Becoming Authors & Illustrators

Today the Pine kids revisited an idea they thought of yesterday, creating books. While sitting at the table and drawing different emotions, J had the idea of gathering all of her pictures together and binding them with staples to create a book. Immediately, the others were intrigued and wanted to create their own stories too. 

Since the original idea stemmed from drawing pictures of different emotions, we began talking about what someone is called when they draw the pictures featured in books. 

"I think they are the drawers!" 

"Yeah, they make up all the pictures in stories and books."

That is when we introduced the idea of becoming illustrators. 

"We can make the pictures for our stories!"
But, if there was a name for someone who drew pictures for the stories, who are the people that write the words?

"They are the writers."

"Yeah they make all the words in the book."

"They make words on the pages!"

And so began our journey to becoming both authors and illustrators. 

Today, M and S dove back in on the project from yesterday. 

"I want to make a book called I Was So Sad (inspired by Mercer Mayer's I Was So Mad). I am going to write things that make me sad and draw lots of frowny faces."

M got to work. 

"I want to write all of the words first. I don't know if I want any other pictures, just frowny faces."

M began referencing the book for ideas as well as spelling certain words. He worked hard on identifying letters and spelling with as much accuracy as possible. 

On the other side of the table, S was hard at work herself .

"I want to staple all the paper together first and then draw the pictures. I stapled it first because yesterday when I tried making it I got mad that the pages were getting out of order. I want them to already all be in order. I am going to be the illustrator!"

About halfway through S working on her story, she pushed the papers away and leaned back in her chair.

"This is a lot of work! I didn't think it was going to take this long."

S was starting to get a bit worried and exclaimed, "I just don't know if I will be able to finish in time!"

M looked up from his book with a confused look on his face. 

"I don't think I will finish either!"

After a few minutes of chatting, both kids were put at ease when realizing there wasn't any deadline that they needed to meet. In fact, they could take as long as they wanted to create a story. They both decided that it was okay if they didn't finish today and could work on it tomorrow. 

Both M & S took two different approaches in how to create their books. M wanted to write all of the words first and not worry so much about the pictures. S created pictures with a lot of colors and details. Neither one criticized the other for creating their book the way they wanted to. It was inspiring to see both M & S work side by side, sharing materials, and accepting that there wasn't a wrong way to create something they were passionate about. 

I am looking forward to seeing how the books turn out and hope we can display them for everyone one to read once they are finished.