The stories behind the story

2009-12-01T08:36:00.000-08:00

Who are the two little boys from Toolittle Toys?
They are two brothers, Rudy and his little brother Ridley. They first appeared in my picture book titled Natalie & Naughtily. In that book, they visit the very busy Nopps Department Store on a rainy day. They seek the assistance of two mischievous girls who are not supposed to be in the store at all. At first, they did not appear to be so important but they were key to the storyline of that book. Plus, I had to hide them on all nine floors of the store.
Here they get their own adventures as “the luckiest children in the world”. Their family runs a toy company and they are the first children to get to play with toys… that just happen to play with them.

Where did you get the idea for the book?
The idea for this book came from a childhood memory. My father was a lawyer and he loved his work very much. On weekends and rainy days, he would bring us to his office with him while he checked mail and did whatever he had to do. Meanwhile, we (my siblings and I) would play “office”. For some reason, I was always the lawyer and I remember spinning around in an office chair and having my little sister come into the office to “take a dictation”. It was great fun and we always had to tidy up the office when we left to go outside to play.

Did you ever want to be a lawyer?
No. Not really, but I did want an office with a chair that would spin around. My studio is nothing like an office but I finally did get that chair a year ago.

How did you get the idea for toys that play with children?
Well, isn’t that every child’s ideal, to have a toy that played with them?

Which character are you more like? Rudy or Ridley?
Oh, that is simple, I am Ridley Toolittle. No ifs, ands or buts about it!

Where did you get the name “Toolittle”?
Actually when I invented the name Toolittle I had no idea it was a family of toy makers. I just liked the way Rudy Toolittle sounded when you said it really fast!!! Try it!

What gave you the idea for a toy company?
For many years, I used to pass a building on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street in New York City. It was called the “The Toy Center”. I would always look inside that building and imagine what was going on in there. I pictured toy workshops and busy inventors. I imagined that Santa Claus probably had an office. Once, I got up the nerve to go inside but did not get much further than the front information desk before I got sent back outside. The building is very near the building where the publisher of this book has its offices, coincidentally.

You mention that you are toy maker, what sort of toys do you make?
I started making toys as a child. It was always creatures. Some were made of cloth but my favorite material was paper mache. I often made puppets. While I made them, I would make up personalities and stories for them. Then years later, I was back to my old tricks. Now they were made out of heavy white cardboard. They had moveable parts and I created toy theaters with changes of scenery for them. I really got into three-dimensional paper engineering while I was working in the windows of Bergdorf Goodman.

How did you decide on what sort of “favorite toy” Rudy and Ridley would have?
Rudy’s flying toy dragon is named “Snapp”. The inspiration came from a little dragon on a keychain that I picked up in Italy a while ago. I knew I wanted to incorporate that idea for the older more sophisticated brother.
For Rudy, I knew he would have an adorable toy that appeared to be very similar to himself. His toy is named “Buzby”. The question remains does Rudy dress like Buzby or does Buzby dress like Rudy? Hmmm.

So far, you have written about two sisters in Natalie & Naughtily and two brothers in this book, did you have any siblings of your own?
I have a rather large family. I have one older sister and two younger sisters and little brother. I was the second child. I have dedicated this book to my little sister Betsy because she was very much my partner in crime for many years.

Is there a game in this book like the hide and seek games in Natalie & Naughtily?
Yes. On the inside back cover; I have included two pages from a Toolittle Toy Company catalog. The toys from these catalog pages are hidden throughout the book.
When I was a kid, we used to get toy catalogs in the mail and I would love to go through page-by-page and read all about every toy. We were supposed to make lists of toys that we wanted for Christmas or birthdays. I had a lot of trouble making up my mind, so my list was unusually long.

What was the process to create this book?
The first step was to get the go-ahead from BloomsburyUSA to start with “The Two Little Toolittles”. That was the original title.
Then, I came up with the initial story. It was completely different from the final story. My editor read it and made some suggestions.
I revised the story over and over again.
When the story was finalized, I worked closely with the editor and art director to come up with the illustrations for the book.
Next, I created a dummy book, which is a sketched out version of the book at the size that it would actually be.
Once that was approved, I did more detailed drawings and then once those were approved, I started on the final art.
I designed hundreds of toys and narrowed the final toys down several times. Editing the toys was rather difficult to do. I hated to leave any out!
Once the book was finished, we started to design the cover and revise the title. Underneath the outer paper cover, there is what is called a “case cover” (the hard cardboard cover). I designed a special wallpaper pattern with some of my best friends worked into it.
Altogether the book took one year and six months.

What was your favorite part of the process?
On this book, the most fun I had was designing the toys. I started with tiny little ink doodles of shapes, then did more detailed designs then colored them to make certain they were different colors from each other. Then I had to edit them down. At final count, there are 31 toys in the story and 18 toys in the catalog. Perhaps one of these toys, might have it’s own book one day!

What were your favorite toys as a child?
I remember having some stuffed bears that were supposed to be Yogi Bear and Boo-boo, but did not look a lot like the real characters. (My nickname as child just happened to be “Boo-boo”) One Christmas, I got a ventriloquist dummy. I loved that toy. It was a sort of doll that could talk if I pretended not to.
Without a doubt, my favorite board game was called Mouse Trap. I really liked to build that crazy contraption.

Is there a toy that you always wanted but never got?
Well, I had seen something called a toy theater that had little paper puppets and cut out paper scenery. That always was on my mind but they had gone out of fashion years and years ago.

Did you always want to write and illustrate books?
Strangely, yes. Someone must have told me one day when I was very small, that people write and illustrate books. I wanted to be one of those people. Then in high school, my first job was in a library so I spent a lot of time with books. They are very good friends.

Fun Things to do

2009-12-01T08:35:00.001-08:00

Here are some fun activities that are inspired by the adventures of the two little boys from Toolittle toys.

Images from toy sketchbook

2009-11-26T11:55:00.000-08:00

TWO LITTLE BOYS FROM TOOLITTLE TOYS

The stories behind the story

Fun Things to do

Images from toy sketchbook