Unity in Budongo Forest

Creating a picture book for younger children aged 3-4 years old has been a new and exciting experience for me. Unlike my previous projects, this book is fully illustrated, bringing the story to life in a way that words alone cannot. Since children at this age learn best through visual storytelling, I focused on making the illustrations engaging, colourful, and easy to understand. It was a different process from writing text-heavy books because every page needed to capture attention while telling the story clearly. I had to think about how the pictures would help children follow along, even if they couldn’t read yet.

This project has been both challenging and rewarding. I had to consider how little ones interact with books—how they notice details, respond to emotions in characters, and enjoy repetition and rhythm. Working with an illustrator was a learning experience, as I had to ensure that the images matched the vision of the story while keeping them simple and relatable for young readers. Seeing the finished book, filled with vibrant illustrations and a simple yet meaningful storyline, has been truly fulfilling. I hope it will spark joy, curiosity, and a love for reading in the hearts of young children.

I used canva.com especially for the illustration. I also love the children's font available there that makes it easy for me to have access.

Finding the theme: In our reading club, the theme for March is Unity. So I worked with that to form the foundation for the direction I took.
Finding illustrations: Now that I knew the end results, I woorked to find the illustrations that would help deliver the theme.
Writing the story: Then I developed the story based on the illustrations. Since it is a toddler's book, the wordings were minimal which worked well to my advantage. the challenge: as the setting was in a forest in Uganda (a country I do not reside in), I as forced to do extra research to ensure I respected the facts and made a good connection with the children in Uganda.
Print samples & print run: I purchased the ISBN and got the copyright then sent the files to my printer. After approving the sample, I moved to request for a print run.
Distribution: I generated marketing materials using authorlab.com and delivered the books to the subscribed families in kenya and Uganda.