Imagination: It's What's Behind All Our Books
-Remy
A few years ago, I wrote an article about imagination deficit in young children. The article was published in an international professional journal for early childhood educators – credentialed teachers and certified child care providers from birth through 8 years old. The focus was not just why imagination is a critical component in the overall development of young children. I also wrote how adults can help foster the development, and use, of imagination for children in their classrooms, child care centers and homes.
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And that’s why we create our ‘Adventure Thru Imagination Books’. We want to encourage adults to help foster imagination in young children by reading our books. Not just reading them, actually. Involving the ‘audience’ – even if just one child – by asking simple questions while reading and after the story has ended. These can serve as prompts for interesting conversations about the book and are not yes/no questions, such as: [READ MORE...]
Is Jackson's mom really an Alien from Space?
-Remy
When Jackson was a preschooler, we played the 'one-sentence-story-game' - included in our Kids BrainGames book - a lot. We played it at their house, at my house, in the car, waiting line, while we walked outdoors.
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One day, the game turned into a monologue and I quickly realized he was beginning to tell a story. So, I started taking notes and recording the story he was weaving. [READ MORE...]
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Authors’ Corner offers a peak behind-the-curtains about the writing challenges and techniques of our ATI Book authors. Get to know Remy, Blair and Jackson, as they share how and why their books were created and what inspires them. For chapter books, discover how their unique collaborative approach works to develop plot lines, action scenes, characters and dialogue.
Interview: What inspires a young author like Jackson
-Remy
In early December 2020, I interviewed Jackson and recorded our conversation. This is a transcript of that recording.
So, Jackson, where do you get your ideas for stories?
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I get my ideas through things that happen around me. I was eating corn one night from a can. Mp the cornmy mom had heated up the corn – and I came up with the idea of Corn Corps, a totally ‘not evil’ corn company that’s now part of a short story I’m writing.
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Another time, I was mad at the latest book of a series that I had been reading. So I made a spoof off that book, because that last book in the series was horrible.
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Why were you mad at the book?
It was a really popular series, a good series. [READ MORE...]
Kids BrainGames: The Back Story
Way back, when Jackson was a baby, I would spend two days/week helping care for him while his mother worked part-time. As he grew to be a toddler, I started playing simple word games with him.
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Our favorite word game began when he was about 2 1/2 , because we both loved reading books. That was start of the 'one-sentence-story game'. We would take turns adding one sentence to create a story verbally. I'm a big fan of imagination, so there were no wrong or right sentences and each player had to keep going with the story no matter how absurd or crazy the previous sentence was. [READ MORE...]
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