A Beary Nice Book

Author/illustrator Erica Wolf lovingly captures the emotions of animals for children and adult readers alike.

By: Amy Brummer

Staff photo by Amy Brummer

Yardley, Pa., resident Erica Wolf recently published her first children’s book, I Love You Just the Same. She’ll be at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Fairless Hills, Pa., for a book signing Feb. 13.

   As spring breaks in the Alaskan wilderness, a young bear wakes
from hibernation. Leaving behind his cozy winter den, he lopes along at his mother’s
side, exploring the verdant terrain with hesitant curiosity.
   He follows mother bear’s lead as she chews the fresh grass,
hunts for fish and forages for roots. It is tough work for a little cub, but he
tries his best. While he struggles to learn these survival skills, his mother
watches patiently, reassuring him through each of his frustrated attempts.
   "I love you just the same," she says, telling him that when
he grows up, his teeth will be strong enough to munch the grass, he will be quick
enough to catch a fish and his claws will be sharp enough to turn the earth.
   Illustrated by Yardley, Pa., resident Erica Wolf, the bears’
filial bond is fleshed out with tender expressiveness against a backdrop of changing
seasons. Ms. Wolf, who moved to the area last summer with her husband, Rob, also
wrote the text for I Love You Just the Same (Henry Holt, 2003, $16.95).
She began work on the children’s book in 2000, during her senior year at Rhode
Island School of Design in Providence, R.I., where she graduated with a bachelor’s
of fine arts in illustration.
   Having completed a course in children’s illustration that year,
she put together a rough copy of the book and shopped it around to several publishers.
   "I really think of myself foremost as the artist," Ms. Wolf
says. "I wrote the story as a means to having something to illustrate. I just
came up with it, and as it turned out someone wanted to publish it."
   Manhattan-based
Henry Holt and Co. picked the book up in 2001, and Ms. Wolf set out to transform
the pencil-drawn pages into the lovingly detailed paintings that chart the young
bear’s coming of age.
   "Most of my stories are based on animals," Ms. Wolf says, "so
I will do a lot of research beforehand. For this book, I read a lot about grizzly
bears from Alaska and used reference material to understand their habits."
   Ms. Wolf, who grew up in Mendham, has been interested in animals
and nature since childhood, and describes herself as the type of kid who would
spend all day in the woods, off in her own world. She carries that passion into
her work, preferring to bring her characters to the page through her own hand,
instead of creating work on a computer.
   Working in acrylics, Ms. Wolf produced a richly layered environment
for the bears to roam. The spring-green meadow, flecked with pale shoots of grass
and flowers from newly sprouting bulbs, is offset by a distant, snow-capped mountain
range. The deep teal of the river where the bears fish is accented with light,
dry brushes of color that give it motion and depth. Yet it is clear enough to
see the pink tint of the salmon bellies as they swim below the surface.
   The
bears are lovingly rendered with exacting detail, their coats suffused with color
and highlights. Their eyes are soulful pools of dark chocolate brown. While the
warmth of their relationship is clearly projected, Ms. Wolf stops short at anthropomorphizing
the animals, keeping their actions and expressions subtle and realistic. Their
poses are measured, without being stiff. Each vignette captures a new lesson and
its result, be it the young one’s wonderment, frustration, or his mother’s pride.
   "I think the real challenge is keeping continuity throughout
the story," she says. "The book takes place over the course of a year, so he is
growing throughout the book. One of the hardest things is having the characters
look the same through the whole book, making sure that on each page, they are
proportionate in relationship to each other, whether it is close up or far away."
   She allows the bears’ body language to convey their thoughts,
capturing the cub’s trepidation as he splashes at a fish or the way he studies
his mother as she digs up the ground with her powerful paws.
   As the russets and browns of autumn give way to the snows of
winter, the little bear and his mother head back to the cave to hibernate. After
their deep slumber, they re-emerge to face the challenges of survival anew. A
year older and wiser, the cub finds himself capable of chewing the grass with
ease, catching a fish in his teeth and turning up the roots in the ground.
   He has grown capable and independent, and while his mother’s
job is done, she reminds him, "I still love you just the same."
   Ms. Wolf is currently working on a new story, The Brave Little
Raccoon, which will be published by Henry Holt and Co. in 2005.
   When she is not involved in her part-time job at the Washington
Crossing Animal Hospital, she is available for freelance work creating murals
and decorating furniture for children’s rooms.
Erica Wolf will sign copies of I Love You Just the Same at Barnes &
Noble Booksellers, 210 Commerce Boulevard, Fairless Hills, Pa., Feb. 13, 10:30
a.m. For information call (215) 269-0451. Ms. Wolf can be reached at [email protected].
On the Web: www.ericawolf.com