Art and Design Commons^™

Plant Wise, Sophia Llamas

Honors Projects

Conceptually, Plant Wise is the key to bridging the gap between preconceived ideas about vegan and vegetarianism and successfully integrating plant-based foods into your everyday life. Physically, Plant Wise is a self-educational, interactive booklet chock-full of activities intended for users to complete at their own pace. Inside this 56-page booklet, there are recipes, doodling spaces, weekly check sheets, activities to do with friends and family, challenges, and so much more. Plant Wise utilizes these activities and journaling opportunities throughout as a self-reflective vehicle to give users an experience to reflect on, which aids in the retention of what’s been learned …

Afterlife: Exploring And Accepting Ideas Through Children's Literature, Kiley Vandevelde

Honors Projects

This project is a written and illustrated book for children to assist with the grieving process by exploring different cultural representations of the afterlife. Death is an inescapable part of the human condition. Belief in an afterlife can help children retain a connection to the deceased and can be a useful tool for healing. While very young children (age four to five) inherently believe in existence after death, this decreases after the age of ten. This book targets children aged seven to ten and explains the benefit to believing in an afterlife. It explores different ideas surrounding the afterlife and …

From The Dirt Up: Layering Story, Place, And Environmentalism Within Three Picture Books, Lucinda Rowe

Children's Book Writing and Illustrating (MFA) Theses

The world is changing before our eyes – species are going extinct, the amount of habitat available to wildlife has decreased, and children are spending less time outside than in the past. Through analyzing environmental ideology within early childhood education and children’s literature, I demonstrate that picture books can inspire nature conservation, appreciation, and stewardship by encouraging outdoor play and exploration. I compare picture books that successfully demonstrate eco-consciousness without being didactic, how my thesis fits within the current environmental movement, and how it helps stretch the definition of what is considered eco-writing.

This thesis consists of three illustrated picture …