Last September Jeff and I were hired by the ad agency red&green in Colorado (where we were living at the time) to create a children’s book as part of a Christmastime promotion for Compassion International. Compassion seems like a great organization. They find sponsors for children around the world and this book was to go out to those sponsors as a special Christmas thank you. Each book would be custom made to include the sponsored child’s photo and bio in the front.

This was a rush job—they needed the text and art in one month—and we were supposed to be finishing our history of horse breeds book, so we were apprehensive about taking it on. But the pay for the 24 page book was the same as our 72 page horse book, so it seemed silly to turn it down. Plus, it sounded like fun: we could work together on it, write and illustrate, and we do love a challenge!

The folks at red&green were charming, enthusiastic, sweet and smart. They gave us great direction—The Brightest Star would be a story of the star that led the wise men to Bethlehem and an analogy for the children who are able to shine brightly because of the help of their sponsors—and sent us on our way to create! Perfect!

After leaving their office, we realized how little we knew about this historical event. We went straight to our local Castle Rock library, where a couple of my favorite librarians frantically helped me to research the story of the birth of Christ. It surprised me to find how different the historical account of events is from the traditional stories that we hear at Christmas. That’s when it struck me: I have just agreed to write a bible story! Is that allowed? I’m no disciple! This was my biggest illustration-related moral dilemma since deciding whether or not to participate in the Playboy illustration competition back in grad school (Jeff won said competition both years—no dilemma for him). I figured since it’s not actually going in the bible and the goal is to raise money for starving children, it would probably be okay. But still, I didn’t want to write anything that I know to be historically inaccurate (aside from the anthropomorphic star, of course), or go against the traditional story, or to inadvertently offend Compassion or their clientele. It actually turned out to be great fun blending history, tradition, imagination, and compassion while incorporating a new, simple yet formal voice appropriate for a religious publication. We got some good feedback from our wonderful critique group, which also gave us the confidence to present it to the client without the time to let the text sit. (As other writers will agree, at some point in the process you’ve got to put the work away for a while and come back to it later with fresh eyes.)

As for the art, Jeff and I modeled for reference photos in our basement studio. I was the angel and he was the wise man (not our everyday roles). We wore the closest things we had—no time to shop for costumes! But here comes the big kick in the pants: It took them much longer to approve the text and the sketches than we had hoped (September 15th) and then they realized that they needed the art a week earlier than originally discussed (Sept 20th). Say what now? For those of you who can’t do simple math: we had 5 days to paint the entire book!

Jeff and I painted in shifts or sometimes together when we had a babysitter (Thanks, Mom! Thanks, Jo!). In the end, they were very happy with the story and art and, we’re told, the book was a big success. So, why am I just now blogging about this? It took forever for us to get a copy of the finished product! Just last week we finally received our very own copy of the book. It was like a child returning home after many months. I remember you. I remember you well.

The biggest bummer is it’s not a book that people can go out and buy. I’m actually quite proud of the work we did, especially with such a tight deadline. I’d like for you all to see it and I doubt I’m allowed to post it. Here are two spreads so you can get an idea. If you want to see the whole thing, you’ll just have to come over sometime…