Cuddle Up For Story Time With ‘Ellie Makes a Friend’
We’ve got afternoon storytime covered! Pixar artist Mike Wu has just written and illustrated the most adorable book being hailed as a celebration of culture and friendship called Ellie Makes A Friend.
In this third installment from the Ellie series, Ellie meets a new panda from China named Ping who shares her love of creating art. Ellie is excited about making a new friend but begins to question her own talent as Ping draws talent for her painting skills. Over time though, Ellie learns more about Piing and finds that a new point of view can be inspiring and leave to friendship.
Today as a special treat the author has taken to the Disney Books Instagram account to read about Ellie’s adventure for us. This book is a wonderful read before naptime!
Check it out below:
Not only is this story delightful but it is also incredibly meaningful to Wu. He says of the story, “Ellie Makes a Friend is a really special book to me personally because it’s about a Chinese Panda named Ping, and Ellie. Being a Chinese American, it was important to me that this book was a celebration of cultural arts, friendship through diversity and accepting of other’s differences.”
When not hard at work on the next Ellie installment, Wu is a story artist for Pixar where he works closely with directors to discover the shape and structure of films. He’s worked on some pretty awesome Pixar films including, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, UP, and Toy Story 3.
Although he is proud of his work with Pixar, Wu says that creating Ellie is one of the projects that he’s the proudest of. Wu says, “My day job has been a highlight and a dream come true. However, being able to tell my own stories has allowed me to have a voice outside those films and be creative on my own terms.”
If you’d like your own copy of Ellie Makes a Friend you can pick it up here at Amazon for $16.99 here.
Readers are also encouraged to keep following along with MickeyBlog for more ways to stay entertained while at home.
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