The Littlest Drop, authored by Sascha Alper and illustrated by Brian Pinkney, is a children's book inspired by a parable from the Indigenous Quechua people. It narrates how all animals flee from a fire, but a small hummingbird chooses to make a difference by bringing a single drop of water. The book’s development highlights the influence of Brian's father, renowned illustrator Jerry Pinkney, and the contrast in their artistic styles. The story ultimately conveys themes of environmental responsibility while providing a hopeful message about individual contributions, especially through the hummingbird's journey.
Birds sing in the trees, monkeys swing from branch to branch, snakes slither below, and a hummingbird has just built her nest when, all of a sudden, fire breaks out. The Littlest Drop is Sascha Alper's debut children's book, based on a parable from the Indigenous Quechua people of South America. In Alper's adaptation, all of the animals flee to the river - except the hummingbird, who goes to get one little drop of water, because that's all she can carry.
I spent my whole childhood watching him illustrate his books. I would come home from school and spend time in his studio and watch him while he was drawing. And I would learn how he worked. And then he would give me techniques and I would practice doing them in my own little home studio, which I had set up in my room.
It was kind of like a meditation in a way, because I literally was combining my dad's structure, like the architecture of his drawing, with my brushstroke. Where Jerry Pinkney was detail oriented, Brian is more fluid and impressionistic.
Sascha Alper says The Littlest Drop started out in her mind as an environmental book - there's two pages in the middle that are just of the fire, burning. But she says it's also broader than that: 'I really thought about this little hummingbird a lot. I really wanted a good ending for her.'
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