How this book was made
I’m lucky enough to be a book editor as well as a writer. I work at The O’Brien Press in Dublin, and we publish lots of different kinds of books - cookbooks, history books, sports, photography and travel books … and lots of books for young readers! All of the OBP editors work across different genres, so I’ve edited plenty of brilliant picture books by other people. I also put together a collection of classic Irish poetry for children called Tread Softly a few years ago, which was illustrated by the very talented Erin Brown. But now it’s time for my own picture book!
I had the idea for That’s It, Said the Dandelion when my little boy was three. He was obsessed with the books of Eric Carle, like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Quiet Cricket, which capture a moment from nature in a beautifully simple way. I love dandelions, and so do my kids - more about that in another post! - so I decided to write the story of a dandelion seed going through her life cycle and figuring out what it all means. I brought the manuscript to the team at The O’Brien Press, and they liked it! We made a plan to publish it a few years down the line (picture books take ages!).
While my editor Eoin and I worked on the text, our art director Emma went in search of the perfect illustrator. The text itself is quite bare bones, and unusually for a picture book, there isn’t a child or animal character at the centre. When we came across the work of Róisín Hahessy, which is so playful and and open-hearted, we knew she was the right choice. As soon as her lovely, child-friendly artwork started coming in, the whole project began to take shape!
As Róisín worked her magic, the rest of the in-house team were thinking about the book’s cover and blurb (text on the back cover), what the format would be and what ‘effects’ it might have - they decided on a hardback, with cool spot UV to make the dandelion shine!
I’m writing this towards the end of 2025, and the book has just been sent to the printers. Our sales team are pitching it to Irish booksellers, our directors will soon be bringing it to the international book fairs, and the publicity and marketing folks are getting the word out. It takes a village! The publication date is 9 February, when we’ll all be hoping to get our little story into lots of little hands.
If you’d like to ask a question about the book or about publishing in general, feel free to drop me a line at mydandelionbook@gmail.com.
Nicola x