The Book With No Story is a surprisingly quirky creative writing resource for children and young teens with wild imaginations. It is filled with 52 creature profiles from some of the author's books. But they found the stories so boring that they simply had to run away. One by one, they were caught and added to this book. The eccentric, mixed media art profiles are accompanied by some of the creatures' philosophical thoughts, weaving in and out of their outer worlds and inner emotional landscapes.
Children are encouraged to use the visual art profiles to write the creatures into new inside-out stories. An inside-out story lets us know what is happening on the outside of a creature, and also what the creature is experiencing on the inside. Children can also create their own creatures and write their inside-out stories using the prompts included at the end of the book.
The Book With No Story is part of the Young Philosophers Series dedicated to listening to and valuing children as natural philosophers. It is a celebration of diversity of thought which leads to questions around what would happen if we all thought the same? Are we alike or are we different? Do people's needs differ? Is this good or bad or just what is? How often do we find a space and time to just wonder, wonder, wonder and think? Do we think too much? How do we not think? Do we believe everything that we think?
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
1. Pick any of the 52 creatures.
2. Read about the particular way they think in the world and think about how we all think differently in our own lives. You may want to ponder the idea of 'diversity of thought' and in what ways how we all think impacts each other like BUMPER CARS in a theme park. Keep all your thoughts somewhere.
3. Go to the back of the book to make your own thinking creature in a unique outside world.
4. Create as many creatures as you like, you may be surprised at how your own particular thoughts and the thoughts of other people you know find their way into your creatures. And, if you are lucky, you may discover that it is our inside stories that indeed shape our outside stories and vice versa.
5. To find out more about journaling, other books by Red Wool Editions, and our upcoming theme park of activity books, visit clare-rose.com.
