Creator Corner: Author and Illustrator Carey Sookocheff
Welcome to Creator Corner, a blog series where we interview the creators of our recent and upcoming books. For this post, we interviewed Gus Upstairs author and illustrator Carey Sookocheff, whose book published February 17, 2026!
Owlkids Books: Carey, why or how did you begin writing children’s books?
Carey Sookocheff: Despite always loving picture books, I started my career in illustration working primarily for newspapers and magazines. After having my two kids though, I decided I wanted a slower pace and to be able to tell my own stories, so I started reaching out to children’s book publishers.
Owlkids Books: What was the inspiration for writing this book?
Carey Sookocheff: My dogs! Our first dog was terrified to be left alone and would bark all the time, which caused a lot of friction with the neighbors. Our current dog is fine being left alone, but she loves to howl whenever someone plays a musical instrument. The main character Gus became a hybrid of these two dogs and inspired this story.
OKB: What themes or topics do you enjoy exploring in your illustrations?
CS: I love drawing dogs! And I like exploring ideas that I thought about as a kid—things that made me worried or scared or were funny to me as a six year old are usually good places to start.
OKB: What was the most enjoyable part of bringing this story to life? What was the most challenging part of the process?
CS: The writing part of this book was probably the most challenging for me—figuring out how the story went together and where the conflicts would be. I knew the beginning and the end, but figuring out the middle had its ups and downs. The rest of the process was wonderful! I loved working on the illustrations and trying out a new color palette, as well as collaborating and sharing ideas with the editor and art director.
OKB: What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
CS: That as long as we have empathy and understanding about a situation, we can always sort out our problems together.
OKB: What’s an interesting fact people may not know about you?
CS: I’ve been to almost every province and territory in Canada—only three more to go!
Thank you so much Carey for taking the time to do this interview and creating a wonderful book! We hope readers enjoy Gus Upstairs as much as we did!
Grab your copy today!
