Over the weekend, the Yellowknife Book Cellar held a special launch event for a new children’s book made by a handful of local creatives.
The book, titled “If The Northern Lights Could Speak,” was written by lifelong friends Sarah Kalnay-Watson and Myranda Bolstad, with illustrations made by local artist, Kaylem Loomis. It was debuted with a public reading to everyone gathered in the Book Cellar, adults and children alike. After the readings, guests could have their copy of the book autographed by all three creators.
While there are only a handful of pages, the prose and illustrations work together to show a vibrant and colourful representation of the animals and wild places of the NWT. This is the first children’s book made by each of the creators. Loomis shared that it took them approximately four months to finish all of the art for the book, and shared some details about their process.
“It kind of went through a lot of changes at first. Originally, I had watercolours on paper and whatnot, but I realized that was going to take too long for the timeframe I wanted, so it ended up being digital, but I still tried keeping a little bit of a watercolour feel to some of it.”
Loomis explained that Sarah and Myranda had come across their work anonymously while at an art show, and were able to eventually track them down. They asked if Loomis would be interested, and they eagerly accepted. They said that it was nervous to work on a book like this, but they enjoyed it every step of the way, and would gladly do it again in the future.
