Another Squiggly Story

K-Gr 4–Larsen crafts a story that tackles creative thinking and not being afraid to make changes in this charm-filled book with funny comic-book-style illustrations. The unnamed narrator is stressed thinking about an upcoming school assignment to write about himself: “Me by me?” just sounds like a terrible idea. While his classmates all seem to have topics readily at hand, he doesn’t know what to write; he has so many varied interests, how will they ever connect? Thanks to encouragement from his older sister, and her wise advice to just write what he feels and not worry about mistakes (as she says, that’s what editing is for), a story starts to come together. Once he realizes his creativity, he is able to write a story about himself and even change it a bit later after a friend likes it so much he wants to join in. Larsen’s book is an excellent example of encouraging kids to think creatively and let go in the early stages.