During her junior year in high school, Mary Hanks went to Russia and
established a relationship with a host family in that country. Upon her
return, the Russian family sent Hanks a book of Russian fairy tales.
Liz Vogel doesn't speak Russian, but the biological pre-medical illustration
major has "always wanted to do illustrations for a children's book."
The two Honors Program students eventually hooked up to create a translation
and illustrations of one of the stories in that Russian fairy tale book
Hanks received years ago.
"When I was thinking about what honors project I should do, I wanted
to produce a new work of literature as well as use my journalism background,"
said Hanks, who is a double major in Russian studies and journalism and
mass communication. "My main objective was to translate a Russian
fairy tale into English prose, provide illustrations, and create and publish
a children's book. But I had to find an illustrator."
Prior to starting with this project, Hanks and Vogel hadn't met. A mutual
friend suggested the artist to Hanks and the two honors students have
spent the past several months completing the project with funding from
several on-campus sources including the Honors Program, FOCUS and a Stewart
grant.
The Russian fairy tale book began to take shape when Hanks started translating
the story.
"I translated the story into rough English and from that Liz got
ideas for the illustrations," Hanks said. "Later I refined the
story to make it readable and more enjoyable."
The book of Russian fairy tales contained many stories familiar to English
audiences, like a Russian version of Snow White. Hanks says another story
was "too dark and scary" for their project. Instead Hanks and
Vogel decided to translate and illustrate a story of heroes and evil.
The fairy tale opens with three sisters spinning wool. One sister is a
weaver. The second is a cook and a third sister wants to give birth to
a hero. The third sister later marries the tsar (Russian king) and the
couple has a boy.
Her sisters, who are by then working in the tsar's castle, become jealous
of their sister, and with the help of an evil woman, they spirit the mother
and child away to an island.
As fairy tales are apt to go, the boy eventually grows up to be a hero
of his country and the tsar, mother and hero live happily ever after.
"The fairy tale has a good plot and I think children and their families
will enjoy it," Hanks said.
Vogel's illustrations are bold watercolor images, including a squirrel
cracking a gold and emerald nut and a city popping up on the island.
"Everything from planning and keeping to a time line, to experimenting
with new mediums have helped me develop into a better illustrator,"
Vogel said.
Vogel and Hanks are considering a variety of projects now that this initial
fairy tale has been completed as a 27-page color book. The pair hope to
distribute their work to local doctor's offices, schools and libraries.
They are exploring copyrighting the book and are toying with another version
that would feature the Russian text next to the English translation.
The book has proved to be popular as well. In addition to presenting their
work to the Honors Committee, they were also featured presenters at FOCUS
2003, a showcase of original student work at Iowa State, and at the College
of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Council spring meeting.
And Vogel and Hanks are also thinking about producing another Russian
fairy tale children's book.
"We have learned so much that it would be almost a crime not to
do another book," Vogel said. "The end product would be even
better."
