William Floyd High School Illustration art students in Erin Almeida’s class recently had a unique opportunity to work with local children’s author, Edith Sanchez, on developing the illustrations for her new book, Harley’s Great Adventure. Students have been collaborating with Ms. Sanchez for several weeks on the potential designs of the characters for her new book about a bird named Harley who goes missing for six weeks and details the adventures he experienced and the animal friends he met along the way. Ms. Sanchez recently visited Ms. Almeida’s class to meet with students and select the final illustrations that will be used at publication.

“The students were extremely excited when they found out they were illustrating a book that will be published,” said Ms. Almeida. “One of my students, Addison Ferrari-Fattizzo, said, ‘That's awesome! I never thought I would get an opportunity like this at 15 years old.’”

“I would say that when Edith called and discussed our students illustrating her book, I thought it was a fun and interesting story about perseverance and hope,” said Theresa Bianco, chairperson, fine arts, William Floyd School District. “I also knew it would be a large undertaking, and I can say that our Illustration students rose to the challenge and came up with professional adaptations of Edith’s characters. This book will be a culmination of our students’ illustrations and show the skills they have learned in Mrs. Almeida's class and their art classes at William Floyd.”

Each character set to appear in Harley’s Great Adventure will have been illustrated by a William Floyd student and they include characters such as Harley, Charlie the Crab, Robin Red Breast, Oscar Oriole, Peanut, Bobby Blue Jay, Suzy Sparrow, Sammy the Squirrel, Stanley Seagull and Edie. During the design phase, students were assigned a specific page from the book and a specific character to illustrate. It took each student approximately two-and-a-half weeks to complete their illustrations. Harley’s Great Adventure is expected to be published this summer.

Illustration is one of many art courses offered at William Floyd High School. Foundation courses include Studio in Art and Exploration of Crafts. Advanced art courses including AP Advanced Art, Advanced Photography, Advertising and Product Design, Art Appreciation, Exploration of Crafts II, Fashion Design I & II, Illustration, Photography, Portfolio Preparation Honors, Studio in Ceramics, Studio in Drawing, Studio in Sculpture and Studio in Painting.