Scientific Article to Children's Book Translation

Sofia Ferrer

California University of Santa Barbara

Writing 2: Academic Writing

Instructor: Valentina Fahler

March 13th, 2022

 Have you ever heard about the psychology study that proved mirroring someone’s body language

builds their trust? Or that the orientation of a person’s feet points towards their focus and interest? And if

so, where did you get this information? From a friend? A Buzzfeed article? Your junior year AP

psychology teacher? Wherever from, this information reached you, and likely in a more casual,

non-academic setting. Our modern society has a fascination with psychological research that allows for it

to spread quickly. Perhaps, the complex research begins in a published journal and then is shared with a

classroom, where it makes its way to a blog and then inevitably falls into the lap of social media. From

such a widely accessible platform like Instagram, Twitter, or your chatty friend, this research can be

translated into a multitude of genres, including a children's book. Although some stories were simply

meant to make us laugh, and provide us with a good, entertaining story, many held a deeper purpose. In

addition to expanding our vocabulary and overall understanding of human communication, the majority

of children’s books also taught us how to process different social situations and left us with a lesson. I see

a clear chain of research and storytelling that allows children’s book authors to translate complex

psychological ideas into digestible narratives. For my project, I chose to transform an academic article

into a children’s book in the hopes of exploring this process up-close.

The article I chose, “Adaptation and the Set-Point Model of Subjective Well-Being: Does

Happiness Change After Major Life Events?” by Richard E. Lucas delves deep into the psychology of

happiness and how traumatic events affect our level of life satisfaction. To summarize his findings: Lucas

discovered that although many traumatic events such as losing a loved one or getting divorced do not

affect your long-term set-point happiness, some especially overwhelming incidents can lower your

set-point happiness. Lucas utilizes intricate language and sophisticated statistical graphs to speak to his

academic audience.

The audience for my primary source article is mainly other psychologists, specifically those who

study happiness, personality, and the set-point model. Whereas the audience for a children’s book is

primarily children that range from around four to nine years of age in addition to the parents and
guardians of the children who purchase these books. Keeping these two vastly different audiences in

mind, I began my transformation.

To convert Lucas’ professional language into a more accessible jargon, I abandoned niche terms

such as set point model, intention activities, and subjective well-being.I also left out some of the less

uplifting parts of Lucas’ research.. Although the storyline highlights several traumatic events and how

they affected the characters, I left out case scenarios where a person’s happiness completely lowers after a

traumatic effect. Instead, I wrote that a character was “not the same” or that their life was “not the same”.

To stray away from a miserable storyline, I included a key part of Lucas' research: how our life

circumstances and intention activities also contribute to our happiness. There is evidence in his article that

points to the fact that some people can recover from especially difficult events. I chose to highlight this

‘storyline’ instead. For example, Lenny channeling his energy into aviation after the loss of his uncle or

Luna’s engagement with her art after her father passed away. Thankfully, ideas about happiness and

personality were easy to keep because children are able to grasp how difficult situations affect the

emotions of themselves and others.. The “leafers” serve as several examples of self-growth and showcase

how by practicing healthy intention activities, you can return to your your set-point happiness.

Throughout my translation, I ran into more challenges than expected. From testing my artistic

capabilities to balancing difficult topics, I relied on several writing scholars to develop my drafts. One

major struggle I had was creating a meaningful storyline while still including the article's main points. I

found at times that I didn’t want to give up on adapting my plot because I needed space for the

psychological research to shine through. “Genre in the Wild” by Lisa Bickmore examines how genres

often shift given conventions that seem crucial to its success. Bickmore writes, “the writer also—perhaps

in minuscule ways—might adapt and reshape the genre, which potentially shifts the genre’s stability.

Genres are both stable and to some degree fluid and evolving, just as human communication itself is both

predictable and unpredictable.” Although I felt as though the genre demanded a deep, developed storyline,

I found ways to balance the characters with the message. I found that you can connect with a younger

audience when you structure your narrative to mirror relationships that they may have witnessed in their
own life. It was important to me that I not leave out familial structures and background, but I discovered

that each aspect of the story could contribute to a greater message.

I also struggled with how to use gentle language while conveying traumatic events. An older

audience may interpret Luna's father's sickness as a fatal health complication or Louie’s arm pain as bone

cancer (examples of events that were shared in Lucas’ research). However, using buzzer words like

“cancer” and “fatal” does not necessarily fall within the bounds of gentle language. I took notes from

writing scholar Janet Boyd, author of “Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)”. Boyd states, “each time you

write you will find yourself in a rhetorical situation, in other words within a context or genre, that nudges

you to choose the right diction or even jargon and to strike the right tone”. Jargon is an especially

important tool when it comes to refining your rhetoric. The majority of my language usage came naturally

while I was writing, most likely because I am familiar with my genre. However, I had to think specifically

about how to approach concepts like death and sickness. I purposefully repeated phrases like “passed

away” and “sickness” as a way to easily communicate with a younger audience. I also struggled with how

to jump from one scene to another without my story feeling rushed. Joseph Williams' article “Concision''

detailed how I can make my writing short and straightforward. By nature, children’s books are concise;

they often quickly shift focus and convey emotions, actions, and sequences of events within a matter of

sentences. I found that by backing up my text with animation I was able to leave out unnecessary details.

For example, on page 23, the text reads “By his thirties Louie had secured a great home and a good job.

He was the happiest he had ever been.” The text is coupled with an image of Louie standing proudly

beside a proposal. His new facial hair, height, and successful business proposal all contribute to the new

stage in Louie’s life.

The last challenge I had was perfecting my animations. I took many tries but after a while, I was

able to nail down a simple design for my characters. Lamont’s “Shitty First Drafts” examines this process.

Lamont shares “The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over

the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later”. My first drawing

definitely looked like a child’s draft. However, over time I was able to refine my characters and overall
style. I knew I wanted to create a silhouette that was similar to a human body but that still felt very

cartoonish and animated. Because of my limited drawing experience, it was important to me that I stuck

with an outline that was simple and easily replicated. Each character has a similar shape while still

remaining differentiable. Their leaves are meant to serve as an allusion to self-growth

If I were to expand or improve my project, I would want to focus on its final production. I think

the book could benefit from a stronger use of color and a more professional format. Within my timeline, I

figured that I was better off focusing on the textual aspects of the story rather than the visual aspects. I see

growth in my animation skills as well. Overall, this project challenged my rhetorical skills, my knowledge

of the genre, and, of course, my drawing capabilities.

Aside from the technical, I enjoyed learning how to deliver a moral message about set-point

happiness within the conventions of a children’s book. Children’s books are a great example of how we

can translate psychology research into more accessible genres. I see value in exposing younger audiences

to difficult situations within the safety of a fictional world. I believe that this exposure to new, confusing

social situations allows for children to be more compassionate and understanding as they learn to navigate

the world. Furthermore, by utilizing reliable psychological research, we can ensure that the information

our children’s process holds credibility.

 References

Bickmore, L. (2016, August 1). GENRE in the WILD: Understanding Genre Within Rhetorical

(Eco)systems – Open English @ SLCC. Pressbooks.

Lamont, A. (1994). Shitty First Drafts. Bird by Bird. Some Instructions On Writing and Life.

Lucas, Richard E. Adaptation and the Set-Point Model of Subjective Well-Being: Does

Happiness Change after Major Life Events? Current directions in psychological

science : a journal of the American Psychological Society 16.2 (2007): 75–79.

Blackwell Publishers.

Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking). (2011). Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, 2.

Williams, J. M. (2014). Chapter 9: Concision. In Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace (11th ed.,

pp. 122–136). University of Chicago Press.