The Big Bad Handbag

It's one of my most favorites of all... it's probably the best of all my books to read aloud... it's definitely the favorite with children and even though it's out of print... I know it'll come back one day. That is, if children have anything to do with it.

It's called Handbag Friends and it's a book disguised as a pink handbag which has not only a song and some little friends inside but also a nasty purply pimply monster called Clasp. This is a little clip/trailer from the book.

I regularly go into public schools to read to children (I'm part of the Learning Leaders author program--a wonderful program called Author's Read Aloud)--and my school is in Redhook Brooklyn. I go and read to the littlest ones. So they're around 4. A room full of four year olds!

And they are amazing. I'm spoiled now. They are the best ever children to read to! First of all they sit through this long book (64 pages, 3 episodes) and join in the song and they help the Handbag Friends fight the monster and they join in all the fun along the way. And then, almost without fail, every single time I get the same response at the end.

A spontaneous group hug.

I'm not sure it gets much better than that for a writer, do you?

Except maybe if it's this. One time we had Q & A after the Handbag Friends story. And a little girl's hand shot up. "Yes," I said, "What question did you have?"

"I love you" she said.

Privacy and Popularity

I've been thinking lately--how do you keep perspective as a writer or an artist? How do you guard your wonder, openness, vision--how do you stay true to your voice--in the face of the obstacles that want to squelch it. And you.

What obstacles? 

Oh pesky little things like sales figures, amazon rankings, bestseller charts, finding not one single book of yours in a bookstore... buzzing biting flies that distract you from the main thing, the first thing, the one thing--writing. And if you focus on them, can leave you feeling defeated and despairing. Squelched. Silenced.

And then I read this article about Cy Twombly who died last week. One of my favorite artists. And am reminded where my focus should only ever be. 

When asked about reputation and artistic acclaim, he said: "It's something I don't think about. If it happens, it happens, but don't bother me with it. I couldn't care less."

The article says something else: "He seemed to welcome the privacy that came with unpopularity."

Food for thought when next you look at sales figures or amazon rankings. "I couldn't care less."

Would you rather be thinking about your art--or what everyone else is saying or doing? 

Are you following someone else's path or blazing your own unique one?

Vid of the Week: The little girl & the poor frail lady

PW like How To Get A Job

and we like PW!

(thank you)

"as funny as ever"

JSB curriculum

It's ground breaking. It's fun. And best of all... it's coming! (And every single lesson has a brief commentary for the teacher from Tim Keller.) More here.

latest vid: God To The Rescue!

musical haircuts

via Jago
via popchartlab.com

a visual compendium of notable hair cuts in popular music (you can zoom in if you click on popchartlab.com)

happy 4th!

crimes against design

via Alice Rawsthorn

via NYT Arts Section

"Bad design comes in many forms. Things that are unsafe. Things that don't work properly, or are unnecessarily complicated. Things that are ethically or environmentally unsound. Crimes against design are different. They deprive us of the joy of great design, by wrecking or replacing it." Alice Rawsthorn

Two examples. Citroen and UPS.

UPS logo--that wonderful "present" tied with string--was designed by Paul Rand in 1961--now it's gone, replaced by a shiny slick nothing. The "golden comb-over".

Citroen had their logo since 1919.

The old logo: a pair of upturned Vs modeled on the herringbone gears invented by the company's founder, Andre-Gustave Citroen. It reminded you that the car was rooted in design and innovation.

Gone, replaced by a bland corporate nothing logo.

What were they thinking?