BUILT TO LAST by Minh Lê and Dan Santat

I had the great good fortune to attend Minh Lê’s author event at my local library last week. Ever since I read Minh and Dan’s first collaboration, the APALA award-winning DRAWN TOGETHER, I’ve admired his ability to tell a story in just a few words. Total number of words in DRAWN TOGETHER? A scant 102, plus a few words in Thai. Their fourth book together, BUILT TO LAST, just published this past April, is another winner. At 204 words, it’s double the amount of text of DRAWN TOGETHER, but is still really, really spare.

Isn’t the cover amazing? No surprise there, since Dan is a Caldecott Medalist. I love how the style and symbols evoke the other books he and Minh have worked on together. There are the dragon and fish from DRAWN TOGETHER, and the lion from THE BLUR (although it looks much more fierce here). This gives a sense of continuity and familiarity for readers of their previous books.

The book features two unnamed boys who meet by accident when one literally bumps into the other, causing their block structures to collapse. But instead of causing an argument, the event sparks a friendship. Is it just me or do the boys look like kid-Minh and kid-Dan?

In successive spreads, readers see what the boys are imagining (a lion about to attack them on the Great Wall of China), and then the reality (a cat pouncing on their Tinker Toy structure). The boys dream up and build creation after creation, which all meet with untimely ends.

But again, instead of dissolving their friendship, these catastrophes just make them dissolve into laughter. And motivates them to start building anew. Until one final incident threatens to break their friendship for real. Will they overcome this obstacle? No spoilers here — you’ll have to read the book!

During his presentation, Minh read LIFT and DRAWN TOGETHER aloud to us, and talked about how he and Dan collaborated. He spoke about leaving room in his manuscripts for Dan to interpret and draw his own vision of what was happening in the story. Sometimes, when I explain to budding writers what “leaving room for the illustrator” means, I tell them not to include details that aren’t integral to the story, like the color of the character’s dress or secondary characters that might appear in the setting. But Minh’s approach goes way beyond those minor details. For example, Minh didn’t have any art notes in LIFT that described the worlds the main character would enter through her closet door. He left that all up to Dan.

I assume that he did the same with BUILT TO LAST, allowing Dan to use his imagination and come up with the fabulous creations and fantastical worlds that the two boys build. Minh said (and I’m paraphrasing here), that his text depended on the illustrations to tell the story. Instead of the art supporting the text, it was kind of the other way around. I find this level of trust both mind-boggling and awe-inspiring. It makes for an author & illustrator pairing, not to mention a real-life friendship, that is truly built to last. 😉

Click on their names to find out more about Minh and Dan, and follow them on Instagram at @bottomshelfbks for Minh and @dsantat for Dan. Order copies of BUILT TO LAST here.

Minh Lê always dreamed of being an author, and with the help of his friends, he’s building that dream life one book at a time. His projects with Dan Santat include The Blur, which Kirkus Reviews called “a must-purchase” in a starred review; Drawn Together, which won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature; and Lift, which received five starred reviews. The Bulletin called his recent picture book, Real to Me, illustrated by Raissa Figueroa, “an emotionally palpable, thoughtful story” in a starred review. Minh has also written for the New York Times, the Horn Book, and HuffPost. He lives in San Diego, California, with his wife and kids.

Dan Santat is the #1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of over a hundred books. His picture book The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend received the Caldecott Medal. He is also the author-illustrator of After the Fall, which received five starred reviews and was hailed as “exhilarating” by the Wall Street Journal. His favorite creation is his graphic novel memoir, A First Time for Everything. Dan lives in Southern California with his family.

Friends, it’s been a busy couple of months and I’m just now catching up on randomly selecting the giveaway winners from my previous two posts. My apologies! Anyway, congrats to Becky Scharnhorst, winner of KITTY-CORN CLUB: THINGS THAT GO! and Robin Currie, winner of MAYA MAKES WAVES! Please check your email for a message from me!

Oh, and I hope you don’t mind if I put in a little plug for a new newsletter that I’m part of. It’s called Uplift: AANHPI Kidlit News, and every month the eight of us share new AANHPI children’s books, a little bit of AANHPI history, writing tips, recipes, and/or craft activities! Our October newsletter comes out tomorrow and you can check it out here: https://upliftkidlit.substack.com. Thanks!