Esther Lankhaar Art & Illustrations

For assignment two for the visual journal, we should think about characters who will play a role in the story. Later on we have to integrate this in the (collage-) work we've done so far.
I came up with the idea for a 7 year old girl, not quite sure about her name yet (suggestions are wellcome!), thinking about Lily, who lives with her parents at an old house at a Canal in Amsterdam in 1971. She lives with her parents above a bookstore they own.  Her parents spend a lot of time working in the store and don't have a lot of time for her....She has a Siamese cat named Peppermint (because he loooves the smell of peppermint) who spends his days sunbathing between the books in the window display.
At night times, when her parents are asleep Peppermint and Lily (?) sneek down to the bookstore and toghether they read books about foreign places and cities. One night when she opens a book about New York something magical happens....
Here's a few sketches of how the girl and her cat might look like! :-D
I had so much fun imagining about Lily, who she is, what she likes, hates, where she lives etc.
It is all happening in 1971, as you can see by the clothing etc....:-)
(Gave the glasses glass after taking the picture...forgot that:-))