A 69.5 foot sandcastle, 12 foot tall hot dog cart, and now a seven foot tall book.
TWHS senior Alex Snarr contributed to the world’s largest published children’s book.

Snarr participated in an IWRITE competition that was looking for pieces of art and writings that best fit the prompt, “I am Texas” for the seven foot tall childrens book written and illustrated for kids by kids.

The book consists of 1,000 students’ artwork and passages to fill the book, all extracted from the competition.

“So Mr. McLeod (TWHS art teacher) had told us about this competition that was going on and what it was for, and I thought it would be a good idea to apply” said Snarr, “I submitted a piece called Western Fiddle. It is a drawing of a fiddle and in the reflection there is the flag.”

She was not overly confident in her piece and she didn’t expect anything to come from it.

“Honestly, I didn’t think it was the best, I had tried a new style with pen and ink. When Mr. McLeod had told us about the competition I thought of the fiddle I had already started,” admitted the violinist of 8 years.

She tweaked the fiddle drawing to fit the prompt so she actually didn’t start something completely new for the occasion.

It took three months for Snarr to receive the results.

“I had submitted my piece and passage and just waited,” Snarr said. “Three months later I got an email saying that I won! I freaked out and was like, ‘Oh my God Mr. McLeod, I won!’ Snarr said, “It was so exciting,”

While Alex may have been surprised, McLeod wasn’t.

“I was excited but not surprised to hear that her work was accepted because she always stood out among her peers,” McLeod said.

Besides visual art, Snarr has a variety of other interests.

“I like to play the fiddle, or the violin. I started playing when I was in 4th grade, so 8 or so years I think.” Snarr said, “My sister and I do duets sometimes with our violins, we have a book on it, but my personal favorite violinist is Jenny Oaks Baker.”

In celebration of the event there will be a red carpet and book signing held at the Hilton of Americas in downtown Houston. There will also be a museum display of the seven-foot tall childrens book.

Snarr loves the impact that her art has.

“I draw to help inspire people to be happy,” Snarr smiled.