The Mess

My name is Alicia. I live in the California area and I have been teaching for 10 plus years. As I observed and interacted with children, I realized how important literature is, how it affects their growth process, and why it's a helpful learning experience. I believe there are long term benefits when children are exposed to literature consistently. From my personal observation, I learned that reading can boost a child's imagination, it promotes a range of literacy skills, and improves cognitive/language development. I believe those are all great qualities that children use to create a fulfilling future for themselves. Furthermore, my book encourages teamwork, responsibility, and playing a fun clean up game. I hope that you enjoy the engaging story.

Hello, my name is Olivia Smith Hancook. I'am an Illustrator and graphic designer. I started painting because I enjoy creating art.. I had my favorite cartoons and video games growing up and I wanted to create my own images. I had the desire to show more positive images of dark skin people and I use my artistic and creative expression to do so. My favorite mediums to use are watercolor and digital paint. My inspirations are nature, fantasy, beauty and reality. My desires are for others to enjoy and appreciate my work as I want to inspire and motivate others. In 2014, I graduated from California State University East Bay with a Bachelor's degree in graphic design. Creating the illustrations for "The Mess" I had a fun and engaging experience. Alicia gave me the description for the story and pages. I loved the idea of using kangaroos to teach a lesson. My long term goals are to have an art and animation production studio in the future.