OUGD503 - Studio Brief 02 - Planning The Plot

The brief states that the book should include 12 story spreads within the 32 page standard book format. We have decided to produce short chapters over either 1, 2 or 3 double-page spreads to make up this format and convey the different encounters the main characters Louie, Heather and Mabel have on their journey through the moors. This would also enable children to reread the story and skip to their favourite elements of the story, something which can produce more engagement with the story. The chapters we have decided for focus on are:

• Hallway scene (endpaper or 1 double-page)
• The rocky steps (1)
• The stone piles (2)
• The laughing birds (2)
• The waterfall (2)
• Figure in the woods (3)
• The sailor (2)
• The twinkling skyline (endpaper)

It was thought that the children need some sort of reason to be travelling through the moors. We decided this would be visiting their Grandma who lives on the opposite side of the moors. The story would follow the children's journey to her house with Louie proving to be trouble/ getting bored throughout the journey. In order to make this more interesting, the sisters make up fantastical stories. By then end of the story, you will see Louie begin to engage with his sister's stories, comforting them when they get scared of 'the figure in the woods', which turns out only to be Grandma Hudson waiting for them at the end of the path.

We have deliberately decided not to steer away from what may be seen as 'scary' elements of the story, such as the figure in the woods. This takes reference from children's book illustrator, Laura Carlin who states that you should not patronise the child by avoiding these sorts of subjects. However, the scary element is concluded at the end of the story as really something more comforting in that the figure is Grandma. This produces a message to the story that not everything may be as [scary] as it sometimes may seem. This idea referenced from Carlin would also give our story a point of difference from many other children's books.