Steve Light Brings Us a Seek - And - Find Journey in New York City

Steve Light is an illustrator who can make you fall madly in love with New York. The pops of color amidst the black-and-white city landscapes impressively showcases the hustle and bustle of the metropolitan area where the camouflaged dragon is hidden. Before embarking on the exciting journey of finding your lost one, let’s have a talk with the talented illustrator and author who makes this magic happens.

Where does the inspiration of this book come?

When I was little and my father brought me to New York City, I saw steam coming from the manhole covers. I asked my father if there was a fire under the street, he said no, dragons live down there and that the smoke was dragon’s breathe. One day when I was drawing buildings in New York City that memory popped into my head and I started drawing dragons on the buildings. I filled the whole sketchbook with city dragons, when I showed my art director the sketchbook, she said, “this needs to be your next book.”

Why would you choose to convey the story through illustrations?

I am an illustrator and so most of my stories start with drawings and illustrations and then the words come. I usually plot out the whole book in pictures first.

The illustrations in ‘Have You Seen My Dragons?’ are really unique and original. How would you describe the style of your illustrations?

My style of illustration comes about from drawing. I draw every day. Illustrations in Have You Seen My Dragon? were drawn with fountain pen, something I love to draw with. The style for Have You Seen My Dragon? came about from the sketchbook that I did first and look very much like the drawings in the sketchbook.

In your opinion, what makes a good children’s book?

I think a good children’s book is a book that transports a child to another place or world and feeds their imagination.

Have You Seen My Dragon?