There was a lot playing around in my mind, but when I finally found what seemed like the right story and character, and figured out Nimbus’s wants and needs and what she must overcome, things came together quite easily.” “Pegasus’s story did not pop into my head right away, which is why this book is coming out five years after my first.

“Since Kelp’s story felt finished to me, introducing a new character seemed like the natural way to go, but I had to make sure I was not making the same book again,” they said. Some said that Kelp’s tale reflects their own adoption stories, and I heard from people from LGBTQIA+ communities that it felt like a coming-out story.”įinding the right companion tale to tell was a challenge, Sima acknowledged. I had heard from a lot of readers and I knew that Not Quite Narwhal touched people in various ways.

When a story is meaningful to people, it’s important to me that I not betray the heart of it.

I knew I did not want to do anything that would detract from the original book. “Yet any time you have a book that does well there are a lot of different things to be nervous about. “My first book had a positive reception, and I have been very thankful for that,” they said. The success of Not Quite Narwhal put some pressure on Sima when the author decided to set a second story in Kelp’s universe. “I sometimes get asked what Not Quite Narwhal is really about,” Sima told PW, “but I always want to leave it open to individual interpretation.” Yet its companion tale centers on a young Pegasus named Nimbus who lives alone among the clouds until she finally discovers a sense of connection and community when she finds her people. Not Quite Narwhal, starring Kelp, a unicorn born under the sea into a narwhal family, is a story about fitting in, standing out, and the all-encompassing love of kin. Set in the same magical world as its predecessor, Perfectly Pegasus spotlights a very different character who is on her own unique journey. The author-illustrator’s debut book has sold more than 250,000 copies across all formats since its February 2017 publication, prompting S&S to order a robust 300,000-copy first printing for its follow-up, whose cover is shown here for the first time. Five years after Simon & Schuster released Jessie Sima’s first picture book, Not Quite Narwhal, the publisher will issue a companion title, Perfectly Pegasus, next February.

Perfectly pegasus book