1. Writing and illustrating an ‘Oliver Jeffers’ styled children’s book! Mr. Cole’s Guide to… Part 3 – The Problem & Resolution

2. Task 4: The Problem or Challenge You must now think of a problem or challenge for your characters to solve or overcome… otherwise the story isn’t going to be very interesting! The problem has to be big enough to actually be a challenge! Having a rogue bogey hanging from your nose is unpleasant but not a terribly difficult or interesting problem to solve! Here are a few examples Oliver Jeffers has used as challenges for his characters… At this point, don’t worry about solving the problem, just try and think of a good challenge for your characters!

3. Can you guess what the story challenge or problem might be from these book covers? PROBLEM: A boy is desperate to catch and make friends with a star… not easy! PROBLEM: A boy and a Martian become stranded on the Moon and can’t get off! PROBLEM: A boy loses his best friend!

4. Task 5: The Resolution Or, basically, how the characters solve the problem! Remember: this is a children’s story, so the solutions do not have to be absolutely realistic! They just need to make sense in your story. For example, look at this character struggling to climb a mountain to get to the Moon… Here are a few more examples of how Oliver Jeffers has solved the challenges for his characters…

5. PROBLEM: Protagonists stranded on the Moon! RESOLUTION: Climbing down from the Moon into the sea using a rope!

6. PROBLEM: Protagonist wants a star of his own but no matter how hard he tries cannot reach one! RESOLUTION: The boy finds a star fish on the beach and thinks that this is a ‘fallen star’. He is well chuffed!