Review by Booklist Review
The story begins with the image of a clear glass jar filled with pieces of paper against a plain white background. The text explains that a teacher keeps an Idea Jar to inspire his students' stories. The pictures become more interesting when the story elements start coming to life. A space robot climbs out of the jar, followed by a horseless cowgirl, a dragon, and a Viking. The cartoon characters, rendered in cheerful gouache and pen-and-ink, begin advising the students rather than waiting for the students to direct them. The humorous text provides plenty of useful writing tips and models for the multiethnic group of children and, in consideration of varied learning styles, mentions that stories can come in written, drawn, or spoken form. A large-scale spread depicts a climactic moment when the Idea Jar is spilled. With the ideas let loose all at once, the students are forced to think of an exciting classroom-wide story big enough to contain the varied elements. This imaginative book is likely to inspire more Idea Jars in classrooms.--Whitehurst, Lucinda Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
An unseen student narrates Lehrhaupt's celebration of storytelling creativity, pointing out the teacher's Idea Jar. "We keep our story ideas in it," the child explains-scraps of paper with words such as dragon, robot, pirate, and Viking written on them. "There's no such thing as a bad story idea," the student continues, and many ways to tell a tale: "You can write it. Draw it. Talk it." At one point, a red-bearded Viking climbs out of the jar, offers pointers ("That ship should be way bigger"), and generally advocates for Vikings to be part of every story. After the mischievous Viking tips the jar over, a dragon, robot, and other creatures explode into the room, creating chaos that can only be resolved by a story that brings the ideas together. Pilutti's goofy visual comedy-speech balloons with smart-alecky comments, ocean water flooding the classroom-provides laughs, and although Lehrhaupt doesn't really explore or explain how ideas come together to create a story, it seems destined to help jump-start classroom writing assignments. Ages 4-8. Author's agent: Alexandra Penfold, Upstart Crow Literary. Illustrator's agent: Jennifer Rofé, Andrea Brown Literary. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
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. VERDICT An engaging read-aloud that also serves as a good starting point for creativity in various forms. Kids (and their teachers) will be inspired to start their own idea jars!-Catherine Callegari, Reston Regional Library, VA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A child directly addresses readers and potential writers to share one way of getting stories started. The unidentified student narrator shows off their male teacher's idea jar, a place where all the kids contribute story ideas on slips of paper, and his words of wisdom: bad story ideas don't exist; you can write, draw, or recite your tale. In Pilutti's gouache-and-pen-and-ink illustrations, the slip-filled jar gradually morphs to contain the characters indicated on the papers ("Viking," "monkey," "unicorn"): the space robot uses rocket boots to escape the jar; the horseless cowgirl climbs over the rim into a desert landscape. But then the characters start to intrude a bit, giving advice to the diverse class and demanding to shape their stories. And when the idea jar gets tipped over? Watch out! Teachers will certainly welcome the notion of story ideas as living things that need to be written about in order to be happy, and the mix-ups that happen when the ideas escape and interact reflect some of the creative writing already going on in classroomsfor example, each student contributing a single sentence in turn. But unfortunately, Lehrhaupt and Pilutti don't avoid didacticism, and their audience isn't clear; the narration reaches for a younger audience than the snarky comments of the characters seem to imply. A stellar idea for the idea jar, but the result may stay on the shelf. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
