Whether he’s visiting the ruins of Pompeii, New York City, or his hometown of Roanoke, Virginia, Theodore Taylor III is alert—he never knows where he might find an example of street art. (Yes, he’s found examples of the art form in all three places.) It’s long been a passion of his, one that he explores in his picture book Off the Wall (Roaring Brook Press, Oct. 11), which follows Sam, a Black child who feels out of place after moving to the suburbs from the city. Under the guidance of her cousin, Lincoln, Sam observes graffiti all over her new town and even finds a community of graffiti artists—experiences that parallel Taylor’s own life. As he tells Kirkus on a Zoom call from his home in Richmond, Virginia, he’s been photographing images of graffiti for years. “It’s just fun to spot things in places and wonder who did it.”

Taylor, 36, was introduced to the art form as a child playing Jet Grind Radio, a video game in which players skate through the streets of Tokyo spraying graffiti. On a high school trip to New York City, his interest grew. “Just seeing graffiti everywhere…it was fascinating to me.” After that, while staying with his grandparents in Washington, D.C., he visited Adams Morgan, a culturally and artistically rich neighborhood where he observed eye-catching murals. “[I saw] a lot of edgy public art, versus what I was used to in Roanoke,” he says.

Like his protagonist Sam, Taylor has found joy in coming across graffiti in unexpected places. Though Roanoke doesn’t have a big street art scene, a friend of his has shown him out-of-the-way places where it can be found. “He took me into a lot of random corners of the city where I would never think to go. And you see evidence of people having been there.” And on a trip to Pompeii, he was struck upon seeing ancient graffiti. Street art, he feels, is “just a thing people do,” a kind of universal urge to leave one’s mark.

In Off the Wall, Sam not only sees street art; she also meets local artists who are transforming an abandoned factory into a vibrant artistic space. Joining them, she finally feels a sense of belonging. Like Sam, Taylor initially struggled to find community growing up, often feeling out of place. “Most of my friends were White. I remember my grandmother asking why I didn’t have more Black friends,” he says. “I was also a nerd. All my friends were nerds.”

Although he loved art, his high school in Roanoke didn’t offer a lot of support. “They wanted to cut off our advanced art program,” he says. When he went to college, however, Taylor bonded with friends who shared his passion. “So that’s where that concept came from. Just finding my people.” He pays tribute to many of his friends within the book, weaving in references to people’s names in the graffiti art. “We lost a friend a few years ago. And I put his previous Instagram username, Kazma, on one of the trucks,” he says.

In college, Taylor began following local graffiti artists as well as muralists such as David Choe. Brazilian culture was also an influence; Taylor was drawn to Brazilian music and the film City of God. He drew inspiration from the art book Graffiti Brasil (2005) by Caleb Neelon and Tristan Manco. Whereas American graffiti tends to focus on words, he says Brazilian street art features depictions of human figures—something that readers will also notice in Off the Wall. “They just seem to have a lot more fun playing with characters.”

Though he’s a big fan, Taylor isn’t a graffiti artist himself, so when it came time to create the illustrations for Off the Wall, he was understandably anxious about getting it right. “I watched a lot of YouTube graffiti artists giving advice on how to draw graffiti…because I just wanted to make sure it looked authentic. And also I had some friends that I asked for advice as well.”

He adapted his own technique accordingly. “When you’re working with spray paint on a wall, you start with the color layer first and then work on top of that. It’s kind of the opposite of the way I work, where I do the linework first and then add the color. So I tried to just pretend I was doing graffiti, but on my iPad, basically, where I would just do the color first and then work on top of it.”

Though Taylor hopes that readers come away with a greater knowledge of the art form, he also wants to leave them inspired to find their people, just as he did. “If you’re feeling alone,” he says, “just go exploring. Just find people who have similar interests, because it’s important to have a sense of community.”

Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.