THE CREATION OF “PIGGY’S BALL”

It was nearing the end of the school year. My Year 5 teacher had assigned us one more assignment, that being to create a children’s picture book. And when it came time to create the book, I was stumped for ideas. Keep in mind, this assignment was due in three weeks. Three weeks to write, illustrate and create a children’s picture book. This definitely overwhelmed me.

So, I started looking for inspiration. When I got back home that day, I thought about what characters would appear in my book. But I was still stumped. That was until I saw my little brother playing with his toy pig. A light bulb flicked on in my head.

The next day at school, I brainstormed morals I wanted to explore in my story. Because the book was targeted at a younger audience, I wanted the morals to be something that children could learn from. I chose to revolve my story around the morals of helping others and teamwork.

Now I had to make a start on writing the story. Being inspired by Aaron Blabey’s ‘Pig the Pug’ books, I decided to write my book rhythmically. The rhythm of the writing guided me, and my story began to expand.

But something didn’t feel right. I felt that Piggy needed a friend. This led to the introduction of Ave. Ave was also inspired by one of my brother’s toys. The name, Ave, is a direct reference to the scientific name of the bird class as I couldn’t decide what type of bird the toy was. However, in the book, I characterised her as a chicken. So now that I had a friend for Piggy to interact with, my story grew and grew until the happy ending was reached.

With the writing done, it was time to illustrate. I grabbed my colourful crayons and pencils and proceeded to hand-draw illustrations for my book. This was a lengthy process. It took me more than a week to finish.

And then came the time for the book to be assembled. I stapled three weeks’ worth of words and drawings together to create the first ever copy of ‘Piggy’s Ball’. I handed this up to my teacher and that copy of the book was never to be seen again.

A few years go by. I had forgotten about the masterpiece that I created in my Year 5 days. That was until my older sister published a book. When this happened, I instantly remembered about my Year 5 masterpiece. However, the only complete copy I had of the book was handed up to my Year 5 teacher and that copy was never returned. But luckily, I still had the story etched into my brain. I wrote this down, created new illustrations and showed this to my parents, who happily read my masterpiece. My dad sent my manuscript to Austin Macauley Publishers and ‘Piggy’s Ball’ is now a published book.

‘Piggy’s Ball’ would have never been a published book if it weren’t for Austin Macauley.
‘Piggy’s Ball’ would have never been a published book if it weren’t for my supportive parents.
‘Piggy’s Ball’ would have never been a published book if it weren’t for my inspirational siblings.
‘Piggy’s Ball’ would have never been a published book if it weren’t for my Year 5 teacher.

I am Averil Oon, and I wrote the children’s book, ‘Piggy’s Ball’.

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