Tomorrow Logan's school is celebrating Young Author's (Authors'? Authors?) Day and Logan decided he would participate, but only if he could illustrate his book the same way I
did for
Ellia's paperbag swag book. Fine by me...it's becoming slightly addicting, that cut paper collage.
Anyway, we read through the requirements on the flyer sent home:
- the book should be written at home and must be the original work of the student, although there may be assistance in editing.
Book Components:- Cover: title, author, and illustrator
- Dedication page: who the book is written in memory of or honor of, location, and copyright date
- Title page: title, author, illustrator, and publishing company (Be creative!)
- Story: containing a main idea
- Illustrations/Photographs: any medium may be used
- End Sheet: a blank sheet of paper
- About the Author: biographical information about the author and illustrator using he or she
- Back Cover
Book Format:- All books should be bound in a way that does not interfere with the print or illustrations. Bindings might include staples, yarn, brads, stitching, tape, or a spiral. Any type of paper or writing utensil is acceptable. However, it should be clear, neat and legible.
Okay! That's a whole lot of information to process for a first grader. Lucky for Logan his kindergarten teacher spent a good amount of time last year teaching his class about authors and illustrators and their jobs as well as the anatomy of a book. And also? His mother is a fanatical collector of children's books and has been known to wax poetically about her favorite illustrators and authors. And another thing? His mom likes to make books from time to time...or at least she thinks about it; plus, she has all the equipment she would ever need to do such a thing.
So here's what we did: Logan sat down to brainstorm what his story would be...it was fantastical to say the least so I finally offered up some advice to save his patience and my sanity:
keep it simple! You only have a week to complete this book. You have all summer to work on your blockbuster Star Wars meets dinosaurs meets Bionicles meets Logan with a bow and arrow book. Then he totally A.D.D.-ed out on me asking what sort of things we were going to do this summer and I said, "Logan, I haven't even thought about it yet. What are somethings you would like to do?" From there he rattled off a gozillion things and then the lightbulb turned on..."Hey! Instead of writing about what I did LAST summer I could write about what I WANT to do THIS summer!"
Cue the ticker tape and confetti! The ball is rolling. He made a short list of things he wants to do this summer, decided on a title and then we worked on sketches for his illustrations. There was editing involved with reminders: relatively small pictures can only hold so much information before they are just a jumbled mess; getting too detailed is liable to make you lose interest before you're able to finish; oh! and keep it simple! Then we moved onto the publishing company business...he wasn't keen on making up a name until I suggested he use a play on words with our last name and then he came up with Lyons ROAR (has to be capitalized so that people know it's supposed to be loud) Publishing and the logo should be a roaring lion head with a fish in it's mouth (for no other reason than just because). Then he didn't want to draw his own version because he and Caleb both liked the little face I drew to illustrate his description (no big deal, I enjoyed making the logo). Then, in an effort to minimize his urge to use one of everything, I asked him to tell me the colors he wanted to use in his illustrations. We pulled all sorts of different papers out and chose his favorite patterns and textures and then put everything else away, on the shelves, in their containers, out of sight. Molly dumped all the fancy edged scissors and paper punches out on the floor and Logan decided which would be used for what as well as what shapes we would need to cut on the Cricut. We got to work assembling each of the illustrations.
How I wish I'd have thought to take pictures of the work in progress!!! UGH. I can't believe it didn't even cross my mind. Anyhoo, I typed up his story, mounted the illustrations and bound the book. Logan sewed the spine and only needed help untangling everything a couple times. Without further ado, I present
My Big Summer Plans written and illustrated by Logan:
I am so proud of Logan for being so creative, for asking for help instead of melting down and for listening to suggestions and then improving on them instead of ignoring them altogether. Sigh, my own little author/illustrator!
Updated to add a pic of him reading to his classmates. He was so excited and proud to share his book!
