Writer and illustrator speak out on creating Pout-Pout Fish series of children's books.

Very soon, I'll be reviewing The Not Very Merry Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen & illustrated by Dan Hanna and also hosting a giveaway for this cute children's book. It's coming up on Christmas and the fishes are getting ready. I found the following "interviews" with the author and illustrator really interesting and thought you might as well.

Dan Hanna, Illustrator

How long have you been illustrating the Pout-Pout Fish books? What inspired your depiction of the main character, Mr. Fish?

I started illustrating the first book in early 2007 and so it's been about 8 or 9 years now.

About 15 years ago I was scuba diving in Fiji.  There was a huge rusting hulk of a shipwreck about 80 feet down.  At the end of a pole extending above the deck was a small metal basket.  Resting in that basket was a pudgy fish about the size of my fist.  I swam up and looked right into his eyes and he looked right back with a deep, gloomy frown.  Years later, when I received the manuscript for The Pout-Pout Fish, that memory bubbled up.  I realized, at that moment, that Mr. Fish was an actual fish, living on the other side of the world, 80 feet down on a shipwreck.