From pretend to published Reading time: 1 min April Blampied with a copy of her book “Po Plays Pretend” and the small plastic tea pot that inspired the images inside. (Photo : Gordon Lambie) By Gordon Lambie According to author and illustrator April Blampied, the story of her first book, Po Plays Pretend, and the story of its creation, are both about learning to see things in new ways. “I didn’t set out to make a book,” she said, explaining that the project began as an illustration project with her art concentration students at Alexander Galt Regional High School three years ago. “The idea was to take one object and see it as something else by looking at it from different perspectives.”