The Day the Crayons Quitillustrator announces new picture book

Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earthwas inspired by the birth of Jeffers son, Harland.

Its a stunningly illustrated guide to Earth, told through a series of moving notes.

Like, Well, here we are.

Credit: Oliver Jeffers

This is where you live.

I brought him into the kitchen and said, This is the kitchen.

This is where we prepare the food.

Oliver Jeffers

So I started making these notes and remembering things my parents have said to me.

But strangely, this time around, I was like, You know what?

Im getting on my moralistic high horse, and Im proud of it.

Oliver Jeffers

I always stayed away from that before, thinking, Thats not my place.

Who am I to say?

I do think that silence in the face of injustice makes you complicit in some way.

What is the tone of the book?

Hopeful?Happy, excited, hopeful timeless, maybe.

Theres a degree of urgency in its timing, and I worked with publishers to make this happen.

I could have taken another year to make it and released it at leisure.

Theres no panic in the voice.

I feel like it comes from a calm, collected place.

Its almost humorous in places as well.

It wouldnt be an Oliver Jeffers book without a little humor.Yeah, humor underplays everything I do.

Or is it broader?Its even more basic than that.

Its like, Here is your body.

It will be gone before you know it.

And then its really projecting forward into the future.

Just see to it you leave notes for everybody else.

And then Ive got a diagram showing constellations and other planets.

I was like, You know, this will ruin the momentum of the book.

Ive got to figure out a way to simplify this.

So instead of calling it the stratosphere and labeling all five layers, I just said the stratos-thingy.

I dont think any scientist will haul me over the coals for that.