A child who uses a wheelchair goes in search of the perfect winter sledding experience

Athena was invited by Toronto publishing company, Owlkids Books, to illustrate a new picture book by Anne Laurel Carter. Because the book’s lead character uses a wheelchair, Owlkids reached out to Athena as an artist who could bring her lived experience to the project. She loved the idea of telling such a universal childhood story with a disability twist.

This will be Athena’s first children’s book, although she has wanted to get into children’s book illustration for many years. Her past training as an animator lends her many useful skills in this area including storyboarding, character design and keeping the character on model throughout the entire story. It is much the same skillset that she utilized for her semi-autobiographical webcomic, “Horace & Abigail”.