Creativity
Kids who are high in creativity like to think of new and original ways to do things. You may see them actively coming up with ideas, projects and pursuits that are original and useful. According to Scott Barry Kaufman, cognitive psychologist and author, the creative life “appears to be associated with a more meaningful life,” benefits of which may include increased self-awareness, ability to creatively cope with adversity, and a deeper sense of well-being.
Creativity can put you in a “flow state” or the feeling of being “in the zone,” leading to more creativity, productivity, and meaning.
Sarabella’s Thinking Cap
Sarabella has a rich inner world and the story shares a positive example of how to harness ones’ strengths in different environments. Also inspires conversation about the difficulties of sitting still and paying attention in school, different personality types, and how we might “overuse” our strengths. BookShopJudy Schachner (Author website)
(Here’s a wonderful video of the author showing her “character bible” for Sarabella, which sheds light on her creative process.)
Everything You Need for a Treehouse
This picture book is filled with dreamily wild illustrations of wondrous treehouses and is imaginative and inspiring, especially for those who like to build, create and direct. The magic is in the cozy nooks nestled next to big rocks and in the branches of trees, miniature worlds of kids playing, creatively and carefree.Artists: Carter Higgins (Author), Emily Hughes (Illustrator)
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Sandcastle
Sandcastle is colorful, engrossing and lively, an endless loop of creative ideas and contextualizing. This is a unique and memorable book that may especially appeal to kids who like to draw the fantastical. It stimulates ideas and shows what a rich incubation center the imagination can be. An aesthetically beautiful children’s book you don’t mind seeing on the floor, left on the couch or otherwise lying around.
Artists: Einat Tsarfati (Author and Illustrator)
Dory Fantasmagory
Dory is playful, exuberantly imaginative, and often seen as an immature pest by her older siblings. When they refuse to include her in their games or play tricks on her, she creates complex fantasy worlds with both imaginary friends and enemies where she entertains herself, seeks refuge and deals with her feelings. Her creativity and spunk help her when she’s bored or scared, and get her into lots of trouble, all to hilarious effect. My kids have read the series on and off from kindergarten to second grade and it’s always fun and funny to read together, even at different comprehension levels. The drawings are also very charming.
Artist: Abby Hanlon
The Big Orange Splot
When you’re creative, you sometimes have to forge your own way. That’s what Mr. Plumbean does as he paints his house the wacky whimsy of his dreams, following his authentic creative vision and defying pearl-clutching neighbors with matter-of-fact confidence. This simple story is saturated with color and explores individuality and conformity, self-expression, and respect for diversity. Could be useful when your kid needs an extra boost of courage or perspective.
Artist: Daniel Manus Pinkwater
Maybe Something Beautiful
Creativity is not only about making something original—it’s also about making something useful. This story explores the transformative power of art and seeds ideas about how we can use this strength to make a difference in our communities.
Artists: Rafael López (Illustrator) and F. Isabel Campoy (Author) and Theresa Howell (Author)
Arnie the Doughnut
Arnie has to be creative to survive! This zany story features some creative problem solving between Arnie, a doughnut on the cusp of being eaten, and Mr. Bing, an open-minded human reconsidering his breakfast. The read aloud by Chris O’Dowd linked below is also especially funny.
Artist: Laurie Keller (Author and Illustrator)
Harold and the Purple Crayon
A classic we've all read. A good one to introduce the idea of creativity to the littlest kids, reinforcing the use of fantasy and imagination and how it can be used in times of waiting and stillness. Fun to explore with older kids, too, diving into ideas that come up such as fear of the dark, falling asleep strategies and storytelling.
Artist: Crockett Johnson
This is Sadie
Sadie’s rich inner life is all possibility–possibility of things to become, make or be. She plays with identity and perspective. The writing is melodic and gentle and illustrations are dreamy and soothing.
Artist: Sara O’Leary (Author) and Julie Morstad (Illustrator)
The Night Box
Nighttime personified as magical, restorative, full of care and purpose. Beautifully atmospheric, the story may be especially useful in veering the nighttime imagination away from scary stuff and toward the imaginative. The illustrations are so beautiful and and the verse works well with the format.
Artists: Louise Greig (Author) and Ashling Lindsay
Companion strengths could be purpose and judgment. How can we see something differently? How might you use your thinking and daydreaming to fall asleep?
Door
A piece of art that is both inspiring and comforting. A child lives in a world of gray and opens the door to a portal into new worlds, connection, color and mysterious imagery. Shows positive kinship a lonely child may find through exploration and posits curiosity, perspective, hope and bravery, too.
Artist: JiHyeon Lee (blog, shop)
Publisher: Chronicle
Beautiful look inside the book in this blog post here and video preview here.
Wallpaper
Author and illustrator Thao Lam makes so many beautifully creative picture books. This one features a young girl who moves to a new house and finds reprieve from her shyness, and strength and courage, through her rich imagination. The art is all taken from handmade cut-outs and collage.
Artist: Thao Lam
Visit Thao Lam in the studio here and watch her she talk about inspiration, getting started, organization, and feedback, and demonstrate strong humility and gratitude. Another good video here, focused more on another book, also great, My Cat Looks Like My Dad.
Not a Box
This beautifully simple picture book reads as a conversation between a fiercely creative bunny and a very literal narrator who asks what the bunny is doing with “that box.” Boxes as cars, caves, stores, rocket ships, mountains. But never just a box.
Artist: Antoinette Portis
Related activities by Portis here
Weslandia
Wesley is an independent kid who marches to the beat of his own drum. He doesn’t fit in at school and is not well understood by his parents. That doesn’t hold him back, though. With a secure sense of self, positive attitude, and visionary spirit, he decided to make up his own civilization, complete with food, clothes, language and games. His creativity in full flourish, the kids around him start to take notice and join the fun. Wesley models creativity, zest and judgment, and offers a great example of the power of confidence and integrity.
Artist: Paul Fleischman (Author) and Kevin Hawkes (Illustrator)
Beautiful Oops
Making mistakes is part of the process and possibly the start of something beautiful. We loved this book and the healthy, humble and open-minded attitude toward mistakes. My kids also took a fantastic Outschool class that ties into this philosophy perfectly and growth mindset here.
Artist: Barney Saltzberg
What Do You Do With an Idea?
An award-winning and beloved book about what it means to discover and nurture an idea.
Artist: Kobi Yamada (author) and Mae Besom (illustrator)
Find an activity sheet here and get the book from Yamada’s website here.
Ruby’s Sword
Charming illustrations of a little girl being wild, carefree and imaginative in nature. Ruby is adventurous and plucky, playing with stick swords and creating her own worlds when ignored by her siblings.
Artist: Jacqueline Véissid (Author) and Paola Zakimi (Illustrator)
Windblown
Simple and stimulating picture book with colorful cut-outs and spirited conversation about imagination and ownership of art. The quote at the end of the book is from Aristotle and it reads, “riches consist more in use than possession.” It’s a fun and inciting read for budding artists and visual designers and shows how easy it can be to make art.
Artist: Édouard Manceau
Also an Octopus
A picture book that walks you through creating a story, complete with characters, setting and conflict.
“The bubbly, appealing art has punchy humor and works as an ongoing conversation with the narration, bringing the fumbling but exciting progress of crafting a new story to life...This entertaining read-aloud will jump-start imaginations and create opportunities for thinking about existing tales as well as for making new ones.”—School Library Journal
Artist: Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Author) and Benji Davies (Illustrator)
If I Had A Gryphon
Sam imagines what it would be like to have a mythological beast as a pet. From timid unicorns to fiery dragons, tricky fairies to slippery sprites, these magical animals rouse Sam’s imagination and get him reconsidering his sweet little hamster.
Artist: Vikki Vansickle (Author) and Cale Atkinson (Illustrator)
Sector 7
A boy visits the Empire State Building on a school trip and has a day of associate wonder up in the clouds.
“The work as a whole is an inspired embodiment of what seems to be this artist's approach to story and vision: the more you look, the more there is to see.” – Publishers Weekly
Roxaboxen
A story of neighborhood kids making their own magical world, Roxaboxen, with rocks, boxes and natural materials out in the neighborhood, all in the name of pretend play. An ode to endless hours of playing outside, inventing and building and transforming everyday objects into whatever imagination calls for.
Artist: Alice McLerran (Author) and Barbara Cooney (Illustrator)
I’m a Frog!
In this Elephant and Piggie book, Piggie teaches Elephant how to play pretend. Artist Mo Willems also has an excellent drawing series, Lunch Doodles, up on YouTube here. Kickstarted during early days in the 2020 pandemic, he greets you from inside his colorful and organized studio, guides kids through doodles and art-making, and shows a bit of what it’s like to be a working artist.
Artist: Mo Willems
Going Places
A quiet imaginative child thinks outside the box during a class project designing go karts for a school-wide race. This book features two kids with different strengths and personalities working together and features creative thinking, imagination, engineering, and open-mindedness.
Artist: Paul Reynolds (Author) and Peter Reynolds (Illustrator)
Press Here
A fun interactive book that invites younger kids to shake, turn, and tap the physical book, and activates senses and imagination. Lots of fun videos, activities and inspiration on the artist’s Instagram page here.
Artist: Hervé Tullet
Lift
A cinematic and exciting story about a girl on an elevator. This one takes an everyday situation–riding an elevator–and brings adventure and wonder through imagination and a child’s inner emotional experience.
Artist: Minh Lê (Author) and Dan Santat (Illustrator)
Hum and Swish
A beautiful book about flow and protecting the creative process. The illustrations are beautiful and the quiet story captures the creative process as something alive, pure and personal.
Artist: Matt Myers
When the Bees Fly Home
This is a quiet story about a family of bee-keepers. The eldest son searches for acceptance and understanding from his father, and finds a way to help his family by using his strengths.
Artist: Andrea Cheng (Author) and Joline McFadden (Illustrator)
Cherries and Cherry Pits
Bidemmi is creative, passionately and relentlessly so, coming up with ideas for stories and ever growing detail from the simplest source.
Author Andrea Cheng writes a beautiful parallel between growing a story and growing a cherry tree, from the tiniest idea (pit) to a rich, full story (tree), capturing the magic of growth below the surface and the faith needed for creative projects. It reminds me of the quote from E.L. Doctorow that reads, “writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
Chalk
A rainy afternoon at the playground with magic chalk. This is a wordless picture book with a simple story paired with gorgeous, visceral paintings that cinematically bring the kids’ imaginary game to life. Shows the vividness of imagination and everyday creativity.
Artist: Bill Thomson
Aaron Slater, Illustrator
Explores learning differences, creativity and finding one’s voice. This is from a collection of chapter books termed The Questioneers (more here), which started with Rosie Revere, Engineer, and explores pursuing one’s passion.
Artist: Andrea Beaty (Author) and David Roberts (Illustrator)
Willow
Willow, spirited young artist with a kind heart, has art class with Ms. Hawthorne, an unhappy teacher with rigid ideas. Beyond creativity, this book also invites conversation about companion strengths, such kindness, as Willow treats her cold teacher with warmth and respect, social intelligence and perspective, as readers examine why Ms. Hawthorne may be behaving in this particular way, and zest, as readers try to understand Ms. Hawthorne’s change in behavior throughout the story.
Everyone Can Learn Origami
We’ve tried innumerable origami books and my origami-obsessed son says this is the best for getting started. “It’s great for beginners who may one day become origami masters,” he says. Clear understandable directions that make for family folding fun or a creative and meditative new hobby.
Here’s a video tutorial for folding a seal.
Emily’s Art
Emily’s Art explores aesthetics, competition and the role of judgment in art. In the preface, a class of young children are told they are going to have an art contest and begin talking about what it means to compete, judge and win. The story then continues with Emily, a young artist who clearly loves art and paints expressively, and follows her complex experiences through the contest. This is an excellent book to read with kids to open a conversation about art and the myriad ways it is judged, made and interpreted, and explore how creativity may be affected by contests, competitions and external validation. Validates pure artistic spirit and intrinsic motivation.
Artist: Peter Catalanotto
When I Draw a Panda
A little girl makes art her own way and overcomes perfectionism by focusing on her own imagination and process over product. Encourages kids to find their own enjoyment and expressiveness in art and move beyond the idea of "mistakes."Artist: Amy June Bates
Bedtime for Bo
Bo and his mother are relentlessly creative as they go about their evening and wind-down routine. They imagine being all kinds of animals in a way that is playful and helpful in moving them toward bedtime. The illustrations are vivid and sumptuous and the mother is fully engaged in the imaginative process, making home a ripe opportunity for new ideas, fun and growth.Artist: Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold (Author) and Mari Kanstad Johnsen (llustrator)
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books