INTERVIEW | ILLUSTRATING INCLUSIVITY… A CONVERSATION WITH JOELLE AVELINO ON BRINGING HER BOOK ‘A BOOK FOR PEOPLE LIKE ME’ TO LIFE

By Mark Mukasa • On Interviews

Joelle Avelino, a tal­en­ted Con­golese and Angolan illus­trat­or who grew up in the UK, has cap­tiv­ated audi­ences with her vibrant and cul­tur­ally rich illus­tra­tions. Known for her dis­tinct­ive style and com­mit­ment to rep­res­ent­ing diverse voices, Avelino brings warmth and inclus­iv­ity to every pro­ject she under­takes. Her latest work, “A Book of People Like Me,” beau­ti­fully cap­tures the essence of com­munity, iden­tity, and shared exper­i­ences. In this inter­view, we delve into the inspir­a­tions behind her illus­tra­tions for the book, her cre­at­ive pro­cess, and how her cul­tur­al her­it­age shapes her art. We also explore the chal­lenges she faced, the mes­sages she hopes to con­vey, and the reward­ing moments of her jour­ney as an illus­trat­or. Through her art, Joelle Avelino con­tin­ues to make a mean­ing­ful impact, ensur­ing that chil­dren see them­selves reflec­ted in the stor­ies they read.

A Book of People Like Me is such a heart­warm­ing and inclus­ive story. What inspired you to cre­ate the illus­tra­tions for this book?

When I received the text from the pub­lish­er I knew right away it was a story I wanted to illus­trate. It is a story that that is very much inline with the mes­sage I like to con­vey in my stor­ies– We are more a like than different.

Kenny, the prot­ag­on­ist, is on a jour­ney of dis­cov­ery. Can you tell us more about how you brought his adven­tures and per­son­al­ity to life through your illustrations?

I wanted Kenny to Adven­tur­ous and play­ful. I have daugh­ter who is now much older that Kenny and many young­er neph­ews, a lot of of their man­ner­isms espe­cially where reflec­ted in cre­at­ing Kenny’s characters.

The book emphas­ises the little things that bring people togeth­er. How did you incor­por­ate these themes into your artwork?

I’m lucky to be from such a mul­ti­cul­tur­al city, Lon­don where I grew up with people from all dif­fer­ent cul­tures and back­grounds. A lot of the themes in my art­work reflec­ted the world I grew up in.

Your illus­tra­tions are known for their rich col­ors and intric­ate details. Can you walk us through your cre­at­ive pro­cess for this book?

I first start of my cre­at­ing my main char­ac­ter Kenny. I wanted him to be fun and play­full and adven­tur­ous. I really wanted chil­dren to be able to relate to him.
Once I nailed that that’s when I began think­ing about what type of char­ac­ters I’d like to include on each spread. Everything starts of as super loose small thumb­nails before tak­ing sketched to the next stage.

As a Con­golese and Angolan illus­trat­or who grew up in the UK, how do your cul­tur­al exper­i­ences influ­ence your work?

My her­it­age is very much influ­enced in my work. From the bold col­ours, themes I explore and shapes and pat­terns I choose to use through­out my work. I am very in touch with my cul­ture and hav­ing grown up in the UK I aim to merge these two worlds togeth­er in my work.

 You’ve worked on sev­er­al not­able titles, includ­ing “Hey You! An Empower­ing Cel­eb­ra­tion of Grow­ing Up Black.” How does your approach dif­fer when work­ing on dif­fer­ent projects?

My approach with pic­ture books are very much the same how­ever with Hey You it was a col­lab­or­a­tion with 18 dif­fer­ent illus­trat­ors so I had no idea what the text and illus­tra­tion on the page before or after mine would be or look like. So that was a very dif­fer­ent and excit­ing as it was some­thing I had nev­er done before.

Rep­res­ent­a­tion is a sig­ni­fic­ant theme in your work. Why is it import­ant for chil­dren to see them­selves reflec­ted in the books they read?

As many Illus­trat­ors like myself would say, grow­ing up we nev­er saw ourselves rep­res­en­ted in stor­ies. I can’t emphas­is enough how import­ant it is for or kids to be able to see them­selves in the stor­ies they read.

What mes­sage do you hope chil­dren and par­ents take away from “A Book of People Like Me”? 

That we are all dif­fer­ent and we should cel­eb­rate our dif­fer­ences, but we are also more alike than dif­fer­ent in many ways.

Can you share any chal­lenges you faced while illus­trat­ing this book and how you over­came them?

The busier spreads I’d say were the most chal­len­ging although I enjoyed them the most. Mainly because I had nev­er done any­thing sim­il­ar. What helped was to think about all the dif­fer­ent char­ac­ters and per­son­al­it­ies you’d find in a classroom/playground envir­on­ment and I made sure these where all incor­por­ated in the scenes.

What has been the most reward­ing part of your jour­ney as an illus­trat­or so far?

The dir­ect inter­ac­tion with the chil­dren espe­cially when I do school vis­its. Know­ing me being vis­ible has encour­aged them to know they too can be illus­trat­ors or have a cre­at­ive career

Are there any par­tic­u­lar scenes or char­ac­ters in “A Book of People Like Me” that are your favour­ite? Why?

Oh I’d say the classroom scenes and the party scene.
Music and hall parties are such a huge part of my cul­ture so it was so import­ant this was reflec­ted in the book. And with the classroom scenes I really enjoyed cre­at­ing a nar­rat­ive in such a busy envir­on­ment, I wanted it to feel like there dif­fer­ent stor­ies in the story. Some­thing fun for the read­er to look at.

What advice would you give to aspir­ing illus­trat­ors who want to bring diverse and inclus­ive stor­ies to life?

Draw, draw and do some more draw­ing and don’t worry about find­ing a style that will come nat­ur­ally, your style will find you. And most import­antly believe in yourself.

Can you tell us about any upcom­ing pro­jects you’re excited about?

Yes I have a book com­ing out in Octo­ber with Bare­foot books, DR Congo which is part of the Our world series writ­ten by Mell Nyoko amaz­ing writer who is actu­ally my best friend! This is the second book with col­lab­or­ated on so excited for this to be out!

‘A Book For People Like Me’ is Out Now

Pur­chase HERE

 

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Mark Mukasa

Mark is a South Lon­don based writer and avid fan of all things hip hop. He’s also an MMA and his­tory enthu­si­ast who tries to keep his love of animé under wraps.

About Mark Mukasa

Mark is a South London based writer and avid fan of all things hip hop. He's also an MMA and history enthusiast who tries to keep his love of anime under wraps.