Calling all word nerds!
I plan to create a series of illustrations and hope they can be combined into a book. There will be two illustrations for each letter of the alphabet. The first page will depict a nature-based collective and the second will depict a whimsical (and perhaps totally made-up) human or urban-based collective.
For example, for the letter H, on the left page, you would see an illustration (and wording) for "A husk of hares." On the right page, you'd see "A hash-tag of hipsters." (Yes, I totally made that one up.)
Where do you come in to this?
Well, I am accepting suggestions for both the natural collectives of critters (or trees or whatever else you might find in the wild) and, more importantly, the new (again, possibly invented) collectives for groups of people or things you'd find in a man-made environment. I will be giving credit where credit is due (by attribution only - I don't imagine there is any money in this for any of us.)
Don't be afraid to go quite dark and adult - this is not meant to be a children's book. I'm thinking more Edward Gorey than Peter Rabbit. For example, I'm seriously considering "D is for a doozy of drunks."
Also, if you want to suggest a really nifty existing collective like "a cloud of bats", I'd love that too and please don't worry if the collective noun doesn't start with the same letter as the constituents of the collective. (So, as in the example here, it's fine that it's not a "barrel of bats". A "cloud of bats" is the existing term and works great for me. The alphabet is going to follow the constituents - B is for "cloud of bats" - not the collective nouns.)
If this sounds like fun to you, please submit your idea(s) here in comments! I'll keep this blog updated with the illustrations as they go.
Thanks in advance!
Have fun with this Kate.... you have such a creative mind.
ReplyDeleteelongated elephants? eleven elves? a dashing dachshund and dancing dragons? a fretful fox and fancy faeries? a gaggle of geese and a green giraffe.
ReplyDeleteThis will be groovy!
ReplyDeleteJust noting that credit for "a swirl of sailboats" goes to DeAnna Ramirez.
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