Month: March 2016

I am struggling with ideas as I cant draw and I have very little technical ability. So I’ve come up with a few ideas….

Idea 1 – little lost dog

The little lost dog idea was going to be a rhyming book which follows a dog that gets lost in his search back home. However, rhyming and creating a story that makes sense is very difficult. So I scrapped the rhyming idea and concentrated on the story of the little lost dog. In the story the little lost dog meets a rat who helps him look for the dogs owner, at the end of the story the owner adopts the Rat as a thank you for his help returning the little lost dog. While I was trying to create this story Mike mentioned that I should make the book about adoption as it is a difficult subject to approach with children.

Idea 2- Rat adoption

So adoption I have decided to try and re wrote the story so that it is from the Rats perspective. I’ve done it so he travels around looking for a home then he meets the little lost dog and his owner and finds his forever home. I think that this story is good at it shows that eventually everyone finds somewhere they belong. I had an attempt at drawing the rat and its safe to say hand drawing this isn’t an option unless I improve significantly.

Idea 3 – A book where the children draw the story

Since it appears I can’t draw I thought an idea might be a ‘draw your own’ children’s book where the pictures are started but the the children finish them. Or they can complete word searches and mazes to help the rat on his journey.

Idea 4 – toddlers touch/feel felt book

This is an idea if I am allowed to do it. I would physically make the book and fill it with zips, soft fabrics, loud materials, physical puzzles and other things that would keep a toddler entertained.

We’re going on a bear hunt will always be my favourite childhood book. There’s just something about it. I like the watercolours used they add a soft feel to this children’s book, which might be needed as the story is a little scary in parts. The story at face value is about a family who go on a bear hunt and have to overcome obstacles on their way. I think the real point behind this book is to teach children how to problem solve and overcome obstacles in their own lives. The artwork in this book isn’t perfect but it doesn’t need to be. One thing I have noticed about children’s books is that the artwork is rarely perfect, most children’s books take pride in being messy and hand drawn. Below are some examples of the children’s books I’ve looked at.

  

I also sat and read many books with my two year old sister as research for this project. I found that she got bored if the story was too long or the pictures were not bright. She loved ‘Guess how much I love you’. It’s a happy story about mummy rabbit telling baby rabbit how much she loved them. My sister is obviously younger than the age range I’m likely to target as my book will be intended for older children aged 5-10, but i can still get a feel about what children like and do not like. My sister hates long fairy tale books with less than 1 picture a page. Sticker books are very popular, and activity books might be a good idea. I will remember this when planning my ideas.

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