Project Completion Report
Title and Abstract:
Be Brave Be Strong
I wrote and illustrated a children’s book about fears and how to address them. The story is titled “Be Brave, Be Strong”. I hope this story will help children and adults to push forward despite fears and anxieties about the future.
The title was originally “What If?”. I chose this because the lesson I was trying to teach was one my mom taught me about addressing the “what ifs” of life. As I wrote the story and developed the characters I decided to end it with my father’s mantra in life; be brave, be strong. He would tell my siblings and me his mantra every morning when we left for school. I ended up giving the finished book to my father for his birthday. He and my mom were really touched that I incorporated both the lessons that they tried to teach me. I wanted the ending message to stick with people. That is why I changed it to “Be Brave, Be Strong”.
Goals and Outcomes:
Project Goal
For my EDGE project I illustrated and wrote a children’s book about dealing with fears and anxieties.
The story is about a worrisome little hippo that can’t enjoy life, because he is too afraid of what could happen. He learns to face these fears by talking to his friends in the zoo. They each do things that frighten the hippo and he learns that he can do them too. As I brainstormed what the hippo would learn from each animal, I thought back to my childhood fears. This helped me realize that I have become braver and do hard things (like the hippo!). After I finished writing the story a drew and colored pictures to bring the story to life.
1-3 Outcome(s)
By completing this project, I improved my artistic skills in drawing and designing. I also learned and encouraged others to face their fears with courage.
When I started drawing each animal, the sketches were rough! As I kept practicing and changing little parts I finally achieved the pictures I had imagined in my head. At first, I became frustrated that the pictures weren’t perfect when I started. (they weren’t perfect when I finished either, but I still love them.) I learned to be patient and keep practicing. I started to put notes on previous sketches about what would make it better. This helped me change them little by little to get what I wanted. When I’ve drawn before, I would erase and erase until I liked what I sketched. I didn’t like to see the failures, so I erased them. This project helped me learn from past tries and mistakes.
During the process of writing this, I called and talked with my mom a lot. She helped me come up with ways for the hippo to face his fears. As we brainstormed, we chatted about how much we both have grown and faced fears. She shared with me that since reading my book, she has made a goal of facing her biggest fears. She wanted to start enjoying life a little more. I have also made this a new goal of mine. I’ve been trying to try new things and talk to new people. Someone I was surprised at being affected by my story was my older brother. My mom didn’t share any details but did say that he was very touched by it.
Deliverables:
In the end I will deliver a finished hardback copy of my book. I will also include digital copies of each page, my original storyboard, and preliminary sketches.
I will only be sending pictures of the book instead of a hardback copy. As I mentioned earlier, I gave the book to my dad for his birthday.
