Meet Hanako Wakiyama
Illustrator of Too Big!

    Born in Tokyo in 1966, Hanako Wakiyama has been drawing all her life. In 1984, she moved with her family to California. Two years later and just out of her teens, she illustrated her first children's book for a small publisher. Humphrey the Lost Whale became an instant bestseller and a 1989 Reading Rainbow choice.

Getting the Job
    As a working freelance illustrator, Hanako grew frustrated with the expendable, replaceable and short-lived nature of the kind of commissioned work she'd been taking on.
    "Being versatile was my forte," she says, "but I knew I needed to develop a strong, identifiable personal style. That meant I needed a brand new portfolio, and a good project that would force me to produce a volume of artwork that clearly showed my style."
    Through this work, Hanako developed an idea of creating a unique children's book, one that could be enjoyed by people of all ages. She started working on it.
    "It was a fantasy adventure that consisted only of pictures, without any words. "I created a 'dummy' of it and several finished art samples, and mailed them out to major publishers. Chronicle Books was the first to review my proposal. They didn't buy my concept, but did keep the art samples in their files."
    About a year later, Chronicle acquired a manuscript of Too Big! by Claire Masurel. Hanako Wakiyama's illustrations were a perfect fit to the prose style, and they contacted her with an offer to work on it.

Developing the Characters
    While developing the characters in Too Big!, especially the family of three, Hanako first worked along the lines of something hip and humorous.
    "As I drew, thoughts of my childhood kept creeping into my mind, filling me with sentiment to the point that it affected my concentration. I thought about my parents in their 20's; the sense of belonging and security that I took for granted; our small house in a charmless bedtown of Tokyo, which has long been demolished. Through these thoughts the book started to take on a gentle nostalgic tone in my mind, and I knew I wanted to express a childhood embraced in love... not through big hugs and kisses, but in a more subtle and indirect way."

The Retro Look
    "In retrospect," Hanako says, "I wonder why I didn't think of it earlier. I'd been collecting old magazines and post cards, and love those 1920's style travel posters. I don't think I made a conscious decision that I wanted the sort of retro-fantasy look for this book until much later in the project."
    At one point she was struggling with pages that were to contain the carnival scenes.
    "Out of pain, I decided to go to the Alameda County Fair, without expecting much. It happened to be a beautiful day. After a long walk through rows and rows of booths selling foot massages, scented candles, and cell phones, I remember those old-world rides appearing before my eyes at the very end of the Fair. It was almost like traveling through time," she recalls.
    "Maybe the thought of giving the book a retro look came from that experience. Anyway, the photographs I took there proved to be invaluable references for color and light. And of course I used those great rides in the book. I have always been detail-oriented," she says, "so it's fun for me to add little things to the pictures that kids can find, so they always see something new.
    "Too Big! was by far the best project for me in the most challenging, personal and enjoyable ways. I consider it a milestone in my career. The publisher trusted the virtually unknown artist that I was enough to allow almost total freedom, and for that I am most grateful."

The Future
    Too Big! has received positive reviews and brought attention to Hanako's work.
    "I think there are many different ways I can work within the kind of retro style that I enjoy," she says. "I'm looking forward to producing many more books in the future."

Hanako Wakiyama lives in San Francisco with her artist husband and young daughter.

Article by Garda Parker, 2001