[Reprint] Our First Picture Book

The first batch of pic­ture books cre­at­ed by the chil­dren of Han­miao Stu­dio!Orig­i­nal address:Our first pic­ture bookauthor:Han and Miao
The teach­ers Bird, Bear, and Rab­bit who made the pic­ture books, as well as sis­ters Zijia and Xiaox­i­an, have been tutor­ing the Han Miao chil­dren for some time. The chil­dren have accu­mu­lat­ed a cer­tain amount of intu­itive under­stand­ing of pic­ture books, so we should try to make a pic­ture book our­selves.
In this class, Teacher Dax­iong fold­ed two pieces of paper in half and sta­pled them togeth­er in the mid­dle to cre­ate a pro­to­type book with a front cov­er, a back cov­er, and four pages of text. He then asked the chil­dren to draw a sto­ry. A sto­ry has a begin­ning, a mid­dle, and an end. Each page should pave the way for the next page, and the sur­pris­es when turn­ing the pages run through the whole process. As for the sub­ject mat­ter, Teacher Bird still hopes that every­one can give full play to their imag­i­na­tion with­out any con­straints. He only made one request: “four legs, two legs, no legs.” This means that the char­ac­ters in the pic­ture book should haveFour-legged(horse, cow, sheep, ele­phant, giraffe, zebra, lizard, croc­o­dile, etc.),Two-legged(chick­ens, ducks, cranes, pen­guins and oth­er birds, bipedal dinosaurs, and your­self, because humans are also two-legged ani­mals),With­out legs(Snakes, earth­worms, snails and all fish) — Of course, this is just an inspi­ra­tion. When chil­dren are not yet able to make up sto­ries inde­pen­dent­ly, it is nec­es­sary to give them some hints. It is okay not to fol­low this, as long as the final effect is achieved.
Draw­ing pic­ture books isn’t easy. Teach­ers, work­ing in this field, under­stand the chal­lenges involved. Yet, the young­sters’ per­for­mance once again amazed the adults. Many inter­est­ing, well-orga­nized books were cre­at­ed. Every­one gath­ered around to share their own sto­ries, mak­ing every­one laugh. It was a tru­ly won­der­ful feel­ing. Hon­est­ly, Bird Hero was quite moved by every­one’s hard work, cre­at­ing our first pic­ture book.

Wow, there are so many legs in the stu­dio today. Teacher Bird, what are you doing?

Look, what legs are these!

What’s the deal with four legs? Who can tell me?

What about two legs? Tell me!

What are the things with­out legs? Well, let’s think about it…

Teacher Bird’s expres­sion is scary.

He is actu­al­ly quite fun­ny.

Let’s draw a book with crayons.

Because it is a pic­ture book, the feel­ing of turn­ing the pages is very impor­tant.

Teacher Bird sug­gest­ed that Yi Yi enrich the pic­ture.

Teacher Dax­iong helped the chil­dren record sto­ries with a very seri­ous expres­sion.
Xiao­di gave her­self a big sur­prise.

It turns out that the paint­ing is about the col­or fam­i­ly!
Miao­miao and Big Claws.Every­one’s book.

This is the ugly duck­ling brought by Congcong’s par­ents. It’s a lit­tle timid, but actu­al­ly very cute.

The chil­dren in the after­noon are old­er, so they do the book-bind­ing work them­selves.

The ele­phant is watch­ing.

Big Bear is guid­ing.

Final­ly, a book order­ing expert has to come.

We con­tin­ue to talk about four legs, two legs and no legs. Child No. 98 is catch­ing a mouse on the black­board.

Xue Rong thought about it, what kind of sto­ry should he make up?

Lit­tle Maodou caught the mouse on the black­board and put it on the paper.

The two broth­ers dis­cussed it togeth­er.

Xiaoyin pon­dered for a moment, then calm­ly, res­olute­ly and coura­geous­ly began to paint.

These two broth­ers also need to dis­cuss this.


Maodou’s work on the black­board is quite impres­sive, and his pic­ture book is actu­al­ly very relat­ed to his black­board draw­ings. On the black­board, the mouse is def­i­nite­ly at a dis­ad­van­tage, but in the pic­ture book, the mouse ulti­mate­ly tri­umphs. With­in the same time and space, a child’s think­ing is con­tin­u­ous, regard­less of the medi­um used.

I will leave my baby in the care of Teacher Yang Tuer, and I can rest assured.

I qui­et­ly looked at Xiaoy­in’s progress, and Xiaoy­in’s lit­tle mon­key qui­et­ly glanced at me.

Oh yeah, we’re almost done, every­one.

Add a few more details.

Xiaoyin has start­ed draw­ing her sec­ond pic­ture book.

Now that every­one has fin­ished draw­ing, why not play a lit­tle game? Big Bear orga­nizes the chil­dren to draw… What to draw… Draw­ing toi­let paper!

It was real­ly fun, a long scroll was cre­at­ed.
Haha­ha, it’s such a big cir­cle!

Such a pleas­ant day ends like this!
 
 
Our first pic­ture book
(Note: The chil­dren took all their books home, so I will briefly dis­play them here. Some chil­dren drew two books, and I will focus on the one that worked best. Order: Ran­dom)



Col­or Finds Friends by Miao­miao


Pur­ple and yel­low are good friends.


Yel­low said, “Let me ask my friends to come and play!”


Yel­low’s friend is orange.


Pur­ple said: “I have friends too!” Pur­ple’s friend is Blue.


Blue also calls its friend, which is green.


Orange’s friend is pink, and every­one is a good friend.


back cov­er.
【Com­ments】
   
Miao­miao made a col­or­ing book. Even though it was just col­or­ing blocks, you could still see the flow of thoughts and the sto­ry was very inter­est­ing.
    I hope Miao­miao will be bold­er and try more spe­cif­ic images.
 

The Lit­tle Chick­en and the Big Coconut by Li Jiashun (Shun­shun)


(The brown thing next to the chick is a fall­en coconut.)


(Note: There are clouds in the sky, mak­ing it less sun­ny. The chick­en is very hap­py.)


(The blue one rep­re­sents the big “Ah–”)

Back cov­er. Shun­shun said that these lumps are all coconut poop left by the chick­ens after they have eat­en their fill.
【Com­ments】
   
Shun Shun’s book is sim­ple, with a clear sto­ry­line, and he knows how to use the back cov­er to extend the plot, which is very good.
    The col­ors of the coconut trees in the last few pic­tures are a bit messy, which is caused by too much rep­e­ti­tion. Next time, try chang­ing the com­po­si­tion. A fresh feel­ing can bring a lot.

Three Green Eggs by Yi Yi

back cov­er.
【Com­ments】
   
Yiyi is a girl who is still in the graf­fi­ti stage, but she already has a good sense of col­or and shows signs of orga­niz­ing sto­ries.
    There are three green eggs in the first pic­ture, pink clouds float in to play games in the sec­ond pic­ture, and more col­ors are added in the third pic­ture. The lines on the back cov­er are also full of joy.
    There is a car­ni­val of col­ors in Yi Yi’s mind.
 

The Chick­en Goes to Town by Gege

(The princess empha­sized that this is not a cat, but a lion. The chicks and eggs are in the lion’s stom­ach, you can’t see them, but the princess and the lit­tle prince know both.)

(The green ones are coconuts, they fall down.)

The back cov­er is also signed.
【Com­ments】
   
In chil­dren’s minds, being eat­en is just the door to anoth­er world.
    Each of Gege’s paint­ings is both inter­con­nect­ed and self-con­tained. In the sec­ond, the egg trans­forms into a chick, cre­at­ing its own world. This can be inter­pret­ed as the lion in the first paint­ing hav­ing a world and sky inside its bel­ly, com­plete with coconut trees. The chick is hap­py, and the lion is no longer a con­cern. The eagle in the third paint­ing is inspired by the chick, and in the fourth, the mind is even more free-spir­it­ed, free from restraint.
    Inter­est­ing­ly, the third and fourth paint­ings pay spe­cial atten­tion to the cos­tumes and depict them in detail, which is a stage unique to girls.



The Lit­tle Chick­en Eats a Big Pear by Cong Cong

 (There is a pro­logue before the first page, which is about a pear and an egg with a chick inside.)

(The main text begins. On the right is a chick. Her draw­ing of a “chick­en trans­formed from an egg” shows that the egg has two legs. It’s very inter­est­ing.)


The back cov­er is blank.
【Com­ments】
   
The last page has so much to offer, and it’s so much fun. The lit­tle chick­en, hav­ing grown up after eat­ing, changes into this and that, but in the end, it’s still a lit­tle chick­en. The lit­tle chick­en is the best.
   
Dur­ing her graf­fi­ti phase, Con­g­con­g’s heart is filled with sto­ries. Don’t over­look her dots and lines; they all hold mean­ing. Bird loves Con­g­con­g’s bold, unre­strained draw­ings, max­i­miz­ing the size of the paper, so that her human touch can be ful­ly expressed.

Ani­mals Look­ing for the Ball by Xiao Di

 (The blue on the far left is the sea, with a fish swim­ming in it. Besides the salt­ed duck eggs hid­den by the ele­phant, there are also water­mel­ons and col­ored balls in the grass. The ele­phant pre­tends not to know.)

 (Those brown lines are earth­worms, lots of tiny ones. There are also lit­tle snakes and snails. The one crawl­ing on the low­er right is a lit­tle snake, and the snail at the top is hid­den in its shell. Xiaodi’s mom said Xiao­di has been par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ed in rain­bows late­ly, so she drew a rain­bow ball and a rain­bow wall.)

 Xiaodi’s col­or fam­i­ly. The bird thought of the Trans­former Bean fam­i­ly, Bar­ba­pa­pa, Bar­ba­ma­ma, Bar­ba Bruno, Bar­ba…


The back cov­er is gor­geous.
【Com­ments】
   
Xiaodi’s pic­ture books may seem inco­her­ent, but they have their own inter­nal log­ic.
   
The ele­phant goes to the grass to look for the ball, but what he is actu­al­ly look­ing for is not the ball, but many inter­est­ing things that can be found through this thread.
   
Xiaodi’s self-titled book, “Ani­mal Finds the Ball,” sug­gests that ele­phants aren’t the only ones involved in this game. The grass is filled with trea­sures, and the col­ors are filled with fam­i­ly affec­tion, all of which Xiao­di finds one by one. The finale is a feast of col­ors, a hap­py end­ing.

I’m Afraid of It by NONO


horse

Hors­es are afraid of dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs are afraid of ghosts, and ghosts are afraid of the sun.


What a pow­er­ful sun!
【Com­ments】
   
Con­ti­nu­ity is a strength of NONO’s, and he’s adept at using media to extend the plot. The horse’s head in one pan­el tran­si­tions to the next, cre­at­ing a nat­ur­al flow as the read­er reads the pages. His cov­ers are metic­u­lous­ly designed, nev­er slop­pi­ly exe­cut­ed. This cap­tures the joy of pic­ture books.
   
NONO also drew a sequel “I’m Not Afraid of It” on the same day, con­tin­u­ing to extend this theme.



The Banana Thief by Lin Xiaoyin

back cov­er.
【Com­ments】
   
A well-designed front and back cov­er adds so much col­or to a pic­ture book, as you can see from Xiao Yin’s work. Note the design of the char­ac­ter “蕉” (banana) on the cov­er, and the black text of “大盗” (thief)—it’s the same col­or as the zebra.
   
Com­po­si­tion is one of Xiaoy­in’s strengths. She’s metic­u­lous about posi­tion­ing char­ac­ters, whether left or right, top or bot­tom, which cre­ates a visu­al­ly pleas­ing effect as you turn the pages. I like the com­po­si­tion in step 5, where the zebra, mon­key, and banana all stand out, empha­siz­ing the explo­sive lan­guage and cre­at­ing a very effec­tive effect. How­ev­er, the text is too weak in pen­cil; I should have stuck with crayons, as always.
   
The zebra on the back cov­er shows the face of a masked thief, and the black and white stripes on its body look like a pris­on­er’s clothes, which makes peo­ple laugh.



Seal and the Sun Make Friends by Zhou Fang­shen­ping (Baobao)

back cov­er.
【Com­ments】
   
A care­ful look at the baby’s “Seal Makes Friends with the Sun” is a delight­ful expe­ri­ence, both visu­al­ly and spir­i­tu­al­ly. The seal in the ocean, sur­round­ed by small ani­mals, imme­di­ate­ly reveals its car­ing and kind nature. It knows what to give its new friend as a gift, but what? Sun­glass­es make a won­der­ful prop. What bet­ter gift could there be for the sun?
   
The sun on the back cov­er is wear­ing sun­glass­es, a gift from a seal friend. He looks so hap­py and proud, while the sea beneath him is calm. This is the joy of shar­ing and a tes­ti­mo­ny to friend­ship.
   
My moth­er has been read­ing pic­ture books to my baby since he was very young. He is a pic­ture book child, show­ing a strong aes­thet­ic sense and atten­tion to detail. Notice how the blue seal is always accom­pa­nied by a small blue fish – anoth­er friend, anoth­er friend­ship, anoth­er sto­ry. It speaks vol­umes.

The Lit­tle Girl and the Lit­tle House by Xue Rong

back cov­er.
【Com­ments】
   
Every­one burst into laugh­ter when we shared the sto­ry of Xue Rong. A lit­tle girl encoun­tered a large python in the for­est, but it scared it away. Then, the lit­tle girl went home and ate her meal, com­plete­ly calm and com­posed. She tru­ly nailed being a lit­tle girl!
   
Xue Rong has a very good sense of col­or. He paint­ed the for­est in autumn with rich col­ors. The lit­tle girl’s house is more beau­ti­ful, and the lit­tle girl keeps chang­ing her skirts.
   
In the first pic­ture, the sun is gloomy, with men­ac­ing clouds lurk­ing behind it. That’s because it was in a bad mood that morn­ing. In the sec­ond pic­ture, it’s brighter. The lit­tle girl’s mood bright­ens after meet­ing the pup­py, and she can now go into the for­est and scare the python. What a won­der­ful day!

Learn­ing For­eign Lan­guages by Zhang Tianyi (Xizi)

back cov­er.
【Com­ments】
   
A good pic­ture book is def­i­nite­ly read­able, and it’s also high­ly effec­tive when read live. Xiz­i’s “Learn­ing a For­eign Lan­guage” was a hilar­i­ous read, and it was tru­ly cap­ti­vat­ing. For a near­ly word­less pic­ture book to achieve this, it requires a tru­ly cap­ti­vat­ing set­ting, and Xizi nailed it.
   
The first image shows a cat hid­ing behind a tree, grin­ning mis­chie­vous­ly, clear­ly intent on mis­chief. A large rat and a small mouse approach, sweat­ing pro­fuse­ly in the scorch­ing heat. The cat sud­den­ly leaps out, fright­en­ing the mouse, who near­ly leaps into the sun. Then, unex­pect­ed­ly, the large rat utters a for­eign lan­guage: “Woof woof woof!” The cat, star­tled, flees. Ha! Learn­ing a for­eign lan­guage can be so effec­tive! The small mouse on the back cov­er is indeed seri­ous­ly study­ing a for­eign lan­guage.
   
Xiz­i’s pic­ture book has the “punch-box­ing” tech­niques of crosstalk, and the sto­ry set­ting is very excit­ing.
   
Xizi is quite good at mak­ing up sto­ries. He also drew “Anti­mat­ter Zoo,” which depicts the awk­ward­ness of humans and ani­mals being in oppo­site sit­u­a­tions. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the sub­ject was too broad, so I did­n’t fin­ish it. I’ll con­tin­ue lat­er. Good sub­jects nev­er go unno­ticed.

Tom and Jer­ry, author: Liu Hem­ing (Maodou)

back cov­er.
【Com­ments】
   
A cat chas­es a mouse, and the mouse tries to escape—it’s a fair­ly com­mon set­ting, but Edamame has added a lot of inter­est­ing touch­es. The cat and mouse are like two boys fight­ing, with the one being pressed down strug­gling and final­ly squeez­ing out from behind the cat. I’m sure this is a famil­iar “com­bat expe­ri­ence” for many lit­tle boys.
   
The mouse escapes and looks back, nat­u­ral­ly tran­si­tion­ing to the next paint­ing: a large snake arrives, scar­ing the cat away… But did the cat real­ly escape? Read­ers, don’t let the author fool you. On the back cov­er, Maodou play­ful­ly depicts the snake, bloat­ed by a full cat. It turns out the cat did­n’t escape at all, and the mouse did­n’t leave either. Instead, it returns, grin­ning.
   
This is such an inter­est­ing pic­ture book. The author, Maodou, turned 7 on his birth­day. No won­der he wrote a 6 on the cov­er (he’d been doing it for a year), then imme­di­ate­ly slapped his head and said, “Wrong!” and changed it to a 7. He looks like he’s 70 years old.
   
Hap­py birth­day to Edamame!