Small, intentional gestures can have a big impact. That’s one lesson that young readers will draw from Grace Lin’s forthcoming picture book, The Little Stone Buddha (Alvina Ling Books/Little, Brown, Oct. 6). Lin says she was partly inspired by the true story of a Buddha statue placed in a trash-strewn median in Oakland, California; after its appearance people stopped dumping garbage there, then locals cleaned up the area and even created a small shrine. “What was once a dump is now a beautiful, colorful sanctuary,” explains Lin, the author/illustrator of Chinese Menu and A Beautiful House for Birds. We emailed to ask her more about making the book, which received a Kirkus star.

It feels significant that in your story a little girl is the one who first notices the Buddha in the trash heap. Do children see more than we adults do?

I think so. Not only do children see more things, but they also truly look at the things that adults often glance over. When my daughter was young it would take forever to walk places with her because she would get fascinated by all the rocks and pebbles on the ground. Each one was uniquely interesting to her. While it’s not an efficient way to live, there is a real beauty in seeing the mundane as unique. It’s also what I especially love about the picture book format—picture books often remind us that the ordinary is quite extraordinary.

What inspired you during the writing of the book? What were you reading, listening to, watching?

After my friend sent me the initial article back in 2014, I slowly read up more about the Oakland Buddha. This book is also inspired by Virginia Lee Burton’s The Little House—it’s kind of what I imagine happened to the empty lot the Little House created when she was taken to live in the countryside!

Where and when did you write the book? Describe the scene, the time of day, the necessary accoutrements or talismans.

I have a studio on the top floor of my house where I do all my writing and illustrating. I tend to write on my laptop on the couch I have up there, sometimes I sit on the floor. Strangely, I tend to draw sitting on the floor, too—I think so that nothing becomes too precious and [it] can stay rough. It’s only when I am painting that I sit at the table. For me, painting is the more formal and ritualistic practice. In terms of talismans, I usually fill in one eye of a Daruma doll when I start a project and then fill in the second eye when I am done. It gives a nice closure to everything.

What fall release(s) are you most eager to get your hands on?

I see Lois Lowry is back with Building 903, and that Eiko Kadono and Yuta Onoda’s Kiki and the New Magic, translated by Emily Balistrieri, and Shifa Saltagi Safadi’s Sisters Alone are coming—all three will be in my TBR pile. I do think there is a goldmine of picture books coming—I was thrilled to see The Paper Princess by Elisa Kleven is getting a reissue, there’s Jasmine Fang’s Beneath the Same Round Moon, [Hayley and John] Rocco’s A Book for Everyone, and Melissa Sweet is doing a version of E.B. White’s The Duck Can’t Sleep. Also, even though I don’t usually read too much YA, Stealing Saint Nick by M.T. Anderson sounds fascinating!

Tom Beer is the editor-in-chief.