I choose the photographs, or take the photographs for my books, even before I begin writing them. I know the kinds of images that I’m looking for. I choose the images either from a source such as NASA; or Jet Propulsion Laboratory, if it’s outer space; or scientists who have been studying wolves in the field for many years. And these photographs that I choose, I winnow through them I go through them and choose the images which are the most striking, the most arresting to me, because I’m almost childlike in the sense that I know what interests me, and if it interests me, again, I think it might interest the kid.
And after I get the photographs, I do a thumbnail of the book, and I sort of design the book before I even begin writing it. I know that on this spread we’re going to be talking about a particular thing, and I have two or three photographs which I know will be used on that page. And all of this stuff goes into the editor the photographs and my text and what the designer does is decide whether to use the photograph on one page or another, or to spread it across the back of the text, but the pages stay together. And all of the books that I write are not written as individual pages. You can read any of my books from beginning to end without the pictures, because it tells a story. And I think that that’s very important, particularly in a book on photographs. I want the kids to be drawn into the book, and I want them to read it from beginning to end.
