Where Big Kids Get to Try Out Some Big Ideas

Intense stick-figure drawings and the uncoordinated scrawl of a young boy peek out from behind the brown-paper cover of “Two Brothers of Monster Town.” The grade-school children in the audience sit cross-legged on the Persian carpet, so attentive you’d think their first book was being shared. The grown-up who stands before them admits that the self-published book is his, written when he was about their age.

Bruce Hale, author of the “Chet Gecko” series of junior novels, is sharing this information, author to would-be authors, at a monthly Saturday gathering that begins at the post-soccer hour of 4 p.m. at Storyopolis, a Los Angeles children’s bookstore and art gallery.

“After being in business for six years, we were starting to lose our customer base of [formerly] 2- and 3-year-olds,” says Dawn Heinrichs, co-founder of Storyopolis. “They loved the store, but we didn’t offer anything to entertain or interest them. We wanted to encourage art appreciation and the love of reading, so ‘super-sized’ events were born.”

They are “super-sized” because they are aimed at people 6 and older and because the workshops try to accomplish more than the bookstore’s usual story-and-craft hour. They try to teach the craft of storytelling and the art of creative thinking, Heinrichs says.

A Switch From Writing to Animation

When the workshops began in January, they centered on writing. A playwright has helped children develop a mini-play while mystery writer Hale led a brainstorming session for an animal-hero story the children named “Zoey the Dog.” (“Every hero has to have a sickness,” Hale said, so the dog, which goes on an adventure in Paris, had a bad sense of smell.)

On Saturday, the focus switches to animation, with DreamWorks’ “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” as a jumping-off point. Veteran animator Cathy Jones is expected to draw Spirit and Rain, who star in the film, and talk about the complexities of drawing horses, which are probably the hardest animals to animate, says Fumi Kitahara, a DreamWorks spokeswoman.

“The animators have talked about how horses have a rigid backbone and people are used to seeing horses, so drawing them is a lot less forgiving,” she says.

Author Cathleen Duey will read from and sign her novelization of the film, and a two-minute trailer from “Spirit” will be shown. Frank Gladstone, who heads the artistic development group at DreamWorks, will teach the kids how to create animation flip books.

“He’ll use ‘Spirit’ storyboards and talk in the simplest terms to these kids to explain the process of animation,” Kitahara says.

To complete their junior-Hollywood experience, attendees will be given screening passes to see the movie before it opens May 24.

This summer’s Storyopolis events are keyed to “out-of-the-box or creative thinking for typical things,” Heinrichs says. Although the lineup often depends on who’s available, the aim is to give kids an enriching experience they might not get in school.

An architectural workshop on June 22 will focus on creative uses of space; “Breaking the Spine” on July 20 will feature bookmaking; and a school projects workshop on Aug. 24 will explain how to use creative thinking to make the most of school projects.

The architecture workshop is partly a reprise of the debut “super-sized” event, which featured architect Alla Kazovsky, Susan Purcell, her design partner, and their buildin’box, their architectural kit for children.

After covering the basic elements of architecture, the pair plans to talk about basic building structures, then set loose teams of four to six children to construct with cardboard. Last time around, the kids made skyscrapers, swimming pools, spaceships and boats.

“It’s a learning experience to think about how you are going to make the curve or have windows fit within the framework. If you want to use a toilet-paper roll as a tower, how does it fit?” Purcell says. “It’s definitely different than arts and crafts class.”

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Animation workshop Saturday at 4 p.m. at Storyopolis. $6. 116 N. Robertson, Los Angeles. (310) 358-2500; www.storyopolis.com. Future workshops are $6 to $10 per child.