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Samantha Persons

Samantha Persons, Author
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"Little Savages"

 
   "Little Savages" is a activity book using a series of differing cultural signifiers, the coloring book, YA fiction, and educational illustrations. "Edible Wildlife" begins to blur the distinctions of what is real and what is fiction. "Wild Edibles" becomes a text within the text, the action and lessons portrayed in Abbie's book are real things and lessons that can be used by the reader outside of the piece. This blurring continues with historical events about the Navajo code, Camp Pendelton and General Douglas MacArthur in conjunction with Abbie's great grandfather. Abbie re-enforces this instability of history with her reference to King Arthur and the knights of the round table. This all takes place within the first ten pages of the short story.
 
There are other moments where the work queers distinction of agency and audience. The illustrations are modeled after the History and Nature coloring book series published by Dover Publications. The detail of illustrations and text density align the book's audience to be similar in age with the two main characters, but the adjacent activities are written for a much younger age demographic. These variances position the book as an item that follows and changes as the "reader"
grows and matures. First starting as a bedtime story told to babies, the story evolves into a picture/activity book for toddlers, and by age 8-12 aligns itself in the same context that Dover Publications sits now.
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