Behind the Cover: Discovering the Creation of Rejoice and Be Glad! Part I
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Oh boy! This has been such a treat to prepare! For the last couple of months I have been working on a wonderful interview with local Colorado author Rachel Schluenderfritz and illustrator Ted Schluenderfritz discussing their wonderful book Rejoice and Be Glad! Living the Beatitudes. It has been such an amazing experience! I cannot wait to share this with you all!
I will let Rachel and Ted introduce themselves
Hello! I am Rachel and I am a cradle Catholic. I have six children ages 19 to 31 and, as of right now, three grandchildren, I homeschooled all my children from kindergarten through high school. Writing is something I have always loved, but it wasn’t until about four years ago that I began to write publicly. The book that we will be discussing is called Rejoice and Be Glad! Living the Beatitudes and it is published by the St. Paul Center/Emmaus Road Publishing.
This is Ted, I have been a graphic designer and illustrator for around 35 years and I have been trying to get Rachel to write books for me to illustrate for almost all of them.
Rejoice and Be Glad!
This is the most delightful picture book on the Beatitudes that you will ever read. In this delightful book Rachel explains each Beatitude through the words of Scripture, helps us meditate on it and introduces us to a saint that is a particular example of that beatitude. Ted’s illustrations bring it all to life in stunning bicolor illustrations.
What inspired you to write a picture book about the Beatitudes? Was it a common idea or was it someone’s specific idea that kindled the desire in the other?
Several years ago, Ted was working on a project and one of his coworkers suggested that he and I should do a book about the Beatitudes. At that time, I had not done any public writing and so I was surprised, but we put together one page, the Saint Benedict page. She submitted it and the staff liked it, but they wanted to make some changes. I wasn’t sure about the changes so we decided to wait.
Then, when we started our website www.5sparrows.com in the summer of 2021, we decided that we would slowly work our way through the Beatitudes and publish it on our website. When we had finished four of them, Ted brought the idea to a publisher that he knew without telling me what he was doing, and they were very enthusiastic and wanted us to finish it and publish it.
How long did it take you to write and illustrate this book?
The writing came together fairly quickly. The illustrations obviously took much more time because they are so detailed.
How was it working on a book with your spouse? Did you talk of anything else? Did you have any arguments or disagreements on the process and the finished product?
It was great working on this book. We both admire each other’s talents, and so there were no real conflicts. We certainly talked about it very much when it was getting ready to go to print to make sure everything was syncing up. With our first book, there was a little more discussion because when I saw the direction that Ted was going to take with the illustrations, I was really unsure about it at first. But even though it wasn’t the way that I had imagined it, eventually I really grew to love the vibrancy and imagination that his vision brought to the story.
Was this your first book together?
This is our third book together and second published work. We initially did a story for the website called The Father’s Sons and then we did a story called The Narrow Gate which was our first published book. You can find a beautiful read-aloud of The Narrow Gate on 5Sparrows.
About the book itself
Ted, why did you choose to have blue and white and yellow as the only colors for your illustrations? Do they mean something special? Did Rachel agree right away?
These images were all done in pencil, in order to add interest to the book, I tinted them digitally in blue and added yellow so that the halos would stand out. I’ve always been drawn to the early children’s books that use just a few colors and I think they have an impact that using a full palette doesn’t have.
Rachel, how did you decide to structure each Beatitude the way it is structured? I find it so inspiring, simple and to the point. Such a wonderful way to carry the point home!
I must have had heavenly help with this book. I can pick it up myself and read it and be inspired. It all just seemed to fall into place. And picking out the Scriptures that go with each Beatitude was a wonderful experience.
How did you pick the saint for each virtue? It seems that so many saints can fit each one it must have been a difficult choice.
It was difficult choosing among the saints and there were several who I was sorry I could not use. A few saints were obvious choices like Saint Francis, Saint Benedict, and Saint Faustina. I wanted to have a mix of saints: men, women, religious, laypeople, people from different countries. I also enjoyed mixing in a few lesser known saints.
The saints’ biographies that you added at the end of the book are wonderful. Why did you choose these specific saints?
When I came to the Eighth Beatitude, I had a few difficulties. I didn’t want readers to come away with the idea that it was only about those who had been martyred for the Faith. And no one person seemed to bring together what I was trying to convey. Except, of course, for Jesus. So I decided to use a variety of saints to illustrate this Beatitude with Jesus as their center. The publisher asked me if I would write brief stories about the saints for the back of the book. For lesser known saints, the stories were more biographical, and for the other saints, I tried to bring out some highlights.
This has been such a lovely beginning! In the second half of our interview Ted and Rachel will expand on the Beatitudes and how to bring them to life in our families and why they are so important. Part II coming on Friday!
Love,
Mattie
