Looking Back at My First Children’s Book Project: "Tavi and the Giant Fear"

It’s been a few years since I sat down in front of my laptop and my heart thought: Well, things are getting wild now.

An inquiry from a pediatrician in Erlangen had landed in my inbox, and I still remember exactly how I felt: I was over the moon. Holm Schneider had discovered my profile and portfolio on the platform “Das Auge” and wanted to work with me as the illustrator for his new children’s book.

Firsts always feel a little special. I still notice that today, with my first publication with a major trade publisher, which will be hitting the shelves in just over a week (aaah!).

Back then, when I read Holm’s inquiry, I had the same feeling: a big dream was coming true. Getting your foot in the door of the publishing world as a children’s book illustrator is no easy feat. That’s why I’m still incredibly grateful to Holm and Neufeld Verlag for opening their doors so widely to me.

Even though I would probably approach quite a few things differently today—with considerably more experience under my belt—I’d like to take another look back: at my work, my first children’s book, and everything about the project that still brings me joy.

The Children’s Book Cover

For the first time in my life, in 2023, I sat down to design a book cover and had to figure out how text, format, and illustration could work together. And—spoiler alert—it didn’t go particularly well at first.

I hadn’t done enough research into the format specifications and other requirements the publisher had for its book covers. I also hadn’t done any real character exploration for either Tavi, the protagonist, or the personified version of Fear.

Here you can see my first cover designs. Illustrators often label their files with the suffixes “V1” and “V2,” meaning “Version 1” and “Version 2.”

As you can see, Tavi is noticeably too old for the book’s target audience in these first designs, while Fear appears alternately long-necked and rather round and broad.

I also hadn’t taken into account that, as part of its corporate identity, the publisher always includes a band on its covers. There simply wouldn’t have been any room for it in either of my designs. And I didn’t yet know that the publisher doesn’t use illustrated fonts for its titles, as I had suggested in these first two versions.

In general, at the beginning of my career, I simply didn’t know which questions I needed to ask.

Here you can see the cover (on the right-hand side of the image) and the U4—the back cover, including the spine. To make sure the cover and back cover felt like one cohesive design, I had to create both in the same file.

The more I talked to the author and publisher, the clearer my brief became. Both Tavi and the cover evolved in a direction that I still really like today.

I also realized that it makes a lot of sense to create the cover (“U1”) and back cover (“U4”) together from the start. That way, I could create one continuous illustration that wraps all the way around the book cover. The title and blurb were then typeset by a graphic designer.

The Interior of the Book

When working on a larger book project, the process often follows a similar pattern: first come the initial scheduling and organizational discussions with the editors, followed by meetings about the content. Only then do I start developing the characters and creating a first cover design.

It often takes a while before I move on to the so-called interior pages. These are usually sketched out first so they can be discussed with the editors and adjusted accordingly. Once the sketches have been approved, the final artwork begins: linework, color, shadows, highlights, and so on.

With Tavi and the Giant Fear, however, things were a little different.

There was no editor giving me feedback, and at the time I wasn’t familiar with the professional workflow I should ideally have been following. So I would work on sketches for the interior pages one day, the cover the next, and then start finalizing individual illustrations—all without first properly sketching out the entire manuscript.

That’s why I’m all the more surprised today by how cohesive the spreads still feel. I think some of them turned out really well. I’m particularly happy that I managed to develop some unusual layouts and adapt them to the individual texts.

Example 1 is the double-page spread you may already have seen above as the header image for this post. The text reads: “[Fear] rumbled through cozy villages and lively cities, dangerous as an avalanche.” Right from the first time I read that sentence, I knew I wanted to show Fear as truly giant on one of the first spreads—fittingly, given the title. So I decided to make Fear larger than all the houses.

I also tilted all the objects—the trees, houses, people, and bushes—in the same direction. I wanted this to reinforce the feeling that Fear was sweeping through the small town like an avalanche.

Example 2 is this double-page spread:

Holm’s book is about the fears that COVID-19 and all the changes associated with it caused in many children. Many struggled with measures such as homeschooling and wearing masks.

And I think that sense of being overwhelmed is completely understandable. Even though I consider masks and many of the protective measures taken at the time to have been sensible and important from a medical perspective (!), such major changes inevitably affect us. For children in particular, who may not yet fully understand the reasons behind them, a suddenly altered world can feel confusing, unsettling, and frightening.

That’s why I still really like this spread. I think it captures something of the confrontational and depersonalizing experience of wearing masks.

Here, Tavi is faced with a question: What’s behind the masks? A smile? A disapproving look? A word he can’t quite understand through the fabric?

For him, this isn’t an easy experience. I think the layout captures that sense of separation quite well.

But of course, it’s all the more wonderful that Tavi and the Giant Fear isn’t only a story about fear, masks, and playground closures. It’s also about courage—and about how music and community can help us cope with our fears.

A Tip

If you’re now curious to take a closer look at my first children’s book, why not visit Neufeld Verlag or watch the promotional video on YouTube?