I visited a local school last week and had the chance to share The Sheep Magnet with five different classes of students, ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade. Along with reading the story, I shared about Easter eggs and the difference between these “hidden extras” and details that contribute to the story’s plot.
Easter eggs are hidden details that a creator might put in a movie, a game, a book, or etc. These details don’t have anything to do with the actual story.
The Sheep Magnet is FULL of Easter eggs. Not because I consciously thought, “I should hide lots of goodies in here!” while I wrote and illustrated the story. But because a large part of my creative process involves making connections with things that inspire me along the way and including bits and pieces of those in my work; like nature, books, research, and current life experiences, to name a few.
Some of these details end up contributing to the storyline or add to the understanding of or connection with the story, but others don’t.
And within an illustration, a single item could contain elements of both. Like the calendar in from Pete’s workshop, for instance.
If you study the calendar, what details do you think might be important to help understand the story, and why?
What details do you think are Easter eggs, and why?
Please share your answers in the comments below. I look forward to hearing what you come up with 🙂
P.S. If you read–or reread–the story, you may find clues in some of the other illustrations that help. (If you don’t have a copy of the book, you can find the ebook on Amazon for less than $1 right now, or find a read-through video on YouTube later this week.)