Idea Jar

Gr 1–3—This quasi-instructional picture book introduces the concept of an idea jar for creative writing/storytelling/drawing prompts. Ideas like being in stories (it makes them happy) and things can go sideways when they get bored. When an idea (a Viking) escapes the teacher's idea jar, he wanders around the school attempting to get the students to add him to their stories ("Pssst! Put a Viking in it…Everything is better with a Viking."). Since no one will put him in a story, he gets bored and sets all the other ideas (dragon, robot, cat, giraffe, monster, etc.) free by pushing the idea jar off a desk. Chaos rules until the children, working together, put the ideas in a story—the happy ideas then willingly go back into the idea jar. The instructional aspect of the book is pretty straightforward and melds nicely with the story to keep it effective and interesting. Pilutti's illustrations successfully depict a lot of concepts using fun colors, action sequences, appropriate details and kid-friendly labels. The use of text bubbles, white space, various fonts, idea labels, and dynamic text placement make for a successful mix of text and illustrations.