A new "Sesame Street" book out this fall celebrates the show's theme song — and includes author and illustrator Mike Curato's collage inspired by the "Sunny Days" lyrics.
Curato, who lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, also created the "Little Elliot" picture books, including a Christmas edition published last year.
For our back-to-school book series, we asked Curato to describe his most well-known character.
Mike Curato, author/illustrator: Little Elliot is a polka-dotted elephant who lives in New York City in the late 1930s, and he's very small. The series starts out with his struggle as a tiny, tiny elephant in the big, big city, and he meets his best friend Mouse, who puts everything in perspective for him.
Sam Hudzik, NEPR: Mouse is really like a sidekick in a lot of ways, but also smarter or wiser than Little Elliot.
He's the sidekick and also the unsung hero, I think.
You said this was based in the 1930s. The men wear suits and hats, the cars are old, and postage is a penny. Why did you decide to place the books in the 1930s, and not in present day?
First of all, I'm just obsessed with old New York, right? I love the old architecture. And I really wanted to have this character live in a time when he had to be out in the streets. He can't order his cupcakes on Seamless, and have them brought to him.
He needs to be out in the world, which is something I would like our kids to experience, you know — being out there and interacting with other people.
Also, it just gives the story a more classic feel. It almost feels like the story has been around for a minute, because it's set so far in the past. There's kind of a magical quality, I think, to stories that are set in the past.
I love the acknowledgement section in your books: "For anyone who feels unnoticed," "For my fellow scaredy-cats — and our heroes," "For you! Always know that there's someone out there who cares." These are kind of like the underlying messages of each of the books, right?
Yeah. I mean, when I was first trying to dedicate the first book, I was really at a loss. I mean, there were so many people that I could have dedicated it to, or thanked. But there was definitely a message that I wanted to convey. And with the Elliot books, I've maintained this kind of general message to my readers.
So you've been tapped to be one of, I believe, 18 illustrators to contribute a page to a big "Sesame Street" book out in October. Each page has a line from the "Sesame Street" theme song, "Sunny Days." Your illustration is very cool. Can you describe it?
Sure. Basically, it's a collage style that I used when I was working on the book "What If?" by Samantha Berger. And that's the style that the folks at Random House saw and wanted me to use for the "Sunny Day" book. So it's a combination of drawing and photo collage, some digital color — but basically it's a beach scene.
When someone thinks about "Sesame Street," I think, obviously, the default is to think about the city, right? Because that's where it's set. But Random House really wants it to be inclusive, and show how "Sesame Street" is accessible to everyone.
I have island roots, so I thought maybe a beach scene would be cool. So, for example, the beach itself is made out of sandpaper, and the water is made out of, like, tissue paper and glitter.
There's some cereal in there, too, right?
There's cereal, yeah. So my verse is "[What a beautiful] sunny day, sweepin’ the clouds away." And I wanted to show these kids literally sweeping clouds out of the sky with kites that they're running with along the shore.
So all the kites are kind of funny things that you wouldn't really think to be a kite. There's a piece of cereal in there. I think there's some chocolate or something. There is a little Easter egg of Elmo that I made with foil and googly eyes and a Tic Tac.
Are you a big "Sesame Street" fan?
Oh yeah, I love it. I mean, I grew up with it. So many of us did. That's a huge part of my childhood.
