Although I didn't make the changes that either Annika nor Anthony requested, it's important to hear WHAT confuses your target audience, so that you have the chance to figure out how to address it, or, make the choice to not address it and accept the consequences. Here are a couple questions I got that had more to do with confusion over the artistic style than the story itself:
Q: Audre was confused when on page 4-5, all the objects are drawn in blue, while the rest of the images in the book are in full color.
A: This particular image was a stylistic (and unfortunately confusing) way to introduce the reader to the peaceful, quiet village that Centipede Dragon lives nearby. But I wanted the village to recede into the background in order to draw your eye to the upper left and right corners where Centipede Dragon first appears in full color, and then in the upper right corner, where he’s camouflaging himself.
Q: From August on page 10, why does the cord goes into the bubble?
A: You found one of my “Easter eggs,” where I connect what’s really happening in the scene to what Ben is imagining. It was meant to be a “sight gag” for adults.
There were suggestions I did take, honestly, like August's, where I put Ben in this scene and made the dream bubbles come from his head, to signify that the shearing sheep was HIS imagination. Also, another kindergartner asked that the cursive in the "worries" pages be removed, because kids are no longer taught to write in cursive. Never would've thought that!
And, the feedback over the kids' favorite part of the book was "...when the kids helped the centipede dragon to get better." Music to my ears!
Q: Audre was confused when on page 4-5, all the objects are drawn in blue, while the rest of the images in the book are in full color.
A: This particular image was a stylistic (and unfortunately confusing) way to introduce the reader to the peaceful, quiet village that Centipede Dragon lives nearby. But I wanted the village to recede into the background in order to draw your eye to the upper left and right corners where Centipede Dragon first appears in full color, and then in the upper right corner, where he’s camouflaging himself.
Q: From August on page 10, why does the cord goes into the bubble?
A: You found one of my “Easter eggs,” where I connect what’s really happening in the scene to what Ben is imagining. It was meant to be a “sight gag” for adults.
There were suggestions I did take, honestly, like August's, where I put Ben in this scene and made the dream bubbles come from his head, to signify that the shearing sheep was HIS imagination. Also, another kindergartner asked that the cursive in the "worries" pages be removed, because kids are no longer taught to write in cursive. Never would've thought that!
And, the feedback over the kids' favorite part of the book was "...when the kids helped the centipede dragon to get better." Music to my ears!
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