The Day the Cars Drove to the City

Thrilling and suspenseful, this story will surprise you at every intersection.

The Background

The Day the Cars Drove to the City was created by a Year 2 student over two 20 minute sessions.

The Creative Process

'we jumped straight into drawing the narrative arc.'

Books can be devised in a short amount of time. All you need is motivation, direction, specifics and a consistent voice.

Whilst I was working with the other students on Narball, another Year 2 student approached me and asked if he could create a book with me. I felt it was really important to flow with his motivation so I agreed.

As it was nearing the end of term, I thought about how I could simplify the creation process.

The student already had an idea of what he wanted the book to be about so we jumped straight into drawing the narrative arc.

In the second session, we matched the events/problems to the characters/cars and I encouraged him to write the first three spreads enabling me to get a sample of his voice. As a parent and teacher, I know that there is fine line between helpful encouragement and pushing too hard where a student surrenders to their own self doubt and anxiety.

Using my educational publishing knowledge, once I got home I popped onto Pixabay and acquired photos that connected to the story that we could use commercially.

I transferred the photos/images into a Slides presentation and started inputting the writing sample. From that point, I was able to continue the flow and voice of the story through the rest of the spreads.

The story itself ended up being 13 spreads which gave me an opportunity to create pattern/end pages.

After screen capturing each page, I modified the aspect ratio of each image and then uploaded them to Littlescribe! ready for publishing.

Receiving the published version of this book made the student's day/week/month/year. Even when it was in the Slides format, he thoroughly enjoyed reading it to me.

The student received two copies. He wanted to put one in his school reading box and take one home. Two copies were presented to the school library for other students to enjoy.

Here is a sample of this action packed adventure.