Hannah the baby hippo

Hannah The Baby Hippo

This book is based off a children's book called giraffes can't dance, by Giles Andreae.

The book is about a giraffe who is awkward and can't dance like the other animals.
He feels left out and goes to dance by himself.
The other animals come to watch and discover that he is a good dancer in his own way. He is more graceful than the other animals and this lets him fit in with his peers.

The message of the book is to be yourself, because everyone has hidden talents.

I tired to incorporate this idea into my book by using a similar theme, and also using animals.

By using animals, and a theme with a good message, i have made my book suitable for children.

My book is called Hannah The Baby Hippo.
it is about a baby hippo, who doesn't fit in with the other animals. She cant run like the other animals, or even play with them without making a fool of herself by missing the ball or by being clumsy and just falling on the ground. This makes her very upset. All she wants to do is to be like the other animals, and to fit in.
By the end of the book Hannah discovers that everyone has secret talents and that using hers, she can play with the other kids and be herself at the same time.

I based the illustrations on various pictures I found online of cartoon baby animals.

I think this book is most suitable for children up to age 8.

I 

John Singleton: Boyz n the hood. 

I was at home looking for inspiration for what to do and I watched boyz N the hood and it  me to write my short story because the movie had a strong message and I thought it was a tops film so I took inspiration and wrote my short story after.

Singleton initially developed the film as a requirement for application to film school in 1986, and sold the script to  upon graduation in 1990. During writing, he drew inspiration from his own life and from the lives of people he knew, and insisted he direct the project. Principal photography began in September 1990. The film is known for being shot in sequence.

I enjoyed writing the story because i liked making up a story and imaging the characters in my head and imaging how they would act and the emotions they would feel and it was quite an interesting project to do.

The Lost Penguin

When tasked with making a children's book I had no idea as to what I would choose for inspiration. I went home thinking hopefully that there would be something to spark my imagination. I looked around my bookshelf's and discovered a book I used to read a long time ago, Lost and Found written and illustrated by by Oliver Jeffers. I made sure to keep the language simple in the story as this was meant for children.

I thought that it was perfect for my story. After reading through it, I decided that I would redo the story from the lonely penguins perspective. It starts off with a penguin all alone and looking for a friend. He travels around and ends up at a door. When the door opens there is a boy standing there.
The boy invited the penguin in and showed him the globe.



The penguin showed the boy where he was from.They set off on a journey in a boat. The boy told the penguin about animals and the world. Soon they arrived and the boy says goodbye to the penguin. The penguin chases after him, then they reunite and give each other a hug.

The theme of this book is Noveau which means new. I thought that this would tie in perfectly because in the story the penguin finds a new friend.

The book is handwritten and not typed, all the illustrations are hand-drawn too. I spent a while trying to get all of the illustrations to look right.

Tale as Old as Time

Tale as Old as Time 

when I was thinking about what I wanted to base this piece around when it was assigned to me, I had recently took part in a pantomime during the Christmas break. I found it so interesting how they modernize fairy tale stories and portray them in a different way.

This inspired me to write my own piece based on my favorite fairy tale Beauty and the Beast.

when I first began writing and designing this story, I wanted to try and modernize the story while at the same time keeping the integrity of the original tale 

This story is about a young girl who has a great love of books which I think is a refreshing idea to be revived in our world full of technology. She is an inspiring character for many young girls and shows great independence, bravery and drive throughout the story.

The character of the Beast also shows us that beauty is on the inside and people fall in love with your personality not your looks. This is shown when we see the love story between Bella and himself.
I decided I would would modernize the story by changing the names of the characters and using a more modern version of props than the original story such as a kindle instead of a book.
I designed the imagery  myself as I wanted to display what my imagination had created on to a piece of paper and make the physical booklet more personal.

 

I wanted to use some writing techniques for the reader to spot. I thought that a color would be a good way to represent a feeling in the story as even young children would be able to see the idea.

I used the color red to portray the feeling of love and happiness. This can be seen in the illustrations throughout the booklet such as, her red kindle and books shows her love for reading, her father’s red jacket shows the love she has for her father and the red rose shows the kindling love between Bella and the Beast.
Overall I think I have succeeded in modernizing this classic fairytale while at the same time keeping the integrity of the original story.

The Bird on the Roof

The homeboy, big E inspired my idea because he stole my amazing other idea. I wanted to do the banana taped to a wall. I then decided to base my story on the fire in Notre
Dame. I thought it would be interesting to set a story in the notre dame fire. I thought a story from the point of few of an animal not a human.

My story is about a bird who lived on the roof and has to fly away when the fire happens. The theme of nouveau is in the story through the bird having to find a new home, which ends up being a skyscraper, a new building. He looks back at his old home sadly but notices an abandoned egg on the floor. Maybe he can have kids.

The story of the book is all about new beginnings. The bird lives in a very old building, but he isn't happy there. The fire is a relief to him even if it destroys his home. The story starts at the birds nest, where he's restless and unhappy. His wife had left him and taken his eggs. He goes hunting but all he can find is some stale bread. He goes for a walk in the rafters. A fire appears and sets the wood on  fire. The bird has to fly through the fire and goes back to his nest, but the fire is there too. He has to fly away, choking on smoke and leaving his home behind. But he finds a new place to live, a modern skyscraper, where he finds a egg, hope for his future. He decides to raise it as it as his own.



The theme of this is nouveau. The bird isn't happy in the old building. But when it is destroyed he finds a new home where he is much happier than he was in the decaying church. The fire is like a cleansing force on the birds life and his depression after his wife left him.

The art that inspired this was notre dame cathedral. It looks cool and tall. It has pretty designs and two huge towers. I thought it would be good for the theme of new that its such an old building. It symbolises the bird going from old to new.

Girl with a Pear Earring

-Johannes Vermeer

I took inspiration for my book from the oil painting by Dutch Golden age Painter, Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring , which is dated at 1665.

It went by various names over the centuries but towards the end of the 20th century it became known by it's title today because of the large pearl earring worn by the girl portrayed.

Girl With a Pearl Earring tells the story of Griet, who's a 16-year-old Dutch girl who becomes a maid in the house of the painter Johannes Vermeer. She has a calm and perceptive manner which not only helps her in her household duties, but also attracts the painter's attention.

As you can see, the paintings background and my story are not very similar at all but one important similarity that is shown that in both stories she has so much attention on her from the painter finding her interesting to her being the most significant painting in the whole museum. The only difference is that in those stories the attention is a positive and the other is most definitely not that leads to detrimental results.

I chose this painting, not only because of its background and how I perceive it to fit into my story, I find the painting very beautiful and a lot of people say it can seem quite enchanting to look at as the viewer believes they have caught the the girl's attention. It is very sensual as the girl is gazing at the viewer with wide eyes and mouth slightly open so there is mystery about her identity.


I chose grey as my main colour for the book as it takes place in a museum so the only appropriate colour in that situation would be grey.
As well as that, in the painting she's a maid and never got to wear the nicest clothes so most of her clothes were probably quite dull and grey so it's appropriate there

To live up to the theme of grey I will colour the inside pages grey. The book will definitely have an element of grey but to match with the original painting I will use blues, blacks and yellows as well. The colours won't be that strong or vibrant but this will fit the theme of the old, dusty museum.

Overall this painting inspired my book immensely and it created my whole story that was quite interesting to write.

A New Beginning

Original painting.

The reason that I chose this painting because it taught me that I can interpret art any way that I like. When I initially saw this painting I viewed it as a father hugging his daughter. But then I noticed that it seemed as though the daughter was uncomfortable. Why was he gripping her so tightly? Why did she look distressed? Perhaps he was a stranger to her. These were the questions that began forming in my head and the seeds of a story began.
Plots and ideas came to me. I decided that they would be father and daughter but they would be strangers.
The fact that you cannot see either of their faces encourages the readers to come up with their own ideas of how the characters look. This means that each person that reads the book comes away with a different impression of who the characters are.




I was reminded of a novel that I had read when I was younger. It was called 'Back Home' by Michelle Magorian. In this book, Magorian writes about a girl returning from being evacuated. She only has a vague memory of her family and the life she lived before she was sent away.  Magorian introduces the concept of families being strangers because of separation during the war. She also writes about her character and the way in which she is expected to slot into the English way of life. She speaks and acts differently to her mother and siblings due to the amount of time that she spent in America.

I was intrigued by the idea of a baby being evacuated. This would mean that all the child would  know was the environment of the place that they were evacuated to. It occured to me that once the war over, these children would return home to strangers, and were removed from all they had ever known.


So therefore my idea for the story was as follows. My character had just come back from being evacuated. Her father, who was overjoyed to have his daughter back hugged her. But he was a stranger to the little girl and she cried for the family that she lived with for the last six years.


I wanted the readers to sympathise with both the daughter as well as the father and see both of their views.  Obviously it was clear that the daughter felt uncomfortable when her father hugged her. But it is easy to understand the emotions that the father felt once he was reunited with his little girl after six years. I decided to not mention anything about a mother because I wished to portray the idea that the father was alone in the world, which highlights the overwhelming joy at being reunited with his daughter.

Mood board

This is the mood board of the book and the painting. These tones are neutral and subtle. They are agreeable to the eye.
To me the colours represent different components inside my story. It is my opinion that the brown and dark grey that the father is wearing represents the grittiness, hardship and filthiness of the war. It adds to the idea of his loneliness. This colour is also displayed in the background of the painting which I had said was London. So to me this represents what London had gone through because of the war.
In comparison to this the little girl is wearing pale blue. I interpreted this to be a symbol of the hope that she was bringing into her fathers life. She is the only source of colour in the painting and her fathers life. In this way she is bringing joy and light back into his everyday. In comparison to this the blue also represents the empty sadness she feels inside. Her dress displays her emotional turmoil at being uprooted from everything and everyone that she ever knew and loved.

Because this was a short story it was required to have a beginning, middle and end. I ended the story with a sense of questioning for the readers. I wanted them to wonder about the fate of the two significant characters. How would the little girl adjust to her new beginning in London? What would her relationship be like with her father? Would she keep in touch with the American family and would she ever see them again? How would her mannerisms, accent and way of life differ from her father?
In this way I wanted to leave the readers with further questions about the short story.