Heather Harris, assistant professor and director of the master's program in communication, was selected by the toy company PlayMonster to illustrate a series of six books for children ages 1-5 launching this Christmas.

 

Harris was invited to participate in a national jury process from a pool of children's illustrators and was selected to translate the characters and world of PlayMonster's newest toy line into picture books for developmental learning. 

 

The books are combined with a toy that focuses on teaching social and emotional learning lessons designed to teach children how to handle their emotions and social learning situations. Social emotional learning lessons are key milestones in the development of the preschool child. 

 

Each book contains a character story with a specific social emotional learning lesson and additional caregiver-child interaction prompts. Working with the PlayMonster book team and editors, Harris created storyboards, line art, and fully finished illustrations for all six books — one book for each bug character. The total project took more that 650 hours and resulted in 76 finished illustrations including the cover art for the books.

 

The first three books launched Nov. 1 and are available for Christmas. They are sold online at Amazon.  The remaining three books will launch in spring 2023. https://www.amazon.com/stores/...