This book may be simple with the most adorable illustrations, but it truly speaks to me as a writer and has touched my heart. It truly deserves the award it received.

Despite the fancy little gold sticker on the front, I didn’t really think much of it when I first saw it. I remember I was in Leavenworth at the time–a town where I usually spend my time gawking at things in their all-year-round Christmas shops, not looking for any books (shocking, I know). I found it in the strangest place; I don’t remember exactly, but I’m almost positive I was in some perfume shop with my mom when I found it. Or maybe it was fancy olive oils. I don’t know, but it sat on a little table in the middle of the room, all by itself.

It’s not a long book. It’s the perfect sized picture book to read to your kids at night before bed, and the pictures in it are truly enough to keep them engaged. I read it right then and there, and though usually if I had just read a book beforehand, I won’t buy it, but I knew I had to have this book. I had only read it once, and already, it was special to me.

The story asks a vital question that all of us confront in our lives; what do you do with an idea? When I read this book, I couldn’t help but relate it to my own personal experience as a writer. I don’t think there’s a single writer (or any job for that matter) that can think of the whole idea for a story or an illustration immediately. My ideas for a novel usually come piece by piece, not altogether at once. Even with the novel I have out right now, it took me a good while to figure out the plot. I had all my characters, but in my very first draft of The Amazing Imagination Machine, it felt like they were all running around aimlessly in this weird, suburban setting I had created.

Ideas grow; they evolve and get bigger, as is depicted in this book. And yes, they can be scary at first. Why? Because we often grow so attached to our ideas that we’re afraid of what the world may think of it. But, we shouldn’t worry about what others think. If we believe in our idea, we must keep striving until it becomes a part of who we are. “With an idea…you change the world.”

–    Bailey Day