The creativity project : an awesometastic story collection

Title:

ISBN:

9780316507813

Edition:

1st ed.

Physical Description:

277 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

General Note:

Includes index.

Reading Level:

710 L Lexile

Subject Term:

American literature -- 21st century.

Creative writing.

Fiction -- Authorship.

Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.).

Added Author:

Sharp, Colby,

Summary:

Book advocate Colby Sharp presents more than forty beloved, award-winning, diverse and bestselling authors and illustrators in a creative challenge! Colby Sharp invited more than forty authors and illustrators to provide story starters for each other; photos, drawings, poems, prose, or anything they could dream up. When they received their prompts, they responded by transforming these seeds into any form of creative work they wanted to share. The result is a stunning collection of words, art, poetry, and story by some of our most celebrated children book creators. A section of extra story starters by every contributor provides fresh inspiration for readers to create works of their own. Here is an innovative book that offers something for every kind of reader and creator! With contributions by Sherman Alexie, Tom Angleberger, Jessixa Bagley, Tracey Baptiste, Sophie Blackall, Lisa Brown, Peter Brown, Lauren Castillo, Kate DiCamillo, Margarita Engle, Deborah Freedman, Adam Gidwitz, Chris Grabenstein, Jennifer L. Holm, Victoria Jamieson, Travis Jonker, Jess Keating, Laurie Keller, Jarret J. Krosoczka, Kirby Larson, Minh Lê, Grace Lin, Kate Messner, Daniel Nayeri, Naomi Shihab Nye, Debbie Ohi, R.J. Palacio, Linda Sue Park, Dav Pilkey, Andrea Davis Pinkney, Jewell Parker Rhodes, Dan Santat, Gary Schmidt, John Schu, Colby Sharp, Bob Shea, Liesl Shurtliff, Lemony Snicket, Laurel Snyder, Javaka Steptoe, Mariko Tamaki, Linda Urban, Frank Viva, and Kat Yeh --

"A broad and varied collection of creative pieces resulting from a collaborative experiment: forty-four creators responded to a creative prompt provided by a co-contributor"--

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake)	J FICTION CRE	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove)	J FICTION CRE	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	J FICTION CRE	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Stillwater Public Library	J FICTION CRE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Author Notes

Colby Sharp is a co-founder of the online community Nerdy Book Club and its off-shoot conference, Nerd Camp, two popular monthly Twitter chats, #Titletalk, #SharpSchu, and The Yarn, a podcast about bookmaking and the creative process.

Reviews (5)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 4-6-This collection is the result of a scheme facilitated by teacher and children's book advocate Sharp. He recruited 44 children's book creators-from Sherman Alexie to Javaka Steptoe to Victoria Jamieson-to compose and respond to one another's story prompts. Featuring work from a wide array of contributors, this volume includes stories, poetry, illustrations, and comics dealing with an incredible variety of subject matter, from Laurie Keller's humorous cartoon about anthropomorphic hats to Andrea Davis Pinkney's moving poem about Jackie Robinson. The authors and illustrators have been selected with care, coming from many different cultural backgrounds and representing an assortment of genres and creative styles. Although the variety of responses to the prompts causes the collection to feel at times a bit uneven, the mixed bag approach allows readers to have a peek into the creative processes of some of their favorite book creators and to understand that young people, too, have the power to tell a story. The second portion of the book invites readers to do just that. Each of the creators has provided an additional unanswered prompt for readers to explore their creativity and storytelling abilities. Back matter includes brief biographies of the contributors. VERDICT Packed with ideas and inspiration, this volume provides fodder for the imagination of those participating in storytelling projects, whether on their own or in a classroom or library program.-Sarah Reid, Four County Library System, NY © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

This anthology features 44 pieces of writing and art from children's book authors and illustrators. The works are broad-ranging in terms of content, medium, and theme, yet they are all the result of an experiment spearheaded by Sharp, an educator and cofounder of the Nerdy Book Club. Participants were asked to submit creative prompts, which he dispersed among them; each individual was then tasked with creating an original piece inspired by a prompt. For each selection, the writer or artist includes the lines of prose or artwork that they received and from whom, followed by their response. Sophie Blackall's prompt for Adam Gidwitz is a drawing of a woman holding an enormous fish; Gidwitz replies with a deadpan story about a girl whose mother's new boyfriend is a fish. Laurel Snyder invites Lisa Brown to take an abstract idea (like "joy" or "hunger") and imagine it as a character. Brown creates a comic that personifies "quiet" as a superhero-like figure who loves to read, listen, and take notice. An end section includes 44 additional prompts from the participants for readers, which further emphasizes the collection's celebration of "the way ideas can be story seeds that take root and blossom." Ages 8-12. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Horn Book Review

Its a good premise. Forty-four contemporary childrens book people each contribute a writing prompt. Then each one responds to someone elses prompt. The result is a combination anthology and inspiring craft manual. Its diverse all round, not only in the contributors but in the nature of the prompts, from simple (Mariko Tamakis The guy next door) to elaborate (a crazy-difficult anagram challenge by Minh L). Both prompts and responses include prose, poetry, photographs, drawings, and comics. Some contributors go for a punch line; others embrace ambiguity. The emphasis is on pleasure, but readers who take in the whole collection will notice an aspect to creativity that isnt made explicit in the introduction: almost none of the contributors obeys the rules. Presented with a photo of an animal that is not a fox, Linda Sue Park writes about a fox. Sherman Alexie ignores half of his short prompt. Asked for a single paragraph, Jennifer L. Holm writes a whole short story. Demonstrating the anarchic nature of creativity might be the most powerful message of this inviting project, a book that is more subversive than it first appears. Appended with contributor biographies and an index. sarah ellis (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Review

A guide that encourages young writers to experiment and create.Well-known writers and illustrators here collaborate on a volume of writing prompts and the stories that result. Sharp invited contributors to submit creative prompts ("poems, photographs, drawings, anything"), and then each contributor used another's prompt to create somethinga story, a poem, a comic, an illustration. The experiment in "the way ideas can be story seeds that take root and blossom" must have been fun for the creators, but the fruits of their play have not yielded a collection that's particularly useful to young writers. Many of the prompts are silly or vague, and the resulting stories, poems, and illustrations are, for the most part, lacking in substance. Kate DiCamillo leads off with a solid ideausing overheard dialogue for a short story told in dialogue. But Lemony Snicket's response feels dashed off, a flip story likely to fall flat with readers. John Schu's prompt, "My school librarian turned into a fly on the fifth day of fourth grade," might sound Kafka-esque, but Sherman Alexie's resultant poem feels like so much free association rather than a constructed work. A proliferation of exclamation points seemingly intended to boost enthusiasm may further act as a turnoff. An earnest attempt, but readers will find both better guides to creative writing and better short stories, poems, etc., elsewhere. (contributor biographies, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

This experiment is the brainchild of Sharp, educator and cofounder of the Nerdy Book Club, among other online book-related endeavors. Wanting to show both young people and teachers how the creative process begins and blossoms, Sharp asked authors and illustrators to send him story prompts and then respond to the prompts of fellow participants. The result is a fanciful, often unexpected, sometimes uneven mix of stories, artwork, and poetry. Andrea Davis Pinkney's prompt is a photo of a difficult-to-discern animal. Linda Sue Park decides it's a fox and writes an evocative poem about a fox and a trap. And then writes a note telling readers she knows it's not a fox but that's what sparked her imagination and after all, that's how creativity begins. Kate DiCamillo, Lemony Snicket, Grace Lin, Sophie Blackall, and Sherman Alexie are just some of the well-known names who participate. There's plenty here to ignite kids' imaginations and provide both laughs and food for thought. In the final pages, the participants offer prompts directly to the readers.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2018 Booklist

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Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (5)

School Library Journal Review

Publisher's Weekly Review

Horn Book Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

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