encourages them to explore creatively. In a time when we have so much stimulation from screens and electronic devices, I think it’s more important than ever to get outside and play. 

What outdoor activities do you and your kids enjoy doing together?

JG: I have always been very active with the kids, and we spend a lot of time exploring outside. We have done things like making a bed for a fairy out of a chestnut shell, or making art from leaves we collected. When they were very small, I would plop them in a baby carrier to go snowshoeing or push the double stroller around on my rollerblades through the city. Now that my kids are a little older (12 and 14), we do a lot of activities like playing lawn games, hiking, and stand-up paddle boarding, but we are still very curious and love spotting slugs or collecting shells and rocks. 

Can you give us a sneak peek of any projects you’re working on right now?

JG: I’d be delighted to show a little sneak peek of my next project! I am currently working on a humorous picture book called A BIGFOOT FIELDGUIDE TO CAMPERS (and other mysterious creatures), which will be published by Kids Can Press next Spring 2025. It is a story about not being afraid of the unknown and listening to your heart and is written in a guidebook format where the words and pictures completely contradict each other, so makes for a very fun read aloud! 

Giveaway

Jami has generously offered a copy of her beautiful book The World In Our Backyard to one lucky person who comments on this blog post! For your chance to win, just leave a comment on this post by July 15th. I will choose a winner at random and connect them with Jami. This giveaway is limited to residents of the US and Canada only.

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