A longtime publisher, editor, and creator of children's books, Brooklyn-based Christopher Franceschelli dons a new cap at this year's BEA: that of picture book author. Currently a partner of packager SmartInk Books and founder of Handprint Books, which since 2008 has been an imprint of Chronicle Books, Franceschelli has written Oliver, a novelty board book published in April by Lemniscaat USA. Featuring a spare text and minimal art, this book about an egg has a surprise ending that was inspired by a magic show the author attended at the age of seven.
"The show was held at my school, and I realized afterward that the magician performing was probably a parent of a schoolmate," Franceschelli recalls. "He did a lot of the usual things, but one little trick stuck in my brain. He had a tiny box that had a red silk ribbon coming out of one end, and as he pulled on the other end of the ribbon, the red disappeared and a green ribbon appeared instead. It was sheer magic to me—I couldn't figure out for the life of me how he'd done it."
Remembering that mysterious—if not magical—process, Franceschelli says he began imagining "how a book featuring a ribbon could somehow recreate the experience I'd watched at that magic show." After working on the concept with a printer for almost two years, the author found a way—with the help of digital art created using stock images and a sturdy ribbon—to transform Oliver the egg into a chick.
Asked why he chose an egg to convey the book's message of wondrous transformation, Franceschelli explains that he made the decision after some deliberation. "I was looking for something that seemed to magically transform itself," he recalls. "I thought of a bunny coming out of a hat or a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, but there was something truly satisfying about the simplicity and starkness of an egg that allowed the book to be entirely in black and white before a chick suddenly appears. The book works as a metaphor: the egg holds the promise of becoming something else, and then that little bit of magic happens."
On the eve of BEA, Franceschelli admitted that he was looking forward to attending the fair for the first time as an author, though "with some trepidation. I hope it will be good for me to learn discipline and humility from the other side of things, having presented hundreds of books over the years to sales departments and buyers. Somehow, in that position, you can duck a little bit of responsibility for the books, but with Oliver there is no one else I can blame. I may discover I have a more sensitive ego than I thought."
Booksellers can welcome Oliver to the world—and Franceschelli to the ranks of authors—
