It’s Bean!
Let’s talk about Bean! Where did this little guy come from? How did we dream him up? And what’s he all about?
A while back, Matt and I were scratching around trying to think of something fun to work on. Over the years, we’ve discovered that this is a productive time of year for us (summer for me and winter for Matt), and we thought maybe this would be the year we’d do something really cool!
We explored a few ideas, then Matt finally admitted what was on his mind. “I have this idea that won’t leave me alone,” he said. “It’s about a bean that’s walking across a garden.”
This immediately resonated with me, because Dave has been telling Sam stories about anthropomorphic veggies, particularly beans, since he was tiny! I was all in.
Original bean
At right is the first-ever drawing of Bean – at least the first one I saw! If you compare him to the “finished” version, he hasn’t changed much. The main differences are the eyes and the belly, both of which got bigger, and the strength of the outline.
The very first time I saw this illustration, I knew we were onto something special.
In Matt’s original idea, Bean was a wanderer, forever crossing the garden, making his way toward a big farmhouse, which he would never reach. In his first adventure, he would drop a series of items, which would be returned to him by a group of peas.
Sound familiar? 🙂
When we decided to write books that would appeal to preschoolers, it became clear that Bean needed to be young – preferably just a bit older than our readers. This suggested a community of veggies, including Bean’s parents and other adults and kids with whom he could interact. So Bean settled down in his Garden community.
Our first description of Bean said: “Lima bean. Seems about 7 years old (early elementary school). Male. Cautious. The new kid in the garden.” This turned out to be mostly correct, although Bean’s adventurous spirit and curiosity developed significantly as the project grew.
Most of our characters (with some notable exceptions) stayed true to their original descriptions. It was as if the Garden already knew who lived there, and all we had to do was discover it.
One of the things we thought about early on was whether Bean lived in a human world. In the original idea, Bean was traveling toward a human farmhouse, but the audience once again caused us to rethink our approach. The last thing we wanted to do was create a world where humans were threatening! (After all, our characters are food…)
In the end, we decided to make the Garden a safe place where the veggies could live out their lives in peace. That means there’s zero chance that Farmer Brown will appear at harvest time with veggie-cide on his mind.
What’s your favorite thing about Bean? What sort of adventures would you like to see in upcoming Bean stories? Tell us in the comments!
