Lifestyle
Hold on to your wishes — there's a 'Spider in the Well'
Illustrations © 2024 Jess Hannigan
Illustrations © 2024 Jess Hannigan
Once upon a time, in the folkloric town of Bad Göodsburg, which is probably in Germany, there was an overworked newsboy.
Not only did he bring the people their daily news, he also swept their chimneys, shined their shoes, and brought them their milk.
He was overworked, and underappreciated.
So, when the townspeople discover that their wishing well is broken, the newsboy sets off to fix it — and get some revenge. Thus begins this children’s tale of extortion, labor rights, and justice.
Author and illustrator Jess Hannigan spoke about her debut picture book, Spider in the Well, with NPR’s Tamara Keith. Here are excerpts from that conversation, edited in parts for clarity and length.
Spider in the Well
Illustrations © 2024 Jess Hannigan
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Illustrations © 2024 Jess Hannigan
Spider in the Well
Illustrations © 2024 Jess Hannigan
Interview highlights
Tamara Keith: How did you come to write a book about a spider, when I understand that you are afraid of spiders?
Jess Hannigan: I am. I don’t care for them. But do I love the webs they spin? Yes. Do I love the spooky aesthetic? Of course. Basically, the whole story came about because I really just had the image of looking down a well with the web, with the spider in it, and I thought that would look cool. And then I kind of asked myself, like, ‘Is there a story here? Why is he in there? What’s he catching in the web?’ And it kind of just wrote itself from there.
Keith: Is everyone in Bad Göodsburg a little bit bad and a little bit good? Or are all people a little bit bad and a little bit good?
Hannigan: Well it’s supposed to be, you know, real life. I really like when a character is in a gray area with some good and some bad because it’s realistic and relatable. And we have heroes and we have “villains,” but they’re just like us. And that way they’re humanized. And you just get to kind of discuss who you side with, who you agree with.
Keith: How would you describe what this book looks like?
Hannigan: I did the whole thing completely digitally. I kind of was going for a sort of imperfect printmaking effect because I love the look of block printing, but I don’t have the patience. So this was kind of a happy medium of me achieving that kind of folkloric, old-timey printing look without any of the labor.
Illustrations © 2024 Jess Hannigan
Illustrations © 2024 Jess Hannigan
Keith: Where did you draw your inspiration for the art? The colors are not colors that you traditionally see in a children’s book. It’s like black and hot orange and purple.
Hannigan: A lot of my inspiration for the kind of shapes that I use comes from like, Polish posters. They’re from the 1960s and ’70s — Polish poster design was crazy and they had the wackiest shapes and colors, and I was introduced to those back in college.
These were just the colors that I had been obsessed with at the time that I happened to be making the book. They are like these kind of sickly, weird tones. And I used all those purples and greens for the “bad guys” because I guess it suited their vibe. But I’m actually colorblind, very slightly. So everyone’s been telling me this book is such a lovely shade of orange and I’ve been telling everyone it’s red.
Keith: What lesson do you want the kids who are reading this book — or who are reading it with their parents — what do you want them to take away from it?
Hannigan: I didn’t go into making this story with a lesson in mind. I know books with morals are important and they have a place for sure. But really I just wanted to make people laugh. And to go back and read it again and think, ‘What the heck was this guy even doing? Where did they learn how to do blackmail? Who taught them about extortion and labor rights and things?’
I love stories like that, that just make you wonder more about them.
Illustrations é 2024 Jess Hannigan
Illustrations é 2024 Jess Hannigan
Once rivals on the tennis court, Martina Navratilova, left, and Chris Evert have become close friends in retirement. They are pictured above at the French Open in 1986.
Trevor Jones/Getty Images Europe
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Trevor Jones/Getty Images Europe
Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova were the most successful women’s tennis champions of their generation. Both were 18-time Grand Slam tournament winners — and each other’s greatest rivals.
Evert, a Florida native, became a tennis star in her teens. Navratilova was born in communist Czechoslovakia, and emerged as a player after Evert was established. They first faced off during a match in Akron, Ohio, in 1973, when Evert was 18, and Navratilova was 16. Evert won, but Navratilova left an impression.
“I remember thinking to myself, holy cow, when this young girl gets into better shape, she is going to be a force to be reckoned with,” Evert says. “She had so much talent. Her hands were quick, she had a big first serve, she had a big forehand, and she just was so powerful.”
Two years later, on the day she lost a semifinals match to Evert at the U.S. Open, Navratilova defected to the U.S. In the years that followed, her tennis game improved. Though she and Evert had initially been friendly, the friendship cooled as their rivalry heated up.
“Playing Chris was difficult because how can you not like Chris? What’s not to admire?” Navratilova says. “She was like the epitome of cool.”
The new Netflix documentary Chris & Martina: The Final Set tells the story of how Evert and Navratilova re-established their friendship and how they both faced cancer in retirement. Evert was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2021; Navratilova was diagnosed with throat and breast cancer in 2022.
“I can’t get away from her,” Evert jokes. “We had a 15-year career, and then we got cancer at the same time. It really is freaky, but I always say: If I want someone to be in the trenches with me, it’s Martina because she has been so supportive and so understanding.”
Navratilova agrees: “We have such a level of trust that we know whatever we say to each other, it stays there. We give each other the best advice we know how to. And there is no ulterior motive, no playing games.”
At the time that this interview was taped, Evert and Navratilova were both in remission from cancer. But late last week, Evert disclosed she’d recently been diagnosed with a recurrence of ovarian cancer.
“We know whatever we say to each other, it stays there,” Martina Navratilova says of her friendship with Chris Evert.
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Netflix
Interview highlights
On supporting each other through cancer
Evert: There are a lot of phone calls between us. … I don’t cook, but Martina would bake bread for me, and her wife Julia would cook, make some chicken soup. … I got a lot of food from Martina. She got a necklace from me.
Navratilova: I get jewelry from Chris, she gets food from me.
Evert: Martina’s and my relationship — because we’ve had one for 50 years — is not the type where we have to talk to each other every day to maintain the closeness. I always knew she was there. She always knew I was there if we needed to talk, and that was that.
On the weakness they experienced with cancer
Navratilova: Chris’ diagnosis and treatment was much more life-threatening than mine, percentage wise, but my treatment was more difficult physically. … I was in New York for seven weeks and I literally sat on a yoga mat, maybe half an hour of the seven weeks, and did some stretching. I couldn’t even do the down dog pose because I would have fallen down. I had absolutely zero strength left.
Evert: The chemo kicked my butt, let’s put it that way. … It left me very weak, very, very weak. After chemo I would have three or four days of intense nausea and I just would feel tingling in my body and it just wasn’t nice. I didn’t have the energy. To walk six blocks was a big deal for me. And it was foreign. You know, it felt like it wasn’t my body, for sure.
On watching the old footage of their matches together for the documentary
Navratilova: For me, it was fun watching with Chris, because we had different reactions to what happened on the court. But what impressed me is how well we played with those wooden rackets. Because you know what? Those rackets are not easy to play with. But you try to put yourself in there physically, what it was like, mentally, what it is like. And it’s like, “Oh, I should have gone down the line,” or, “I can’t believe I missed that shot.” Or “Chris, you had such a great pass.” It was amazing. So it was impressive. … I wish I could still have that six-pack, but anyhow.
Evert: I remember feeling genuinely happy for her. I remember it was her first Wimbledon. That’s always been her dream since she defected. Her family couldn’t be there to watch her. She was all alone. And I just was happy for it. And I knew that this was gonna be one of many for her to win.
On defecting to the U.S. in 1975 when she was 18 years old
Navratilova: I was thrilled to be in the States. I always loved American cars. And when you ordered a ham sandwich, you got, like, two inches of ham and two slices of bread. Whereas growing up, you had thick bread and one slice of ham. So I thought I was in heaven. And it was $2.30 for that sandwich. I still remember it. I couldn’t believe how much ham I was getting.
Lauren Krenzel and Nico Gonzalez Wisler produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.
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