The Book that Started It All for Me

Other authors on I.N.K. have mentioned how they started writing books for kids or what children’s books truly inspired them. For me, one book answers both questions. A magazine writer at the time, I picked it up because of its intriguing title: Round Buildings, Square Buildings, and Buildings That Wiggle Like a Fish. (Sorry, I tried to get its cover shown here but messed up.) Philip Isaacson was an architect and wrote the book to explain the elements of architecture, but also to tackle the abstract notion of how and why we perceive beauty.

Frankly, I was blown away. Here was a guy who had clearly thought about this subject for a long time. He had passion and vision—two ingredients that characterize many great nonfiction kids books. And he could convey them both, beautifully.

Let’s go for the acid test, a discussion of the lowest and dullest of building materials—concrete. Isaacson starts by saying that concrete has strength, but can take on soft, flowing shapes. Then, as an example of both, he describes the now defunct Trans World Airlines Terminal at JFK Airport. “The designer of the terminal must have loved air travel, because he gave us a building that looks as though it is sailing through air. Its roof sits on columns that sweep upward and its insides soar toward the heavens. When we enter it we feel that our flight has already begun. Most terminals are the last place on land; this one is our first step into the sky.”

Okay, he can write. But what amazed me just as much as his lyric prose was his ability to explain complex, abstract subjects without dumbing them down a bit. He made us understand them—and feel them.

My reaction? I didn’t know you could write this way for kids!?! I want to try.

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AND NOW A REQUEST TO ANY TEACHERS OR LIBRARIANS who look at this site, or anyone with elementary school aged kids or anyone with access to elementary school teachers or kids…

My new book, See How They Run: Campaign Dreams, Election Schemes, and the Race to the White House, deals with democracy, the electoral process, and ways kids get involved. To help kids start thinking about these issues, I created the KIDS SPEAK OUT! Survey—a quick (12 questions), anonymous, nonpartisan way for them to give their opinions on voting and issues facing our country.

The survey can be accessed via http://www.seehowtheyrunbook.com/ which takes you to my web site where you can click on the Take the Kids Speak Out Survey link on top. Another option is to go directly to my web site: http://www.susangoodmanbooks.com/.

The goal is for students all over the country to participate. My target audience is 3rd to 8th graders, but the more the merrier. Could you look at this survey and, if you feel comfortable, tell students about it? Soon there will be a downloadable teachers guide for the book on the same web site that includes ways teachers can use the survey in their classroom. And other activities to help teach about elections in the fall.

Thanks so much--Susan

Sources of Inspiration

Since I was confused about which day I was supposed to be blogging (I thought it was next Thursday), today’s entry is a bit last minute.

As I was mulling over possible topics, I got to thinking about the people who inspired me to start writing children’s books in the first place, as well as those who continue to inspire me. And I thought sharing the names of these people might help some other writers and illustrators out there. Or cause them to share some of their own sources of inspiration.

So without further ado, my very random list of 10 creative people who have inspired me, in no particular order:

Douglas Florian

Children’s poet and wordplayer extraordinaire. And he illustrates his own poems to boot. I love the apparent simplicity of everything he does.

Chris Van Allsburg

He re-introduced me to the wonders of children’s books when I was in my 30’s. When I saw The Polar Express, I knew I had to get into this field.

Bill Bernbach

The guru of creative advertising in the 60’s. If you want to learn about how words and pictures work together, look up the advertising work of Doyle Dane Bernbach from that era.

Robert McCloskey

What a storyteller. What an illustrator. I never get tired of reading his books to my kids.

Eric Carle

To experience the sheer joy of creation, I highly recommend a video that he did about his creative process called Eric Carle, Picture Writer. It’s available at my local library and probably at yours too.

Leonard Marcus

He’s written so many books about the business of children’s books, all of them inspirational–especially Dear Genius and Ways of Telling.

Vincent van Gogh

800 paintings in 10 years–he literally painted like a madman. Like me, he was a latecomer to his chosen field. I’m not ashamed to say I cried when I saw The Sower in person.

Jan Vermeer

Only 35 of his paintings survive, and most of them stop me in my tracks. I love the fact that he may have used an early form of the camera, called a camera obscura. Some see it as cheating. I see it as creativity.

Dr. Seuss

No one can match his talent. But everyone tries. I also like the roundabout way he discovered his calling.

Bob Gill

I was a Graphic Design major in college, and Bob Gill wrote a wonderful book called Forget All the Rules You Learned About Graphic Design, Including the Ones in This Book. His basic premise is, when you’re designing something to solve a problem, and you get stuck, creatively redefine the problem. It’s a great book about thinking differently. And it’s fun to read because it’s made up entirely of examples.

Is that ten already? I know, I know, there isn’t a non-fiction writer in the bunch, unless you count Douglas Florian. But as they say, inspiration can come from anywhere.

Books to Ignite a Creative Spark

Monday and Tuesday, in our nation's capital, the 21st Annual Arts Advocacy Day was held. Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, had the honor of being the guest speaker for the Nancy Hanks Lecture in the Concert Hall of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. What an honor!
I reviewed A Whole New Mind on my blog last November and finally met Dan and heard him speak here in Chicago last month. If you ever get a chance, do not hesitate to attend one of his lectures. If you are not already, you will become a strong supporter of Art Education in the schools... it all makes sense.

Here's a quote from the book:
"The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind---creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers. These people--artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers---will now reap society's richest rewards and share its greatest joys." (p.1)

Combining reading (left-brain) and art (right-brain) is a perfect pairing.
Did you know that there is research that proves kids start to lose their creativity in the fourth grade?

How about some books to ignite even a small creative spark in a child?
How about some books to get those right-brain muscles energized?

Here are just of few of my favorites:

Exercise For the Brain

How Bright Is Your Brain?
Amazing Games to Play With Your Mind
Michael DiSpezio (author)
Catherine Leary (illustrator)
Sterling 2006

Everything you would want to know about the brain, nerves, and senses are in this book. It's fun, entertaining, and well-organized with bright graphics and a layout that my right-brain loved. There are even sections on Breaking Rules In Creativity, Finding Creativity, and Dreams.
Did you know that Beethoven, before he sat down to write music, dumped ice water on his head? How cool is that?

The Imagineering Way: Ideas to Ignite Your Creativity
The Imagineers
Disney Editions 2003

The Imagineering Workout: Exercises to Shape Your Creative Muscles
The Imagineers
Disney Editions 2005

I found the first book of this series at The Writer's Stop (a bookstore tucked away at Disney World MGM). Yes, the same trip that I found Looking at Paintings, from my first I.N.K. post. While my family goes on the rides, I wander the parks. Finding that amazing coffee shop and those books were the highlight of my trip.
The imagination at Disney is legendary and these two books, told through short essays by 50 or so team members, are even creative in how they address and foster their creativity! Each story is fun, different, and enlightening. Elementary students to adults will come away thinking in a whole new way.

KidChat Gone Wild!: 202 Creative Questions to
Unleash the Imagination
Brett Nicholas
Roaring Brook Press 2007

KidChat is a fabulous series of books for parents, teachers, and kids with questions to spark some very imaginative discussions. Two more books in the series are coming out in May 2008.


Sparks Ignite!
Reading about inventors and inventions show students their ideas matter. Below are two very well-written general nonfiction books to get kids thinking. I will leave for another post some other fantastic books on ideas and inventors. (And, there are several great books on women inventors and toy inventing, which I hope to blog about in the future.)

So You Want To Be An Inventor?
Judith St. George (Author)
David Small (Illustrator)
Puffin 2005
Ages 4-8

"If you want to be an inventor, find a need and fill it."
"If you want to be an inventor, be a dreamer."
"If you want to be an inventor, keep your eyes open."
"If you want to be an inventor, you have to be as stubborn as a bulldog."
And my personal favorite very sage advice,
"Inventors aren't all men!" (Their exclamation point, not mine.)
Power to all kids to be creative!

Kids Inventing! A Handbook for Young Inventors
Susan Casey
Jossey-Bass 2005
Ages 9-12

Written for a slightly older child, this book not only introduces kids to kid inventors but shows them how to come up with ideas and develop them.
Every step of the idea creation and development process is explained, adding encouragement along the way.

Side note:
Just to clarify, I'm both left and right-handed so I didn't intentionally set out to alienate the left-brained, right-handed community.
And, in my other life, I'm a toy inventor with several patents and awards, so I truly enjoy reading these books. I hope you will, too.

3 Books

I came to children’s literature through reading to my two daughters. The Oxcart Man, In the Night Kitchen, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and Owl Moon, among others, thrilled me. But it was the difficulty of finding compelling books about real people who accomplished real things that set me to the task of creating a biographical picture book myself.

I loved history, had read endless volumes of it, and was a professional cartoon illustrator with oodles of experience. Still, I worried that my light illustration style was inappropriate, and that only realistic art could be the handmaiden to non-fiction.

Then I found 3 non-fiction books that simply brushed the problem aside:

The Glorious Flight, Alice and Martin Provensen’s lighter-than-air tale of Louis Bleriot and the first flight across the English Channel in1909, employed cartoon-like illustrations and won the Caldicott.
War Boy by Michael Foreman and October ’45 by Jean Louis Besson. Both are memoirs of growing up during World War Two. Each is illustrated in light cartoon styles, yet the images of Foreman under the German’s bombs in England, and Besson under the German’s thumb in France, are as compelling and poignant as any photograph.

To them, I owe inspiration and a career.