Category: Free Inquiry Project

My Book

So, I know I said I was going to record a video of me reading my book. But I do not feel confident with I have to do that. So, instead, I am going to type out the dialogue and post the pages of illustrations I have.

Dialogue

Aarons Tour Of The Solar System

Page 1: Hi Friends! I’m Aaron, the antelope astronaut

Page 2: Today, we will be going on a tour of our solar system. Which means we will have to travel up into space in my rocket ship!

Page 3: Here’s my rocket ship! It can travel over 35,000km per hour, which is SUPER FAST, so we will be in space in no time!

Page 4: Okay everyone! Hop in and fasten your seatbelts.

Page 5: I hope you’re all ready. Can you help me count down? 3…2…1…

Page 6: BLAST OFF!!!!

Page 7: We are going to stop and visit each planet in order from closest to the sun to furthest to the sun.

Page 8: First stop, Mercury!

Page 9: Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system and, even though it’s the closest planet to the sun, at night time it can get as cold as -180 degrees celius.

Page 10: Next stop is Mercury’s neighbour, Venus.

Page 11: Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system and shines ALMOST as bright as the Moon and Sun.

Page 12: Look friends! It’s Earth! That’s where we all live. Earth rotates around the Sun once about every 365 days. That’s what makes a year!

Page 13: Welcome to Mars! Mars is SUPER bright and close to Earth. It’s very cold here, let’s move on to Jupiter.

Page 14: Jupiter is biggest planet in our solar system and rotates once every 10 hours.

Page 15: Here we have Saturn. This planet have 7 rings around it that are made up of ice and rock.

Page 16: This is Uranus, it is not very bright and is big enough to fit 63 Earths inside it.

Page 17: Wow! We are now at the last planet, Neptune! Neptune is the only planet we can’t ever see without a telescope.

Page 18: Time for us to head back home to Earth. I hope you all enjoyed the tour of out solar system. See you back on Earth, friends!!!

Illistrations

Here are the illistrations that were completed by Katelynn.

Final Update

This is basically going to be my final post. I do plan to make one more which will be a video of me reading my finished product.

My last update is another illustration from Katelynn!

Summary

Throughout these past 9 weeks, I have learned a fair amount about writing a children’s book.

First, I learned about brainstorming and creativity. I had to come up with a theme and a storyline, a character. All while making sure it was catered to children and not “copied”.

Second, I learned how to navigate Epic! Books. Epic! Books is going to be an extremely valuable platform for me to utilize in my future classroom. For my writing process, this helped me to get an idea of how children’s books are laid out and what type of language to use!

And third, I learned communication. I had to chat with the parents of my target-aged kids to get a sense of what kids these days are into. I had to communicate with my mum as she edited my writing and I had to communicate with Katelynn as she works on my illustrations.

WOOOHOOO! You are going to be as excited as that dog looks to hear that I finally have ONE sketch to show you! But first, let’s chat a little.

So, with the writing process being complete and edited there is not much for me to do besides wait for more art to come in. This week though, I thought it would be a good idea for me to practice my reading-out-loud skills. I picked up a couple children’s books from the library and forced my boyfriend to sit and listen to me read them. I worked on my tone and my expressions. I know those things are important for students to learn how to mirror and to keep them engaged in a story!

Okayyyyyyyyyy, here is the sketch. I think it is super cute and will work well for my story 🙂

This photo is how I am feeling about making this post right now…..

Like I said last time, I finished the writing process (WooHoo) and it is still crazy to me that I actually accomplished this. But, now I am struggling to think of things to say in my weekly updates.

This week, I did work on editing my writing. I read over it multiple times and fixed a few things I didn’t think worked. I had my mum read over it as well because another set of eyes will really help eliminate errors. She said that it sounds super cute and she thinks children will have fun with it! All she did was fix some grammar and changed a bit of the wording. I am now feeling confident in how it all sounds.

Impatiants and Nerves

Before I type this part I really want to emphasize how grateful I am to have a friend helping me with the art portion of this book (cause I suck).

But, it is so hard waiting. I want to have some of the drawings now and being patient is hard for me.

I am also nervous that they will not get done in time and that I will have nothing to show at the end of this.

I do understand that people have lives and drawing pictures for my book is not a priority. I just wish I could be in full control, but this is what I get for not being artistic haha!

Anyways, we will chat again next week!

Well, I believe I have finished the writing process!

I was super stressed at the beginning of this thinking “this is going to be the death of me”, but once I started and got into the swing of things, It felt easy! I flew through the writing process. Now, all I have left is to edit and wait for my illustrations to get done!

What Now?

Now, I have to edit. My plan for this is to go through everything I have, and re-read it in my head and out loud a few times to see if I have any lines that don’t work. I am also planning on showing my writing to a few of my friends who excel in English and getting their thoughts.

I am keeping in contact with Katelynn, my illustrator and she is working on the drawings as we speak!

As I mentioned in my last update, I no longer have many updates for you. I think once I am comfortable with the editing, I will share some of the pages to give a sneak peek hehe. Talk to y’all next week!

Welcome to yet another update attempt on my children’s book-writing journey. This was a bit of a slow week for me and most of them from here on out probably will be too. I am at the point where all I’m really doing is writing and editing. Since last week, I have edited and changed up the 12 pages of the book I already had. I feel like I am getting close to finishing that portion of it. When I say book writing is hard, I more mean that giving weekly updates on my progress is hard lol.

Illustrations

As you know, I have a friend of mine doing the illustrations for me. She also has a life and a job, so she has yet to get started. I had contact with her today and she said she is finally going to get started! I do not want to pry at her. I let her know that I would like to have it completed by the end of November and she said that should be possible, which is great!

Sorry again about the short and sweet updates, It’s kind of just the same stuff each week from here on out, but hopefully soon I will be able to give you some sneak peeks!

Hello and welcome

This is the fourth update on my book-writing journey! This week I’ve gotten, what I think is a really good start on the actual writing process. I blurred out most of the photo because I still want the final product to be a surprise and keep in mind, the title you see will most likely NOT be the actual one I use.

I have been struggling with the use of Epic! Books because it does not allow me to use it after 3pm, so I still have to get to checking out some other space-related books.

I have sent what I have so far to Katelynn and she is getting started on some drawing ideas for me. I’m so happy that she agreed to help me out because otherwise, this book would not look good!

These updates seem to be getting shorter and shorter, but just be patient, soon they will be more interesting I’m sure! my plans for this upcoming week are to of course continue the writing process, keep brainstorming art ideas with Katelynn, and hopefully, get into Epic! Books for some “research”. I’ll be back next week with more progress and hopefully some art to share!

Last week, I came up with my theme which is space!!! I took an astronomy course last semester and that sparked my interest. I also mentioned my plan to use an animal to give the “space tour” rather than a person, just to ensure it is inclusive to all. I was also lucky enough to have a friend agree to help me with the art portion and we have planned to meet once I have a better idea of what I’m looking for.

This week I focused on starting to write. Well, I didn’t exactly get s solid start, but I have been brainstorming with trial and error. Writing ideas, letting them sit in my brain, and revisiting them. I really want my finished book to be a surprise, so I will be stingy about what I reveal before I’m finished. I plan to give some sneak peeks of the art when that gets started, so get excited about that 🙂

Throughout this week and next, I plan to utilize Epic! Books and read some already written space-related children’s books to get some inspiration and to be sure I don’t write something too similar to someone else!

I will update more next week, thanks for following along!

Welcome to the beginning of my journey of writing my very own children’s book! I am so excited to see my creativity blossom and have you all follow along!

This week I worked on brainstorming. What topic do I want to write about? What is my target age group?

The steps I took to answer these questions included reading other children’s books for inspiration and having conversations with parents about what their children would be interested in. After doing so I decided my book is going to be aimed at kids aged 4-6 years old and it’s going to teach them about the planets in our solar system!

Sadly, I am not artistic whatsoever and children’s books require pictures. I am going to contact some of my friends who I know can draw well and see if they would be interested in helping me out!

Now, it is time for me to start laying out the story and figuring out how I’m going to make it fun, engaging, and educational. I’ll check in next week, see ya then!!