Blur

This past week has been a blur.

What I did:
- Read/research children's books and proper books for certain audiences (2 hrs)
- Research Caldecott winners/authors/illustrators (3 hrs)
- Brainstorm and collect ideas for story lines (2 hrs)
- Talk out my ideas with various people (2hrs)
- Storyboard both ideas (2 hrs)

What I accomplished/encountered/discovered:
     I have decided that my target audience is 5-8 year olds. From the articles I've read, five year olds are beginning to read and understand more complex stories. Eight year olds are the cutoff because they begin venturing into chapter books. In addition, I would like my book to be something that an adult would not necessarily pick up for fun, but enjoy nonetheless.
     This weekend, I finished reading the books I checked out from the Ann Arbor Public Library and I decided to make a list of things I liked and didn't like about the science books vs. the recommended books. That list ended up as me quickly deciding that it was crucial that my book told a story, not just science facts. It was then that I starting researching past Caldecott winners. It was amazing how many books on the list I remembered from my childhood. Caldecott Medal & Honor winners (Fun fact: the Caldecott winning author and illustrator of "A Sick Day with Amost McGee" attended my brothers' high school and they currently live in Ann Arbor. How cool!!)
     Caldecott Medals are awarded to the most outstanding children's picture book each year. The fun thing about picture books is that some have words and some don't, but all have incredible storytelling abilities. Last week the librarian recommended I look at "Flotsam" by David Wiesner. Absolutely beautiful pictures (see last week's post) and a whimsically enchanting story; all with no words. After stumbling upon the fact that Wiesner has three Caldecotts (!!!), I decided to look more deeply into his style and his stories to see what is making such an impact on children and adults alike. Basically, Wiesner is a trained illustrator who lets his imagination run wild. I also think the absence of words allows the reader to compose their own story to accompany the playful visuals. While on David Wiesner's website, I found a documentation of his process. How awesome is this? I will be using it as a guideline to making my own book.
     Wiesner's genius got me thinking about using the visual's of the story and not relying so much on the words. I like writing, but I am an artist first. So in addition to the idea I had with the short poems about bones, I began coming up with more subtle story lines. Obviously these need fleshed out more so more feedback is appreciated. I was able to run my ideas by various housemates, classmates and family members. Anyways... here goes:
          Idea 1:  A girl, let's call her Sally for now, is sitting in her science class. She looks bored so she opens up her textbook to a picture of a skeleton. Sally looks up and her teacher fades to a skeleton (with glasses of course) and continues writing on the board. The rest of the class carries on as usual. Sally turns the page to the muscular system. She looks up again and she sees a classmate's muscles flex as he throws a paper airplane. Back to the book. It's the digestive system and Sally watches a classmate's apple travel down their esophagus and straight to their stomach. Next it's the respiratory system. The person in front of Sally breathes in and his lungs get big and quickly deflate as he sneezes. The bell rings and I'm still not really sure how to wrap up this story.
          Idea 2: A girl is sitting on a doctor's table with a cast on her arm. The she and the doctor look at xrays. On the way out she finds a pair of glasses on the floor. She puts the on and the people in the waiting room are all skeletons. She takes them off and they are normal again. She looks at her arm and can see the bones and the break, just like in the x-rays. When she gets home, she looks at her cat... her fish... her mom... the ballerina on tv. A friend compares his whole arm to her broken one. Time passes and her arm eventually her arm heals. She can see it healing. There would be a page made up of little boxes. She is in the same pose in each of them, but she is wearing different outfits and the arms shows healing to indicate passage of time. At the end, she goes back to the doctor's to get her cast off. She leaves the glasses on a table in the waiting room for another child to find.... and one does.
               [I may or may not have subconsciously gained inspiration from this music video I found about a year ago, forgot, and remembered again just now.]
          Idea 3: A book of short poems about different bones in the body. A page for each set of bones. (hand bones, foot bones, tibia & fibula, femur & patella, pelvic girdle, vertebrae, sacrum & coccyx, ribs & sternum, clavicles, scapula, humerus, radius & ulna,  skull, mandible, ear bones? ~15 pages.) Ideally, this would be an interactive book (e.g. pull tabs to wiggle the phalanges or elevate/depress the mandible). Poems would be short for example: "In the vertebrae family, there are 24 in all. When they do their balancing act, they keep you standing tall." or "Radius and Ulna are quite the pair. Look at your forearm, you'll find them there."

What's next:
     I have reserved more of Wiesner's books as well as "Dem Bones" (a librarian's suggestion) from the Plymouth District Library back home. AAPL sadly did not have them,  so I will pick those up this weekend. While I'm there, I will make a point to speak with the children's librarian there (and maybe even some kids too!). They just redid the whole basement into a children's section so there will be plenty to look at and talk about.
     By Tuesday I will have my storyboard done and ready to go so I can have some pen drawings done for Thursday. This also means I should stop by Hollander's and buy some big watercolor paper/illustration board.
     Also, I want to try and get in contact with Erin and Phillip Stead, local illustrator and author  of the Caldecott Medal winning book "A Sick Day With Amos McGee"