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It’s National Poetry Month this April and what better way to celebrate than a chat with author, poet, and creative writing instructor Karen Benke.

Keri Smith’s Wreck This Journal has a new travel edition coming out called Wreck This Journal Everywhere.

The guidebook has sold more than two million copies in print and has been released in numerous formats including app form. The book encourages “creativity through destruction” with a series of exercises designed to stir imagination by messing things up.

The new travel edition includes a section in which travelers can collect names, autographs, other people’s dreams, as well as an activity to fill an entire page with words spotted on an adventure. The journal also encourages readers to hang the book in a public place and invite others to draw on it. Another exercise suggests that the user takes a walk, then stands on a page. The book also instructs a user to collect a napkin from a restaurant, write a secret on it, and glue it to a page.

The travel guide comes out in June.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Five Family Favorites: Leading Bloggers Share their Family Favorite Books, #1

By Nicki Richesin, The Children’s Book Review
Published: April 8, 2012

We’re very happy at TCBR to unveil our first installment of a new monthly column called Five Family Favorites by leading family, parenting, and book savvy bloggers. To kick-off our first FFF, we give you the lovely Catherine Newman of Ben and Birdy fame. Catherine is author of the award-winning memoir Waiting for Birdy and a frequent contributor to many anthologies including Crush and Because I Love Her. She is also editor of ChopChop, The Fun Cooking Magazine for Families. We’re thrilled to share her family’s all-time favorite books. Enjoy!

Amos and Boris

By William Steig

I actually wanted to name our son Boris—but, sadly, my partner did not share my enthusiasm. “Bwo-ris,” I said emphatically, with my grandmother’s Russian accent. “No?” No. Nonetheless, the book, a favorite from my own childhood, became and has remained a favorite in our household as well. If you know Sylvester and the Magic Pebble or The Amazing Bone, then you’re already familiar with William Steig’s delightfully watery illustrations and refreshingly literate text. This book is no exception, and it is a joy in every way. Amos, a seaside mouse filled with an explorer’s curiosity, builds a boat, loads it with provisions (this catalogue of goods—including biscuits, acorns, honey, and a yo-yo—is the children’s favorite part) and sails away. All goes swimmingly, until:

One night, in a phosphorescent sea, he marveled at the sight of some whales spouting luminous water; and later, lying on the deck of his boat, gazing at the immense, starry sky, the tiny mouse Amos, a little speck of a living thing in the vast living universe, felt thoroughly akin to it all. Overwhelmed by the beauty and mystery of everything, he rolled over and over and right off the deck of his boat and into the sea.

Holy clam and cuttlefish! But just as Amos is wondering what it would feel like to drown (I have always loved the existential candor of this part, though other parents may want to edit) along comes Boris the whale. What follows is a touchingly profound story about unlikely friendship and lifelong loyalty, with an excellent powerful-things-come-in-small-packages message to boot: while Amos cannot reciprocate in strength, he has the intelligence to help Boris in turn, when the big, big-hearted whale needs it most. (Ages 5-8. Publisher: Square Fish)

Owl Moon

By Jane Yolen

Inter

Title: Wreck This App
Cost: 4.99
Platform: iOS, Android
(this review refers to the iOS version)

Based on Keri Smith’s Wreck This Journal, Wreck this App is a collection of activities designed to awaken creativity through the power of destruction. Don’t worry no iPhones were harmed in the process of writing this post. The destruction this app inspires might take the form of defacing a photo, repurposing text, or using the various drawing tools to smear ink, cut up an image, or scribble all over the page. Other times the activities are more wacky  rather than actually destructive, designed to shake up your brain, like putting your fingers in your ears and touching your nose to cure hiccups. For example, you will be asked to draw a picture of something you dislike, connect a set of dots from memory,  and make a collage of photos of stickers found on fruit.

Your toolbox of artistic destruction includes a pencil, an eraser, a smudging tool, dripping ink, a text tool, a color palette, tools to cut and paste,  and links to your device’s camera and photo roll.  Navigate through 60 pages of activities by using the “Go To” menu where you can click on each page, or turning pages back and forth with icons you can click in each of the bottom corners.  Save your creations to your device’s photo roll, or share them on Facebook or Flickr with one click. There is also a page to make up your own activities in the spirit of Wreck This App.

Customer reviews on the Apple Store complain that the app is too expensive and that the book is more fun. While I agree that there is more destructive creation potential available with a journal that you can actually destroy, 60 pages of inspiration that fits in your pocket is an accessible jumping off point. With the app you can play with creative exercises from anywhere.  Maybe you’ll be inspired to buy the book, or maybe you’ll be inspired to get out some paper and a pile of art supplies and go from there.

I think this app would make a good icebreaker activity in a teen program or a meeting of adults. It would be especially suited to use with a teen writing group, or other creative meeting. I might pull it out at Anime Club because so many of the teens who come regularly, come to draw. Because it is on the more expensive side, you might purchase it yourself and then pass your device around or make up activities inspired by the app’s  (and the book’s) tagline: “To create is to destroy.”

For

“Focus on ideas instead of tools (technology). Anyone can learn to use the tools, but it is the thinkers who really impact the culture in important ways. In the end the tools don’t offer anything interesting.”

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Secrets shared « Keri Smith