Earlier this year, junior Abigail Luk was named one of five boroughwide winners of the Ezra Jack Keats Bookmaking competition.
According to the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, the competition “recognizes children’s authors and illustrators early in their careers, encouraging them to continue creating exceptional books that reflect our diverse culture.” Abigail wrote and illustrated To Love You, a book that depicts the stages of love experienced through two unnamed characters. Abigail told The Classic that the characters were purposefully left anonymous so the reader could envision whoever they wanted in the roles.
“The love story is a journey through the stages of falling in love and what it means to feel such an emotion,” Abigail said.
Only one book is allowed to be submitted by each school for the competition. Art teacher Ms. Nakos assigned all students from advanced art classes to submit a picture book for the contest. All students worked on their own to create the book while Ms. Nakos and Librarian Arlene Laverde facilitated demonstrations on storytelling and illustrating. The teachers encouraged students to read picture-books to understand storytelling through pictures. They then invited people from around the school to vote on the final books and help select one to submit to the contest from THHS.
Abigail said, “I initially only applied because it was an assignment from Ms. Nakos, but I really did enjoy it. It gave me the opportunity to finally make the ideas in my head something physical. I had free reign over what I wanted to create. Since I was new to the whole book making process, Mrs. Nakos provided some much-needed guidance. Whenever I felt unsure about what I was doing, she would help me come to the right decision.”
Abigail also utilized her previous writing experience to help with the writing process, “I’ve always loved writing, but I could never commit to finishing any of the pieces I started. This competition motivated me to follow through and turn it into something.”
Ms. Nakos said, “[The competition is] an outlet for students to tell a story that may help somebody else. It’s a way to write creatively and get lost in the picture book storytelling process…If a student participates, I would tell them to read as many picture books as possible, to really think about storytelling through picture book style.”
Ms. Laverde said, “In my job as a librarian I introduced Ms. Nakos’ class to picture books as a medium of storytelling. We discussed how in a picture book the picture drives the story, without the pictures, the words don’t make sense. That is the beauty of this genre. We tend to think of picture books as books for children, but they’re for everyone.”
The competition is in its 38th year and is open to students across New York City in grades three through twelve. The contest is named after the famous children’s book author and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats.
Ms. Laverde said, “We all have stories to tell, so enter the contest. The worst thing that can happen is you don’t win.”
Abigail said, “Make the art not to win, but because you’re passionate about telling stories through the images you create.”
