A truly unique children\u2019s book, \u201cLily Pond,\u201d was launched on Kickstarter by Patrick Henry High School alumni Shelley Daniels Lekven.<\/p>\n Shortly before graduating with a degree in psychology from UCLA, Lekven was inspired to write a poem that follows the vivid imagination of a little frog, Lily Pond, as she daydreams about her future.<\/p>\n \u201cThe book is about a girl frog that is lying in bed one night and she\u2019s thinking of all the things she could be when she grows up. I tried to make it so if a child didn\u2019t plan to get married, or marry someone of the opposite gender, it would be OK,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the lines in the book reads \u2018Who might I marry and where are they now, I hope they are happy and laugh out loud.\u2019 I didn\u2019t make it a \u2018he.\u2019 At the end, Lily decides she\u2019s tired and thinks it can wait. She is still happy to be a child.\u201d<\/p>\n Lekven then decided the poem would be fun to illustrate in clay for a children\u2019s book \u2014 so she set her diploma aside and honed her sculpting skills.<\/p>\n What began as a hobby morphed into a full-fledged career; her work as a 3-D artist in San Diego, New York and Los Angeles led to opportunities to work as a character sculptor on movies like \u201c<\/em>The Nightmare Before Christmas\u201d<\/em> y \u201c<\/em>Toy Story<\/em>,<\/em>\u201d and as sculpting supervisor on \u201cJames and the Giant Peach<\/em>.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI started playing with clay at the age of 6 when my siblings and I founded a clay town on the dining room table with some old balls of modeling clay. Our parents, remarkably, let it stay,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The scene, which she and her siblings later named Claytown, thrived and grew to become the centerpiece of their childhoods for the next 10 years.<\/p>\n The careers of both Lekven and her brother, David, sprang directly from Claytown, she said.<\/p>\n While in their teens, she helped David create an award-winning clay-animated movie about a duchy of frogs, which launched his career in animation; Lekven said since she already had experience working with frogs, incorporating that experience into Lily Pond was a natural fit.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were easier to dress than a human,\u201d she said. \u201cI chose frogs for the book because that\u2019s what I knew how to do.\u201d<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not to suggest that the completion of the \u201cLily Pond\u201d sculptures was quick.<\/p>\n The last scene for \u201cLily Pond\u201d was finished and photographed while Lekven was working on \u201cJames and the Giant Peach<\/em>.<\/em>\u201d The 23 illustrations in the book had taken 15 years to complete.<\/p>\n When Lekven met her husband, she left show business to raise a family. Another 15 years passed before she returned to \u201cLily Pond\u201d and started gradually Photoshopping the illustrations to perfection.<\/p>\n From start to finish, \u201cLily Pond\u201d took 38 years to complete.<\/p>\n \u201cI never considered quitting,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a labor of love and now I have the joy of introducing Lily to the world. I believe that if people see it that they will love it. I think it will do well at Comic-Con and I\u2019d love for it to be in book stores and libraries.\u201d<\/p>\n Lekven\u2019s Kickstarter campaign was launched on July 21 with a target goal of $15,000. The current campaign, which will only be funded if it reaches its goal by Aug. 22, currently has $3,240 pledged.<\/p>\n Lekven said that while she was hopeful the book would receive a \u201cProjects We Love\u201d backing from the crowd-funding platform, the current campaign failed to get the rating; without that rating, she said, Lily Pond has gotten lost amidst the sea of other children\u2019s books.<\/p>\n If the project is not funded through the first campaign, Lekven said she\u2019ll try again.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels really good to have the book completed,\u201d she said. \u201cI had to do it, there was no one else to finish it,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of my friends say they look back at their lives and say they feel they didn\u2019t accomplish what they could have. I\u2019ve never had that feeling. I did the movies, I did the book and I feel like I\u2019ve accomplished a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Shaped](\"https:\/\/missiontimescourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/web-MAIN-Arabian-scene-1.jpg\")
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