Sometimes You Find a Dragon: Find Your Dragon. Find Your Creativity

This is an innovative way to inspire creativity. Perhaps due to screen time, I've seen that middle school students find it hard to come up with ideas for writing or artwork, so this is a great book to make children stop and think about different ways to develop ideas and express them. The artifice of the "dragon" is innovative, and shown in such fun ways, with sticks and leaves, paint, and a variety of collage styles. It really works for all of the people to be black line drawings, since the contrast to their creations is so striking. It's also good there these characters are somewhat diverse, and finding the dog in the corners of the picture would be fun to find.

The mixed media art is vibrant, and examining it might be another way to encourage creativity. There are lots of questions that can be asked. What medium did the artist use here? What would you use to express that thought? I can see this being used by art teachers as a class read aloud before beginning a project, or even by language arts teachers, perhaps as a mentor text. It would be a lot of fun to read this book and then have students create something similar of their own.

This poetic book is a good one to read to inspire young creators before handing them books with more technical information about creating, like Dolan, Elys. How to Make a Picture Book Kramer, Kara. Tell Me a Lion Story Jeffers, Oliver and Winston, Sam. The Dictionary Story Forney's The Adventures of You!: How to Write, Draw, and Star in Your Own Comics, Smit and van Der Hulst's The Kids' Book of Paper Love: Write. Craft. Play. Share.