Aaron Reynolds is the author of several books for young readers, including The Incredibly Dead Pets of Rex Dexter and the fantasy series Fart Quest. Peter Brown is the author and illustrator of picture books such as Children Make Terrible Pets and The Curious Garden, as well as the Wild Robot series for middle graders. Together, Reynolds and Brown are the creators of Jasper Rabbit’s Creepy Tales, a series of humorously spooky picture books that began with the Caldecott Honor-winning title Creepy Carrots. We asked the duo to discuss their new spinoff chapter book series, which kicks off with Troubling Tonsils, and striking the right tone for kids.

Aaron Reynolds: Hey, Peter! Jasper Rabbit’s creepy world is about to enter a whole new chapter this fall! Literally!

Peter Brown: Puns are great! And so is your wacky, wild imagination, Aaron!

Reynolds: It was low-hanging fruit. I had to grab it. Seriously though, I love how you bring my weird words to life. And I’m super jazzed about Jasper’s new chapter book series that begins this September.

Brown: Yeah, I’m having a blast illustrating Jasper Rabbit’s Creepy Tales. I think everyone wants to know why we’re creating this new spinoff series. Care to enlighten our readers?

Reynolds: Sure. For me, it started with the kids. As you know, I visit a ton of elementary schools throughout the year. It’s one of my favorite things about the job, being up close and personal with kids who read our books.

Kids in second through fifth grade were always telling me how much they love the creepy books, but many of them were aging out of picture books. I wondered what it might look like to grow Jasper into an older crowd, so those kids could get even weirder creepier stories. I realized that Jasper, as the expert in all things creepy, was ready to host his own new chapter book series.

Brown: It’s so fun to have Jasper as the host. At the start of each book he prepares readers for the weirdness that’s about to happen, and then at the end he helps readers process what they just experienced. You and I both wanted to crank up the creepiness in this series, and having Jasper as the voice of reason allows us to get away with even weirder stuff. I’m wondering, how do you manage to make the stories creepier than the picture books without them getting too creepy?

Reynolds: It’s a constant tightrope I’m trying to walk effectively. The picture books cannot be scary. They have to be equal parts creepy and ridiculous/goofy/funny. So I really have to be mindful when crafting those younger stories. So far, I think it’s worked out just right. But these new chapter book stories have allowed me to open up the lid on my imagination and explore some ideas I’ve been excited about that I couldn’t tackle for a younger crowd.

I don’t think about making them scarier. I focus on weirding them up a bit. The oddball strangeness of the situations and circumstances is what makes them creepy, always keeping a healthy dose of the ridiculous ever-present.

The first book of Jasper Rabbit’s Creepy Tales is called Troubling Tonsils and hits this September. I’m curious— what were your thoughts and process when this new iteration of creepy-ness landed in your inbox?

Brown: I was creeped out—in a great way! I howled and hooted with laughter when I was first reading your manuscripts. These stories are delightfully weirder than the original picture books, and I realized part of my job would be to help make sure they didn’t accidentally become scary. But you had already done such a great job of balancing creepy with ridiculous that it made my work a lot easier. I’ve had a great time visualizing your words and trying to enhance them by choosing just the right camera angle, just the right lighting, just the right facial expressions for all of the poor, unsuspecting characters we meet along the way.

Reynolds: I love that you are thinking about camera angles and lighting when you visualize these. You really do create a cinematic approach to these stories. Your illustration style is so very timeless... almost retro? And that vibe really hits right with these weird, spooky stories. It almost enhances the innocence as a backdrop to the weird, which is a great contrast and I just love the pairing!

Book two is called Unsettling Salad, and I just saw your final artwork for it. Without giving too much away, I’ve gotta say, the creature is outstanding.

Brown: Thanks! I’m quite pleased with it, if I may say so myself. I can’t wait for readers to see all the ridiculous stuff we’ve come up with!

Reynolds: One of the fun things about this series is that the first three books will all come out during the coming school year. Troubling Tonsils hits this fall. Unsettling Salad debuts in February, and then book three, Yarn Is Everything, will hit before next summer. So it’s been a cool experience to think about the build and balance of each of these standalone stories.

Brown: Gee, Aaron, you’re reminding me that I haven’t quite finished the art for book three! I could chat with you all day about creepy stuff, but I should probably get back to work!

Reynolds: What? You’re not done yet? What are you doing gabbing with me?! Draw, man, draw!

Brown: Gah! Sorry! I’m outta here!

Reynolds: I’m so excited to see what you come up with. What a creeptastic year it’s going to be!

Troubling Tonsils! (Jasper Rabbit’s Creepy Tales!) by Aaron Reynolds, illus. by Peter Brown. Simon & Schuster, $13.99 Sept. 2 ISBN 978-1-6659-6108-0