Speaker 1: Hello. I'm Javaka Steptoe, illustrator for In Daddy's Arms I Am Tall. I'm gonna talk to you today about one of my favorite illustrations in the book. It's called Promises. Usually I'm known for my collage illustrations and using all types of weird objects like bugs and nails and hats and things like that. But with Promises it's paper, and it's just colored paper.

And instead of cut with a scissor it's torn. And you might think, "Wow this is probably the easiest spread in the book to illustrate. All you had to do was just rip some paper up and, you know, there you have it." But this illustration for the poem, Promises, was actually one of the hardest illustrations to do.

The poem is about a little boy who gets in trouble. You don't know what the little boy did but he wants his father to forgive him. And the father, like a good father should, forgives his son and reassures his son by letting him know that for all of his little boy days and even when he is no longer a little boy he will still be his father. So, I started thinking about all of these wild things. You know, where did it happen? What did the little boy do? And sometimes the best answers are the simplest answers. The story is about forgiveness. And what is the best way to show forgiveness? With a hug. And so,

Once I figured out I need to go simple as opposed to trying to do something extravagant, torn paper just seemed to be the best thing.