🌟Author Interview🌟 with Chris Naylor-Ballesteros

Out of Nowhere
Written & Illustrated by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros
Age Level:2-7 Years
Published March 9, 2021

Hang on, adding “Journalist” to my LinkedIn profile.

Move over, Eric Carle, there’s a new favorite book about metamorphosis.

It’s life as usual for Beetle until one day, out of nowhere, a caterpillar appears on the rock he calls home. The two become best friends, sharing picnics and watching the moon rise, until one day Caterpillar disappears. Beetle, unaware that she is hanging just beneath the rock face in a freshly spun cocoon, gathers his courage (and picnic supplies) and sets off to find her, taking readers on a journey that shows the lengths we will go to for true friendship.

To provide more insight into this sweet and silly story, I asked author Chris Naylor-Ballesteros 5 questions.

1. The idea of being separated from a friend "out of nowhere" reminded me of the sudden interruption that COVID-19 has been to our social lives. Did this book with its storyline of an interrupted friendship happen to predate the pandemic or does it stem from that?

Thinking about the story predates the pandemic by a year or two so the timing of its publication was coincidental. With hindsight it does feel like it was written and published with the pandemic in mind but in fact not at all.

At the time my daughter had moved on from the tiny village school to the huge college near town and she was struggling with finding her place there. The same friends were there with her, but everything had changed and she was pining for simpler times and wishing things could just be like before, even though it was impossible. I only realised after finally finishing the story that this was what it was actually about.

2. The limited color palette used throughout Out of Nowhere is visually striking. What made you decide to use so few colors?

When I proposed the story to Nosy Crow, the publisher, I sent very quick pencil roughs of the book. My editor and book designer (the truly brilliant Lou Bolongaro and Nia Roberts) really liked the natural, sketchy feel of the drawings so we decided together to go in that direction. It was hard because you do have to work at it and refine it a lot without it looking at all over-worked or too refined. A bit of a visual balancing act. Then something really had to pop out of this monochrome world and it had to be the object of Beetle’s longing and eventual search.

3. Why was it important to you to show Beetle's fear and self-doubt as part of his journey to find his friend?

I think everybody finds uncertain or anxious characters more interesting than the fearless superhero. We can identify much more closely with someone who is faced with doing something frightening that we'd rather not do, and childhood is full of these moments, both big and small ones. Sometimes you just have to act brave and hope it turns out ok.

4. I love the idea of picnicking overlooking the forest like the characters in the book. Is there a particular place near your home in France that inspired their setting?

Well, there are a few lovely spots around here (Limoges, France) and also where I come from (West Yorkshire, England) that I think about a lot - especially not having been back to England for a long time now. They don’t look much like the landscape in Out Of Nowhere though.

The overhanging rock in the book solved a plot problem. I needed a place that could allow Caterpillar to be effectively hidden from Beetle but also be literally under its nose, so that the reader could see what was going on but poor Beetle couldn’t. And it needed to be a vantage point for Beetle to search for Caterpillar from.

5. What was your favorite book as a child?

Amos & Boris by William Steig. I still have my original copy over forty years later, I read it to my children and still look at it myself from time to time.

Thank you so much, Chris Naylor-Ballesteros for your time!