How To Address A Dame Letter

i'm karen neis from orange county, california. i'm a medieval studies major and art studio minor. my senior thesis is making a children's book of the story of abul abbas, who was the elephant

How To Address A Dame Letter, which charlemagne received from the caliph harun al-rashid around the year 801. in the story abul abbas and issac go on this amazing journey from baghdad

to aachen. they first have to cross the arabian desert, the mediterranean sea, and the alps. when they get to aachen, abul abbas is feeling lonely because he misses his elephant family, but then you see him in his elephant house and the other animals from charlemagne's menagerie come inside to welcome him. this is a really important story for kids

who have moved houses. this is a book about being happy in your new situation. we've also got a christian, a jew, and a muslim all working together and i think it's important to show children narratives from our past of religious cooperation so that they can make a better future, keeping true to their own faiths, but also respecting other people. i

studied a lot of medieval manuscripts and i found the source images from different illuminations from around the time period. i really liked the experience of using research in an artistic manner and incorporating art not just text. i'd like to become a children's illustrator and learn more about how to incorporate medieval styles but also my own

imagination into making more projects like this.