One Hundred Thousand Jumpers - illustrations for a children's book about adoption

One Hundred Thousand Jumpers: written by Rachel Braverman and designed by Erik Christopher. Front cover typography, and all illustrations by Amanda Lillywhite. A book for children about an adopted girl.

When Rachel Braverman told me that she was looking for an illustrator for her story about an adopted girl I was immediately interested, especially when she said it was based on the real experience of adoption. I have an adopted daughter who came to live with us at 27 months old (she is now 14) so I am aware of the unique challenges that many adopted children face and I know that it is hard to find books that show the difficulties and joys of their experiences in an easy to read format*.

When I read the story I was impressed, Rachel has explored the fears of a newly adopted child but it is an uplifting read. Becca (that's her on the cover) has just arrived at her adoptive home. She immediately builds a rapport with her ready-made older sister, Fallon, and the family cat, Oscar. However her relationship with her new mother, Mummy Mo, is more difficult. The story is about how Becca learns to trust that this will be her forever family. It's also about knitted jumpers, Mummy Mo is a keen knitter, hence the title.

One Hundred Thousand Jumpers was designed by Erik Christopher. It is available in Kindle and print versions on Amazon.

If you have any comments or questions about the book please feel free to contact me via this blog, Facebook or Twitter.

*I am aware of the Tracey Beaker stories of course and I think they are brilliant but they are a bit too long and complex for some readers. This book has twenty four story pages split into five chapters and each chapter has an illustration.

One Hundred Thousand Jumpers - illustrations for a story about adoption

Front cover for One Hundred Thousand Jumpers by Rachel Braverman

It was a great pleasure to work on illustrations for Rachel Braverman's story about an adopted girl struggling to fit into her new family. The title comes from the theme of the book: Becca's adoptive mum is a keen knitter. The front cover is above and the first of the five black and white illustrations that appear on the story pages is below.

Becca is feeling unsettled in her new home and can't sleep.

The book is not yet in print, I'll update this post when it is. If you'd like further information about it you could contact me via this blog.

Character sketches for a story by Rachel Braverman - 100,000 Jumpers

Becca and Oscar rough character sketch by Amanda Lillywhite

Rachel has asked me to create chapter header illustrations for her story for 8-11 year olds. It's about a 10 year old girl called Becca who has just been placed for adoption and is finding it difficult to settle in and trust her new family. Mummy Mo is Becca's adoptive mother, Fallon is her new big sister and Oscar the cat is her new best friend.

At the moment I'm just getting to know the characters by sketching them, my next step will be to start working on ideas for the book illustrations.

Fallon and Mummy Mo character sketches by Amanda Lillywhite