PORTLAND, Maine — A new children's book follows along on an adventure through the forest, and helps readers better understand the importance of getting to know someone before you judge them. New England illustrator, Astrid Sheckels, is also the author of the Hector Fox series, starting with, Hector Fox and the Giant Quest.
Sheckels grew up in New England, and started drawing animals as early as she can remember. Her award-winning work has been featured in Nic and Nelli, The Scallop Christmas, and The Fish House Door.
"They have really fun shapes to draw," Sheckels said about her love for illustrating animals. "I guess I really enjoyed, as a child, really enjoyed books that had animals in them stories, that had adventures with animals, and I have always had, I guess, a deep love for animals. I would have wanted to have many more pets than we actually did."
"When I first started out I was drawing from photos just to make sure I got the animals anatomically correct and that they would look like the animal," Sheckels explained. "The more I’ve been drawing them, I just put those photos aside and draw from my memory, from just really try to get their character coming through."
The characters do seem to come alive in her watercolor illustrations. "I do let go of some of the realistic traits. Hector Fox for example, foxes have squinty eyes, I wanted him to look more friendly so I enlarged his eyes and gave him more personality and character."
In The Giant Quest, Hector Fox and his friends find a new animal, one who is well known in the woods of Maine. While we won't give anything away, Hector learns not to judge others too quickly.
"This idea of having this fox character who’s not like normal foxes, but has this cultural streak - loves books, gets along well with animals, little furry animals that he should be eating are his friends - I really wanted to just explore what that would be like to have this world where animals just got along, enjoyed adventures together, and really just kind of went out and explored their world," said Sheckels.
This is the first in the Hector Fox series. To learn more, click here.
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