In a beautifully produced article by Alicia Potter, (any relation to Beatrice?), Wondertime Magazine’s current issue (Dec 08-Jan 09) devotes eight full pages to close-ups of a sage Kolo Newbury photo album filled with handwritten stories and illustrations by children.

Sprinkled throughout the article are self-portraits and encouraging words from nine well-known children’s book authors and illustrators on the subject of storytelling, including Marc Brown (Arthur) and Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar). Also, there are suggestions about products that can help facilitate a child's storytelling creativity, including the Kolo Newbury album which has scrapbook-style "pages that can be added or removed."

Mo Willems is author-illustrator of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. As if that weren't sage advice enough, he offers these tips on encouraging creativity:

My wife, my daughter and I often make up a cartoon story together – all of us drawing on the same big piece of paper. I’ve noticed that children’s drawings unfold chronologically. They draw a character (“This is the Mermaid Ninja”), then an environment (“He’s on the Moon Sea”), then fill in specifics (“This is his tree house. He uses a rocket hat to get there. Here’s a ladder in case the rocket runs out of gas.”) By the time the adventure is complete, the page may be an insane mess filled with odd props and multiple renderings of the same character. Simply ask your kids what’s going on and the whole gripping adventure will unfold.

Like many kids, I started ripping off my favorite characters (Charlie Brown and Spider Man) before I began creating my own (Lazer Brain). Creating your own adventures with a character you know and love is a great way to begin as a storyteller. The easier the character is to draw, the better. I design my characters as simply as possible to facilitate youthful indifference to copyright laws.

If you have kids in your life, you’ll want to check out Wondertime. It inspires parents to see the world through the eyes of their children and nurture their love of learning.

There’s an abridged version of this article here (but the print-magazine version of the article is much more fun to see).

- Ugo