Troy Wilson’s 10 facts about his picture book Still Friends

My mind is bursting with juicy tidbits about Still Friends. What do I include? What do I leave out? Well, I’d better start with the basics. Still Friends is a picture book by me, Troy Wilson, and illustrator Mike Deas and Orca Book Publishers. It’s about the unlikely friendship between a dog and a statue.

Beyond that? Hmmm. Here is a list of ten facts. Top Ten? Maybe. Pretty Darn Good Ten, for sure. Let’s just call it 10 Friendly Facts.

1. 1. Still Friends was inspired by two Facebook posts of dogs trying to play fetch with statues.
2. 2. I love writing about animals. They provide a unique perspective, seeing some things so differently than us while seeing other things so similarly. Plus there is something timeless about them. They transcend our trends.
3. 3. Speaking of animals, I obviously knew the dog would be front and center, but I had no idea about all the other critters that would populate the park setting. A trio of recurring pigeons is particularly delightful. They went from being nowhere in my manuscript to being everywhere in the book, including on the cover.
4. 4. The animals are just the beginning. Mike Deas packs the park with all kinds of humans, too. These are definitely backgrounds to pore over and revisit.
5. 5. You can pore over and revisit the theme of friendship as well. I continue to discover more messages this book imparts about friendship—and I wrote the darn thing!
6. 6. Still Friends has received praise from Debbie Ridpath Ohi, Mike Boldt, Adam Rex, and tons of other amazing creators. Just as there is something extra-special about kids enjoying my kids’ books, there is also something extra-special about my kidlit peers enjoying them.
7. 7. This is not my first book with Orca, though it has definitely been a while. They published my first picture book, Perfect Man, back in 2004. Though this is indeed my first book with Mike Deas, he did a great job illustrating three of my Chickadee magazine stories.
8. 8. Still Friends contains my favorite endpapers from any of my books. Brilliantly conceived by designer Rachel Page and brilliantly executed by Mike. See for yourself!
9. 9. Still Friends also contains my favorite use of poop in any of my books. Specifically, bird poop. One of those ever-present pigeons poops on the statue. Not conceived by me or Mike or Rachel Page. Nope, it was suggested by editor Sarah Howden.
10. 10. And Sarah isn’t just a great editor. She’s a great author, too. The Wise Pickle, by her and Sabina Hahn and Tundra, is wonderfully strange and funny and, yes, wise. Speaking of strange, it might seem odd to include this in a list about Still Friends. But really, this is the friendliest fact of them all. Friends praise friends. Friends support friends. It’s just what we do.

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