From the Marfa Lights to the scenic vistas of Big Bend, there’s a lot to see and to love about West Texas.
For Callie Fuqua, that love started young. She’s a sixth-generation Midlander who grew up on family ranches around the region. Now, Fuqua has written her first book – it’s a children’s picture book called “Goodnight, West Texas.”
Fuqua said she wanted to show her children the beauty of their part of the Lone Star State. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Well, it’s clear from reading “Good Night, West Texas” that you love this region of the state. How did you decide to express those feelings in a picture book?
Author Callie Fuqua. Courtesy photo
Callie Fuqua: Well, I am a former teacher. I taught three-year-old preschool and third grade, and I am now a mom of three kids. And I’ve always loved reading children’s books and seeing this story come alive on the page with the illustrations.
And my kids love the Good Night Books. We have a few of them. We have “Good Night, Cowtown,” “Good Night, Houston,” “Goodnight, Seaside” and a few more. And I’ve always loved them and I’ve always wanted to write a book.
So I decided we needed one for our little corner of Texas. And I wanted to write it for my kids, to make them proud, to show their kids one day, and my great-grandkids and so on.
It’s vividly illustrated, too. Tell us about your illustrator and how much did the words lead to the images, or did it happen the other way around?
So my illustrator is Richard Cowdrey and he is a New York Times bestselling artist. And he is amazing. So what he’s famous for is the “Fiona the Hippo” series, and then the “Marley the Dog” series. And he just knocked this out of the park. In fact, he made the whole book. I have to give a lot of credit to him.
I was reading my kids one of his books as I was writing “Goodnight, West Texas,” and just loved his illustrations. So I asked my editor if we could reach out to him. And we did. And he agreed.
So was it hard to choose the places and people you wanted to introduce kids to in your book?
You know, I kind of went back and forth. I’m from Midland, but I’ve grown up going to family ranches and Snyder and Fort Davis and then traveled all over this part of West Texas. And so I went back and forth – do I just do Midland or do I want to include all of West Texas?
I obviously settled on all of West Texas just because I think there’s so much culture and special places to see within the area. And so once I kind of decided on that, I picked how far of a range I wanted to cover and ended up deciding on San Angelo and Abilene to Big Bend.
You call out so many West Texas landmarks: the Abilene Zoo, the Monahans Sandhills, the Concho River, the oil derricks in Odessa… Some of those would be pretty familiar to West Texas kids, but they might not know the Perini Ranch Steakhouse or the Hotel Settles.
How did you go about picking the places for the book? And does it matter if kids have not heard of them yet?
Well, I tried to pick the top one or two places in each of the cities. And since I’ve grown up around here, I kind of knew the most well-known ones, or sort of what makes that city that city. And so that’s how I decided and know that the kids don’t have to know about them because that’s the purpose of the book. That’s how they learn about it.
And on my website, I’m actually going to have some facts about each of the places so that if parents or teachers are using my book to teach the kids about West Texas, they can get on my website and see those facts, which is kind of a fun feature.
Do you have a favorite landmark or illustration from the book?
It’s hard to pick. Well, I have two.
I like the Pecos Rodeo. I love the bull and the people sitting on the fence. And I just love how he did that. There’s so much detail in it.
And then the other one I love is – and I’m biased – but the “Goodnight, Midland” page has the Midland landscape in the background and then it has the pump jack and oil derrick. And then he drew in my husband and my two brothers kind of looking at the oil derrick and it’s kind of an ode to them. They’re in the oil and gas business, so it’s an ode to their business.
How about a landmark? Is it too hard to pick?
They’re all special and fun. And I would encourage anybody who can to try to see as many of these places as they can.
