The Picture Book Buzz - Interview with Brian Gehrlein

Maria Marshall
2 minutes ago
8 min read

Brian Gehrlein is the creator of the website Picture Book Spotlight.

Author photo of Brian Gehrlein with a blurred tree and slope background.

Brian teaches high school English and lives in a cozy den in Liberty, Missouri, with his wife, Katherine; two sons, Peter and Albee; and two corgis. If you're not currently taking a long winter's nap, Brian invites you to find him on social media @briangehrlein or say hello at pbspotlight.com. Happy hibernation!

Book cover - a monster's face chewing a hole in the upper right of the book cover.

Brian's the author of The Book of Rules, illustrated by Tom Knight.

His newest picture book, This is NOT a Sleepy Bear Book, released on November 11th.

Welcome Brian,

Thank you for having me on, Maria!

Tell us a little about yourself. (Where/when do you write? How long have you been writing? What is your favorite book to write?)

I am a tired husband, dad, corgi-owner, and high school English teacher who writes whenever he can: often on post-it notes, or the notes app on my phone, or on the back of professional development handouts, or on Google Docs in the stolen moments and in-between times of my nonstop, buzzing life! Sometimes I sneak away or stay up late, and life allows me to focus for a stretch to get something out. Ironically, I find I do more writing when I’m stressed and busy than I do when on summer break.

I’ve been writing longer than I can remember. Written or not, I love to entertain. It’s who I am. I won a few essay contests in high school, loved writing sketch comedy in theatre class, and wrote journals and poetry. In college, I had a blog and started to really pay attention to my craft. As a theatre major, I read and wrote tons of plays. The theatre is where I really started to become the writer I am today. To me, the auditory nature of picture books makes them essentially little theatrical performances between adults and children. Before I was a children’s author, I was a playwright, and that core approach to storytelling hasn’t changed even now. My favorite book to write is whatever I’m working on right now. And after that, it’s the next book. I am always and forever enamored by whatever creative problem I’m attempting to solve or thing I’m trying to express. It’s the chase, the elusive next story that fascinates me most.

It's wonderful to "meet" you Brian. What helps you to be inspired? (perhaps a certain place, music, activity, etc.)

Movement and doing things with my hands, especially repetitive, menial work, seems to really let my creative unconscious mind percolate. Another highly stimulating thing to me is music and podcasts, or speeches. Maybe there’s something about language being poured in that has something with language wanting to be poured out. My final go-to task for inspiration is a little weird: roaming the picture book stacks at the library. Touching books, pulling out random titles to take in covers, titles, and art is basically an automatic jumper cable to my author heart. If I spend even a few minutes doing that kinesthetic task, I’m guaranteed to perceive a palpable desire to write something wild and new. TRY IT!

I have to say, I love your third inspiration task! Never met a bookstore I haven't fallen in love with. What was your inspiration or spark of interest for This is not a Sleepy Bear Book?

Book cover - a wide-awake bear in bed, as an owl tries to read him into hibernation.

My entry point in the story was being a librarian shelving books. When I’m out in the stacks (even without currently being employed as a librarian), touching books, ideas sizzle. They always have. One day, I happened to notice a considerable amount of bear-themed wintery picture books. They all seemed so lovely and lyrical. Cozy. I remember making a list of picture book ideas, and the one on the paper was something about a loud hibernation book that was basically the opposite of the books I was observing.

The original title was ANOTHER BEAR BOOK. I thought it would be fun to misdirect the reader into thinking this was going to be another bear book that was gentle and sweet. They say, “give me the same thing but different,” and I was working that out in my own way. Kind of like, “this is MY hibernating bear story and it’s NOT going to lull you softly to sleep!”

Ha! Love your start for a twisted hi-bear-nation story. What was the hardest or most challenging thing about writing This is not a Sleepy Bear Book? And what was the most fun?

The funnest part is writing ridiculous, yet somehow kid-friendly expletives such as “bumbleberry jam!” And getting away with lines like “this is probably against fire code.” I’m always trying to season in a little for the grown-ups reading the book. I’ve got two audiences and I want to make sure everyone is having a good time. As an author, it’s the delight of wordplay and language, and orchestrating a little read-aloud performance that is most satisfying to me.

The most challenging thing was the revision process. This book would not be as purposeful or as effective or even exist today without the editorial vision of Jennifer Mattson and Andrea Spooner. Their guidance and feedback helped me learn so much. Most importantly, it taught me the value of keeping an open mind and being patient with the process. If you’re into instant gratification, this is not the side gig for you. Don’t close your heart to what a book could be just because you’re satisfied with where you’ve got it. The magical “what if?” cannot be understated. The magic of writing is in revision. I know that because of this book, and I’m grateful to those who provided that.

Thank you for sharing that. Sometimes that last few feet of a climb are the hardest. How many revisions did This is not a Sleepy Bear Book take from first draft to publication? How did this compare to your first book, The Book of Rules?

I know Sleepy Bear went through WAY more revisions than Rules, but I can’t say how many drafts. I don’t keep track of things like that, and it’s far too messy to quantify. For simplicity's sake, there was the draft before I shared it with my agent, Jennifer Mattson, several drafts back and forth with her, the draft we shared with Andrea Spooner at Little, Brown, the two revision drafts for Andrea before she bought it, and the gentle revision of copyediting and tweaking things to finalize the text. How many actual drafts that translates to, I’m not sure, but the book evolved significantly from 2019 to 2023.

Most of my manuscripts get started on a Google Doc, which is cool later on because you can look at edit history and see the process. When I look at the edit history, I see busy interest from February 2019 to April as I worked to piece together a first draft. Then life happened, and I didn’t touch it until January 2020. I did a little work on it that January, and then nothing for ten months as I was navigating Covid as a teacher with a one-year-old. Yikes! Then I didn’t touch it again until June 2021, when I felt renewed interest in the manuscript and had it on sub that fall. It didn’t sell to Little, Brown until fall 2022, and the deal wasn’t announced until the summer of 2023. It’s a long, messy, and wild ride. This is what you sign up for if you want to be traditionally published.

It's great that you never gave up on the story. When you first saw Jennifer Harney’s illustrations did anything surprise, amaze, or delight you? Which is your favorite spread?

Oh, man, great question! First of all, everything surprised, amazed, and delighted me about every step of this process. Jenn is so talented and a genuinely HILARIOUS human being. I can’t get over just how much the playful tone of her artwork complements the language. They work so well in tandem, and yet she brought so much more to the book than merely decorating my ridiculous story. The coolest thing is the two visual styles Jenn had to employ to showcase the ordered world of Owl’s lyrical bedtime tale, juxtaposed with the chaotic party scenes and metafictional moments. It’s a fascinating blending of artistic styles that I’ve not seen attempted in other picture books.

For a really good example, contrast the highly detailed, Hundred-Acre-Wood-Like environment of the opening scene

Internal spread - in the woods with a fall breeze blowing leaves across the bottom of the page with a wispy swirl. On the left, an owl sits on a branch reading a book. On the right, bear stands in front of a big red door - yawning.

Text © Brian Gehrlein, 2025. Image © Jennifer Harney, 2025.

with the white page for the “SUPER-ABRIDGED EDITION.” That shift in visual style echoes the stripping down of language as Owl speeds the story up with increased desperation to get Bear to sleep. That dynamic is really satisfying to see.

Internal spread - on the right, owl is trying to push bear through his red door.

Text © Brian Gehrlein, 2025. Image © Jennifer Harney, 2025.

My favorite visual detail is one of our ensemble characters that Jenn invented out of whole cloth—the fedora-wearing jazz flute snake! He’s the only character with an article of clothing (which is amazing), and he’s just so darn cute! I may have to give him his own book : )

Internal spread - close-up of owl's face, with wide dazed, crazed eyes.

Text © Brian Gehrlein, 2025. Image © Jennifer Harney, 2025.

For a favorite whole spread, I’m torn between the highly-meta SUPER-ABRIDGED EDITION scene and the spread with Owl entering full deranged mode. It’s his emotionally-charged eyes. Every parent knows this moment—we’ve all had the same look in our own eyes!

These are all such great spreads and as you mentioned playful and different! What’s something you want readers to know or learn about This is not a Sleepy Bear Book?

I wrote this as a tired parent, almost as a love letter to other tired parents. In a way, you can summarize the book as: isn’t getting a kid down for bed kind of like an Owl attempting to usher his bear friend to hibernate while every possible loud gets in the way of that? My hope is that readers see themselves and their own bedtime routines reflected in the pages. Owl is the tired parent just trying to get their kiddo down for bed. Bear is the rambunctious child who wants to do anything and everything but settle in for a long winter’s nap.

There’s so much about life that continually shows us how little control we have. As Owl says, “Things don’t always go according to plan.” Rather than attempting to force something to change that we have no control over, sometimes the better strategy is to let go and be present in the moment and dance through it all. I hope that message sinks in wherever it needs to and that the book also sparks joy within children and adults.

Kids (and I think many adults will find this hysterical. Are there any new projects you are working on now that you can share a tidbit with us?

I’ve always got something up my sleeve and about two dozen things in development. LOL. We do have a few things out on submission that are super secret ; ) And my third picture book will be announced after we get the illustrator nailed down. Exciting things ahead!

Ooh, intriguing! Can't wait to see what's up your sleeve next! Last question, what is your favorite National Park or Forest, regional park, or city park (anywhere in the world)? Or the one you’re longing to visit. Why?

Photo of the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park.

©M Marshall

As a teenager, my family lived in Utah, and I got to experience some of the state and national parks out there. One that always sticks out as a special place and memory is Bryce Canyon National Park. My best friend and I slept in the back of a pickup truck in sleeping bags under the stars. I can still vividly see it in my mind. If you’ve ever been out there and seen the stars, you know what I’m talking about. The scenery, hiking, and views of the Milky Way are incredible—super recommend! One I haven’t been to that I’ve always had on my bucket list is Yosemite National Park. I think Bear would approve of that goal.

Thank you, Brian, for sharing with us a bit about yourself and your new book.

Be sure to come back on Friday for the Perfect Picture Book #PPBF post on This is not a Sleepy Bear Book.