My book concept is based on the story of Swan Lake, a ballet composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. My target audience is the children in between 5-6 years old. The original story is: Prince Siegfried who was told by his mother to choose a bride at the royal ball in the following evening. He is upset that he can’t marry the bride he loves. He then goes on a hunt in the forest with his friend. In the forest, Siegfried meets a princess Odette who is cursed by a spell of Rothbart, an evil sorcerer. She is a swan during the day and she would turn into a girl at night. When a man really falls in love with her, the spell would be broke and she can be saved from the spell. They obsess by each other and soon fall in love. Siegfried then invites Odette to the royal ball so that he can announce his bride is Odette and save her from the spell. However, Rothbart comes to hinder this happiness. He brings his daughter Odile who transforms to exactly look like Odette to the ball. Siegfried thought that is Odette. When Odette appears and realizes the trap that Rothbart set to Siegfried, she is trying to warm Siegfried. But it is still too late, Siegfried doesn’t see her and proclaims that he is going to marry Odile. Rothbart sees the success of his trap, he releases the magic to show that Odile is not Odette. Siegfried then realizes and go back to the forest. Since the spell cannot be broke, Odette remains as a swan forever. She cannot bear with it, so she chooses to die. Siegfried is too guilty, he chooses to die with her. This breaks the spell and also kill Rothbart.
I am going to use the character Odette and Odile. I will change the human form to the cat. I am going to show the scene in which Odile attend the royal ball with the black outfit in the royal garden. She looks similar to Odette and dances with Prince Siegfried. Odette is locked outside of the garden. She sees Odile is dancing with Siegfried. Her face is marked with grief. Odile is satisfied by seeing her suffering and appears evil smile on her face.

The original story where the concept derived from is from the story, Repunzel by The Brothers Grimm.

In the original story we have a princess, named Repunzel, as “a damsel in distress” locked in a stair-less tower by a witch and is eventually saved by a prince …. However, in my story, she is her own knight in shining armor. The story take place in a Nigeria (a country in W. Africa) in a village complex called, Umuahia, (so yes, she’s a darker skinned African). Ngozi, stubborn, yet strong willed, is the oldest of 7 children in a prestigious royal family. She is appointed to take the throne after her mother. her mother, Chibundo, who favors her more than the rest of her 6 siblings. One of her siblings, Azuka, who has strongly envied her for years, is in disdain, so one night she gives Ngozi a herb to knock her unconscious for a few days, she then locks her away in a sky-scrapping  tower where she eventually removes the stairs. The mother, who has no idea what Azuka has done, thinks Ngozi is died and gives Azuka her future crown. As Ngozi unknowably is locked away, she finds magical herbs growing within and around the tower, she starts feeding on them and gains strength and power in the most usual part of her body, her hair. For the 10 years she is imprisoned, her hair grew rapidly and out of control, she then locs it for easier management.

In the duration of 10 years, the mother dies from heartbreak and Ngozi is still locked up in the tower. Her younger sister, Azuka, is set to take the throne as queen. But, Nogozi, now older and stronger with her hair longer, is going to escape the imprisonment and take back her rightful place on the throne from her wicked, corrupted sister.

Details: Whenever Ngozi is in fury, her eyes glow along with her locs, as strength generates in her locs.

Target audience: Young adults to mature adults; has violence and gore (not too much though).

The story I will be retelling is the Origin of the Chinese Zodiac. In the original folklore the Jade Emperor holds a race to determine which 12 animals would be on the calendar, the biggest challenge of the race was to cross a huge river. Both the Cat and the Rat can’t swim so the agree to ride on the back of the Ox in order to cross the river. While crossing the Rat pushes the Cat off and he drowns. In my retelling of the race the animals are humanoid versions of themselves and the race is a motorcycle race. The Rat and the Cat are tied in the lead until they come across the “Ox” Bridge. The Rat knocks the Cat and his bike off the bridge down into the river below where he drowns.

Background: The original story of Pinocchio was that he was a wooden puppet boy was that he was found by a carpenter and then later given to a man called Geppetto. Geppetto takes him in and one day finds out that he doesn’t have any legs after a placing them on a stove. He builds him new legs and runs away to frame Geppetto for mistreating him. Geppetto is then thrown in jail. Pinocchio finds a cricket who warns him about the consequences of being mischievous and foolish. Pinocchio doesn’t listen and kills the cricket with a hammer. After Geppetto is released from jail, Pinocchio tells him that he will get his life together, and Geppetto gives him gold coins. One day, a cat and a fox approach Pinocchio by telling him that if he plants his gold coins, a tree will grow with gold coins. He gets warned by the ghost of the cricket to not listen to the cat and the fox because they are lying. Pinocchio didn’t listen the first time and gets hanged by the cat and fox. He is rescued by a fairy with turquoise hair. The fairy says that the more Pinocchio gets foolish, the more his nose grows. Pinocchio said he learned his lesson but gets tricked by the cat and fox once again and gets his coins stolen.

Characters: I will use the characters Geppetto, The fairy, and Pinocchio. Geppetto is an evil environmental scientist who lives in a forrest and is using plants as a weapon. He is against the fairy who is a warrior and protector of the forrest. Pinocchio is a deformed tree monster that is on Geppetto’s side.

Story: One day, Pinocchio finds a man named Geppetto. Geppetto sees he has no arms. He tells Pinocchio that if he drinks a chemical he can grow new arms. Pinocchio thinks about it and leaves. Pinocchio then meets The Fairy Warrior who tells him about Geppetto and not to fall for his tricks. Pinocchio’s doesn’t listen to the The Fairy Warrior and goes to Geppetto so he can have arms. Unfortuantely, Pinocchio turns into deformed tree monster after drinking a chemical provided by Geppetto. The Fairy Warrior is approached by Geppetto and Pinocchio. Both sides battle it out to see who takes control of the forrest.

Vanessa Ramirez

Research for “El Cadejo”

Reference for both concepts: Pinterest

For my narrative illustration project, I decide to chose The Little Match Girl by  Han Christian Anderson. The background of the story was on a cold New Year’s Eve, a poor, young girl tries to sell matches in the street with her naked feet. She is too afraid to go home because her father would beat her for not selling any matches. The girl starts to light the matches to kept herself warm and see several scenes that fit the holiday. Like a warm stove, the wonderful roast goose and a magnificent Christmas tree thats larger than the one she had seen last Christmas through the glass at the rich merchant’s house.Then she look up the sky and saw a falling star and thought to herself that “Someone is dying” because her dead grandmother had told her that when a star fell down, a soul will went up to God; as foreshadowing that the girl is dying. The last scene she had with the matches was her dead grandmother, the only person who had loved her. She wanted to keep her grandmother by struck the whole bundle of matches. As a result, she was fulfilled her wish with her grandmother because she was frozen to dead after the all the matches burned out and her grandmother carries her soul to God.

For my version, I would keep most of the story and give a appearance of the father, which had never shown in the story other than we know he will beat the little girl. I wanted to change the father’s character to be a nice father that picks her up and give her something to keep her warm at the end. I would keep the focus on the little girl and give a vision of her father looking down at her daughter.