UP!: My VERY 1st DOT celebrating Int’l Dot Day!

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Int'l Dot DayIf you are an avid admirer, as am I, of the books Peter H. Reynolds has written and illustrated, you are familiar with their unmatched appeal and know the commonality between all of them. They never fail to be impressionable and moving. They move the reader to think, to feel, to wonder, to imagine, to be brave—to express oneself with creative abandon.

Upon every read, I never fail to be in awe of Peter’s inborn ability to capture the most poignant themes in the simplest ways. Ask any picture book author/illustrator and they’ll tell you this is not an easy thing to accomplish. His spot-on choices of content, picking the most essential “moment,” conveyed through his fluid, loose lines and word choice, touch the heart and mind in deep and unforgettable ways. One page that always comes to mind and blows me away every time I see it is in The Dot. An insightful teacher’s hand pushes the piece of paper bearing her discouraged student’s simple dot at its center and says:

THE DOT - image of hand & paper

Peter—a man who lovingly calls his home “The North Star House,” said this when asked about Vashti and The Dot:

“Vashti is very much a part of me. I try to inspire those around me to be brave and to make their mark. Little Vashti packs a powerful punch of creativity and bravery. I’m hoping that children and, as I like to call them—grown-up children—will be moved as they read my work. Moved to laughter, to tears, to insight, to reflection, to bravery, to originality, to inspiration, and best of all, to action. I want them to put their dreams into action. I want them to find the time, the tools and the inspiration to let the world hear their voices.”

Peter and Paul Reynolds, Terry Shay* and anyone else involved with Int’l Dot Day will tell you it’s all about the importance of CREATIVITY in The Arts. In fact, one of my favorite things Peter has created is also what he considers his favorite book: one with blank pages. To him, it’s “all about the possibilities. Each day you wake up you have a new possibility. About being brave. Figuring out who you are. To be courageous to let the world know who you are.”

There are MANY WAYS TO CELEBRATE Int’l Dot Day. These are mine for today, September 15th-ish:

Visit my sister blog “Creativity Cookbook” for my first “Lighter Side Up” Q&A with TERRY SHAY, the originator of Dot Day!

…and MY VERY 1st DOT! I plan on being much more creative next year, but this one is fitting, I think 🙂

International DOT DAY 2014-_WriterSideUp.com_byDonnaMarie

Here are MANY WAYS FOR YOU TO CELEBRATE as an individual or group:

  • Listen to the Dot Song!
  • Celebrate Dot Day on Facebook
  • Celebrate Dot Day on Twitter
  • Celebrate Int’l Dot Day 2014 as suggested by Fablevision
  • Listen to this new, short AUDIO interview with Peter at TeachingBooks.net (3 min.)
  • Watch this fantastic VIDEO of Peter and Paul Reynolds celebrating Dot Day 2012! A MUST-SEE! (35 min.)

There are MANY others, but here are a couple of inspiring ways people have celebrated this magical day:

THANK YOU FOR VISITING and I hope you celebrate, too!

HAPPY DOT DAY!

43 thoughts on “UP!: My VERY 1st DOT celebrating Int’l Dot Day!”

  1. Pingback: C.C.: Q&A with TERRY SHAY! | Creativity Cookbook

      • Sorry I didn’t get here sooner! Computer issues this week – congratulations on your launch! Cannot wait to read more! Am a bit behind in my planning (wow we rely on technology a lot don’t we?!?) so I am not going to be able to celebrate Dot Day with my groups – but am thinking we might jump in a littler later in the month – besides there isn’t a copy to be found right now in my library system!!

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        • Thanks, Anne! And sorry to hear about the computer problems : / Yes, we DO rely too much on technology. It frightens me! lol

          And that’s one thing that’s great about Dot Day is that it’s celebrated on Sept. 15th-ish. It can, is–and should–be celebrated year ’round! 😀

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  7. Very cool. I love how everything is connected by dts. That is the world today thanks to the Internet. Now if we can keep net neutrality alive, it will stay connected Very cool Dot, Donna. You do such good illustrations work. Are you self taught or did you go to school for art?

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    • You’re always so complimentary, Sue 🙂 Thanks!

      And how sweet that you’re interested in my background as an artist 🙂 My response to you actually became what I’m going to turn into a post here, but I’ll answer you succinctly for now:

      I could’ve attended Pratt Institute, but didn’t, so I dabbled in smaller venues, trying art school–unsuccessfully. At that time, right out of high school, it simply wasn’t for me. I’ve been doing all kinds of artwork all my life, but was never taught all that much other than very basic stuff in high school. We were pretty much left to our own ways of doing things. It wasn’t until I became disabled that my life changed in a way that my desire to get involved with creating children’s picture books was rekindled. As an adult, my passion was sparked and I became insatiable as far as learning about the writing and illustrating aspects of the craft!

      And I have to mention that it was my father who, when I was a child, gave me a couple of quick but invaluable lessons on perspective and hand lettering that impressed me and stuck with me more than anything in my art life. He saw my ability and knew I would easily grasp what he was teaching me. It goes to show you what an attentive parent is capable of influencing with their children!

      Thanks for asking, Sue! And since I suspect you will probably be the only who reads this comment, I hope my answer interested you 🙂 And I’m glad you asked, simply because I will be writing a post on how we should NOT compare our abilities to the abilities of others! Thanks for that 😀

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        • I should’ve known! lol Thank you, my dear, supportive pal 😀 I guess it’s just been my experience that most of the time on blogs, commenters rarely comment on other people’s comments. They simply say what they have to to the host and ignore the rest. Thank you for being interested!

          And, I’m not surprised you would like that part of what I said! YOU are the kind of parent who knows this innately and DOES it! Felicia is SO lucky to have you and your husband 😀

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          • I get the comments in my inbox, too… so I don’t always respond, but I usually read anything of interest. You are too kind. It is a fun time that will be gone before I know it and I’m trying to make the most of it.

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            • Not you!! That Katrina cat or dog, no wait, who was here, Katrina or Stanley? For a dog and a cat they sure are hard to tell apart. The reply box didn’t stay under their (rude intrusion) comment under and in my comment. Why do people, or animals, do that? Do I ever do that? Okay, maybe once or twice. But never in my comment boxed and that is what this is about–my comment box. Geesh.

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                • Yah, I just thought I would Katrina and Stanley, or Stanley. Why is it so hard to tell this dog from this cat? Man, I would never have thought I’d have trouble doing that. Maybe I need new glasses. But no, my friend, I was trying to gosh with, oh wait, I thought it was her daughter. Oops. Oh, well looks like she didn’t come back, so she’ll never know. Phew! 😀 Did you release the markdowns?

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                  • We have eyes and ears everywhere. Darling Daughter was in school and I didn’t get back right away b/c Darling Daughter has left me with multiple projects to work on…things like a book release next week and a web show. That’s all. Publicist Mom doesn’t get time off, except to respond to comment threads that apparently aren’t appreciated. 😉
                    ~CM

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                    • Just so you know, I appreciate your comments! 😀 In fact, in case you hadn’t noticed, I have a dog bone and can of tuna in the corner over there, to make sure you’re lured back 😉 And I think Sue’s doing this ’cause she wants to see how thin the comment boxes will get! lol

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    • I think you can change that to more. And to the mom of Katrina and Stanley and Felicity — I was joshing and goofing around. I thought you saw the no dogs or cats allowed sign and hopped over the fence to play a joke on me. I meant no disrespect. You are welcome to hop on my comment thread all you would like. And at Kid Lit Reviews. too: http://kid-lit-reviews.com

      I am happy to hear a new release is coming. I would love to read this one also. And review it of course. If you would like, you are publicity, so I think I am at the right place. 🙂

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      • No worries, Sue. We get your reviews in my inbox. I had to cut back on what sites I comment on b/c we’ve been so busy. Ms. :Donna is a regular commenter at S&K, so she always gets top priority. When I’m not as busy – I take time to comment more at other places but this summer has been a doozy. Felicia has a Blog Tour scheduled for October and she still has spots open, if you want to join in. I think she’s more nervous about this one than the first one. :0) Now she knows more of the bloggers, and feeling a bit of a connection to them, their opinions mean a lot more to her now.
        Okay, and we LOVE Dot Day. Isn’t that how this all started? Yeah, kind of hijacked this thread but the positive is you have a bunch of comments, :Donna. 🙂
        Have a great day, all – off to be productive..
        ~Christine/Cool Mom for the Gang

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        • First, I’m going to say I’m quite honored you want to fit me in, too 🙂 It’s not easy! There are SO many wonderful blogs and special people who run them, but we only have 24-hour days, right? I’m still trying to work on how to use them more OFF the computer. HAVE to get there! 😀 Looking forward to the book release 🙂

          Oh, and Sue, I don’t think I would want to go more with the comments like that ’cause it gets too narrow, don’t you think? Anyway, how often would that happen? lol

          Thanks to BOTH of you ladies for commenting here 😀 oxox

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  9. Love your Dot. Did you know how Vashti from the story got her name? I heard Peter as a keynote, and he was saying that one day he was working at a coffee shop and a little girl came in. She was interested in what he was doing. He asked her her name. It was Vashti. Isn’t that dreamy?

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    • Thank you, Nancy! Especially for stopping by 🙂

      And, yes, I recently found this info out when I listened to the “Dot Day 2012” video (posted above). I LOVED hearing that, along with so much else. It’s SUCH a great video. In it he also mentions that Vashti, in Persian, means “beautiful.” 😀

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  10. ooo, I had never heard of the author or this day but I shall be looking out for both in the future, this proves I must get out more. Next year I promise to go Dotty for the day or dress up as a dalmation which have spots not dots but I’m not being picky…any excuse to dress up like a dog!

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    • Thanks, Cynthia 🙂 It was a lot of fun doing. I already had the globe from other artwork, but tweaked it to fit this WONderful, dot-connected day 😀 I intend to be much more creative with it next year…

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