Picture book / Picture book
Mac Travels Back
Mac is a modern kid who time travels without going anywhere, and while the pirate and rockstar trips are great, the ones that turn him into a cave kid fighting dinosaurs are a lot harder to come back from.
- Status
- Early draft. The words are down; no pictures or page layout yet.
- Length
- 1,030 words so far · about 4 min
- This draft
- Quick write, November 2024
Mac lives in the best time there is: tablets, self-driving cars, and mugs that keep your hot chocolate warm forever. He also time travels. Some days he's a pirate on the seven seas or a rockstar from before his parents were born. But when something startles him or puts him on the spot, he lands somewhere else entirely, as a cave kid, fists up, ready to fight dinosaurs that might not even be attacking.
It's a picture book about big feelings that feel like being sent back to a cave, told in Mac's own voice, and about the grown-ups who help him find his way home. It ends with a few secrets Mac has learned for other time travelers, and a few for the dinos too.
Heads up: this one deals with A child's anxiety and angry outbursts, handled gently.
- Told in first person by Mac, talking straight to the reader.
- The fun trips (pirate, space kid, 1970s rockstar) sit next to the hard one: the cave kid.
- Parents, school and a therapist help Mac spend less time in dinosaur time.
- Closes with tips for young time travelers and for the grown-up "dinos" around them.
- Illustrations and page breaks are still to come.
Revision notes3 open
- structurePage breaks and illustrations still to come
The text runs as two blocks of prose. It hasn't been broken into spreads or paired with art notes yet, and at about 1,000 words it's long for a picture book, so the page breaks will decide what gets trimmed.
- continuitySpelling and capitals vary
"cave kid" and "cave-kid" both appear, as do "dinosaurs" and "Dinos." Capitals drift in the opening ("Computers, Tablets, Self-Driving cars," "a Pirate"), and "1970's" should be "1970s." Settle one style before layout.
- continuity"The greatest tool of their time" is unclear
When Mac's parents call fight-or-flight "the greatest tool of their time," "their" reads as the parents rather than the cave people. "The greatest tool of cave times" or similar would say what's meant.
Version history1 draft
Current · November 2024
Quick write
The first full pass at the text in Mac's voice, about 1,000 words, including his tips for time travelers and dinos.