I just gave the following art direction for the endpapers on the new Flamingo Rampant kids books coming out next month:

“Make the spot where the kid writes their name hella fancy, in case they are writing their new name there for the very first time.”

Because it’s so easy for me to imagine this moment. To imagine a kid getting these books after some very difficult conversations and some not-so-great visits to the washroom at school and then finally the parent comes home from an event or a conference with this blue cotton backpack with a bright pink design on it - a girl pirate and a boy merman and a happy kid with a sword but also riding a shark - and in this bag is a set of six books that contain a whole world of peaceful, joyful kids like that kid. Or who would love kids like that kid. And when it’s time for the kid to write their name in their brand-new books, maybe for the first time they pen in a name that has previously only been known in their secret heart - a name that brightens every time it’s used, like blood turns red when it meets the air.

So if we’re bothering to make a space for This Book Belongs To at all, let’s make it so when that kid looks down at their name, bright and tender and outside at last, they see a reflection of how precious it is.