Live-O-Rama

Little Women has always been one of my favorite books, so I was pretty happy to hear it was one of the books you could draw from (pun intended) for the SCBWI Tomie dePaola Award this year. With the holiday season nearly upon us, I had kind of decided that I was going to pass on the Tomie contest due to lack of time. We flew out to PA for Thanksgiving and I did a little sketching because I had a little idea (to make a diorama of the little ladies decorating their home for Christmas). I brought the book with me and my book amnesia was quite evident: they weren't decking the halls happily at Christmas, they had been doing without... Ah, geez. So much for that!

Then my youngest daughter did something cute, as eight-year-olds tend to do:

She made this all by herself (so proud of my little artist!) and I thought to myself that it was more than just a coincidence because I hadn't even told her that I was thinking about making a diorama... and then I had an idea that made me feel so happy that I just had to do it. It took me a little while to figure out how I was going to actually build my diorama (and doesn't the word DIORAMA just sound terrible? DIE-o-rama. So morbid. I prefer LIVE-o-rama, it feels more hopeful). It was really, really fun to sketch and measure and think it all out, it was like making my own little paper dolls. I ended up choosing an open ended box (the kind they deliver a vase of flowers in) as the stage. Here are some in-progress photos leading up to the finished piece (click on any to enlarge):

Be sure to check out the Unofficial Gallery of the Tomie dePaola Award to see all the amazing entries!