Review 6.2: Miss Day After Tomorrow

Report on the 4th EU-CHINA INTERNATIONAL LITERARY FESTIVAL

Held at the Viva Mall, Fu Li.

Author: Piret Raud.

Time: 13:00 – 14:00

Date: 02-06-2019

Estonian illustrator and writer graced the venue with her warm and gentle presence on Sunday afternoon. Under the theme ‘Miss Day-After-Tomorrow and the Game of Time’, Piret was going to draw and introduce a beautiful book to the audience, especially to girls and others who love the color pink.

Piret introduced herself and her country to the audience. From Estonia, she mentioned her country was not a big one compared to China. She said Estonia was surrounded by the ocean and they had lots of fish. This she was going to narrate later in a beautiful story she tells using her country as the inspiration.

Piret said, “When every author has something to say, they say them with stories”. According to her when she illustrated the book, she wanted everyone to know that all the colors are beautiful and not only one color.

The book was about Emma the little hare who was obsessed with the color pink. This obsession got Emma to own a lot of things that were pink. She had a pink cup, pink hair bands, pink slippers, a pink toothbrush and even a pink mobile phone. She even owned a fish tank which was filled with pink fish. Emma wanted more, she just would not give up on pink, the story narrates.

The story is a beautiful one that celebrates choice. The lessons of being able to make a selection and celebrating the distinctiveness of every color and art is what Piret does in the book. She uses her story telling prowess to incite diversity of art in the mind of her target audience.

Gary, the host for the day asked Piret if she could draw something for the children. Piret surprised the children with different drawings using a marker on a paper stuck to a standing board. She said that as an artist and author, you could always rely on your imagination and creativity relentlessly to create things that are different from the real world. Her vision is to use her drawing to create characters that are different and stand out using basic ideas such as a shoe, a knife and others.

Piret’s drawing was equivalent to a classroom setting. She carefully drew the character and asked the children to watch as she drew. She started with a drawing of a carrot and then later gave some ‘human’ features to carrot, such as the eye, mouth and nose. She wanted the children to know that they could have fun while they drew anything. They did not have to conform to the standards of drawing one thing, but could travel the borders of creativity and bring something to life.

She flips to the next page and draws a boot; a child jumps to show her excitement. With every drawing she adds a touch of magic to its overall outlook. The boot looks like a house and has an eye.

Piret flips to the next page and begins to draw. She gives the children the chance to work in teams and asks them to color what she has drawn. The children are given the chance to add their own touch of creativity to the drawings. She then flips to the next page and draws a dinosaur. The children give various suggestions and it shows that their creativity is being teased and they are excited about the fact that they can share in Piret’s creation. Finally, she paints a knife that looks like a shark. She wors with incredible precision and admirable detail.

After, she draws a dog with various dots. Piret said the dots could be a character in the story too. She said one dot is alone, says the dot is a little bit sad, but an author or a writer or an illustrator can always find a solution. And the author could make the dots a flea and consumes the other dots. The flea could also be there to just bite the dog. Living together with the dog, says it is a friendly flea living together with the dogs.

Piret read the children another book. This time she draws the characters on the board while reading narrating the story. The story is about Amanda, a fish in the sea who discovers that people are constantly throwing things into the sea. She finally gathers a lot of tea pots and boots and hats so she calls her friends to come over and join her drink tea. They drink a lot of tea that they have to face the consequences in the future. But for the help of a dentist, they would have lost all the water due to the tea.

Piret’s story is a beautifully narrated one that drew the attention of some parents to global warming, climate change and preserving the environment and our water bodies. Piret is an exceptional story writer and illustrator because she uses her art and talent to educate young readers on issues that are discussed on global platforms among world leaders.

The children had so much fun coloring the artwork Piret had drawn for all of them after the session. They showed their paintings to her and she gave them remarks. Parents interacted with Piret and the event ended with children and parents taking photos with the author and illustrator from Estonia.

Report by

Robert Chireboah-Ansah