The whole weird, wonderful project began with a party. When Brad and Kristi Montague, the West Tennessee-based husband-and-wife writer/illustrator team behind the New York Times-bestselling picture book The Circles All Around Us — decided to throw a party aimed at taking some of the sting out of failure, they had no idea they had quietly begun a movement.
“I thought about modeling it after TED Talks, but these would be terrible,” Brad remembers, laughing. So he and Kristi invited their friends over to share their stories of successes stymied and launches failed. The results surprised them. Far from being put off by the premise, Brad remembers how quickly everyone relaxed, how relatable all the stories felt.
“It’s such a human thing to fail, and yet we’re not very good at sharing it,” he says.
The story of the debut “Fail-a-bration” began to get around, and eventually Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, did a write-up about the party. It seemed Brad and Kristi might have stumbled onto an excellent idea for their next children’s book, something they take quite seriously as creators.
photograph courtesy of the authors
Brad and Kristi Montague
“We’re passionate about telling stories and creating experiences that bring kids and grown-ups together, and one of the best forms we have in this whole world are picture books,” Brad explains. “It’s this special moment between an adult — a parent, a caregiver, a teacher — and a child, and at its best, they’re the kinds of books that can be read with a child, alone by a child, or experienced in a way that sparks something for a young person and reminds the adult of something important they might have forgotten.”
Kristi picks up the conversation, explaining that she and Brad strive to tell stories that their kids need to hear, or that they wish they had heard growing up. “We try to live by and center our work around the idea of being who you needed when you were younger.”
Fail-a-bration fits neatly into that category of “fun stories with meaningful messages.” The book is about giving yourself permission to normalize failure, which is only part of the process, after all. Fail-a-bration is not about celebrating mediocrity or dismissing the pain tied to failure; it’s about failing better, the Montagues explain, about accepting that failure is part of any endeavor and one of the most human experiences we can have.
As Brad points out, the book doesn’t glorify mediocrity. Rather, it acknowledges that failure is simply proof that a person tried something new. Failures are the first steps — and often brave ones— toward growth.
To illustrate that idea, the Montagues spent time cultivating their visual style and tone. The art in the book feels finely textured, incredibly authentic, and so very human because of the element of whimsy they have managed to capture. Within the pages of Fail-a-bration, the lines aren’t perfect, the papers have been crumpled and photographed and digitally illustrated on top of, and there are pipe cleaners and googly eyes aplenty. In short, it’s playful and delightfully imperfect. This is the closest to pure collaboration in their process, Kristi explains.
“We would take pictures of the paint at different angles so we could make sure to see the light reflecting off it,” Kristi says. The effort put into capturing the imperfection and physicality of the art was all part of celebrating the human element of the creative process.
Speaking of celebrating, Brad and Kristi celebrated the launch of Fail-a-bration with an event at Novel bookstore in Memphis. “The team there, they care about the community and the stories we consume,” Brad says. “They have been such champions for our work.” The event was meaningful, as Brad is from Somerville in Fayette County, and Kristi grew up in Henderson in Chester County, and when they were children, as Brad puts it, laughing, “Memphis is where we went to see things.”
The book itself is a sight to behold, a riot of colored construction paper, crayon swirls, tangled twine, and even a photograph of a (poorly, if enthusiastically) decorated cake. Still, for all the work the creative couple put into the art in their picture book, the words deserve equal weight.
“When you mess up you might want to give up. You might feel sad or mad or cry,” the Montagues write on a page illustrated with a young boy’s increasingly sketchy attempts at a pet portrait, and a young girl’s smoking, sparking failed chemistry experiment. “It’s perfectly fine to feel these things, but here is something else you can try: The next time things don’t go as planned. Smile. Mark the occasion. Put on a party hat and throw … a fail-a-bration!”
As Brad points out, the book doesn’t glorify mediocrity. Rather, it acknowledges that failure is simply proof that a person tried something new. Failures are the first steps — and often brave ones— toward growth. That idea strikes this humble book reviewer as a beautiful message for a young mind to learn.
“Picture books have and always will do remarkable things,” Brad says. “We’re grateful to be a part of that tradition.
