Penelope’s Bully

Project Overview

Penelope’s Bully by Andre Gatling weaves two parallel stories of being judged for difference into a single, moving friendship. Penelope arrives in her new neighbourhood hoping for new beginnings, only to face bullying for being different. When she meets Chloe, a homeless pit bull puppy treated with the same unfair suspicion, the connection between them is immediate and real. When Chloe is taken to a shelter, Penelope must find the courage to advocate for her friend — and in doing so, begins to change how the whole community sees them both. Gatling writes with genuine warmth, and the parallel between a bullied child and a misunderstood breed is handled with care rather than heavy-handedness.

The illustration challenge was making that parallel visible without being heavy — Penelope and Chloe needed to reflect each other’s experience through expression and body language, so that readers felt the connection before the story named it.

Role

• Character design (Penelope, Chloe the pit bull, and neighbourhood cast)
• Full book illustration
• Parallel emotional storytelling through human and animal character expression
• Visual storytelling and scene development
• Print-ready file preparation