Steve Small discusses the wonders of animation and picture books

When Steve Small first read Smriti Halls’ script for I’m Sticking with You, the effect was immediate. “Straight away my brain started working,” he recalls, speaking over video call from his London home. “I knew exactly how that would go, I could already see the shape of it, the places you could play with it.” The picture book was published in 2020 and was an instant hit, selling in more than 20 languages and shortlisted for Children’s Illustrated Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. I’m Sticking with You Too followed in 2021 and in February 2023 comes Let’s Stick Together. The books follow the unlikely duo of a shy bear and a forthright squirrel, navigating the highs, lows and complexities of friendship; Halls’ words and Small’s pictures conjure a feel-good warmth and tenderness that has been embraced by children and adults alike.

Halls’ text was, says Small, like an invitation to an illustrator. “She gave these completely clear lines of what the characters were feeling, what their responses were and where that took them. Everything else was left open. I suppose that could be quite daunting, but for me it was perfect.” Much of the comedy in the stories lies in the physical differences between the huge Bear and tiny Squirrel, but their very different personalities are just as key. Small’s bold, lively artwork plays with that physical contrast but is also full of emotion and expression. His office window looks out onto a tree often frequented by squirrels. “They are the most transparent creatures,” he laughs. “Everything they see, think and feel is in their tails and in their bodies. Nothing is hidden. Fortunately, I don’t have bears outside but I imagine that they were a good choice for people who perhaps keep things a little bit undercover. And maybe you think all sorts of things about them, but underneath they are just as vulnerable and sensitive as these nimble little squirrels.”

I never imagined there was a world underneath the flow of images you could see. There were all these subtle changes and fun things going on in slow motion, drawn to perfection

I’m Sticking with You established Bear and Squirrel as a twosome and in I’m Sticking with You Too, the introduction of a new friend, Chicken, explored the dynamics of change. In Let’s Stick Together, their cosy world is challenged in a new way when Squirrel decides to throw a party. “It’s so tempting to live in that singular world, which is so pleasing,” Small admits, “but we had to get them to stretch their legs a bit, just as kids do, and to learn how to navigate those new chapters.” Party-planning Squirrel is a bundle of frenetic energy, leaving Bear feeling alone. “When Bear is apparently rejected, we get to experience that. It’s not an easy thing, it hurts.” The book also cleverly plays with our expectations of the characters. Squirrel may have sorted the party, but things don’t go entirely to plan when it is Bear who becomes the centre of attention. “I love these unexpected turns,” says Small. “Squirrel may be brave and bouncy, but he might also need a bit of a moment. No matter who you think the character is, everyone has got that testing moment.”

Small is an animator by trade, drawn to the magic of images from a young age. He recalls a manual movie viewer which could flip through images to play an animation. What really fascinated him, however, was slowing it down to look at the pictures frame by frame. “I never imagined there was a world underneath the flow of images you could see. There were all these subtle changes and fun things going on in slow motion, drawn to perfection. I finally understood the relationship of these single drawings that could tell stories.” After a Higher National Diploma in graphic design, he headed to London, armed with the addresses of animation companies, found a summer job and worked his way up to animation director. His career has included working for Disney, designing and directing shorts, TV commercials and more. “Animation is so inviting because you can speculate on so many different territories of telling a story, from the drawing itself to the design, to what sort of sound you use. It’s all-encompassing.” Always intrigued by picture books and seeing the success of fellow animators who had moved across—including Benji Davies, Chris Haughton and Jim Field—a conversation with senior art director Jane Buckley led to his deal with Simon & Schuster.

Hooked by books

Although he is still working in animation, Small is clearly hooked by the world of books. “In animation, you give your viewer everything they need. With picture books the reader is asked to contribute: how do you feel about this? What happens between this picture and that picture? It’s amazing how lean picture books are. And yet we are given this really full, rich sense of an event or a story.” As we talk, Small shares his notebooks, which are packed with his ideas and sketches. When working on a picture book, rough layouts are drawn and scanned, then everything is painted on paper before the work is once more scanned in. Given the choice, Small confesses he “would work for real [physically rather than in digital format] as much as I could, but as time tends to press, the digital framework is a very comfortable place for deadlines.”

It’s fun to create the worlds from existing texts and to work with the person on them, but equally it’s really fun to delve into yourself a little bit and tease out these ideas

Can readers look forward to more Bear and Squirrel adventures? Although Small hopes to work with Halls on future projects, the duo are content with where Let’s Stick Together leaves their creations. “We have taken them from being a twosome, to meeting others and still being a good, strong couple. It feels like a complete arc.” His next project is an as-yet-untitled solo book “about discovering what it takes to be brave,” scheduled for autumn 2023. This will be his third title as author and illustrator, following The Duck Who Didn’t Like Water and Wellington’s Big Day Out (coming in paperback in May 2023). “It’s fun to create the worlds from existing texts and to work with the person on them, but equally it’s really fun to delve into yourself a little bit and tease out these ideas,” he tells me.