THE CREATIVITY PROJECT: An Awesometastic Story Collection edited by Colby Sharp is a fun-filled but serious group of story prompts and responses written by forty top writers and illustrators from the world of children’s literature. Parents, teachers and middle grade readers will find this delightful publication full of ideas that inspire wonderful stories both written and visually-depicted.
For instance, Adam Gidwitz’s prompt requesting the writing of an encyclopedia entry about a yet to be discovered animal results in a most imaginative story by Jess Keating about a new moth. “Genius moon moths are ideavores: They feed off the creative energy of those around them...However, a word of warning: If you are inspired to create something new and do not act on it, this moth will not stick around... Often, it takes its inspiration with it.”
Other intriguing prompts by Kate Di Camillo, Jewels Parker Rhodes, Gary D. Schmidt and Kate Messer are cleverly responded to by Lemony Snicket, Grace Lin, Linda Urban and Andrea Davis Pinkney in that order.
This book is full of engaging prompts, stories and art. At the back of the book Sharp also includes a story prompt from each of the forty authors and illustrators for the book’s readers themselves to respond to.
THE CREATIVITY PROJECT: An Awesometastic Story Collection edited by Colby Sharp is perfect for readers 9-12 years of age and up as well as parents and teachers who are interested in promoting creative story-making (Little Brown and Company, 2018).
Questions for THE CREATIVITY PROJECT: An Awesometastic Story Collection
Look through the 40 prompts at the back of the book that were created expressly for you to respond to. Select one that you find extra engaging. Why does it appeal to you? How many different ways can you think of to respond to it? Select one and write or draw your response.
There are 40 responses to the initial 40 prompts. Reread these responses and find the following forms:
A sonnet
A written piece of fiction
A written piece of non-fiction
A story that is told via a dialogue only
An encyclopedia entry
A comic strip format
A drawing
A four-line poem
A poem written in dialect.
Write a prompt for a family member to respond to. Have fun! Then ask the family member to respond. See what you get.
