My four-year-old daughter’s make-believe games, which are the basis for the picture book I have been making, are incredibly repetitive. Every day, and sometimes several time a day, the story of the hatching egg and its caretakers starts at almost the same point. There is no “Previously in the show..” type of summary. For children, this repetition is essential for training the memory. At the same time, as my daughter is re-playing the story over an over again, little details are being added, which eventually bring the characters to life, make them her own.
In the picture book, I am trying to maintain the balance between expressing my daughter’s childish, in the best sense of the word, approach to storytelling (keeping the characters and their appearance consistent) and maintaining the viewers’ interest by either introducing new characters or developing the main ones by showing their traits (clumsiness, resourcefulness, etc.)
Here is the latest episode:
“Ella was brave little Dinosaur for a one-day-old, so she left the eggshell and took the first step. Unfortunately, her legs were still not strong enough to hold her, so no matter how hard she tried, she ended up on the ground. But she wanted to play and run around with her friends so much!
The Girl had an idea: maybe Ella would run before she could walk after all!”
