Joanne Schwartz and photographer Matt Beam have teamed up for another great children's book, this time to create City Numbers (Groundwood Books), a counting book with an urban twist. Take a tour of Toronto with City Numbers — and then watch yourself count your way around town for the rest of the day.
Meet Joanne and Matt in person at the launch for City Numbers this Saturday, May 7th at Type Books on Queen Street West. Visit our Events page for details.
Open Book:
Tell us about your new book, City Numbers.
Joanne Schwartz:
City Numbers is a unique take on the counting book, using photographs of digits in the urban environment to wend an unlikely path up the numerical trail.
OB:
What gave you the idea of using photographs of numbers found throughout the city as the basis for a children's counting book?
JS:
The idea began with our first book, City Alphabet. The concept for both books is to stimulate an active engagement with the urban environment using the familiar framework of letters and numbers. Our non-traditional approach is about seeing numbers all around you and thinking about what they tell us about the city context.
OB:
Tell us how you approached collaborating on City Numbers and City Alphabet. Did you work closely together throughout, or were you more independent in each of your roles?
Matt Beam:
Joanne and I have been working with my photography for going on five years; it was actually Joanne’s idea to use my work in children’s books. Initially we looked at all my images and quickly realized using the ones of words and numbers was the best strategy. Now generally what happens is I shoot and then show, and together we pick out our favourite images and how they might fit into a particular framework or concept. With City Numbers, we were able to play with the form a little bit more, which was actually quite challenging.
OB:
What is your favourite photograph in the book, and why?
JS:
007 is one of my favourites. It really speaks to the theme of city numbers. Torched into a metal road plate, most likely put there by city workers, it refers to the infrastructure of the urban environment. And once you've noticed it, you may wander around and find 006 nearby. (And let's not forget how it refers to our favourite spy!)
MB:
My favourite number is the final one, but it's a surprise. You'll have to open the book up to see it. My second favourite is the first one. But it isn't a one, it's a zero. But it's not only a zero, it's three zeros which — and this is my favourite part — is still just zero!
OB:
Where do you do your best creative work?
JS:
I do my best work in my favourite cafe and my wonderfully quiet room at home. And there is nothing like a good brisk walk to get my creative thoughts flowing.
MB:
As a photographer, I do my best work in the city. I have no interest in taking bucolic shots in the country, unless they are of dilapidated farms or gas stations, in which case I guess they are no longer bucolic. I’m interested in the quick deterioration and renewal model of urban things. Many of the subjects in both books no longer exist. They have worn down, been removed or painted over, or they have simply blown away.
OB:
Can you name a book you read as a child that has stayed with you?
JS:
It's the picture books that I read as a child that have stayed with me the most. The combination of pictures and text is powerful and continues to be my favourite book form. William Toye's version of How Summer Came to Canada, with illustrations by Elizabeth Cleaver, left a deep impression.
MB:
John Christopher’s White Mountains Trilogy marked the real beginning of my love of reading fiction and exposed in me a soft spot for well-written, not overly technological science fiction.
OB:
What are you each working on now?
JS:
I am working on the English version of an Inuit legend that I collected from an elder in Cape Dorset. It will be coming out in Inuktitut and English from Inhabit Media in the Fall. And of course, Matt and I are already working on new ideas for another book. That's all we can say about that for now.
MB:
Actually I am first and foremost a young adult author. I’m currently writing the first book in a detective series. It has been super-fun and significantly more challenging than I was expecting. Joanne and I are also conceiving our next City book, but it is still, to continue the metaphor, in its embryonic stage.
Joanne Schwartz is a children's librarian at the Toronto Public Library who has a special interest in picture books. She is the author of Our Corner Grocery Store, illustrated by Laura Beingessner, and City Alphabet, with photos by Matt Beam. She lives with her two daughters in Toronto, Ontario.
Matt Beam is a writer, photographer and teacher. His young adult novels, published in Canada and the U.S., include Earth to Nathan Blue, Last December and Can You Spell Revolution? City Alphabet, with words by Joanne Schwartz, was his first photographic picture book. He lives in downtown Toronto. Visit him at his website, mattbeam.com.
For more information about City Numbers please visit the Groundwood Books website.
Buy this book at your local independent bookstore or online at Chapters/Indigo or Amazon.
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