Fave's Faves: Carson Ellis
This quarantine we’re asking some of our favorite people about some of their favorite things. Next in the series is Carson Ellis, the artist, illustrator, and author of Du Iz Tak?.
What is your favorite place to read in your house, and where would you read if you could be anywhere in the world?
My favorite place to read is my bed. There are big windows. I can open them up and hear birds singing. All my old lady comforts are there: my heating pad and my knee pillow and my reading glasses. My second favorite place to read is in a hammock under a tree.
If I could read anywhere in the world, I might go to the house we sometimes rent on the Oregon coast. It’s basically one big room on a forested hill with huge windows looking out on the ocean. It has one of those goofy hanging hammock chairs in the corner that my family always fights over. One of those sling-like chairs with an awkward also hanging footrest, if you can picture that. It’s a great place to be in winter, when you can watch storms roll in. We pretty much go there for the weekend just to sit around and read.
What was your first favorite book?
Maybe something about a horse. Misty of Chincoteague? Or Black Beauty? Or maybe one of the Chronicles of Narnia which I read over and over when I was a kid. I think my favorite was The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
What books do you return to most often, and why?
I don’t think I return to books much unless they’re art books or picture books. I read very slowly and am so precious with my reading time. I’m not inclined to reread things when I could move onto something new. There are so many books to read. I do revisit picture books - I mean, we all do if we have kids - but I revisit them for inspiration too. Especially books that I feel broke some storytelling/illustration/design ground. Books by Tove Jansson, Remy Charlip, the Provensens, Anno Mitsumasa, Margaret Wise Brown.
What book do you recommend most often?
Well, lately I’m telling everyone to read Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I’m reading The Mirror and The Light and I’m envious of people who haven’t read any of her Thomas Cromwell books. Oh, to be at the beginning of that literary journey. If I was going to revisit any books it would probably be these. The prose is so good. The voice and the language she developed for them is astonishing - it’s like sorcery. I don’t know how she does what she does. So I tell everyone to read Wolf Hall, especially now when escaping into a three tome historical epic is just the thing for some readers (me). I’m plodding through The Mirror and The Light at a snail’s pace but I know I’ll be lost when I finish it. I do recommend these books with a caveat though: You have to be able to stomach rich men being awful for thousands of pages. Many of us cannot. Especially now.
Have you ever written an author a fan letter? If not, who would you write to?
Yes, I wrote to Pete Rock, a Portland author, about a book he wrote called My Abandonment. It was set by my old house in the woods in NW Portland and it was based on a news story that I had been obsessed with at the time - about a Vietnam vet living in the woods with his daughter. I loved the book and had a million questions about it. He graciously answered them and we became friends.
What is your local bookstore, and how does it make you feel to walk through the door?
Powell's! It’s a multi-floor bookstore the size of a city block and one of Portland’s main tourist attractions so walking through the door can actually be pretty overwhelming. When I moved here 20 years ago I didn’t like Powell’s much. It was too massive and crowded and labyrinthine and I had no idea where anything was. But because it’s my teenager Hank’s favorite place in the world, I’ve been there every week for over a decade, and now it feels like home. It’s a very important place to my family - a safe place - the first place we let Hank roam around by himself actually. When Colin told me in March that they were closing for at least 8 weeks and furloughing most of their staff, we burst into tears. It was a real blow to the bedrock of our family.
Bonus question: what is your quarantine kitchen MVP?
Oh definitely my husband, Colin. I don’t cook at all. Or bake. Or anything. I’m the worst. The kitchen is not my place. But Colin cooks almost all of our proper meals and he’s so good at it. He bakes bread every day. He makes spaghetti bolognese and pizza from scratch and the best chocolate chip cookies. Everything he makes us is beautiful and I am grateful for that about a million times a day because I hate cooking. I guess if I had to pick a food, it would be the sourdough bread he’s been baking because it’s delicious and we all love it.
Carson Ellis is the author and illustrator of the bestselling picture books Home and Du Iz Tak?, a Caldecott Honor book and the recipient of an E.B. White Read Aloud Award. She has illustrated a number of children’s books including bestsellers The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket, and The Wildwood Chronicles by Colin Meloy (who happens to be her husband). Carson has been awarded silver medals by the Society of Illustrators for her work on Wildwood Imperium and on Dillweed's Revenge by Florence Parry Heide. She lives in Oregon.
