< 'Emergency Quarters' are for pay phones (remember those?) in a new book by ‘90s kids

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

A couple of years ago, author Carlos Matias was living in Florida and feeling nostalgic for his hometown.

CARLOS MATIAS: And I just started writing, like, little short stories about New York, and then I started submitting to The New York Times Metropolitan Diaries. I had no idea it was going to become a picture book.

RASCOE: It follows a little boy, Ernesto, on a pretty momentous day. He gets to make the trek to school without his parents. The book's called "Emergency Quarters."

MATIAS: Growing up, when I first started to walk to school by myself, my mom would give me a quarter every single day, you know, tell me, if you need me or if you're going to come home late or if you're going to hang out with your friends, give me a call, and let me know. So I was a young Carlos running around with a bunch of quarters in his pockets back in Queens.

RASCOE: Ernesto throws on his lucky kicks and his favorite Mets cap, Matias writes in his debut children's book. Feeling fresh, he says to the mirror. But before he can sneak out the door, his mother stops him. For emergencies, Ernesto, she whispers covering his right hand with both of hers. If you need me, look for a pay phone.

MATIAS: Now when I do story times and stuff, I have to always start off with asking the kid, do you know what a pay phone is? And I get the funniest answers.

RASCOE: Kids, if you don't know what a pay phone is, call me collect, and I'll tell you. For our series, Picture This, author Carlos Matias and illustrator Gracey Zhang talk about how they partnered to make Matias' childhood come to life.

GRACEY ZHANG: So actually, for each book that I work on, I kind of like to focus on a specific feeling or object that I want to evoke. And when I read Carlos' text, immediately, I was like - 'cause I knew the story was in the '90s and had pay phones, and my immediate visual clue was '90s windbreakers. I would say this story has almost, I think, '90s sitcom show colors that kind of informed a lot of the clothing that the characters wear.

MATIAS: Every time I look at the book, I'm making new connections with the illustration. So when I hear you see '90s sitcoms, I'm like, oh, wow, because I was like - you know, I grew up, like, on "Fresh Prince," "Martin," "Wayans Bros." You know, and it was like, the clothes were, like, flashy - like you mentioned, the windbreakers, the warmups, the Jordans. And now that you mention that, I'm like, oh, wow, I definitely see those colors in here.

ZHANG: This one was a really fun one to work on, I think, 'cause we're both '90s kids.

MATIAS: Yeah, I remember, like, early in the process - I don't know if you remember, Gracey, but you asked me for, like, reference images.

ZHANG: I did. I was almost like, can I have your childhood photos? But I didn't want to be too creepy.

MATIAS: (Laughter).

ZHANG: So instead, what I did was I stocked your Instagram until I found a photo of you as a child, and I was like...

MATIAS: No way. You never told me that.

ZHANG: (Laughter) I know. I actually do like to stalk my authors just a little bit if the story feels a little bit more autobiographical.

MATIAS: Yeah.

ZHANG: And so I did do some minor stalking.

MATIAS: Wow. No wonder. Yeah, you really nailed it. One thing I loved was, I remember sending you photos of Lemon Ice King and La Cabana, that restaurant that we actually went to after the book wrapped up. I didn't think they were going to make it into the book. But yeah, like, one thing people always mention now that are from Queens are like, oh, my God, the Lemon Ice King. Oh, my God, the Dominican fritura restaurants. So the fact that, like, those actually made it on there, these famous places - that was pretty cool.

ZHANG: Yeah. So I, like, always work traditionally for books, and so I usually work on pads of paper that are 18 by 24 inches. So I like to work bigger than the book is actually being published as so that when it's scanned, the image is not blown up, but it's shrunken down. From there, I do black ink for the line work. And for the color, I use gouache paints. Sometimes, there are points where I'm, like, painting - I'm like, why do I work so big?

MATIAS: (Laughter).

ZHANG: Like, when my wrist is getting tired.

MATIAS: Oh, wow. That's interesting. Yeah, 'cause I know when I'm looking, there's just, like, all these little details. Like the air conditioner - I think there's a guy on the roof just hanging out.

ZHANG: Oh, yeah. I feel like New York - those air conditioners are such a strong part of the city.

MATIAS: Yeah. Where I grew up - again, in Corona - that's - you know, there's some places you go that you'll only hear Spanish. So I definitely wanted to keep that Spanglish, if you will.

(Reading) On Wednesday morning, he can feel his three quarters jingling in his pocket all the way to school. He knows his mother is never far away. (Speaking Spanish), seventy-five cents. Ernesto loves Senora's Mayra (ph) fruit juices. They make him big and strong. (Speaking Spanish), Ernesto? The bright tropical drink reminds Ernesto of summers back in the Dominican Republic. Thanks, Senora Mayra, but I'm saving these limited-edition quarters.

ZHANG: Such restraint at a young age.

MATIAS: I feel like in the story, as you can tell, between Ernesto saving up his quarters and the conversation he has with his mother, that they might not have as much as the people around him, you know? But he still remains hopeful through it all.

ZHANG: Yeah, I feel like all of these decisions - from a child's POV, these are, like, big, big responsibilities. Like, you're entrusted with an emergency quarter. My mom did not trust me with any coins.

MATIAS: (Laughter).

ZHANG: And so I would just, like, rummage through the house for whatever spare coins to buy myself my own snack.

MATIAS: That's such a little mischievous kid thing to do. Just...

ZHANG: Oh, yeah. I was like, Ernesto and me?

MATIAS: Yes.

ZHANG: I understood him.

MATIAS: (Laughter) The character resonated with you.

ZHANG: I think there was just this period where kids almost had less distractions. I mean, not to sound like an old person yelling at the sky, but there was no, like, social media. It was a little bit more unplugged. I grew up in a small town outside of Vancouver. We didn't even have pay phones. We would just walk to school. So this sort of young independence really spoke to me where it's like, yeah, the kids will be OK. They'll figure it out.

MATIAS: I miss those times.

ZHANG: Miss those times (laughter).

MATIAS: Oh, jinx. (Laughter) Yeah, that's true. Yeah, it's a little bit of both, you know, of that freedom but, you know, like in the book says, the mother's never far away, right? So you're like, oh, I'm independent. I can go experience the world with the comfort of knowing my parents are still right there behind me.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AS DAYS GO BY")

JESSE FREDERICK: (Singing) It's a rare condition, this day and age...

RASCOE: That was author Carlos Matias and illustrator Gracey Zhang talking about their children's book, "Emergency Quarters." Our series, Picture This, is produced by Samantha Balaban.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AS DAYS GO BY")

FREDERICK: (Singing) Well then there must be some magic clue inside this gentle walls...

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