It’s A Shell’s Life is a collaborative project that arose out of Storyworks about two years ago. Denise Schon, who at the time taught the Storyworks class in Children’s Media, was approached with a project from the Toronto Zoo that Jennifer McIlroy brought in. Jennifer Howard, a dedicated volunteer of the Toronto Zoo’s Turtle Tally program, which aims to save endangered turtle species in Ontario, wrote a manuscript about turtles, specifically in Ontario, as a way to increase awareness and provide education on the topic. However, the manuscript needed work, and this is how the Storyworks project commenced.
Denise divided her students into three groups to represent various age ranges: young children, 7-9 years old, and 11-12 years old. Each group took key information from the manuscript and reframed it to match the age range. Denise says, “In Children’s Media, the students learn about what kind of language you need for children’s’ developmental stages and what they can manage.” After completing this, they sent the three new manuscripts to the Toronto Zoo and allowed them to pick which one they thought was going to fit best with the program, to which they chose the manuscript for the middle age children (7-9 years old). Following this, Denise says, “It needed editing. It was a good manuscript, good information, but not quite there.”
Then this year, Kendra Brown who was teaching the Writing for Publication course in the Publishing - Book, Magazine and Electronic program, worked with Liana, a student in the course, who under Kendra’s direction, edited the manuscript so it was ready for publication.
A bit about Kendra’s experience with the project:
“When I was hired by Denise to teach the Writing for Publication class, she asked if I could try to incorporate the turtle book project into my lesson plan—and I was totally game! As the former editor of OWL Magazine, I am really passionate about nature and animal conservation stories. So, I was excited to help out and get the students involved! I gave them the original manuscript with some direction in terms of age range, language and word count, along with some samples of other children’s non-fiction book manuscripts and magazine articles, and I asked them to give it a good edit. Liana showed a lot of interest in the project right away, and she turned out a really well-edited manuscript that we were able to move forward with. That’s pretty much where my involvement ended. But I got a peek of the final product from the design team in March—and I love what they did! I’m so proud of Liana and everyone who worked on the book. And I bet The Toronto Zoo is going to be just as happy!”
This semester, Denise asked the Publishing program’s design teacher, Ken Dyment, if he would oversee a student for this project and he oversaw Pauline López. Denise says, “Liana did the editorial work, Sofia [another student] did a lot of the production work and coordination and got all of the images because the original author had done a lot of photography, and Pauline designed it and turned it into spreads ready for a printer.”
A bit about Pauline’s experience with the project:
“At first, I had no idea what the book was about besides that it was about turtles and that included lots of images. When I learned more about the project, my first thought was to use simple vector illustrations to interact with the photos, of course, giving the importance that the pictures needed. Since this is a book that illustrates the different species of turtles and the ways to help their conservation, I felt the necessity to make the photographs the protagonists of the design. It had to be eye-catchy for children, but still keeping it informative and to the point. I counted on the guidance of Ken and Liana's input to choose which direction to take, and then the book took shape pretty fast. I had so much fun working on every page, and to be honest, I learned a lot about turtles. I love doing what I do, and that is designing. So, this book, although it seemed a challenge at first, motivated me to give my best for such a wonderful cause. Now that all the designing process is done, I want to see the final product. As a graphic designer, one of the best feelings is to hold your printed work in your hands. I cannot wait to open the book and smell the pages.”
The final project is amazing and Denise is so impressed. She says, “It’s a nice project where the students got to work on something real. It’s a really beautiful book.”
The staff of Adopt-A-Pond at the Toronto Zoo are also very impressed with the work. They shared:
“The manuscript was written by Jennifer Howard, a committed Turtle Tally volunteer who is an incredible steward for turtles in Ontario. Jennifer kindly donated the manuscript to Adopt-A-Pond, and we are very excited to see this book serve as a valuable resource for budding conservationists for years to come! We have been impressed by the professionalism and exceptional work put forward by the students of the Centennial College School of Communications, Media, Arts, and Design. We have worked with Centennial to prepare the manuscript for publication, through providing expertise and comments on drafts throughout the process. It has been a great experience for us to see the original idea grow into its current form. We are excited about the outcome, and we are incredibly grateful to everyone who has worked on the project, and to all of our amazing Turtle Tally volunteers!”
This project has had a lot of hard work put into it and the results are outstanding. The talent and creativity of our students are clearly demonstrated within this final piece. Congratulations on a job well done!
By: Alexandra Few, Communications - Professional Writing Student