Creating “Dandelion Magic”: Adapting Children’s Books for Drama Experiences

Jun 09, 2025

“Each year, somewhere in the world, a magical dandelion grows….”¹

Like many educators, Bowie High School Performing Arts Teacher Kelsey Meiklejohn Bowen pulls inspiration for her student projects from personal experiences. The Prince George’s County, MD teacher received a Grant for Performing Arts Teachers earlier this year from Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts to fund the development of a children’s theater project for her drama class. The goal for the project was to tour the production throughout their community for an audience of young children, so the first task for her students was to decide on the appropriate source material, and Bowen immediately thought of one of her own children’s favorite books, Dandelion Magic.

“Adaptation of popular material is something done frequently in children’s theater,” says Bowen, citing recent productions Little Red Riding Hood, Winnie the Pooh, and Dragons Love Tacos, from local Maryland-based children’s theater companies. “[Dandelion Magic] was the first book my daughter not only asked to read on repeat but also interacted with and began quoting as we came to different pages.”

Dandelion Magic, written by Darren Farrell, tells the story of a young boy, Jonah, and his grandmother, who introduces to him the idea of magical dandelions that grow once a year and grant wishes to whoever finds them. Poof! Jonah becomes a pirate at sea, fending off ferocious sea monsters who are attempting to sink his ship. The book encourages its readers to dream along with Jonah as he advances on his journey.

Bowen recalled the interactive nature of the book and thought that the central idea of the story–that magic is in our imaginations–might make a compelling theme for a Theatre for Young Audiences project. She introduced the book to her class, and they immediately started thinking of the story and staging possibilities for a production. 

“They liked the story’s emphasis on imagination and the idea of creating something from nothing or, simply, from a wish,” said Bowen. After she received permission from the publisher, the class began developing an original script for the play, with the guiding principle that “there is magic everywhere if you look close enough.”

Bowen’s grant enabled her to bring in teaching artist Ryan Sellers, who had recently earned a Helen Hayes Award for his work with Arts on the Horizon, a theater company for young children based in Northern Virginia. Sellers had plenty of experience bringing Theater for Young Audience projects to life on stage, and helped facilitate the experience for Bowen’s students.

“The process was largely student-based,” said Sellers. “They wrote the script and led the charge. My job was to help them refine their physical imagery and movement sequences to enable them to clarify and polish the story they wanted to tell.”

Bringing the Project to Life

One challenge was to bring the project to life on stage in a way that was true to the book but with a limited budget, so the students turned to Maya Tatsukawa’s illustrations for inspiration. They applied a “found materials” approach to the overall aesthetic, creating a world where Jonah’s imagination drove the narrative. To form an octopus, they used a traffic cone for the head and connected pool noodles to portray its tentacles, they maneuvered long pieces of cloth on stage to simulate ocean waves, and pieced together cardboard to form Jonah’s pirate ship.

Their goal was to develop a performance that would appeal to an audience of children ages 2-5, so the students tried to be mindful of what was developmentally appropriate and what their audience would find engaging.

“They crafted ways to introduce the monsters that would be surprising but not scary,” said Bowen, “jokes that would keep the kids entertained, and responsive opportunities in dialogue that leaned on the script more as guideposts for the narrative and action versus a prescriptive text.”

Lighting also played a part in the portrayal of story elements and scene transition: the actor playing Jonah held up a giant dandelion that was illuminated so that it shone against a dark backdrop, drawing the attention of the audience; students acting as puppet and prop masters dressed in dark clothes so as not to distract from their props, and maneuvered about the stage to transform the set pieces.

A Collaborative Experience

The experience was entirely collaborative, with students actively participating in all aspects of production, from the actors on stage, to the set designers and prop masters, and the students operating the sound board and lighting. Bowen considers the project a success because each student was able to play a role. Her advice for teachers who want to create their own drama experience from a children’s book is to “Have fun, explore, and use your local library to discover new books.”

“Approach [the project] in pieces,” she adds. “We had some time away from the project because of other commitments but the time away gave us time to reflect and think and engage in the creative process of ruminating, researching, and evaluating before coming back to problem solve or work on various sections. Breaks can be beneficial to come at something with fresh eyes and energy!”

Seller’s advice is to let the students lead and see the story through their lens. “Maybe Goldilocks enters a dinosaur’s house, not a bear’s. Maybe the porridge is race cars,” he suggests. “The students are always eager to play and the point isn’t to ‘do it right,’ but rather that they play creatively and come out of that process loving whatever they made.”

Advice for Creating Your Own Drama Experience with or for Children

• Visit your local library for inspiration: choose a book that has plenty of interactive elements.
• Use materials you have already: students can even portray different characters or actions with their bodies.
• Let the children make suggestions and incorporate them into the story.
• Nothing is precious: if something isn’t working for your students, don’t be afraid to change it up.
• Validate students’ contributions.

Dandelion Magic was written by Darren Farrell, with illustrations by Maya Tatsukawa. Watch a read-along with the author. Learn more about Wolf Trap Grants for Performing Arts Teachers.

¹ Farrell, Darren. Dandelion Magic. Dial Books, 2021.