Sometimes when writing, our minds go blank. The idea of writing a book about writing books is really inspiring. An artist sometimes goes through moments when their mind goes blank, and they can't think of what to paint, just like the writer in the story. She had writing and painting "blocks". But once her little sister told her to "make a mess of it", her painters creativity came to her. As soon as she got home, she went to her writing station and her writers imagination came back to her. ( )

This unique book opens sideways and reads top to bottom! I enjoyed Aspen's journey to rekindle her creativity. Sometimes it takes a new perspective to get things going again. I think this book would be useful in grades 1-3 for writer's workshop. ( )

Aspen is a young writer that is introduce to the art of pottery painting. She is unsure of how to get started, but once she finally put her brush to pottery the picture begins to show itself to her. ( )

The author/illustrator team that produced Uncle Peter’s Amazing Chinese Wedding is back again with a charming book that opens sideways (fun in and of itself!) about a little girl who calls herself Aspen Colorado Kim Chee Lee. This, she tells us, is her “nom de plume” - her writing name. She is an author:

"I write stories about monkeys and elephants, aliens and robots, and sometimes, about me.”

But lately it hasn’t been going well:

"All my pages are blank, blank, blank. My gunggung and pohpoh call it Writer’s Block.”

Her grandparents suggest she take a break and do something else, so she goes with them and her baby sister into town, where they end up at the Polka Dot Penguin Pottery - a paint-your-own-pottery studio. [There really is such a place, in White Plains, New York. The website is here.] It’s very fun in there, especially when some of her friends arrive as well.

Kim decides to make an Easter Egg, but alas, now Kim has Pottery Block.

To make matters worse, little Olivia drools on the egg she is trying to paint, and it is all smeary. But Kim’s friend Ivy likes it, telling Kim, “You can only make a masterpiece if you’re willing to make a mess.”

The bells of epiphany go off (at least in the adult readers’ heads), and before you know it, Kim has a beautiful egg. When she gets home, she runs straight to her tree house and puts up a sign, “Writer at work, do not disturb.”

Evaluation: This is a fun story that may inspire kids to try their own projects, with special appeal to all those kids who already love doing crafts but may not feel they are as adept at it as they would like to be. The illustrations by Yumi Heo are bright, colorful, and whimsical.

Note: The author has a blog, or as she calls it, “a globby blog or glob” for “all the young readers she meets who tell her that they want to be authors too!” The link is here. ( )

A charming, colorful celebration of creativity. ( )