Picture Book Monday with a review of What do you do with an Idea?

A few months ago a friend of mine and I came up with an idea. It is a wonderful, scary, not-sure-of-we-can-do-it kind of an idea, but we have decided to pursue it anyway. Today's picture book explores how ideas grow from nothing, and how we sometimes don't really know what to do with the new ideas that we have. We see, by watching the little boy character in the story, how one can grow to love an idea, even when we are intimidated by it.

This is a book for everyone, on that is full of wisdom, humor, and truth.

What do you do with an Idea?

Kobi Yamada

Illustrated by Mae Besom

Picture Book

For all ages

Compendium Inc, 2014, 978-1-938298-07-3

One day a child has an idea, and out of nowhere there the idea is. The child does not know where the idea came from, why it is here, and what he is supposed to do with it, so he walks away from the idea, and acts like the idea has nothing to do with him.

   The idea, which looks like an egg on legs wearing a crown, is a determined little thing. It may be “strange and fragile,” but it does not give up on the child. The idea follows the little boy who, worried about people might say about the idea, tries to hide it away. The boy tries to pretend that the idea never came into his life in the first place.

   The thing is that the idea has come into his life, and soon he realizes that his life is “better and happier” because the idea is there. In spite of himself, the boy begins to care about his idea and he starts to protect and nurture it. All this attention makes the idea grow and thrive, and the little boy’s life grows richer as well.

   In this remarkable book a powerful text is paired with gorgeous illustrations to give readers of all ages a picture of what happens after an idea comes into the world. You cannot undo an idea once it is there so you have to learn how to live with it, love it and embrace it, even if it is strange and even if it scares you a little.