What Do You Do With An Idea?

What Do You Do With An Idea?

Picture book
What do you do when you get an idea? Do you dismiss it because
it might be nice, but realistically you could never pull it off? Do
you worry about what other people might think of it and/or you? Or do
you own it, incubate it, and share it with others with the potential
to share your belef in it?
Kobi Yamada's What Do You Do With An Idea? neatly personifies
this concept for our younger book readers and listeners. A young
beautifully androgynous child with a wonderfully expressive face gets
an idea and wonders what to do with it, trying at first to abandon or
hide it, but eventually finding the magic in it and nurturing it. Of
course the naysayers and sceptics have plenty of opinions and almost
succeed in getting everykid to give up.
But then something amazing happens.
Mae Besom's unusual pencil/watercolor illustrations perfectly
compliment the text. In the beginning almost all is white and shades
of grey except for the idea, conceptualized as a golden egg with a
crown and some green plants that sprout up where its feet touch the
ground. The naysayers, in particularly, are quite grimly sketched.
When the idea makes the child alive colors start to spread. On the
last page there is no more black and white.
I believe this is a perfect book to give an abstract concept
just enough concretenesss to make it come alive for kids. We need
them to believe in their ideas and not give up, not just in their
youth, but across their life span. There will be so many critics
eager to shoot them down. But with all the problems humans face we
need all the good ideas we can get for solutions. And some of them
may change the world or at least part of it.
I am taking the first steps on my idea which I call Joy (Joey -
e) To Maine. It will help people who can't afford vet surgery not
lose beloved animal companions. It took me (I'm not gonna lie) over
two years to come up with a viable structure. Right now I'm saving
soda can redemption money to be the first seed money and looking for a
person or people with computer expertise.
What is your best idea? What can you do to turn it into a
reality?
On a purrrrsonal note, last night I was very lucky to get to go to a
sustainability Christmas party at UMaine. It was quite posh. My
friend Sonja won the grad student research award. Sonja had an idea
and knew what to do with it. Her WEEDucator is a computer game that
helps farmers evaluate different weed eradicating options for efficacy
and cost. It is going to be BIG. I'm most excited for its potential
use by refugees from agrarian traditions wishing to farm in America.
You know, the English as a second language thing.
Joy To Maine now has a credit union account of $122.46.
Joey cat is loving the Christmas tree. Now he's napping under it. It
just have to make sure he doesn't try to climb it and prove that
gravity is still working like he did last year.
Today is stuff a moose day at UMaine. I am going to risk getting
caught in the predicted messy storm because I am determined to bag my
moose.
A great big shout out goes out to my award winning friend Sonja. That
girl is going places!
jules hathaway


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