Karis & Brook Stories: Lakeside Friends: A Story About Cancer

Project Overview

Karis & Brook Stories: Lakeside Friends by A.B. Namy is the second book in the series, and it takes on one of the most difficult topics a child can face: a friend’s cancer diagnosis. When Brook discovers that Joel has cancer, he struggles to understand why their time together must change and what he can possibly do. With the help of his caring mother — and an unexpected lesson drawn from ants — Brook finds new ways to connect with Joel while beginning to understand what his friend is going through. Namy again deploys the series’ Encounter, Educate, and Encourage framework with skill, turning a frightening subject into an empowering one.

The illustration challenge was keeping the lakeside setting genuinely warm and inviting — a story about cancer risks visual heaviness, and the outdoor environment needed to feel like a place of friendship and possibility throughout, even as the emotional subject matter grew more serious.

Role

The illustration challenge was keeping the lakeside setting genuinely warm even as the story’s emotional weight increased. A book about a friend’s cancer diagnosis risks visual heaviness, so the outdoor world Brook and Joel share needed to stay a place of possibility and friendship throughout, carrying the reader’s sense of hope even as the subject matter grew more serious.

Full illustration across all 38 pages covered character design for Brook, Joel, Brook’s mother, and the series cast, outdoor lakeside environment design, and emotionally balanced illustration across serious subject matter, along with print-ready file preparation for Mascot Books.

Character Design

Before a single page is illustrated, I develop the main characters in full — defining their proportions, expressions, and personality. This is the foundation that keeps your characters recognizable and consistent across every scene, every lighting condition, and every emotional moment in the project.

Process

Every project follows this same structured path, so you always know where we are and what comes next. You review and approve at the sketch stage and the line art stage — nothing moves to color until you’re happy. By the time the final spread is rendered, there are no surprises.