Travis Visits a Tree Farm

by Stephanie Fuller

Picture Book · Ages 4–8 · STEM / Forestry / Environment / Educational

Travis and his class visit a real tree farm — and discover that forests are managed, sustained, and cared for by people who know them deeply.

Cover of Travis Visits a Tree Farm children's book.

Project Overview

Travis Visits a Tree Farm by Stephanie Fuller (Mascot Books, February 2023) is the companion book to Sam Visits a Sawmill, following a different young protagonist into the earlier stage of the timber journey — the tree farm itself. When Travis and his classmates visit, they learn how forests are managed for multiple purposes: providing wood products, protecting wildlife, and preserving natural beauty. Fuller brings the same clarity and respect for young readers’ intelligence that characterises Sam Visits a Sawmill, making complex ideas about sustainability and conservation accessible without oversimplifying them.

The illustration challenge was making a tree farm feel genuinely exciting — rows of managed trees and forestry equipment don’t immediately read as adventure, and every spread needed to find the wonder in the work, keeping both Travis’s curiosity and the reader’s attention fully engaged throughout.

Role

Stephanie Fuller’s story covers a full day on a working tree farm, which meant designing a cast large enough to feel like a real class trip — Travis, several classmates, and the farm workers who guide them — while keeping each character distinct and manageable across dozens of scenes. The environment itself had to do real work: rows of managed trees, heavy forestry machinery, and creek-side play all needed to hold visual interest without overwhelming a young reader’s eye.

Full illustration across all 38 pages included character development for the whole cast, building out the forest and farm environments in detail, and preparing print-ready files for Mascot Kids. This is a companion to Sam Visits a Sawmill, so the visual approach had to feel consistent with that series tone while standing on its own.

Selected Double-Page Spreads (Final Book Layout)

The forest isn't empty — wildlife lives alongside the timber cycle, and seeing both at once is what turns a lesson into a place worth caring about. — The forest isn’t empty — wildlife lives alongside the timber cycle, and seeing both at once is what turns a lesson into a place worth caring about.

The scale of the harvesting equipment is the moment the farm stops feeling like a walk in the woods and starts feeling like serious work that someone has to know how to do.

Travis and the group measured against a sapling — the kind of detail that quietly tells a child that the trees around them were once exactly this small.

The brook running through the farm is the detail that surprises most visitors, and the kids waste no time with it.

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.

Travis's character sheet locks in the proportions and expressions that carry him from the school bus to the creek and back, so he reads as the same kid whether he's looking up at a harvester or splashing in a brook. — Travis’s character sheet locks in the proportions and expressions that carry him from the school bus to the creek and back, so he reads as the same kid whether he’s looking up at a harvester or splashing in a brook.

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.

Rough sketch for the brook spread, showing character placement and scene composition, submitted to the author for approval before line art begins.

Clean line art incorporating the author's feedback on tree species and wildlife, submitted for a second approval before color work begins. — Clean line art incorporating the author’s feedback on tree species and wildlife, submitted for a second approval before color work begins.

Finished color spread completed to the author-approved palette, ready for layout and print.

Book Details

ISBN-13

978-1637552391

Publisher

Mascot Kids

Publish Date

February 7, 2023

Reading Age

4 – 8 years

Page Count

38 pages

Format

8.25″ x 10″ Hardcover

Available at:

Amazon

Publisher’s Website

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