Little Body, Big World
Little Body, Big World is an interactive children’s picture book project that explores how non-linear storytelling can support children’s participation, decision-making and adaptation to life changes.
The project investigates how a picture book can become more than a reading object, by inviting children to shape the direction of the story themselves. Through three parallel animal journeys — an Arctic Tern, an Arctic Fox and a Curled Octopus — the reader is invited to make choices, follow different paths and discover multiple possible endings. The story uses migration, adulthood and adventure as metaphors for change, uncertainty and emotional adaptation.
My approach to this project began from personal experiences of migration and adapting to a new environment, later developing into a broader investigation of how children navigate change. Through my work as a Fritids educator at the English School of Gothenburg, I observed how children respond to uncertainty, decision-making and emotional transitions within a multicultural school environment.
The design process was developed through research-through-design, visual experimentation, material testing, storytelling and co-design workshops with children aged 6 to 8. These workshops helped shape both the narrative and the visual language of the book. Children’s responses influenced the use of animal characters, the emotional role of colour, the structure of choices, and the collaborative potential of the final outcome.
The final book uses lino printing, collage and digitally assembled illustrations to create a tactile and imperfect visual language. Its handmade expression reflects the uncertainty and movement of the story itself. Rather than offering one correct path or one fixed ending, Little Body, Big World invites readers to return, rethink and choose again.
The project does not aim to provide therapeutic solutions to complex emotional experiences. Instead, it uses interactive storytelling as a way to create space for interpretation, conversation, collaboration and reflection between children, educators and adults. Its long-term aim is to support group storytelling activities within educational settings, where children can practise decision-making, negotiation and imagination through play.