I came up with the idea for Dory and its sequel exactly a year before selling the manuscripts. But all the little bits and pieces of the story, I feel, almost wrote themselves.
“All these pictures come rushing into my brain at once.”Ībby: Putting the story together with a strong narrative arc was difficult for me and came after I was already working with Lucia Monfried at Dial. Do you want to talk a bit about trying to get those things right? Did you go through a ton of drafts? Did the story come easily to you in terms of those emotional rhythms and that honesty? Also, the emotional honesty of the book is spot-on. Jules: As I read Dory, I kept thinking about how HARD it is to write for this age and not be too precious about things. Today, Abby-who was featured here at 7-Imp back in 2012 at the release of her debut picture book-visits to share some illustrations from the book, some early sketches, and to talk about Dory a bit. I’m smitten with Dory Fantasmagory, but you can read why in that column, if you’re so inclined. (I promise to have some art here at 7-Imp from the other chapter book this coming Friday.) Ages 6 8.Last week at Kirkus, I wrote about two new chapter books for children, and today I’m going a bit more in depth with one of them, Abby Hanlon’s Dory Fantasmagory, released by Dial earlier this month. Hanlon's (Ralph Tells a Story) loosely scrawled illustrations, speech balloons, and hand-lettering are an enormous part of the story's humor, channeling Dory's energy and emotions as emphatically as the narration. Reality and fantasy combine hilariously in a story that, at heart, is about a girl who wants little more than to spend time with her brother and sister. Nuggy, who introduces himself as her fairy godmother. This sets Dory's imagination spinning, leading to the appearance of the vampiric Mrs. Gobble Gracker, "who robs baby girls," is looking for her. To combat her older siblings' refusal to play with her because she's a "baby," Dory conjures up Mary, a monster friend who appreciates her incessant questions, like "Why do we have armpits?" and "What is the opposite of sandwich?" Dory's pestering leads Luke and Violet to tell her that 507-year-old Mrs. Dory's nickname, "Rascal," is an immediate tip-off to the six-year-old's personality, but there's more to Dory than just being a spitfire.
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