Year 4 student wins chance to illustrate published children’s book

A PRIMARY school student at Christian College’s Bellarine campus is illustrating her very first book, a children’s story imagining a world turned upside down.

Titled What if the World was Upside Down?, the interactive book has been more than six years in the making for author Tess Keech — whose son is a student at the school — and is inspired by her own daydreams as a child.

“I wanted it to create conversation, I wanted it to be playful, and I wanted to hopefully make something that educators and teachers would feel comfortable using instead of holding an iPad,” she said.

After deciding the book should be illustrated by a child — an idea embraced by the publisher — Tess launched a competition for the Prep to Year 9 students at Christian College to find the artwork to feature on its cover, and the artist to illustrate the remainder of the book.

It also came with a $500 prize.

“You don’t see a lot of books that are illustrated by children,” Tess said. “I was like ‘It’s a children’s book — let’s involve children’.”

Year 4 student Edith Bennett’s design, depicting a young artist who has dropped her painting and returned it to the easel upside down, was selected from 40 submissions.

Tess said Edith’s work immediately caught her eye and captured the creative essence of the book.

“When I asked a handful of other children between the ages of two and seven, they were drawn to it. I heavily relied on what children liked as well as my own instinct. At the end of the day, it is a book for children, so I embraced their input,” Tess said.

Edith said it was a shock to win the competition, but she is excited to be involved in the project.

“It was a little overwhelming when I started, but I really like it now because as I finish one [illustration], I get excited about finishing it and then I can look back at all the other ones that I’ve done,” she said.

Tess and Edith are now hoping to complete the book in time for Christmas, with Edith hard at work after school and on weekends, across multiple drafts, to produce illustrations she is happy with.

“I’ll just keep trying until I like what it looks like,” she said. “It’s sometimes hard, but I enjoy doing it.”

“I like creating. You can create whatever you want…and there’s not really any limit to what you can draw.”

The experience has already inspired her to one day write her own book.