AM: Anne Muecke
CB: Dinosaurs and Christmas trees are not often seen together in the same book. What was the inspiration for The Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas?
AM: It was around Christmastime and I was training to be a docent in the American Museum of Natural History dinosaur halls, and just for fun during my subway rides to the museum I started making up dinosaur lyrics for classic Christmas carol melodies. Years later, these songs were made into a CD entitled Dinosaur Holiday for the AMNH, and I wrote The Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas as a read-aloud track for the CD. It was my husband's idea to add the story as the final track on the album.
CB: What was the time line for turning your idea into a story and book?
AM: I wrote the story in several weeks because it was a last minute add-on to the CD and the production deadline was short. I worked on the story every night after putting my kids to bed, and my husband would critique it and suggest changes. It was a busy time! The picture book took much longer to make because the illustrator and editor both had so much work to do to bring the story to life. I think both my editor and illustrator (Nathan Hale) did a brilliant job!
CB: Did you have to do research for Dinosaurs?
AM: I already had a base of knowledge to draw from, but I did research facts for the illustrated storybook, such as if fir trees were around 65 million years ago. We wanted to make sure the dinosaurs' Christmas tree was a species of tree that would have co-existed with living dinosaurs.
CB: Did you face any challenges while working on the book?
AM: I wanted to keep the story generally framed around the original Night Before Christmas tale, but add in a new plot line about dinosaurs coming to life on Christmas Eve for a celebration and a little boy discovering their party. It was a challenge to create rhymes that flowed well, fit facts and details together, and kept the story moving, but also echoed key elements from the original poem.
CB: How did you go about bringing such a vivid world to life on the page? What was it like to work with illustrator Nathan Hale?
AM: The story unfolded as I wrote it—and several revisions were necessary to tighten it up and make it complete and interesting, but not overly verbose. Nathan Hale was super to work with—and he is incredibly talented. Nathan struck just the right balance of realistic detail and friendly character traits in creating the dinosaurs for the book.
CB: How did you get involved with the American Museum of Natural History?
AM: I have always loved the AMNH. As a child I visited the museum every chance I got and was fascinated by the animals—particularly the dinosaurs. When the museum was renovating their dinosaur halls they advertised for volunteers to train to be docents in the halls when they reopened, and I jumped at the chance. I had to interview for the program and was thrilled when I was selected to participate. I didn't work directly with the museum on the book, but my editor did interface with the museum throughout the production process, and a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book will go to support the museum's endeavors.
CB: What was your involvement in the creation of the exciting CD that comes with the book?
AM: I wrote all of the songs on the CD that comes with the book and Dan Rosengard, a professional musician and composer, wrote others that were included on the original CD. Dan and David Bramfitt—also a composer—created the wonderful musical arrangements.
CB: Dinosaurs captures the surprise and curiosity that children often show toward the natural world. Do you hope that this book excites kids' curiosity about dinosaurs? Is there an educational element behind the story and art?
AM: I absolutely hope that this story inspires kids! I hope it inspires their imaginations, their creativity, their love of reading—even of writing and storytelling, their love of the natural world, and their curiosity in general. Much of the story is about imagination, but I did make every effort to fill it with details that are educational, such as the fact that some dinosaurs had feathers and were likely colorful. I also tried to add in a number of species of dinosaurs as characters for variety—and even made the cookies into Pterosaurs—which were not dinosaurs, but flying reptiles.
CB: What role did dinosaurs and natural history play in your own childhood?
AM: As a child, I was passionate about animals, natural history, and, of course, dinosaurs. I wanted to be a paleontologist—later a marine biologist. I learned to SCUBA dive in high school and I went on a lot of outdoor adventures after I got married, but before having kids—like tracking Mountain Gorilla in the Congo, canoeing the Zambezi River, kayaking with Orcas, and cage diving with Great White Sharks. I am still passionate about animals and the natural world—too bad there isn't a way to safari with dinosaurs!
CB: Are there any juicy, behind-the-scenes stories about the creation of Dinosaurs?
AM: In the first draft I didn't have any of the dino-deer and my husband said, "No way! You've got to have the part about the reindeer," so I added that in—and he was right! The story isn't half as good without the dino-deer!
CB: What did you enjoy most about making this book?
AM: It was a hoot to see the story come to life on the page with Nathan's illustrations!