Book has a binding message

“Never give up” is the moral of a children’s book written and illustrated by two Baldivis Primary School students.

The Lonely Dino, produced as part of Serenity Press’ KiddyInks program, is a story about a lonely dinosaur who wants someone to help her build a ladder, but even when everyone says no, she does not give up.

Written by nine-year-old Bailey McDougall, The Lonely Dino was selected from a pool of more than 40 submissions from across the Year 4 and 5 classes at Baldivis Primary School.

Anderson Gray, 10, was selected to illustrate the story and worked with Serenity Press co-director Karen McDermott while Bailey worked with co-director Monique Mulligan to edit and finalise the story.

Ms Mulligan said the program was a way of encouraging children to write for children on a particular theme.

“This year’s theme was resilience,” she said.

“The program really aims to get kids excited about writing and reading and it’s something Serenity Press wanted to do to get involved with in the community.”

Deputy principal George Scicluna said the school jumped at the opportunity to be part of the program.

“We could really see the benefit of the program,” he said. “Through the competition, students have learned the skills needed to create and illustrate a book.”

The book is aimed at children aged from four to eight and had its official launch at Rockingham Central Library last week.

“We’re really thankful to the City of Rockingham and the Rockingham Central Library for the launch — it’s a great opportunity for the community to see what these guys achieved,” Mr Scicluna said.

Bailey said he was proud to see the book published and was already working on his second novel.

During the editing process, he said he had to consider using different words.

“Because the book was aimed at little kids, I had to change some of the words because I had used words which were for bigger kids,” he said.

Anderson, who enjoyed illustrating the novel, said she worked hard to replicate the dinosaur over and over again.

“We also put in a little character on most of the pages for kids to spot because we wanted to make it fun,” she said.

While only one book was selected and published, most of the entries were laminated and bound and may be used to read to younger students at the school in the future.