All You Can Be by Angela Casabene, illustrated by Michelle Conn
Published by Affirm Press
Angela Casabene shares why she wrote her lovely, affirming picture book, All You Can Be, at PaperbarkWords blog
I have often said this about my two girls:
My first born is like an extension of my soul. And although I acknowledge she is her own person, she is also quite literally my heart walking around the planet.
My youngest is my love. When I first clapped eyes on that butterball, I fell absolutely down the rabbit hole in love with that child.
And then, almost immediately, she got sick.
This is not the forum for that story, all you need know is that she also got better.
But from then on, I have always felt I’m holding half a breath. And if you saw how that kid lives her life, you’d gasp more than a few times too. She’s fiercely independent and radically kind. She’s fiery and opinionated whilst also being incredibly quiet and observant.
She is so deeply loved.
So of course, when on occasion she does fall ill, that breath in my throat catches just a little bit sharper.
It was during one of those nights, kneeling by her bedside as she snuffled in her sleep, the diffuser humming in the background, that I whispered the words,
‘I just want you to be all you can be…’
The tears came, of course, as that guttural fear all parents experience from time to time reared its head.
When all the worries and the ‘what ifs’ swim behind your eyes, and you realise that with each passing year their world is getting bigger and your ability to control their experience within it is diminishing slightly.
And so as parents we try to be as present as possible during those exhaustingly long days but heartbreakingly short years.
We do our best to teach our children what we know, and we encourage them to seek their own knowing. We watch and we hold our breath and we smile through pressed lips as they navigate each day, sometimes stumbling, sometimes soaring.
On that particular night, after whispering those words, the rest of All You Can Be came to me within about half an hour. There were more stanzas, more wishes for my daughters, but what the book contains today is largely what I wrote on that night.
It really is a love letter to both my daughters. To that beautiful first-born soul mate of mine and to my littlest love, who I’m quite sure is going to change the world one day, just by being all she can be.
Michelle Conn gives some great insights about illustrating All You Can Be
When I first read Angela’s manuscript I was struck by the poetic language and the delicate way each moment of fear, loneliness, or wonder were punctuated with a simple phrase, ’Be brave. Be strong. Be curious … Be all you can be.’ I could hear myself encouraging, supporting and cheering on my own kids as they experience all the emotions that come with learning about themselves and the world, and then of course I was in tears at the end ‘When your feet long to roam and it’s time to leave home …’
Not only was the manuscript beautifully written, there was also immense space for me to interpret and create. I felt freedom to design the setting, characters and time-frame. With this freedom came many decisions: Should I do one main character that grows older through the story, or should each scene have a different character? Should the story happen in one or multiple locations? And how on Earth would I come up with an idea for a double-page spread that had six words, ’Tomorrow, be all you can be.’?
It turns out I just needed to drive eight hours to a beachside town in NSW, because not long after receiving the manuscript my family went on a holiday to Merimbula. It was here that I found the location for the book: Mitchie’s Jetty. Immediately, I knew the pink and aqua weatherboard cafe would be the centre of the world. The place where the main character would face her fears at the beginning and set sail at the end. I took lots of photos which I used as constant reference material when I returned home.
And so began lots of sketching. I drew a plan from a bird’s eye view to get my bearings. I combined Mitchie’s Jetty, Cosy Corner in Torquay and the lighthouse at Aireys Inlet to create the world. Initially, it was purely to help me visualise where all the scenes took place but ended up being helpful in tying everything together, creating secondary storylines and discovering the ice-cream-like colour palette. I ended up loving the aerial view so much that I incorporated it into the endpapers. I think they add authenticity to the story and give children a chance to explore the world and piece everything together.
To make the world more believable, I decided to structure the story over twenty-four hours, all anchored by the pier. From the beginning when the main character grips her mother’s hand, to dancing with strangers, to heading home after a tumble in the waves, to a stargazing clifftop picnic and to finally heading off into the world.
I utterly adored illustrating this book. It felt like putting together the most beautiful, life-affirming puzzle piece and I’m so proud of what Angela, I and the team at Affirm Press have created together. It is my hope that every child who reads this story feels inspired, uplifted and self-assured to ‘Get out there. Be all [they] can be.’
All You Can Be by Angela Casabene, illustrated by Michelle Conn at Affirm Press
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