Karen GoatKeeper's Blog - Posts Tagged "imagination"
Aspirations
In school, especially elementary school, the question was what you wanted to be when you grew up. Girls were supposed to become housewives and mothers back then. How does a child learn to dare to be different?
It is so easy to follow the crowd. You don't have to think, just listen. Someone else will tell you what to think and what to believe and what to do.
Being different is hard. You can be lonely. You can make mistakes. Is it worth it?
Being a writer is being different. You have to look at things differently, see them differently. You have to take disparate pieces of information and put them together in new ways.
I was lucky. I had teachers who encouraged their students to imagine, to think, to read. Somewhere along the way it came together.
One student complained to me that the students didn't think like I did. That was why they had problems in my classes. I've seen some of these students since. They still let someone else do their thinking for them.
I pity them. They may never suffer from the mistakes resulting from their decisions. They will also never know the incredible high of seeing a dream come true, a dream born of imagination and thinking.
That is what makes aspirations worth all the problems.
It is so easy to follow the crowd. You don't have to think, just listen. Someone else will tell you what to think and what to believe and what to do.
Being different is hard. You can be lonely. You can make mistakes. Is it worth it?
Being a writer is being different. You have to look at things differently, see them differently. You have to take disparate pieces of information and put them together in new ways.
I was lucky. I had teachers who encouraged their students to imagine, to think, to read. Somewhere along the way it came together.
One student complained to me that the students didn't think like I did. That was why they had problems in my classes. I've seen some of these students since. They still let someone else do their thinking for them.
I pity them. They may never suffer from the mistakes resulting from their decisions. They will also never know the incredible high of seeing a dream come true, a dream born of imagination and thinking.
That is what makes aspirations worth all the problems.
"Squirrel and John Muir", "Wangari's Trees of Peace" and "Moon Plane"
Imagination and dreams are so important both for young people and for changing the world for everyone.
Moon Plane
5 stars
Author/Illustrator: Peter McCarty
A small boy sees a plane fly overhead and his imagination takes him up into the plane and on a special flight.
The illustrations are done in soft pencil making them look like a dream or daydream. This is a picture book where the images tell the story with little input from the text.
Wangari's Trees of Peace
5 stars
Author/Illustrator: Jeanette Winter
Wangari is from Kenya. She grew up in forest with rich farmland. When she returned from college, the trees were gone, the farmland worthless.
Nine tree seedlings planted in Wangari's yard were her way to bring back the forests of her youth. Soon others joined her even as the government laughed and opposed the effort.
The officials were wrong. An army of women planting seedlings of native trees brought back the forests. These brought back the farmland not only in Kenya, but other African countries as well.
The illustrations are simple and colorful. They bring the story to life.
Squirrel and John Muir
4 stars
Author/Illustrator: Emily Arnold McCully
John Muir arrived in Yosemite Valley in 1868 seeking work. He had many skills and was a valued hired hand.
He used his time to explore the valley and find proof of his theory the valley was carved by glaciers.
His love of Yosemite became reason for its becoming a National Park. It was the beginning of the Sierra Club and helped promote the idea of conservation.
The book teams him with a young girl, the daughter of his employer. This is probably fictional, but makes the tale more accessible to younger readers.
The illustrations appear to be in watercolor giving them a soft, less defined look.
Moon Plane
5 stars
Author/Illustrator: Peter McCarty
A small boy sees a plane fly overhead and his imagination takes him up into the plane and on a special flight.
The illustrations are done in soft pencil making them look like a dream or daydream. This is a picture book where the images tell the story with little input from the text.
Wangari's Trees of Peace
5 stars
Author/Illustrator: Jeanette Winter
Wangari is from Kenya. She grew up in forest with rich farmland. When she returned from college, the trees were gone, the farmland worthless.
Nine tree seedlings planted in Wangari's yard were her way to bring back the forests of her youth. Soon others joined her even as the government laughed and opposed the effort.
The officials were wrong. An army of women planting seedlings of native trees brought back the forests. These brought back the farmland not only in Kenya, but other African countries as well.
The illustrations are simple and colorful. They bring the story to life.
Squirrel and John Muir
4 stars
Author/Illustrator: Emily Arnold McCully
John Muir arrived in Yosemite Valley in 1868 seeking work. He had many skills and was a valued hired hand.
He used his time to explore the valley and find proof of his theory the valley was carved by glaciers.
His love of Yosemite became reason for its becoming a National Park. It was the beginning of the Sierra Club and helped promote the idea of conservation.
The book teams him with a young girl, the daughter of his employer. This is probably fictional, but makes the tale more accessible to younger readers.
The illustrations appear to be in watercolor giving them a soft, less defined look.
