I met an editor there she didn’t take my first picture book, but she gave me some really good feedback and made it a lot stronger, and the next editor I showed it to bought it. I got to see that art directors were normal people, nice people, and to hear what they said. We met every other month and invited a different art director to come each time. I belonged to a small group that was sort of like SCBWI. I was working on stuff of my own at night. What was that first job at HarperCollins? And I thought, “I’m going with the one that pays me money.” Although the internship at the Met would have been a dream, to walk through those doors every day. And then, on the same day, I got two offers: an internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a job offer at HarperCollins. It’s a huge collaboration.Īfter I graduated I got a degree in museum studies at the University of Sydney, and then I moved to New York.

You’re working on an eyebrow, or a tree, or a background character. Also, in a big studio like that, you’re not telling the story yourself. You do a project all semester and you end up with a one-minute film. I knew that already, but I kind of found it out again. I went to the Rhode Island School of Design thinking that I’d work for Disney and be an animator, but animation takes a really long time. What kind of artist did you think you’d be? I feel pretty lucky to have her as a mom. She said, “You know, I always wished I had gone to art school.” That gave me permission to think about it. I went to an international magnet school with a baccalaureate program, and most of my friends were going to pretty high-powered Ivy League schools. She was the one who gave me the idea to go to art school. My mom made crafts to sell and she made our clothes, much to my chagrin. I had a bear named Juliette and I made her a princess outfit. I made a lot of stuffed animals, and I made clothes for my stuffed animals. Yes! My mom was an art teacher and there were always paints and crayons around, fabric for making stuff. PW spoke with Jamieson about the path that led her to graphic novels, her early days as a Faire groupie, and things that are hard to draw. Yet she wants desperately to appear normal, even if it means denying the things she cherishes. Her parents work at the Florida Renaissance Faire, and Imogene is accustomed to the medieval sallies and playful showmanship of the Faire community. The tale stars Imogene, a homeschooled tween whose free-spirited upbringing makes adapting to public school a bumpy ride. Jamieson remembers realizing that the award would mean her new book would have a larger audience-a thought she found both exciting and daunting. When Victoria Jamieson’s first graphic novel, Roller Girl (2015), won a Newbery Honor, she was already at work on her second, All’s Faire in Middle School, which is due out next month.

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson