Tales of The Cafeteriverse! A Children’s Storybook made for the art classroom. 2016. I created this children’s book inspired by times I’ve observed children playing with their lunchbox contents at lunch duty. I worked in several creative schools where the expedience of eating was not prioritized over the autonomous creative joy kids spontaneously generate at any given time of day. Anything can be an art material, and this is a non-traditional work completed during my time at the University of Pennsylvania’s Picturebook and Literacy elective course in the Upenn GSE department, 2016 Spring Term. I completed this book as a ‘dummy book’ mock up and created a meta-fictive read aloud with my class. Each font in the book is meant to be a different character speaking/writing from the perspective of a child. There are numerous art parodies included in the book, and I intend to add a glossary of visual art references at the end. The impetus of this creation is to encourage children to see the possibilities and potential of non-traditional materials and creating, and to relate art to play. I intended to make a book shared within an art classroom, or creative classroom setting. Much like many post-modern, meta fictive books, the piece is meant to be read aloud and experienced in a group class setting. The work bends between reality and what is perceivable as imaginary play of the children involved. I wanted the viewer to experience the perspective of the imagining children. I hoped that by putting you the reader/viewer in this perspective, you might learn to respect this form of play more, and to understand the value in a rotini slide, milk carton house or spoon and food creature. The casual nature of the voices/writing of children is intentional as well. The use of creative misspelled words, and verbal responses such as “mmhmm” instead of “yes”, relate to the book being read aloud from the perspective of children collaborating to create a story during lunch. This book promotes social and emotional well-being through interacting socially during the lunch period. The piece also utilizes taking learned information from creative play, and applying it to a new context, which helps children understand applied use of skill sets.
