Finding Wonder Outside and Between the Pages

Project Description

The Roy Deboer Travel Prize is awarded with the notion that students should be able to travel and experience different landscapes in order to become better designers. Through the Deboer Prize, it was possible to explore the landscapes of six iconic children’s authors to see what could have inspired these authors to create these places on paper and if there were any clues to recreating this same wonder in inhospitable places.

Children’s literary landscapes are present in every part of the world, including The Secret Garden and Wizard of Oz in the U.S and The Little Prince from France. However, this project focuses on the works based in the United Kingdom, where social, political, and economic events first catalyzed children’s literature into an entire genre of literature. Consequently, the U.K has some of the most iconic children’s authors whose works have stood the test of time.