Recycling Book Project Progress for 2024
Happy New Year! 2024 turned into a busy year with house and garden renovations taking up any free time, so fitting in recycling pickups at the weekend was all we could manage. Social media and posting had to be put on hold, but with the illustrations ready it’s time to pick up where we left off.
We have now collected thousands of cans and bottles, so it’s time to think about publishing the book. There are still some collaboration ideas in the pipeline which we need to pursue, but the aim is to start ramping up socials again and then launch for October, which is Down Syndrome Awareness Month.
Click here to follow our progress – here is the final version of page 7:
Below you can see my initial idea. I love this page as it shows the creative process – how to go from ideas and turn them into something that fits. So this page shows Elijah and Crumpet imagining what they could do if they collected loads of recycling.
Fatima my illustrator decided to use industrial size wheelie bins, which I liked as it shows scale! Then she nailed the right side with Crumpet and had Sapphire the cat sitting on a pile of books. My only thought was whether or not to use our three Elijah and Crumpet books, but our books are thinner and so I was happy to stick with the effect.
If you would like to preorder a copy of our recycling book (name will be revealed soon), you can order on our website – click here.
(Finally, the AI-generated image at the top was what the website editing software kindly offered to create. I thought I would see what it produced using my image as a prompt. Not a bad effort!)
Recycling Book Underway
Our 4th book is now well underway. It’s a rubbish book … which isn’t what you think 🙂
We have been collecting cans and bottles from local businesses and houses, so we are turning these into a book on recycling. A recycling book fully funded by recycling! Very cool. Plus Elijah is meeting more and more people around our local area, building connections which will help him later in life. (And it gets him away from screen time, teaching him a good work ethic!)
We will then give these recycling books out as rewards, as supporters give us their recycling items … and with the profits we will be able to distribute free books to schools in the local community (and then further afield) with the intention of:
- Encouraging reading;
- Creating awareness of recycling;
- Creating awareness of Down syndrome;
- Introducing more people to Elijah and Crumpet.
Recycling as a community project attracts a lot of support, from locals, businesses, council and local media. So I would definitely recommend it as a way to raise funds for a worthy cause.
To follow our book illustrations progressing from draft ideas through to final pages, complete with commentary, click here!
Testing for Down Syndrome
If you could un-invent something, what would it be?
This is my first Bloganuary post using the prompt above. I have been following Andy Marshall’s posts each day, but this one prompted me to take action! If you haven’t met us before, Elijah and Crumpet (played by Dad, Rob) have made a load of YouTube videos and have a range of rhyming, illustrated kid’s books on different topics (not about Down syndrome, but with Elijah as the main character). Signed copies are available on our website, www.elijahandcrumpet.com
Many families who have experienced Down syndrome say that they ‘wouldn’t change a thing’. It’s a well-known phrase on social media. Why? Because their child has brought them so many positives that (if they ever thought otherwise) they no longer view Down syndrome with the negativity that they once had. Life as a family becomes a bit different, but it’s still a good life which has meaning, achievements, love, happiness and much more.
So I would get rid of testing for Down syndrome. That does come with another societal change, though. A few in fact, since you can’t just undo one thing that society has created and hope for the best. In a world that welcomed Down syndrome as a natural part of life and humankind, you would find a lot more support for people living with Down syndrome. It would be easier for them to receive an excellent education and they would be given equal opportunities in the workplace, with support and modified work if required, yet still with the same pay as regular workers.
Imagine a world which valued Down syndrome as a gift. A world in which you received only genuine congratulations from everyone when your child was born and not ‘sorry to hear that your baby has Down syndrome’.
Now, many families with any kids do struggle. A regular kid can have many issues growing up and in life. So it’s not everyone who finds parenting easy, just as bringing up a child with Down syndrome is not easy for everyone. But with more support, it would be made easier.
The test stands for choice. (Note that my view is not right to life as a choice – that is another debate which is certainly worthwhile but it’s a different argument that I am presenting here.) That choice represents how society values the condition of Down syndrome. With most parents choosing to terminate on finding out that their unborn has an extra 21st chromosome, it shows that Down syndrome is not valued. In many countries we have come a long way from the past, when people with Down syndrome were institutionalised. We perhaps value the condition more now than in the past. But back then it was only discovered at birth, so it was at least more common in society.
Iceland declared a few years back their ‘success’ in being able to identify Down syndrome with a 100% success rate. Would this ability mean that Down syndrome would be wiped out? That the condition would no longer exist? That people with Down syndrome would not be allowed the chance to impact and change the world with their unique abilities and personalities? That’s the risk we face.
When I look at Elijah and ask whether or not the world is better off with him being present, it’s obviously a simple answer – ‘yes, much better off’. The thought that testing might have reduced his chance of life is horrific. Yet testing has prevented many lives with Down syndrome from having been lived, prevented many families from experiencing the things that we say we appreciate dearly, and prevented society from sharing more of this experience.
(We didn’t have an early test, by the way, for the sole reason that we were already of the opinion that we would be fine if we had a child with Down syndrome. That turned out to be a great opinion to hold.)
#downsyndrome #testingfordownsyndrome #downsyndrometest
Book #3 is now available!
‘Best Book Forever’ has just been published! Written with the support of Logan City Council Libraries and the First 5 Forever team, ‘Best Book Forever’ is a celebration of libraries – showing how lucky we are to have these places to explore and seek out magical stories.
This brings our Elijah and Crumpet book series up to 3 books, which is very exciting to see. We can now start working on book #4, which is our recycling book.
If you would like to order, please click here: Order Books
Best Book Forever
“Hey, isn’t that this book? How clever!” says Elijah as Crumpet finally brings him the library book he is looking for.
We have been working away over the past 6 months on the third book in the Elijah and Crumpet series: Best Book Forever. This book idea came about when we made a video for our local Logan Library up in Queensland. They were keen to support early readers and also inclusion, so we came up with the idea of writing a book about the library.
Andy Marshall was busy with his own kid’s book, plus running a cafe, so understandably he had to decline the offer to illustrate this one. So we eventually found an illustrator, Fatima Arif, who was able to continue the look of Elijah and Crumpet.
Now we are in the final stages of having this ready to print … so if you would like to pre-order a copy, please click this link: https://elijahandcrumpet.com/crowdfunding/
We look forward to sharing Best Book Forever with you – you will be able to download a free pdf from our supporter page on Buy Me A Coffee in the near future: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/crumpet
Elijah and Crumpet in the Blue Mountains Gazette!
For Down Syndrome Awareness Month, which is October, we contacted our local paper, the Blue Mountains Gazette, to see if they were interested in writing an article on us. They were! So here it is, a lovely article with lots of information and positive vibes about Elijah and Crumpet! Link to online version is below if the image is hard to read.
Blogging Blues
We did it – complete our second book, Super Scout, and received our first order of books, which we will now be sending out! (See photo below)
Reading our last blog from 2 years ago, so much has changed, including Elijah becoming a teenager, but we are still finding the time to be creative and do things for Elijah and Crumpet. The blog dropped off, but reading Andy Marshall’s blog reminded me to jump on and post something at least!
What’s new? We gave TikTok a go and so that’s another social media outlet to manage. Good engagement and easy to make videos which then could be used on all the other channels.
Finishing Super Scout took some time, but we are very happy with it now. It’s a great look to have more than one book as it lends credibility and more talking points to us when we are in the marketplace. We did one day in the Katoomba craft fair and sold 12 books, so Elijah and I will be doing that again soon.
October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month and we are being featured in the Blue Mountains Gazette, our local regional paper. They have written a lovely article and I think they are going to be using this photo:
We have also launched our recycling book project, so you can read all about that on our website – just click the button on our home page, or click here to find out more!
October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month
Did you know that October is the internationally recognised Down Syndrome Awareness Month?
It’s a month which is chosen so that everyone can channel their energy towards social media campaigns and projects to raise awareness of Down syndrome.
So what have Elijah and Crumpet been doing?
2021 Childhood Summit
Elijah submitted an application video for the 2021 Childhood Summit which is being held in Logan this month. He was chosen to be a speaker, so we agreed that he would make a video on his chosen subject, seeing as that’s his strongest means of communication. He will be talking about imaginative playground design.
We have been busy practising Elijah’s speech and this weekend we completed the filming (funnily enough, meeting 2 other Elijahs in the playgrounds we visited – one of whom is appearing with his sister in our video!)
Super Scout Update
Elijah and Crumpet also filmed their Super Scout video this weekend (it’s been a busy weekend!), so we are all set to launch several crowdfunding campaigns once this video is edited.
Working with Scouts Queensland is great, but we need to fund the illustration costs, so seeing as we have experience of crowdfunding, we thought we should make the most of it. We gain a broader reach on each platform we list on, so it’s really a case of ‘the more, the merrier’! We will set the target amounts very low to ensure that we can collect whatever we raise.
Our fundraising page is all ready on our website, with pre-order copies starting to sell now at $20 for a signed, limited edition copy.
So that’s enough news for October! It’s quite busy, but it’s been fun and we are continuing to sell copies of Motivate Man both through our website and through online channels.
Happy Down Syndrome Awareness Month!
Super Scout
Time for another Blog post, now that we have released news about the second book we are working on: Elijah and Crumpet – Super Scout!
Scouts Queensland are currently trialing our first book, Motivate Man, as a fundraiser so that we can get the logistics of it right. We will then decide how we can use both Motivate Man and Super Scout around the Scout network in Queensland, then get the rest of the country interested!
We will be providing the books at cost price and Scout Groups will then be able to keep the profits they make. All of this comes under the Scout’s Sustainable Development Goal 10 on inclusion and diversity, so it’s a great collaboration. Here is Elijah’s introduction video about the book:
Tea with the Governor
I was invited to attend an afternoon tea at Government House in Brisbane to meet His Excellency the Governor, The Honourable Paul de Jersey and his wife, Mrs Kaye de Jersey. I joined a large group of Scouts (youths, Leaders and management) and found these events happen because the Governor is the Chief Scout of the Queensland Branch. So it was great to network with the various Scouting personnel and I was able to give Mrs de Jersey a ‘Motivate Man’ book, upon which she had someone bring a copy of her book, ‘Gavel finds his place’, which is about the Vice-Regal dog, also a kid’s book.
Book 3 – still a secret!
We have since made some more connections and hope to get some press coverage soon, to coincide with the book launch … or launches. Did I say that we have also started on book 3? We can’t say too much at the moment, but the script is done and we are just waiting on the green light before we start illustrating.
Illustrating the books LIVE!
So if you would like to follow the creation process of Super Scout, please come and visit Andy Marshal and me when Andy does his ‘Sketchy Live’ on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/c/AndyMarshallForkInTheRoad
You can message us questions and we are normally on from 9.30 for about an hour (depending on kids sleeping). We discuss options, add funny things, trouble shoot and discuss a wide range of topics. Plus you hear our news.
2021 Childhood Summit
Elijah recently applied to speak at the Childhood Summit taking place in Logan next month, producing a 2-minute presentation on video. Well, he nailed it and was chosen, so we are now doing a 10-minute presentation about Playgrounds and Imagination. Should be good. If you haven’t seen it, you can watch Elijah’s 2-min application here:
That’s all for now,
Stay safe, Rob and Elijah and Crumpet 🙂
Elijah and Crumpet 
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