Author/Illustrator Shows Elementary Students What It Is All About

By Tanjua Damon

Sanna Stanley writes and illustrates children’s books about life in the Congo, where she lived as a little girl with her family. Last week she spent time at Sandy Hook School teaching the students in their art classes about illustrating a book.

Ms Stanley explained to the students that it takes her several years to complete a book and that she draws the illustrations numerous times before she thinks they are good enough for the book. She showed the students how she sketches her illustrations first and then takes tracing paper and copies things that she likes about her sketches. She spends time drawing 32 “thumbnails,” the number of pages she is allowed in a book so that she can get the sequence correct.

“This is a lot of fun. I want them to be excited about writing and illustrating,” Ms Stanley said. “There is fun in writing. Illustrations reinforce the subject matter. I do this so they can see my enthusiasm. They can see my job and believe they can do it, see that it is reachable.”

Ms Stanley had the children make thumbnail sketches of something that they do in life or something that has a series of actions like going out for recess, a sun rise, a play date, sleepover, plant growing, or getting up in the morning.

“I think it would be pretty cool to be an illustrator or author,” Robert Carroll said. “It takes a lot of time.”

The students were quite interested in how Ms Stanley talked about how the pages of her books are put on plates to print many copies. She showed the students a sample plate and the mulberry tree paper she uses to create the pages of her book.

 “I think it’s really neat how she draws with the plates,” Kaitlin Brophy said. “How you can put tar over the metal plate and put salt stuff on so it eats the metal it can find. It seems like it’s a lot of work.”

As the students created their own thumbnails, Ms Stanley walked around the room talking with students about their ideas and helped them visually construct what they were thinking about.

“I think it’s wonderful for the students to see the printmaking process,” art teacher Leslie Gunn said. “They are able to see the link between the drawing and the writing. This makes their writing authentic. It opens doors for them.”

Sanna Stanley is the author of The Rains Are Coming; Monkey Sunday, a Story From a Congolese Village; and Monkey For Sale. The children’s author lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a child. She has a bachelor degree in psychology from Alderson-Broaddus College in West Virginia, a master in art degree from Marshall University in West Virginia, and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.