This week, author, illustrator, and entrepreneur Trevor Lai visited AISG as part of our Visiting Author series, and for Elementary School students, this was an extra bonus as part of their celebration of Literacy Month. Authors who visit AISG speak to students about their experience and inspire them with their stories.

Trevor Lai is the founder and CEO of UP Studios, one of the leading animation studios in China. He published his first book when he was 17 and went on to create multiple animated television shows for kids including Super BOOMi, which has over 4.5 billion views in China alone but has been broadcast worldwide. Lai has continued with his love of writing and has written and illustrated over 30 children’s books, including the Piggy and Tomo series. We are pleased to have such a multitalented and dynamic presenter come speak to our students.

Lai presented at both campuses, Ersha and Science Park, during his three-day visit. He spoke about the Power of Imagination and his journey in becoming a leader in his field. He imparted on students the power of perseverance, that even though he didn’t attend art school, he had a dream of being an author and illustrator of books and worked hard to make it happen. Lai stressed the idea of discovering your passion and taking action to make your dreams come true.

In addition to presenting, Lai hosted drawing and writing workshops where students learned first-hand about his creative process in writing and illustrating his books and television shows. This included a live demonstration of brainstorming ideas for characters by having students calling out ideas and superpowers that he wrote down. Then everyone picked ideas they liked from their brainstorm and drew their own superhero characters.

He even interacted with our youngest students in preschool. Lai read aloud from his book Piggy: Let’s Be Friends. He also taught the students how to draw the titular character and everyone had fun drawing their own Piggys. From the looks of their drawings, there are definitely potential illustrators in the crowd!

Our students had a great time with Trevor Lai this week and they learned a lot about being a writer and illustrator and, most importantly, how their own ideas can lead to powerful experiences. In line with our principles of an IB school, Lai’s visit greatly inspired our students to follow their passions, take action and persevere.

A special thank you to the PTA for sponsoring the Visiting Author series.