Is this a picture book?

No. The publishing industry has a very narrow definition of what a picture book can be. A picture book is typically less than 1000 words long and the industry actually prefers authors to be stingy with words. At present, wordless picture books seem to be prized above all others in the genre.

If this isn’t a picture book what is it?

Beyond the Lighthouse, Over the Mountains is a story for children - with pictures. The target demographic is kindergarten and first grade children. However, because it has pictures it can be read and enjoyed by children as young as 3, and on the opposite end of the spectrum, because of the thoughtful content and meticulous illustrations it can be enjoyed by children up to 8 or 9 years olds. It is a book written to be read in cozy spaces and warm places - shared between parent (or other reading buddy) and child.

How long is the book?

It is currently 5228 words. As a frame of reference, that puts it on par with some of the early (lower number sequentially) books in the ‘Magic Tree House’ series. It will be 64 pages in length. There will be 31 full page illustrations, and a couple partial illustrations.

Are there chapters?

Not per se… The book is split into parts, and there are three of these. Part 1 is tells the story of a journey. Part 2 tells the story of a village. Part 3 binds the previous two segments together, and follows the characters as they open a wooden chest and find forgotten treasure.

What medium are the pictures rendered in?

The pictures were first drawn in pencil, then the pencil was drawn over with archival black ink. Because of the time it took to draw all the images, high quality reproductions were made of all the ink images on watercolor paper (by Vada Color in Traverse City, MI). Then the images were painted with watercolor in a gouache style. Because he was painting on high quality reproductions, the illustrator did not need to worry about ruining an image if he made a mistake. This was important, because Tony is not formally trained as an artist, and therefore made many mistakes early on.