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Molly Zenk
Molly Zenk

Hi Susea,

Genre: Seeing "children's picture book" as the genre for the test drive, I went in mentally expecting a Dr. Seuss style short 500-1,000 story. Graphic novel is its own genre.

Script: I agree with people saying it is hard to visualize. It's okay to put in character description and setting for readers and illustrators in the script. Help us see what you see. Also it seemed to go back and forth from prose to verse. That switch up was a little jarring as a reader. I had to keep changing my expectation on what kind of book I was reading.

Characters: I liked the bird narrators breaking the 4th wall and talking to the reader. It reminded me of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Dora The Explorer, Little Einsteins and other kids shows/media that does that. What was a little confusing to visualize was how the birds "held" things in their "hands" and then went back to being described as having wings. I'm fine with animal narrators or animals doing human-like things, but struggled with visualizing how that would look as an illustration. Honestly, I stopped reading when the kid characters showed up. If you're going to introduce us to the bird (dodo?) characters first, stay with them as the focus. The kids might not be needed -- especially since the birds are addressing the audience directly. The audience/readers ARE the kid characters at that point. They're part of the story. You don't need kid characters on the page.

All this is just my opinion and advice. Hope you find it useful.

Molly