How eight students created a book through the Indigenous Literacy Foundation’s Create program

In June, students from Thursday Island’s Tagai College visited Penguin Random House’s (PRH’s) Sydney office as part of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation’s (ILF’s) Create program.

In just a few short days, they wrote, illustrated and produced their own book, Sika and the Shell, with help from PRH employees. To give us all some further insight into what happened in those whirlwind days, three PRH employees share some more info.

What is the Create program and how does it work?

The Create initiative is a week-long program that links a remote Community with ILF ambassadors and a publishing house. The Community selects a group of senior students and the ILF transports them to an urban setting, where they work with the ambassadors and editors, writing and illustrating their book.

This year, the students were from a number of islands within the Torres Strait and were accompanied by a few teachers and ambassadors from the ILF.

What happened behind the scenes to ensure the book was ready by the end of the week?

Guided by children's book author David Lawrence and Aboriginal artist Ryhia Dank (Nardurna), the students created their own illustrated story.

Patrick Mangan, senior editor, explains how everyone worked together to make it happen. 'Fellow editor Vishali Seshadri and I were on hand to offer our editorial help. Behind the scenes, designer Caroline Lee whipped the book into shape design-wise, with incredible speed. Production Manager Elena Cementon did fantastic work on the production front, while HR administrator Kate Lamont's organisational skills were crucial to the entire project.'

With only a day and a half to do her part, it was definitely the quickest turnaround Caroline had ever had for a book. 'I started by typesetting it first to imagine where the illustrations would sit. As illustrations trickled in, it was just nailing down the layout (which often includes chopping, changing and photoshopping the artwork to tell a good story). With each iteration, the group would see where more illustrations or changes were needed. It was mostly a lot of editing and tweaking as we went along. It also helped that I was working with so many talented people!'

'We still can't quite believe what these eight kids achieved,’ says Patrick. 'To progress from having a blank piece of paper at 9.15 am on the Monday to a finished 24-page story, packed with a dazzling array of illustrations, just two and a half days later feels quite miraculous.'

Did you have a favourite moment from your time spent with the students last week?

It's hard for our PRH ambassadors to choose just one, as there were so many wonderful moments, but they agree that it was thrilling to watch the students unbox their books. 'Seeing the kids so proud of their labour of love was very heartwarming,' says Caroline.

'The excitement on their faces – that's something we'll never forget,' says Vishali. 'We couldn't have been prouder!'

Since their visit, the students have been posting the book on social media. One of the students, Sally, even shared a video of her with some younger kids, who were reading Sika and the Shell out aloud, and cracking up with laughter. So, the early reviews are favourable!

How did you prepare for the students' visit?

In May, Patrick spent a few fantastic days in the Torres Strait Islands, at Tagai College on Thursday Island, with Tictac and Cindy from the ILF. While there, he met the students and began exploring possible story ideas with them.

Once back in Sydney, he and Vishali discussed what had been done on Thursday Island and figured out an ideal timeline for the project. 'We thought we'd have to play it mostly by ear – and that's exactly what happened!' says Vishali.  

Overall, what did you think of the program?

Penguin Random House has been involved in the program previously, but not for a few years. Everyone involved was excited to have the chance to participate this year with students from the Torres Strait Islands.

While neither Patrick nor Vishali had been a part of the Create initiative before and had no idea what to expect, they were keen to meet the kids and tackle the challenge of producing a book in such a short timeframe. It ended up being an immensely rewarding and joyous project to work on.