The Make-A-Book Project and author-in-residence program school photographs. Pictured here are all four of the aerial-view school photos. Kids standing in the shape of a bicycle, worm, butterfly and cupcake.
Illustration ideas by subject
Sometimes we give students a sentence to illustrate and other times we just give them a subject.

Thinking outside the words

I continue to learn how to work with the various ways kids learn and create. Some students prefer to illustrate an actual sentence from the book, which requires a more literal interpretation; while other students prefer a more conceptual approach. In the photo above, a student studies keywords for missing pages in the book, including a few extra key phrases to see if they would generate any creative drawings — and they did! — so I then rewrote the book to fit the new pictures. One of my favorite pages not in the original manuscripts is about the worm astronauts. Worms indeed have been sent to space in NASA experiments.

And below two students collaborate on one picture. It is quite common to see this level of cooperation at the STEM school. Still, it amazed me to witness the students so lost in the passion of the drawing that ownership never crossed their minds. Sometimes I would ask some students to illustrate a background image and others to illustrate the subject, which I would combine on the computer.

Two students collaborate on one picture
Two students collaborate on one picture. It is quite common to see this level of cooperation at the STEM school. Still, it amazed me to witness the students so lost in the passion of the drawing that ownership never crossed their minds.
Art class illustrating Ruby the Red Worm
One of 18 art classes at the Waukesha STEM Academy charter school is working on their drawings for “Ruby the Red Worm’s Dirty Job.” It has been a privilege to work with this school. The kids have been overwhelmingly energetic and creative.

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More stories about the making of this book

Ruby the Red Worms Dirty Job book cover title screen

Cover Design Challenges

The new book, Ruby the Red Worm, is finally here! Perhaps no one is more surprised how beautiful it is then me, especially the cover!

Elementary students looking the map of Scott's adventures

Story Time

As a bonus, the school book project begins with the story about my quest for happiness around the world on a bicycle, with an emphasis on how to create dreams into reality.

Colorful Gummi worm cupcakes being served on a silver platter.

Gummi Worm Cupcakes

Here’s a very strange coincidence. Guess what!? “Dirt cupcakes” with grass and a gummi worm on top. Bizarre!

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