Tuesday Storytime: Creativity and Hard Work

This storytime was inspired way back in spring of this year when I was looking through STEM-related books for our Summer Reading Program.  I found this in late spring, and reviewed it in June, and I finally got to use it today.

The Most Magnificent Thing

Ashley Spires

ISBN: 9781554537044

A girl inventor and her pug battle through the struggle to get your inventions to 'just go right' in a series of comic-book vignettes of cartoon-outlined figures and minimalist spaces.

This book is a really excellent representation of so many important things, it's hard to know where to start.  

First, the inventor is a girl, who invents with no help or input from other people, or even parental figures. 

Second, the process of invention is clear and un-idealized, from initial concept to drawing to the sometimes drawn-out process of trial-and-error building.  

Thirdly, the book hits on the importance of motivation, persistence, self-soothing, re-evaluating, and finding different approaches, all without being preachy or dragging the story along.  

Fourthly, each of the "wrong" things is shown being "right" for some other use, getting into re-use and repurposing.  

Finally, the constant conflict between the ideal concept in your head, and the physical manifestation of it in the world (which is always worse, because of natural laws and applicable skill-levels, and is never really understood by anyone else, because they can't see inside your head) is explained so very well for a younger set.

LOVE.

Beautiful Oops

Barney Saltzberg

ISBN: 9780761157281

Board-Book with flaps, "tears" "folds" "spills" and other imperfections and damage, used creatively to become artistic expressions.

I really hesitated to use this book for a few reasons.  First, it's a board-book, so about 6" square - a bit on the small side for group use.  Second, it's got all sorts of flip-out, fold-down, turn-over, open-up, stretch-out fiddly bits on each page, which are awesome, but difficult for me to manipulate and still focus on the presentation of the book.  Third, well, here's where things get philosophical.  The concept of the book is that "oops" moments like spilled paint or torn paper or folded corners or food stains aren't necessarily bad things, and can be used as a springboard for creativity.  Which is a great lesson - for things that are your own (ie, not library books, as this is), and if you weren't wanting to preserve the state of the original thing as it's own work of artistic creation (ie, like a finished picture book, as this is).  So, I was really hesitant, but I loved the concept, and decided to just go with it, and I'm glad I did, because the kids and parents really loved it.  I'm still a little iffy over having maybe presented a subtle argument that damaging library materials is really ok because it can be "fixed" with creativity, but I'll just hope for the best.  

(This is ending up as a very list-heavy posting today.)

The Dot

Peter H. Reynolds
ISBN: 0763619612

Scribbly-drawn black and white characters with loose sloppy colors marking emotionally important concepts or moments.

An older book, but still very good.  Vashti (excellent name for our protagonist, and again a girl creator) does NOT draw, and when her teacher insists, she stabs the paper with her marker, creating a violent (but very small) dot.  The teacher insists she sign it, and the next day, it's hanging in an ornate frame behind the teacher's desk.  Inspired (or more appropriately, challenged) Vashti embarks on an artistic journey of dottyifying.  Colorful dots, big dots, little dots, negative-space dots (amazing description in kid-language for that endeavor), great big enormous dots.  At the art showcase, her works are admired by a younger boy who also "can't draw" but she encourages him to create one small work, and then on the very last page, to "sign it."  Really deep thoughts about the perceived "professional" status of artists, about the difficulty of trying something new, about being personally challenged, about legitimacy, and all wrapped up in a lovely picture book that event the toddlers enjoy.  Excellent work all around.

Next week is Thanksgiving!

Motivational Biography: The Art of Asking, by Amanda Palmer

The Art of Asking
Amanda Palmer
ISBN: 9781455581085
Read November 10, 2014

Basically everything I want to say about this book was said better and faster by Cory Doctorow in his article/review/philosophical musings hosted by The New Statesman, published November 11, 2014.  Because I like to link to people rather than organizations as much as possible, you're headed over to his blog, where there's a short snippet and a click-through to the article itself.

Short version for click-averse or in the wilds of the future where links are broken and chaos reigns:

This is a really great biography of Amanda, and an even greater manifesto to artists and really to people in general to just accept that the majority of people are good and helpful, and to quit feeling like it's an imposition to ask people for help or to contribute.  Most people WANT to help, and it's incumbent on us to learn how to ask without being greedy or pompous, but also without needlessly presenting as a terribly guilty shame-faced imposition.  Just bloody ask already.

The impetus for the book came from a duo of TED talks focused on the same subject, and here in the book she attempts to find the reasons why it's so hard for her (and for others) to just ask people for help.  It's a great social commentary, and a really necessary one for the "business" of the arts right now, as everything is in flux and funding is becoming less and less corporate and businesslike and impersonal.

The book left me excited for the future, and hopeful about humanity, and a little bummed at myself that I don't feel at all brave enough to follow her advice.  I hope when/if the time comes, I can summon the courage to Ask.