{"id":24018,"date":"2023-06-07T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2023-06-07T16:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=24018"},"modified":"2023-06-20T09:37:22","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T16:37:22","slug":"camosun-alumna-illustrates-new-childrens-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2023\/06\/07\/camosun-alumna-illustrates-new-childrens-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun alumna illustrates new children\u2019s book"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elinor Atkins\u2019 illustrations are throughout The Girl Who Loved the Birds<\/i>, a new children\u2019s book that the former Camosun student says takes on some heavy subjects. Atkins\u2014who took Indigenous Studies at Camosun in 2018 and 2019 and now lives in Fort Langley\u2014says that the book, the third in a series of Kwantlen legends by author Joseph Dandurand, focuses on teaching the younger generation about subjects like the importance of respecting our environment and land and how to cope with the grief of losing someone close.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a book written by the wonderfully talented Joseph Dandurand, who I have always looked at like a parental figure in my life,\u201d says Atkins. \u201cHe\u2019s always been around, I grew up with him, and I think he had the chance to see me grow as an artist, and took the shot at giving me that opportunity. I\u2019ll forever be grateful to him for that, because I did a few of his book covers now, and then I\u2019ve done two children\u2019s books with him… It\u2019s a story about a young girl and it teaches that if you give back to the land and to the Earth that you will receive back as well. It teaches respect, respect and kinship to the land and connection to the land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkins says the main thing that drew her to the story of The Girl Who Loved the Birds<\/i> is its handling of\u00a0 <\/span>topics that are taboo in children\u2019s books, such as death and loss.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun College alum Elinor Atkins illustrated The Girl Who Loved the Birds<\/em> (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI also think it\u2019s a great story that teaches children about losing people or having someone pass away in a very gentle way where it\u2019s not harsh, and I think that\u2019s something that a lot of kids need,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause even I\u2019ve recognized when working in schools, I\u2019ve brought up losing my grandparents, and then I\u2019d have all these kids shooting up their hands wanting to talk about how they\u2019ve lost their grandparents as well. I feel like losing people and talking about death is kind of taboo sometimes but this book relays it in such a gentle way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkins says that the main thing she likes about art is the very humanistic nature of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what I love about art itself is that it\u2019s a very healing thing,\u201d she says. \u201cIt creates a lot of understanding, it creates the ability to understand other people\u2019s perspectives in a gentle way, it\u2019s also spiritually uplifting. And I also think that it helps me work towards being my highest version of myself, through doing my artwork. It\u2019s also… I wasn\u2019t always the greatest example for our younger generation. I went through a lot of addiction, a lot of turmoil, a lot of inner stuff that I had to battle but now that I do my artwork I feel that I actually can be a good example for the younger generation, showing them that you can find ways to cope with hard things in healthy ways and that\u2019s what I do through my art and that\u2019s how I\u2019ve healed, through doing my artwork.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkins says that while she wasn\u2019t at a good place while she was at Camosun she still had a great experience at the college.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was dealing with a lot of personal stuff, like family stuff, losing people, so I wasn\u2019t in the greatest headspace,\u201d she admits. \u201cI also have an autoimmune disorder, so I was dealing with all the stuff that comes along with that. So, I wasn\u2019t always the most dedicated to my schooling, but they were always so patient with me, and that\u2019s something that I remember.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elinor Atkins\u2019 illustrations are throughout The Girl Who Loved the Birds, a new children\u2019s book that the former Camosun student says takes on some heavy subjects. Atkins\u2014who took Indigenous Studies at Camosun in 2018 and 2019 and now lives in Fort Langley\u2014says that the book, the third in a series of Kwantlen legends by author […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,291],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-june-7-2023"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24020,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24018\/revisions\/24020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}