I recently had the pleasure of speaking to a 7th and 8th grade middle school class. I was there to talk about the design and flow of a book since they are tasked with putting together their school's yearbook. I had the great opportunity to read Prissy On The Moon to them, and quite to my surprise they wanted to shout and jump up and down like the younger kids do (unfortunately I couldn't allow it because 30 preteens could easily sound like a 100!).

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I started off by telling them that I’d always envisioned myself as an author/illustrator although I do not have a single illustrator/sketcher/painter gene in my body. But that did not stop me. I got out my trusty pencil and drew, traced, pasted, and designed my very own picture book dummy. The book was a total dud (as told to me by my husband who ultimately took up the task of illustrating it). 

It's still something I'm very proud of because if it wasn’t for the tragic outcome of that work, we wouldn’t have the finished Prissy On The Moon book that is now available. It was that simplistic, one-dimensional travesty that laid the groundwork for the finished product. It had good ideas that may not have been executed well, but was able to be reworked--so it wasn't a total throwaway. 

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I hope the lesson learned from my visit is that students should not be afraid to rework, redo, and edit. A lot of children, including my own, think that modifying their work is a negative strike against them. As anyone can see from my illustrations, many times one draft isn’t enough, constructive criticism can be helpful, and we don't instantaneously reach perfection. We’re not perfect artists, or authors, or students, or teachers, or parents; it’s okay to listen to others who love and care for our work.

I had to hear the hard truth that my drawings were not “ready.” Of course I could have had art lessons, and maybe could have gotten to the point where it was ready. I lucked out by having a husband who could take the lead. But that’s what we go to school for, and work, and teach our children: that if at first we don’t succeed, try, try again. Whether that be a picture book, or school work, or a yearbook.

I was able to show through the many Prissy incarnations, the many trial-and-errors, and working together that my husband and I were able to finally get it right. If there’s anything I want the yearbook class to take home is that our completed book didn’t happen overnight. It was a process. We didn’t keep it all in our head, we put it all down, and revisited it, and worked on it until we felt it was just right.

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