Over the next few weeks, SVA will be highlighting some of the many outstanding projects by its 2019 Alumni Scholarship Award winners. Today's featured works are by BFA Illustration student Lian Cho, whose 32-page children's book, Little Plum and The Closet, follows the story of a young girl who must confront the monster in her closet. By overcoming her fear she dives inside the closet only to discover an exciting new world and a monster who isn't so scary after all.

Tell us about your project. What inspired the idea?
Little Plum and the Closet has been an idea that I've been stewing on for the past couple of years. One night I was having trouble falling asleep and came upon the thought of counting sheep to help with sleep and how ridiculous the idea was in that it never seemed to work. Then the idea came to mind of these sheep emerging from the dream, and waking up to find the sheep you count inside your bedroom. Over the years the story has compounded and grown more sophisticated and finally, with the help of David Soman, my children's book class instructor, we were able to distill the idea down to a simple form. I wanted to tell a story similar to my own, with, of course, some added fantasy and flair. Little Plum and the Closet tells the story of a young girl who moves to a new house and has to confront the fear-inducing "knock-knocking" coming from her closet. She decides to toughen up and investigate only to find a magical world inside her closet and a monster who just wants a friend. When I was four, I moved from Taiwan to New Zealand, and I knew that I wanted to put some of these experiences into the story, as I personally know all too well the loneliness and fear a new situation can place in any new immigrant, young or old. I was also deathly afraid of the dark as a child, and the book is my way of confronting my own fears and learning that there isn't anything scary about it at all once you get to know it.

What most surprised you once you started working on the project?
Definitely how hard it was to distill a complex idea that I had been sitting on for years into something that could be fit into a 32-page children's book without making it too overwhelming for the reader. The story has been through many iterations over the past couple of months and has shifted dramatically from what I first envisioned it. Although the story is not perfect even now, I think this project has taught me many things about illustrating and writing my own picture book, especially how difficult it can be, despite how simple picture books may seem.

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"Don’t be afraid to try something new and fail, you’re still young and one failure doesn’t mean the end of everything."