The Space Between
by Jess McGeachin
Published by Penguin Books
It is Jess McGeachin’s time. His picture books Fly, The Lost Library, Frankie and the Fossil, The Tree at Number 43, Kind and others are steadily garnering a following as well as awards.
Jess is a thoughtful and assured author-illustrator who prizes the imagination. He coaxes children to explore their own lives and neighbourhoods to find hidden treasures. Jess’s signature style of clue-scattering that leads to creativity is epitomised in his new picture book The Space Between.
In his guest author-illustrator post, Jess shares fascinating revelations into three of his favourite illustrations in The Space Between.
Guest author-illustrator post about The Space Between by Jess McGeachin for Joy in Books at PaperBark Words Blog
As an author and illustrator, people often ask me what comes first – the pictures or the words? It’s a tricky question to answer, because in truth they both come at the same time and then I bounce between them. For this story though, I think the landscape came first.
When I was growing up, we used to go camping in the country a lot. I remember unzipping the tent and poking my head out to look at the night sky. It dazzled with stars and planets, and I always wondered how long it would take to get to them. This was the feeling that I wanted to capture when writing The Space Between.
I’d love to share three of my favourite illustrations from the book and tell you a bit more about the process of making them.
The first illustration that I wanted to share is one of two best friends, Milo and Max, as they find a rocket ship that had landed in an orange grove a long time ago. To us it might look like an old, rusty ute, but to Milo and Max it has the potential to soar across the stars.
As we grow up I think we start seeing things as they are rather than what they could be.
It’s this capacity for imagination that I wanted to explore in the story, and the hope that there’s no problem too big to fix with some cardboard and sticky tape.
This page was quite a tricky one to draw as I wasn’t sure if we should follow Max and Milo ‘over the shoulder’ as they make this amazing discovery. In the end I decided to place the reader in the dark undergrowth and watch Max and Milo coming over the hill, which feels wonderfully mysterious.
The second drawing that I’ve included is of the two boys (and Comet the blue heeler) sitting in the ute’s cab as they prepare for take off.
By this stage of the story they’ve fixed up the car and are ready for take-off, but as a reader we don’t really know if it’s going to work or not. I love playing with this suspense, and gently switching between realism and magic.
There’s a few hidden details in this spread too. Even though we’re sitting in the seat between the characters, we can still see their excited expression in the mirror’s reflection. Reflections are an excellent way of showing more than one angle in a still picture book illustration.
There’s also a polaroid picture stuck behind one of the sun visors. It’s of two girls standing in front of this very same ute, but it’s much newer and shinier. Is this Max’s grandma when she was young? Perhaps she and her best friend played here too.
You don’t have to answer every question in a picture book, you just leave enough clues lying around for the reader to pick up.
The final illustration that I wanted to share with you is also the last one in the book. It shows Milo and Max zooming across the galaxy, together again but each in their own rocket ship.
When I was in my late teens I moved from regional Victoria to Melbourne to study. It was only a few hours on the train but it felt like a world away, and in some ways I think I’ve had one foot in the country and one foot in the city ever since. Now we’re so lucky to have the technology that can connect us with friends and family that might be on the other side of the country (or galaxy).
I used a lot of watercolor textures for this book to achieve the inky night skies and I’m delighted with how it turned out. For me, this book feels like home. I can’t wait for you to read it.
The Space Between at Penguin Books
Interview with Jess McGeachin about Fly and The Lost Library at Paperbark Words blog
The Space Between is available in all good bookshops now.
paperbarkwords.blog 
One thought on “The Space Between by Jess McGeachin”