How are you at following directions?
I’m not very good.
Sure, I’ll follow directions that keep me safe,
and I’m not a trouble maker,
but the second I’ve worked with something and get comfortable with it,
I’m always trying to put my creative spin on it.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
But it’s always fun to try.
I’m working on a story right now based on something I did like that as a kid.
We were making birdhouses in woodshop class.
The instructions were to make the bird house,
then stick a white two liter bottle inside for the bird feed.
Once we stained the wood,
I thought about a green bottle instead.
I thought the green would go GREAT with the auburn wood stain.
My teacher said no.
“White bottle only.”
But I was stubborn and feisty, even in 6th grade.
When we had to turn our projects in, I turned mine in with a green bottle.
I got an entire letter grade lower on the assignment,
but I got the birdhouse I was looking for.
In this book, some kids follow the instructions while some don’t.
You’ll see what I mean!
Title: Going Places
Published by: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2014
Written by: Peter H. Reynolds and Paul A. Reynolds
Illustrated by: Peter H. Reynolds
Word Count: 527
Pages: 40
In one word: Inspirational
In one sentence: Rafael is very excited about the going places contest, builds his racecar just like the directions say, then sees his neighbor Maya has an idea to do it a different way and needs his help.
Favorite pages:
Likes:
As always, I love the artwork of Peter H. Reynolds. The line is loose, the colors bright, and there’s lots of motion and playfulness in each illustration.
I love that this is a book about doing your own thing but it doesn’t feel like the message is attacking you on each page. It’s also about friendship, creative thinking, competition…it’s also about collaboration, so it’s fitting that Peter and Paul worked together on this!
I really like the diversity in the cast of characters in this book too. The kids in the school and the crowds at the competition look like kids and crowds in the real world!
I absolutely LOVE the surprise that comes in the last page turn!
Learns:
Reading this book makes me think, “Does it HAVE to be done this way?” and that can apply to anything you’re doing really. There’s always some little way you can let your creativity shine through.
You can have two strong characters in one picture book. Maya and Rafael lead this story together.
Don’t be afraid to put one sentence and a whole bunch of art on a spread. That happens a few times in this book and it’s very effective. I know as a writer that I won’t have control over that, but as I’m paging out the story, I can keep it in mind.
Have you read this one?
What did you read today?
And, Happy Saturday 🙂
