Animal Books

While on field experience when I was studying my Graduate Diploma of Education, the school had a visiting author come to speak with the children. She was Rebecca Johnson, who has written many Steve Parish Story Books mostly about Australian animals. Below is a sample of her work.

A sample of one of Rebecca Johnson's stories.

Rebecca explained that most authors will write the story first and then get pictures to suit, however, she looks Steve Parish's photos first and then writes a story to suit the pictures. Rebecca had pictures of Australian animals from old calendars all over the floor for students to choose from. She then explained that it was important to have several different pictures of the same animal so that it can be the main character in the story. After the students chose their pictures, they were then required to look at the pictures and imagine what the animals could be saying, thinking or doing. Then they could work out a plan for their story. Rebecca also taught us that it is good to have a problem in the story that gets resolved at the end.

I decided to do this activity with my own children. We stuck the calendar pictures along with the words to the story onto A4 paper and laminated them. Over the years, we have made many books that the children love to go back to and read. Below are some samples of our work.