The Picture Book Buzz - Interview with Suzanne Poulter Harris
Suzanne Poulter Harris likes to say she grew up in Narnia. She was born and raised in Northern Ireland and taught geography two miles from C. S. Lewis’s childhood home in Belfast.
Since trading her classroom to travel the world as a United States Air Force spouse, she has lived in England, Germany, Italy, South Korea, and five U.S. states. Suzanne currently works as a literacy tutor in an elementary school in Northern Virginia.
Suzanne’s debut picture book, The Boy Behind the Wardrobe: How C.S. Lewis Grew Up to Create Narnia, releases on October 20th.
Welcome Suzanne, thank you so much for stopping by to talk about your yourself and your stunning picture book biography.
Tell us a little about yourself. (Where/when do you write or illustrate? How long have you been writing or illustrating? What is your favorite type of book to write or illustrate?)
I’ve been writing since 2012 when my younger daughter started kindergarten. As a military spouse, I’ve had many pauses on this writing journey due to frequent moves. I focus on writing picture books, mostly because I think visually. I love their collaborative nature —how the author, illustrator, adult reader, and child each bring a part of themselves to the story. For me, writing a picture book is like doing a puzzle — figuring out how to tell a well-paced, visual story with an emotional arc in a few hundred words.
I don’t stick to a schedule. When an idea or character is bursting to get out of my head, I resist the urge to start writing immediately. I play around with the idea in my mind for days, weeks, sometimes months. This prewriting phase works best when I’m away from the laptop … out walking, driving, or doing mundane tasks. I might scribble a phrase, a scene, or dialogue in a notebook. Once I’ve figured out the story arc, I find a quiet place in my house and start to write.
It is wonderful to "meet" you Suzanne. What is one of the most fun or unusual places where you’ve written a manuscript or created an illustration?
That’s a fun question! I mostly work at my desk or dining room table, but my view has changed every couple of years as I moved around the world. I’ve written manuscripts in Italy, Germany, Northern Ireland, South Korea, Texas, and Virginia.
My most unusual experience was watching the construction of a playpark from my writing desk in Holzgerlingen, Germany. (German playparks are the best!) I’d just joined Twitter and posted the photo below of this special delivery on a truck. My only “like” was from Steven Malk, the literary agent at Writers House. I’ve no idea how he discovered my post, but it made my day! This playpark did inspire a story. Maybe it’s time to revisit that manuscript.
That must have been fun to watch the playground get built. Wonder if there is a story from the construction vehicles POV about installation? What was the spark or inspiration for The Boy Behind the Wardrobe: How C.S. Lewis Grew Up to Create Narnia?
I’d written several fiction picture book manuscripts and wanted to broaden my skills by trying nonfiction. This was in 2015, when narrative nonfiction biographies were huge. I took Kristen Fulton’s narrative nonfiction writing course and studied the format by reading widely in that genre. Then I thought of people I admired, whom I could write about from a unique perspective. C. S. Lewis immediately came to mind.
I was born and raised in County Down, Northern Ireland, and taught geography two miles from C. S. Lewis’s childhood home in Belfast. Much of C. S. Lewis’s inspiration for Narnia came from his Belfast home and from the landscapes of County Down. My initial idea was to showcase these sources of inspiration in a beautiful picture book.
© M. Marshall
That's so cool! I remember how awed and inspired I was to sit in the same pub where Lewis & Tolkien had held their literary group! What was the toughest part of writing The Boy Behind the Wardrobe? What was the most fun?
The toughest part was writing the first draft. When writing fiction, I can use my imagination and steer the story wherever I want it to go. But in nonfiction, real-life events drive the plot. C. S. Lewis was a fascinating character! It was a challenge to synthesize my 30+ pages of notes into a compelling story arc with an emotional narrative thread. So much had to be cut because it didn’t serve the story I was trying to tell.
The most fun part was the research — discovering little gems with great kid-appeal/illustration potential and retracing C. S. Lewis’s steps when I flew home to visit my family in Northern Ireland.
© Suzanne Poulter Harris
C. S. Lewis Square in Belfast, Northern Ireland
The Boy Behind the Wardrobe focuses on C. S. Lewis’s childhood, but I wanted readers to know he never lost his childlike sense of wonder. C. S. Lewis’s letters to children were a great source for such details. In a letter to his goddaughter, he writes how he loves to lie in the bath like a hippo with only his nostrils above water. In another letter, he mentions picking leaves off the trees for an old rabbit in the college woods — a rabbit he named Barron Biscuit. These images capture the older C. S. Lewis’s playful character, and I felt they would resonate with younger readers.
I think you and Mira Miroslavova successfully captured that childlike spirit. How many revisions did the text and illustrations take for The Boy Behind the Wardrobe from your first version to publication?
The manuscript went through about six rounds of revision before it was sent to Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. I started researching C. S. Lewis in October 2015. One year later, I shared a finished manuscript with my critique group. The story went through a few more revision rounds with critique partners and my agent. I had originally included sidebar quotes from The Chronicles of Narnia in places where C. S. Lewis’s real-life experiences inspired places or landscapes in the books. However, I was encouraged to cut the sidebars to streamline the story.
In Spring 2017, I received a critique at an SCBWI conference from the editor, Melissa Manlove. She asked, “How can you make a point with this story that will change the way your readers see themselves?"
This thought-provoking question helped get the story in great shape before sending it to Eerdmans. Once acquired, Kathleen Merz and I went back and forth with three rounds of minor edits for clarity and flow. Kathleen liked how I connected the themes of friendship and reading/writing. She suggested amplifying this connection, which further strengthened the story.
That is such a great question that really makes you think. Did anything surprise or amaze you when you first saw Mira Miroslavova’s illustrations? What is your favorite spread?
Although I think visually when I write, I picture more realistic scenes in my head. I had included an art note about a telescope in the spread where Jack (C. S. Lewis) and his brother spy on ships in the bustling Belfast Lough. I was surprised how Mira used that little note to create a whimsical, wonderful piece of art so different and much better than anything I had envisioned. That illustration brought my father-in-law to tears.
Text © Suzanne Poulter Harris, 2026. Image © Mira Miroslavova, 2026.
I’m delighted with Mira’s art throughout the book. It’s difficult to choose only one favorite spread. If I must choose, maybe it would be the double page spread showing Animal-Land/Boxen, where Mira’s artwork bursts off the pages with life and imagination. Or the wardrobe spread, where Mira reworked an earlier sketch and surprised us all with her spectacular visual storytelling. I gasped when I first saw that scene.
Text © Suzanne Poulter Harris, 2026. Image © Mira Miroslavova, 2026.
The whole book is stunning. But I agree with you, these two are also some of my favorites. Was there anything discovered in your research of The Boy Behind the Wardrobe that you wish you could have included in the text or back matter?
Yes! Despite having a great mind for languages and logic, C. S. Lewis struggled with math. He grasped the principles, but his calculations were usually wrong. And the more careful he was, the more mistakes he made. In fact, he failed the mathematics exam that was a prerequisite for earning a degree at Oxford. He was allowed to continue his studies thanks to a decree after World War I that granted ex-servicemen an exemption.
It’s fun to see how C. S. Lewis used this weakness to trigger the inciting incident in The Magician’s Nephew. In Chapter One, The Wrong Door, when Digory and Polly explore the attic space between their row homes, it is a miscalculation that leads them to Uncle Andrew’s forbidden study. C. S. Lewis wrote,
“When they had measured the attic they had to get a pencil and do a sum. They both got different answers to it at first, and even when they agreed I am not sure they got it right.”
This made me smile because it’s exactly what would happen to C. S. Lewis if he had to figure out the calculation! In contrast, his mother was a promising mathematician. She was one of the first females to graduate from Queen’s College, Belfast. This later became Queen’s University Belfast where I earned my undergraduate degree.
Thank you for sharing these wonderful tidbits of facts and the great connection with you! Is there something you want your readers to know about The Boy Behind the Wardrobe?
With The Magician’s Nephew coming to movie theaters in February and then onto Netflix, there will be renewed interest in Narnia and C. S. Lewis. I want young readers to know that before the movies and the best-selling books, C. S. Lewis was just a boy with a big imagination — a boy who noticed the things around him. He was six or seven years old when he started creating his first stories. His childhood memories later made their way into his books and eventually into movies. I’m hoping The Boy Behind the Wardrobe starts conversations about where ideas come from. But mostly, I’m hoping it inspires young readers to look around where they live and to try to write their own stories.
I hope the book does inspire many readers to expand their imaginations. Are there any projects that you are working on now that you can share a tidbit with us?
A few months ago, I had the wonderful experience of writing a story in my sleep. My brain blended one of my favorite picture books with some phonics lessons I’d been teaching. In my dream, I started crafting a funny, interactive story. When I woke up, I loved the idea and had the framework to spill out a whole manuscript in two days. I’m currently revising this story and hope to start submitting it soon. After a long break from submissions, I recently started sending a couple of picture book manuscripts to a handful of editors and agents.
I’ve also just finished a six-week course, Panel by Panel: How to Write Comics and Graphic Novels by Marcie Colleen. It got me thinking that one of my picture book characters would work better in an early reader graphic novel series. I’m excited to get stuck into that when things calm down a bit.
How fun and intriguing. I wish you the best of luck with these projects. 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?
I love this question! When I first moved to the USA, I became a proud owner of the National Parks passport book and geeked out collecting stamps every time I visited a new park. While living in Colorado, I took road trips to Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Arches, and Grand Canyon. Each park was stunning in its own way.
But the National Parks in South Korea are the ones that have made the biggest impression on me. The combination of magnificent scenery, vibrant Fall colors, and ancient temples makes these parks truly unforgettable.
Bukhansan National Park, South Korea Jirisan National Park, South Korea
Thank you, Suzanne, for stopping by and sharing with us a bit about yourself and your wonderful new picture book. It was wonderful to chat with you.
Be sure to come back on Friday for the Perfect Picture Book #PPBF post on The Boy Behind the Wardrobe: How C.S. Lewis Grew Up to Create Narnia.
To find out about Suzanne Poulter Harris, or contact her:
Website: https://suzannepoulterharris.com/
X(Twitter): https://x.com/SuzannePoulterH
*For more information about the book from Suzanne, check out her post on Vivian Kirfield's blog (here).
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