A Paleo Diet children's book - an experiment in group creativity

[Muxel]

In some books every other page was just text, but those ones all had illustrations on the pages next to the text.

Come to think of it, the ones I read might've been that way too. But a firefly time-transition page could be text-free, for instance.

Question on the village – What should their lodgings look like?

That was a nice story! I thought of Chauvet and Lascaux cave art. Animals were bigger, "wilder" then. The Irish Elk (giant deer with giant antlers) still roamed. So did cave lions. A little touch of an Ice Age. I've seen pics of mammoth hunting and mammoth huts, but they look rather encyclopedic. Perhaps: ancient runes, Reiki symbols, white stone circles,... and a color palette that makes the whole thing look <magical/real>?

What is the context here so that we can present an appropriate lesson? This is a children's book for kids who have parents on a paleo-diet. It is not a kid's job to decide her own diet, so we are not teaching our heroine how to eat a paleo-diet exactly though that is part of it. We are teaching her why to avoid the numerous temptations to eat junk food when not eating at home.

Maybe the grandmother points out a modern bloated man in his office suit, with his burger+donut+coffee+soda, and how he is incapable of hunting.


Good luck finding paid assignments, NewOrleans!

 

[Z...]

Here is one idea :

- Pippi and Polly go for a walk and they see wild cows grazing on a field. Polly says she is thirsty and a glass of milk would be fine and ask Pippi if she could milk one of the cows. Pippi's jaw drops when she hear this first and then she starts laughing out loud and says that this is the most ridiculus thing that she ever heard and so on. Polly doesn't understand her response but when they get back home Poola explains her why they don't drink milk.

ps : i agree with others, i liked the idea and graphics very much.

Good idea just don't make them cows, make them mighty Auroch ( predecessor of modern cows)

New Orleans well done for the project. Love the graphics, they are engaging and funny, perhaps you can make the whole series with Pippi and Polly covering different topics, for example Pippi and Polly learn all about evil carbohydrates or something like that.

Added:
I would love to see Polly and Hyper-dimensional Pranksters, something on the lines of Keels work and Fort's recordings, of course it may be too 'out there" . But if I had kids I would love to educate them about this aspect of our reality.

 

[NewOrleans]

Herr Eisenheim...I like that as an idea.....I know just where to put that scene.
As for the second part: "Hyperdimensional pranksters", instead of "predators", would keep innocent kids wary but not freaked out. It has real potential to work. Knowledge, as we know, protects and kids need that. Will see how that might fit.
I HAVE BEEN sketching Paleo people, but nothing to show yet. I'm even DREAMING I'm drawing them, which is strange. I'm not a procrastinator, I just need to find some employment first. It feels like being Tom Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath" right now. Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[NewOrleans]

Well, finding full time employment is a little bit elusive. Rejection is all part of the design business, so one has to have a positive attitude and a focus on creativity to get through. I heard a lecture by Maurice Sendak once, at my college, where he said he could wallpaper his whole house with all the rejection letters he received before his books like "Where the Wild things Are" became famous. I keep that in mind as inspiration.

So I've had free time to devote to this PaleoDiet book. I'm not posting all the developmental sketches since that would just be too distracting to post all the character development, thumbnails and inkings that I've drawn from all the suggestions.

Instead, I started part- of-the-way into the story with one spread - for the look and style I'm thinking of. My gut feeling is that we really don't want this so convoluted intellectually and chock-full-of-backstory that we fail to make it fun. So my intention is to just jump in and do tryout spreads , making up the text as I go along. This is to be a bedtime story to be read aloud, so it has to have a childlike sense of drama and happy, uncomplicated pictures.

More to come...

edit: typo

 

[Kaigen]

:D looks great, I love the purple mammoth!

 

[whitecoast]

[quote author= Herr Eisenheim]I would love to see Polly and Hyper-dimensional Pranksters, something on the lines of Keels work and Fort's recordings, of course it may be too 'out there". But if I had kids I would love to educate them about this aspect of our reality. [/quote]

Even if the hyperdimensional aspect were too "out there", if you look at the children's stories that stood the test of time like fairy tales and such, they all are about teaching children to survive in adverse situations with psychopaths (even their parents, pre-Brother's Grimm). I think at that young age of 9 or so children start developing a conscious theory of mind (Timothy Wilson has cited studies that show children develop an unconscious theory of mind by age 4 or so). Maybe this point is a good window to start teaching children about the fallacies in our own thinking as well (each chapter of "You're Not So Smart" could be a short story on how our minds play tricks on us, for example). Sort of like ISOTM for toddlers or something.

Another thing I thought of, just a gnat, is that in a lot of children's stories they prefer to have character names starting with different letters, to avoid confusing the children. Just to throw that out there, heh.

[quote author= New Orleans]This is to be a bedtime story to be read aloud, so it has to have a childlike sense of drama and happy, uncomplicated pictures[/quote]

The simple pastel look to the pictures fits that style just right. ;)

 

[ScarletBegonias]

The pages look great so far to me, NewOrleans! I think the way you are writing sounds good for a children's book and cute mammoth too! Polly's clothes also look more appropriate, IMO.

 

[NewOrleans]

Dear Whitecoast. I think you're right about changing the names, it could get too confusing. I'm writing it and I'm already confused. LOL And I still have that hyper-dimensional prankster creature in mind...I'm thinking snake at the moment. Garden of Eden resident with maybe a Big Gulp soda to tempt her. Worth a try to figure out where/how it fits.
Thanks for the insights. Scarlet, your text suggestions are right next to me as printouts. I'm evolving the story. If I write it out and then slog through trying to match art to text, for me, it's going to get boring. Spontaneity is the driving plan behind this. Surprises. Also, I'm trying to GET Polly to this Paleo lunch in as few pages as possible, so I'm condensing quite a bit. There will be a front page or two as set up, so it would put this spread further in. Explaining, first, the sabre-tooth and her dad's occupation, why she wanted to go back in Time, etc. Every child has questions of "why?' that need to be explained.
Thanks for the encouragement. It's moving ahead.

 

[Jones]

Perhaps in one of the illustrations one of Polly's parents could be reading a version of SOTT in tabloid form. Nothing like a sneaky bit of advertising for adults :D

 

[DreamGod]

I can´t see the pictures

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I can´t see the pictures

I can see them when using Firefox and Internet Explorer. Maybe one of those can work for you?

 

[NewOrleans]

Here is a new installment to our story. I'm leaping ahead rather than doing a linear progression to get key scenes created. I felt that we had to face the Paleo-diet-means-meat-eating issue right up front in the story. For a modern kid, a dead-anima-as-food is shocking, and here our heroine Polly must come to understand that hunting is Life in the Stone Age. And Bambi is fiction. Coming from her drive-up-fast-food world, she starts to understand the reverence for life that the Paleo family has.

If anybody has a better idea, feel free to suggest it. Words can always be changed.

Then,as Paleo dad cooks over an open fire, Mama Paleo sits the two girls down to have a chat. Her conversation with Polly is gentle and informative and questions are answered. Children always have questions. We concentrate less of the BADNESS of sugar drinks and greasy fast food - we'll come to that a bit - but more on healthiness of real food because bodies were designed for that.

Well, that's where I'm going next...

 

[ScarletBegonias]

To me, the text looks like it could be justified to the right. Have you considered this? Also, I think it would look cleaner if there was more space between the text and the picture. Do you agree?

Here is a new installment to our story. I'm leaping ahead rather than doing a linear progression to get key scenes created. I felt that we had to face the Paleo-diet-means-meat-eating issue right up front in the story. For a modern kid, a dead-anima-as-food is shocking, and here our heroine Polly must come to understand that hunting is Life in the Stone Age. And Bambi is fiction. Coming from her drive-up-fast-food world, she starts to understand the reverence for life that the Paleo family has.

I think that's a good idea.

Then,as Paleo dad cooks over an open fire, Mama Paleo sits the two girls down to have a chat. Her conversation with Polly is gentle and informative and questions are answered. Children always have questions. We concentrate less of the BADNESS of sugar drinks and greasy fast food - we'll come to that a bit - but more on healthiness of real food because bodies were designed for that.

Easing the readers into the shocks is another good idea too, I think!

 

[NewOrleans]

Yes, justified to the right IS better, and I'll give more breathing room between art and text. Thanks again Scarlet. Good eyeballing. :)

 

[NewOrleans]

Here are that last page retooled plus a new one. I'm not sticking to a linear plan quite yet and haven't even gotten to the real Paleo diet talk.

I hope to establish a bridge of friendship between the two children, and show that creativity, play and pretend games are universal. Since I started this thing about Bambi, I thought it best to bring it up again as part of the cave girl's shadow play to get across the notion that eating and being eaten were realities in caveman times. And kids joke about danger. It'll make sense in the next scene to transition into the mother discussing meat eating and diet and the grand scheme of things in the world.

If anyone has any ideas about changes to the text please feel free to make suggestions. I'm happy to listen and learn.



(modified to correct grammar)