Picture Book Author's Note: First Draft

Picture Book Author's Note: First Draft

My story is in the style of a story told a long, long time ago. It was written sometime around the year 1007 or 1008, in Japan. The author’s name is unknown, so people gave her the nickname Murasaki Shikibu. Her novel, The Tale of Genji, is considered the first psychological novel. It is 54 chapters long, and all in a Japanese format called emakimono, emaki. Emaki, or narrative picture scroll, is a format where novels were written on scrolls, and the text and illustrations would be on the same scroll. So Murasaki’s novel was basically an ancient, Japanese, 54 chapter long picture book.

I chose to write and draw my picture book in this emaki style because one of my favorite video games, Okami, is also told in this style, just animated. It play as a white wolf named Amaterasu, who’s the sun god in the game. I tried to draw most of the pictures in emaki also by using watercolor (And by that I mean the watercolor tool on the drawing app I have on my iPad Air 2).

I wanted to teach the lesson don’t be afraid of what you don’t know. I feel like it encompasses all the social issues. When people don’t know about other people, they sometimes discriminate them because they’re scared of what they can do. But if they just talked to them and learned about them, they’d see that they are just like them. This applied in racism, homophobia, and bullying. I hope my story shows kids that things you don’t know about can be perfectly harmless.

Synthesis Page #2: Lara's Gift

Synthesis Page

Lara’s Gift by Annemarie O'Brien

Critical Thinking Question: Who has “power” in your text? How does that power get shown?

Example #1: Bohdan

Quote:

• [After Lara’s mother refers to the unborn Bohdan as a he, Lara says to the reader:] “Every mention of the word he fed my heart bitter bites of poison.” (pg 41)

Elaboration:

Lara’s brother, Bohdan, even though he is just a little baby, has a lot of power over Lara. This is for one simple reason; he is a boy. Lara wants to take over the dog breeding business after her father, but since she is a girl, she can’t do that if there is boy in her family, even if that boy is younger than her. Before Bohdan is born, Lara is all set to take over the kennel. But when her mother gets pregnant, everyone wants the baby to be a boy. Everyone except Lara, because if it’s a boy, then she can’t carry out her dream of working with the dogs. Lara shows this hatred for people who want him to be a boy in the quote above. Many countries and jobs in the real world put men above women, as they do for Lara.

Example #2: Lara’s Father

Quotes:

• [Lara’s telling her father about her vision, when he interrupts her and says:] “Not another word. . . . Speak of this to no one.” (pg 7)
• [After Lara proves herself to be able to take over the kennel even after Bohdan is born, the father says:] “I suppose we could have two kennel stewards.” (pg 167)

Elaboration:

Lara’s father has the biggest power over Lara in the book. He decides whether Lara can still be in charge of the kennel after Bohdan is born (as shown in the second quote), who Lara is married to, and whether she can go on hunts or not. He even tries to stop Lara from having vision from the future, as shown in the first quote, even though he can’t control that. Lara, who looks up to her father and recognizes his power, does mostly whatever he says, even though she doesn’t like most of his decisions. Like Lara’s father, fathers and parents in the real world have more power than their children, and in some countries the parents arrange their kids’ marriages just like Lara’s father can.

Example #3: The Tsar

Quotes:

• “Sending Zar [Lara’s talented dog] to the Tsar is the best choice for the kennel.” (pg 163)
• [After being told Zar should stay with her, Lara says:] “Nyet, he has to go to the Tsar. A promise is a promise. . . . Alexander’s family [The family of the Count] would lose favor with the Tsar if we don’t.” (pg 162)

Elaboration:

The Tsar, or the king of Russia, has power. Besides the obvious reasons, like him being the ruler of the land, the Tsar is so powerful that Lara decides that Zar would be better off with him, even though Lara loves Zar with all her heart. She raised him since he was a baby pup. But when the Tsar asks to have him, Lara, after much consideration, decides that she want Zar to be with such a powerful being, as the quotes above show. The Tsar, being Russia’s king, has the same power that many kings in the real world’s past had.