Students will enter the project as author-illustrators by studying standout picture books, naming how words and images shape a child’s experience, and launching their own first story directions with an audience-centered mindset.

Students will gather direct evidence from younger readers and literacy stakeholders, examine what children notice and need in picture books, and turn that evidence into an empathy-based design direction for later story development, illustration, and revision.

Students will turn empathy findings and mentor-text evidence into an audience-centered design brief, generate several possible picture-book directions, choose one concept using evidence rather than preference, and build low-fidelity manuscript and dummy-book prototypes to test, critique, and revise.

Students will refine their children’s picture book prototypes through two evidence-based revision cycles, test their revised books with a new or representative reader, and prepare a stakeholder-facing presentation that shows how mentor texts, audience feedback, and design choices shaped the current version and next steps.

Students will present their finished picture books to authentic young readers, gather final audience evidence through the live read-aloud experience, and complete a culminating reflection and justification of how their storytelling, illustration, revision, and representation choices changed through feedback and production.