Comment Wall for Botanica Fantastica
If you have any information – or any other feedback – concerning this uncovered compendium of plant stories, feel free to comment below.
Thank you in advance for your thoughts and care!
just a kat and her ball of yarn
Lewis D.
Howdy Kat!
The first thing I have to say is your storybook is absolutely striking. Everything about it, the image choice, the layout, the fonts, the color palette, etc. are all perfect. And that’s not even mentioning your writing, your prose is so beautiful and your vocabulary and word choice is excellent! I can only imagine how much revision went into making your introduction and first chapter what they are (and if you did that on the first go, I am beyond impressed!).
Looking at the content itself, the premise for this storybook is so cool! (It reminds me a little bit of one of my favorite films, Stardust) I think it’s really bold of you to make plants such central characters to your book, and reading your first story, you certainly make it work! I will definitely be bookmarking this book to come back to in future weeks, I cannot wait to see where this story goes!
Brooklin
Hi Kat!
First of all, I love the setup of your storybook! It is so aesthetically pleasing. The picture on your home page is beautiful.
The introduction left me a tad confused. I did not realize that it was a story, Instead, I was kind of expecting an into to what was to come in your storybook. That being said, through your story I learned, from what I understand, that your storybook would be about the stars that took their place on earth and created plants. I hope I am right! Your writing style is so elegant and beautiful, it sounds like it is straight out of an extremely well-written book!
It is such an interesting topic, are you passionate about plants or do you garden in your spare time? I am so excited about the topic and am a bit jealous that it gives you such a great opportunity to include beautiful pictures.
I look forward to reading more of your storybook during this semester.
Brooklin
Justin Ballou
Hey Kat,
Love your preface page layout. The pictures on every page are interesting, relevant to the respective story, and they are beautiful images. I like your layout of the website and that you include a preface, epilogue, and author’s notes at the end. I have not seen this organization layout before and I like it. I love the idea behind your story. It is creative, and fun to think about for a person interested in the universe like me. I do recommend talking more about tribes and what that is. I do have to go back and reread about characters or terms several times because I forget who is who. You could create a table where you list and describe the terms like “tribes”, “star-people”, “sibling star”, etc. Almost like a key terms table. It could make understanding the origin more seamless. The end of the introduction is a great segway to chapter 1, and I felt I had a much better grasp of the characters in chapter 1. Also, I like the origin of water pools and a tree sapling. Very intersting and great story, Kat!
Landon
Kat,
Your introduction and story are so well-written! As a Chemical Biosciences major, I could have never written something like that, so I applaud you for your creativity and your great use of vocabulary. Your page looks so aesthetically pleasing, and I love how you have organized it so well. Your introduction and your story were so different, yet flowed together so well! Did the maiden want to transform with the tree? Was there some significance of having seven stars? Is this first plant going to have played a role in all of the stories? It was very hard for me to think of suggestions, but I do like what Justin was saying of maybe having a little table with descriptions of some of the characters. I did have to reread a few things to make sure I understood them, but I feel as if that might just be a fault of my own.
Cheyenne Rinehart
Hello,
I absolutely love the look of your page from the font to the colors you have decided to use in your storybook. It makes it seem so whimsical. I love that your storybook is about flowers and different stories with them. To me, that is something unique and I have yet to ever read a book like that. I am super excited to read the rest of the stories that you write. I was wondering what made you come up with this idea for a book on plants? There are a few things that I want to recommend like a key term table, which someone else also has mentioned. There were a few words I had to reread to get what it meant and remember it. Also, about the first section of writing in the introduction and chapter 1 is that all one paragraph or are they broken up? If they are separate small paragraphs I think that it might help to add a space between them to help distinguish them.
Deepa
Hey Kat! Like everyone who has already commented, I’m in love with the design and layout of your storybook. Great job picking out images that fit with the subject matter and tone of your writing. I’m almost reconsidering switching from Google Sites to Weebly, but that would be way too much work at this point! Your diction in your stories is also really impressive and adds to the mysterious and ethereal feel of your writing. In your first story, I would suggest making sure Tree has consistent capitalization. I appreciated that you put all the author’s notes on a separate page at the end because I think it preserves the rest of your storytelling by making each of their pages more minimal. I definitely need to improve this aspect in my storybook because I think I made it too cluttered. But overall, really great work and I’m excited to see the rest of your project!!
Jennifer B.
Hi Kat!
Your website is so pretty! I love the design, it makes me think of walking through my garden in the spring (which is in growing progress!). Your writing is also fantastic — the introduction and ch. 1 story were so well written, and I loved reading them! This is completely beside the point, but the word ‘vivacious’ makes me think of V for Vendetta, and I just love saying the word vivacious. Any, great job! I can’t wait to read more from you!
Reid M.
Hey Kat,
I gotta say, your writing is immaculate! The pictures painted with your words truly create a dazzling landscape through which I am eager to explore as I continue reading what else you have to write this semester! Additionally, the images you chose play perfectly into the image your words spin. Each one accents the main focus of your story without being garish or overbearing on the page. I don’t know how you managed to mute the colors of the images as you did on the story book, but it makes the entire flow very elegant from picture to the written story. Coming back to the story, where did you come up with the idea to tie all these eclectic tales of different plant lore together in one piece? I never would have come up with the idea of tying Slavic views on roses together with the Islamic story for the creation of roses. It seems so wild and outside of anything I would ever conceive that I am astoundingly impressed at the sheer creativity I have seen in your writing. Please keep up the good work so that I can finish this story! I have so many questions I want answered within this story and I cannot wait to see how you will go about it!
Drew
Kat,
I think your paragraphs are spaced out very appropriately. World origins are always interesting to read, especially when they’re creative. I saw the Native American influence at the beginning. There’s an explanation for everything. I took a Native American Music class one summer and was exposed to this storytelling. I like it. In many religions or belief systems you can just say “God did it.” Native American storytelling has specific reasons for why things are the way they are. You have a great vocabulary, and you seem pretty interested in description. I like the way you name things. Making something a proper noun is a good way to place importance and emphasize that importance to the characters or culture you’re writing about. I admire that you wrote your story all the way through already. I also admire you stuck with one topic. I couldn’t think of something interesting enough early on to stick with. I did end up writing about the same topic a couple times, though…
Lauren Sardono
Hey Kat! So great job on your story! This is the first time I’m reading it, and I loved it. I loved how descriptive you were. I felt as if I was really there in the story. I like how you took the time to descriptively describe the origins of everything for the reader. I also used stars in my storybook, and like the mysterious fell that using stars creates. The whole story had a Native American feel to it, and after reading your notes at the end, I really appreciated how you explained it. So for this week, we are supposed to talk about paragraph structure. I honestly liked how you structured it. It’s easy to read, and is aesthetically pleasing. Again, great job!
Daphne
Hello Kat
I have to agree with several of the comments on your page layout and design. The images, colors, are all so captivating. I found myself relaxed and content as I was going through your storybook. Not just from the images but from your writing style as well. Your use of descriptive words took me to another place. I usually read the intro and come back to another story later but I kept reading. It is nice to see writing about the links between nature, humans, and the stars. Your writing style is immaculate, everything flows perfectly. I am so happy your storybook popped up in the randomizer! Great job!
Savannah Kotkin
Hi Kat,
First of all I think the aesthetic of your storybook is so cool! I love the vibes! It is so unique and different and has such a fun energy behind it. The font and pictures that you have chosen to use are really fun and well done! I think its super cool that you used the theme of flowers throughout your book. The idea was super smart and I had not thought of it! I felt like you did an amazing job of being descriptive and specific about the different stories you told. I think the navigation of your story is super well done and I really like how you formatted it! You did a super good job and I love your storyline!!!