Whilst doing my children's book research, I came across this pretty cool 2 in 1 pop-up book and play mat! and it got me thinking! Last year I made some play pieces to go with my dance themed informative/activity book - initially I wanted to make the backgrounds too, environments in which these play pieces could be used within. However, I did not have enough time to do this.
I think creating this 2 in 1 book/play mat for this project would allow me to re-explore my 505 play set idea. After finding this, a story sparked within me! This probably needs developing but in its simplest form, the story will be about a father and son on a journey to fetch some water from the watering hole (if you were Masai, you would have to walk long distances to find a water hole) - Through this journey they will meet the animals they share their home with - the readers will also learn about them in this way. The initial title for the book is My Home: The African Savanna - this way I would be able to adapt it easily if I were to make a series of books based on different biomes (as discussed in previous post).
The mat will act as a map of their journey through the Savanna. Each of the fold will have a pop-up of the animals they meet along the way and at the end, will be the watering hole. Play pieces of father and son, and extra animals will also be provided for endless fun! Need to think about how I would produce this in Uni. hmm..
I haven't really figured out the details yet, but I think creating 6-8 pop-ups (probably 6) is achievable for the time I have left of this module.
The Maasai tribe speaks Maa and are also schooled in English and Swahili (the official languages of Tanzania and Kenya). I don't know how yet, but I thought it would be nice if I could incorporate some Maa or Swahili in the book - this way the readers could learn a little bit of their language.
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