Ardvark The Aardvark

About the Project

Ardvark the aardvark with the back leg named BumusArdvark the aardvark with the back leg named Bumpus is the main character of a forthcoming cc-by-sa children’s book of the same name.

Being an Open Source advocate, I am interested in applying the community process to collaboratively creating new works. My accidental creation of Ardvark sparked the idea to begin work on a children’s book which would be free to all to download, print (commercially if they saw fit), edit, and expand upon.

I am currently seeking writers, editors, and vector artists to help me reach the first milestone: Book One released as both a set of SVG graphics and a fully print ready PDF. If you are interested in collaborating, please Contact me

Characters and images so far

three baby vervets

The Stories

Guiding Principles

  • The book (story, animation, etc…) should be fun. First and foremost, it should be an interesting, whimsical, and even eccentric read.
  • The book should be entertaining to read aloud, both for kids and parents.
    • Onomatopoeia, new words, and new concepts make books fun to share and talk about
  • The book should be educational
    • This doesn’t mean it has to be stodgy or include anything quite so obvious as the classroom scene in book one. Instead, education and exploration should be intrinsic part of the book. To quote Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire, “don’t talk down to kids, just talk to them.” Simply don’t self censor: leave long words in, include advanced concepts of math, physics, astronomy, music, whatever – education begins with curiosity!
  • In the end, the project is cc-by-sa, which means you can do whatever you want with the story and the characters. Feel free to take or leave these guidelines.

Working with the Files

Get Inkscape, the Free and Open Source SVG editor, here to easily edit and work with the SVG images. You can access the SVG files here

2005
11/02
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