Chris Soentpiet
Welcome to my story
My name is Chris Soentpiet (pronounced: Soon-pete!) By day, I paint magical worlds and create characters for children’s books…
It’s a pretty cool gig. I get to write my own stories, illustrate for other talented authors, and travel the world (in my imagination and in real life).
My origin story? I was born in South Korea, but grew up in Hawaii after being adopted by the Soentpiet family. Years later, while illustrating Peacebound Trains , I went back to Korea and reunited with my birth family. It was a full-circle moment that I’ll never forget.
From Pratt to Picture Books: I studied in New York City at Pratt Institute, where illustrator legends Ted and Betsy Lewin became my mentors and friends. They gave me the push I needed to turn my paintings into published pages.
Since then, my work has ended up in the New York Times , Newsweek , and USA Today —but my favorite place is still right here, in a book in your hands.
More Than Anything Else
The books I create are a reflection of my love for people, history, and culture. Because my stories find their way into classrooms around the world, I take my research very seriously – especially when I’m bringing a piece of history to life.
I don’t just read about the past; I try to step into it. I spend weeks buried in the library, and whenever possible, I travel to the actual places where my stories take place. Walking the same ground, sketching the scenery, and snapping photos helps me capture the soul of a setting.
All that attention to detail takes time. In fact, a single book can take me a year or more to finish.
Take my book “More Than Anything Else”, for example. On the cover, young Booker T. Washington wears a hat from the 1850s. To get that hat just right, I dove into library books on mid-nineteenth-century fashion. I studied not just the hat, but the fabric, the fit, and the colors of the clothing from head to toe. Every stitch you see on the page was carefully thought out before I ever picked up my paintbrush.
Molly Bannaky
Sometimes, my research leads to unexpected surprises. While working on Molly Bannaky , I painted a Holstein cow into one of the scenes. After the book was finished, a critic claimed that Holsteins didn’t exist in 17th-century America – only in England.
But I had done my homework. Confident in my research, I reached out to the Holstein Cow Association and asked them to verify the facts. They not only confirmed I was correct but sent an official letter proving that Holsteins were indeed in America during that time. It was a small detail, but getting it right mattered.
Peacebound Trains
When I was working on “Peacebound Trains”, a story centered on a Korean family, I made absolutely certain that every character was dressed in proper Korean attire. You would never catch one of my Korean characters wearing a Chinese cheongsam, a Japanese kimono, or an Indian sari. While Asian communities may sometimes share similar values or physical features, each culture has its own distinct identity, and I believe it is my job to honor those differences.
Once my research is complete, I invite live models to pose as the main characters. This helps me achieve a realistic and consistent look from page to page. Using everything I learned during my research, I personally style each model’s hair and makeup and dress them in historically accurate costumes.
A great example of this process can be seen in my book “Coolies”, which won the Parents’ Choice Gold Award. In that book, as in all my books, I photographed the models and used those images as reference tools throughout the painting process. This approach is very similar to the working method of my idol, the great Norman Rockwell.
Coolies
