Sun Dragons and Sea Robbers
On Sunday 23 April 2023 - not coincidentally World Book Day - the very first edition of Flanders Reading Day will take place. A UNESCO day on which we celebrate the power of books to captivate people, across generations and cultures. An ideal opportunity to talk about a new children's book that does just that: connect generations. 'About Sun Dragons and Sea Robbers' tells the story of Robbe, Martha and little dragon Rana, about childlike fantasy and learning to say goodbye. But also a little bit the story, across generations, of its authors: Patricia David and myself.
A tale of two teachers
Patricia was a kindergarten teacher for many years and enjoyed standing in front of the classroom. There she discovered her love for storytelling and writing. In the meantime, she has already written twenty children's books! But she was not just a kindergarten teacher in a primary school in Ursel, she was 'my kindergarten teacher', my 'Miss Patsy', and I was her pupil in that second kindergarten class. Like her, I am now in front of the classroom myself. Not as a master in primary school, but as a teacher of programming and artificial intelligence.
Patricia first wrote the adventure about Rana, Martha and Robbe in 1997, when I was an imaginative preschooler in her class. Or so those papers in my attic tell me, because the story was not published then. For almost a quarter of a century, the story lay here gathering dust. Until I plucked it from the attic, rewrote it, added illustrations and sent it to my 'teacher Patsy'. After several months of reworking, we put the finishing touches to our little story. In 168 pages, Martha and Robbe meet dragon Rana, drag her to school, meet Saint Nicholas, recover a dragon's shield ... but no further spoilers here!
Mixing Fantasy and AI
Soon I made the decision to illustrate this slightly autobiographical story myself. And in my own way. My classes are a little less about dragons and pirates, but all the more about computers, software and artificial intelligence. So I decided to make the illustrations with those tools that I also teach my own pupils about. Armed with Photoshop, Lightroom, Python code and AI models, I set to work!
Which also brings us a bit to the second part of that UNESCO day, namely about that 'copyright'. Because the AI models I use and drive with Python code are not beyond reproach. AI models like Stable Diffusion and DALL-E draw their inspiration from huge datasets of texts and images. Images of artworks, people, landscapes ... form the basis of those AI models' training data. Images for which they have not asked permission from all authors. You can read more about those copyrights and duties in the article on artificial intelligence within artistic subjects I wrote for Schoolmakers.
A slight teaser …
Enough about the story behind the story. Are you curious about Martha, Robbe and Rana's adventure? Then you will find below it a piece from the beginning of the book. Have fun reading!
Martha and Robbe look around the forest. They are careful because they don't want to bump into a pirate. Martha takes a drawn treasure map out of her pocket and points: 'That must be the old oak tree.' 'Are you sure it's this tree?' Asks Robbe. Together they sit down at the foot of the thick tree and look at the map.
'Grandpa is good at drawing,' laughs Robbe, 'but how can he be sure there's a treasure buried here?' Martha shrugs and Robbe looks at the sun with slitted eyes. When he squeezes his eyes shut, the sun becomes a fire-splashed sun. Martha pulls him out of his daydreams: 'On the treasure map there is a hill drawn. Where is it?'
Robbe looks around, he calls out in amazement: 'Look yonder something glides down on a sunbeam, come along.' He knows exactly where it is. He pulls Martha behind him.
The children smell a burning smell. 'A fire splash must have come down, soon the whole forest will be ablaze,' says Martha. A moment later they notice a blackened pit, smoke coming out of it.
The children have never seen anything like it before, yet they dare to look closer. There is an imprint of a giant paw and it has claws. 'Martha shivers and points: 'Look there another print and another print. Something is hiding behind a thick tree.
A green thing sticks out and moves a little. Robbe walks a long way: 'Come along sis, it could be dangerous , maybe it's a giant snake.'
Martha laughs: 'Have you ever seen a snake with legs and claws?'No , but...'
'We are looking for a pirate's treasure, we are not afraid of anything, including a moving green thing. Let's look closer,' Martha suggests. Robbe hesitates: 'OK, give me a hand, we'll count to three and on three we'll jump together up to the tree.'
One, two, three, hand in hand they jump forward. 'BRORR,' the children hear. It is a penetratingly terrible sound. Robbe and Martha sway backwards ...