How to get printable ship pics?

[JAFARR]

As many of you know, I am a janitor for an elementary school. I have been sampling the books the kids read in our advanced reading program. This field is wide open to start them thinking science fiction. How would I get some reasonable looking pictures to use in a kids Traveller book? I haven't done any graphics projects like this. I would like something like Free and Far Traders, a large freighter and liner (maybe on the order of the King Richard), and some military types (including a corsair).

Most of these books run heavy on the graphics and short on the words. The books are rated by a difficulty level, and usually focus on particular types of words or word patterns and usage that the kids usually have problems. Two quick examples: one series gives a short history of Super Bowl winning teams and another is called "Swoops Shoots Hoops". The Super bowl books even seem to use the same pages with just the names and dates changed. The Swoops book is mainly action shots of Cheryl Swoops in workout clothes, no uniforms, no data, no full sentences longer than 10 words and many sentence fragments.

 

[far-trader]

...How would I get some reasonable looking pictures to use in a kids Traveller book?

I'd say drop Marc Miller an email explaining your project and see if he can give you permission for a limited use of the fine (imo) ship pics from Traveller as shown in The Traveller Book.

Or maybe if you want something more modern talk to the artists who've done great stuff for the Traveller calendar, it sounds like it might be a project they could get behind.

If you have an actual budget for artwork you could commission some work, a few of the Traveller artists will work to order for pay.

 

[aramis]

having used various reading program texts as an instructor...

The creation of children's literature is very tricky. It needs to be compelling enough to be read, and simple enough to be able to be read. It needs to match illos carefully, and needs to have both a distinctive look and powerful hook.

Science Fiction generally is not good for lower grades targeted stuff (k-3) as the goal is getting them reading more and more realistic materials, to ground them in reality. Much children's literature is wild fantasy. Authors that are very popular include Dave Pilkey (Captain Underpants), Mary Pope Osborne (Magic Tree House), Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen (Magic School Bus), David Kirk (Mrs. Spider). (These are grades 3-5 stuff.) The Naruto, Pokémon, and Transformers series are often checked out.

Unlike my generation, most of the libraries no longer have extensive collections of RAH, Niven, Herbert and Asimov. But they also lack the factual analytic stuff on the supernatural, too...

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Interesting idea. Definitely discuss it with Marc. Get his okay and I'll happily do you some pics.

 

[aramis]

If you go forward, you need to examin the various word-lists used for GLE's... Dolch is one of the more commonly used word lists, but by far not the only one.

 

[far-trader]

...The creation of children's literature is very tricky. It needs to be compelling enough to be read, and simple enough to be able to be read. It needs to match illos carefully, and needs to have both a distinctive look and powerful hook.

Science Fiction generally is not good for lower grades targeted stuff (k-3) as the goal is getting them reading more and more realistic materials, to ground them in reality.

I was thinking along the same after posting last night, and wondering if I should suggest instead of a Traveller science fiction approach, why not a History of Space Flight. You should be able to find good public domain images of the main craft to create a good outline of the whole race to space, from Sputnik to the ISS. Even include some background on early rocketry and the near future. Keep it factual, include all countries, and come up with something educational that will inspire them to support space exploration. That'd be doing a better educational service than just a cool sci-fi space book and should be every bit as interesting.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Yeah, that might be better. You could have a future section at the end, maybe.

 

[JAFARR]

Thanks to all.

Thanks for the input. I was having second thoughts too. I really like Dan's idea and can see that getting them interested in space can lead to space related fiction later.