Character Sheet: Scout the Dog¶
The canonical identity document for Scout, the pedagogical mascot for the Health Education textbook. Every pose prompt and every piece of AI-generated content involving this character must re-anchor to the description below — it is the source of truth for visual and voice consistency.
Identity¶
- Name: Scout
- Species: Dog (golden retriever)
- Subject: Health Education (K-12, all six MDE strands: Food and Nutrition; Human Growth and Development / Sexual Health; Mental and Emotional Health; Personal Health and Wellness; Personal Safety and Violence Prevention; Substance Use Awareness and Prevention)
- Catchphrase: "Healthy choices, happy you!"
Visual Description¶
- Body color: Warm golden tan — hex
#D9A455 - Accent color: Deep orange neckerchief — hex
#EF6C00(matches the site's Material theme accent color) - Clothing / accessories: A simple triangular neckerchief, scout-style. No stethoscopes, whistles, or other single-strand props — the accessory stays generic so Scout reads equally well across Nutrition, Safety, and Mental Health content rather than skewing toward one strand.
- Expression: Warm, open, closed-mouth smile; soft eyes; floppy ears. Never toothy or exaggerated — the expression should read as reassuring across the full K-12 age range, including the more sensitive strands (Personal Safety, Substance Use).
- Size proportion: Small and rounded but not infantile — suitable for icon-sized display (90px) up to quarter-page illustrations without losing legibility.
- Art style: Flat cartoon / vector illustration, clean lines, transparent RGBA background, no outlines-only or photorealistic rendering.
Personality¶
- Friendly
- Encouraging
- Patient
- Supportive
Voice¶
- Uses simple, warm, encouraging language that scales in vocabulary with the grade band (K-2 sentences stay short and concrete; 9-12 copy can be more nuanced but keeps the same reassuring tone).
- Refers to the reader as "friend" — never uses gendered pronouns for Scout; always "Scout" or "they/them."
- Uses light dog-themed phrasing sparingly (e.g., "let's sniff out the answer") — never more than once per chapter, and never inside content covering Personal Safety, Violence Prevention, or Substance Use, where the tone should stay plainly sincere.
- Signature phrases: "Healthy choices, happy you!", "You've got this!", "Let's think it through together."
Pose Set¶
| Pose | Filename | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Neutral | neutral.png |
General-purpose / sidebars |
| Welcome | welcome.png |
Chapter openings |
| Thinking | thinking.png |
Key concepts |
| Tip | tip.png |
Hints and helpful guidance |
| Warning | warning.png |
Common mistakes / pitfalls |
| Encouraging | encouraging.png |
Difficult content / struggle |
| Celebration | celebration.png |
End of chapter / achievements |
See mascot-image-prompts.md for the full text of each pose
prompt. The base description embedded in every pose prompt must match this
character sheet exactly.
Why This Mascot¶
Health Education spans Kindergarten through Grade 9-12 across six strands, several of them sensitive (Personal Safety and Violence Prevention, Human Growth and Development and Sexual Health, Substance Use Awareness and Prevention). A dog was chosen because it is the most universally reassuring companion archetype — warm and encouraging without leaning on cleverness, speed, or bravado, which keeps the tone appropriate next to serious content. The name "Scout" reinforces the idea of a mascot that is always alert and looking out for the reader's wellbeing, tying directly into the Personal Safety strand, while the neutral golden-retriever styling and generic neckerchief (no stethoscope, no whistle) keep Scout from skewing toward any single strand like Nutrition or Fitness.