Where the heck is Lumaria?

Most of Calvin Splinter’s map of the Kingdom of Lumaria was illustrated on an extended visit to Norway when my grandsons were younger. Back then I stayed in Norway anywhere from six weeks to two months, once for almost 90 days. I planned those long visits because I wanted to have plenty of playtime with my grandsons. And boy, did we have grand times coloring, painting, making books, exploring the backwoods, and taking photos, reading stories, building train tracks—you name it.

On my off times, I painted, wrote and sketched, developing several other books while finishing the Calvin Splinter watercolors. The year I worked on the map, I shipped several large watercolor pages to Norway and worked on them during my free time. That year I stayed in the large upstairs guest room in their big farmhouse rather than in my small house adjacent to their home. It was late fall/early winter and the little house did not have adequate heat.

One evening Anders, my youngest grandson who was about 6 years old then, came upstairs to visit and color with me. He took a long look at the big sketch of the map taped to the wall facing my art table. “Fingernail arches,” he said, slowly, pronouncing the words carefully. He looked at me kind of funny and then giggled. It was then I knew I had something.

Children in Norway learn to read and write both Norwegian and English simultaneously in school. Anders is the best reader and most interested in books of the three boys. We went over all the names on the map but his favorite was “Fingernail Arches.” “Toad Eye Hollow” came in a close second and “Caterpillar Canyon” a third.

I’m working on the next Calvin story. Watch for it!