Vashti is a young girl who thinks she can't draw. When her art
teacher sees her blank paper, she makes a little joke ("Ah! A
polar bear in a snowstorm."). Vashti gets frustrated, jabbing at
the paper with her marker to make one tiny dot in the center.
Her teacher looks at the dot and simply says, "Sign it." - as if
Vashti were a real, serious artist! The next day Vashti sees her
dot framed and hung on the classroom wall. Her teacher's simple
gesture not only encourages Vashti to draw more and more dots,
it helps her to really be creative, to believe that she can do
anything. Like the child in The Dot, author Peter Reynolds was
encouraged by one of his teachers to keep doodling and draw
more. The result? Reynolds grew up to become an illustrator (he
did the artwork for the popular Judy Moody books by Megan
McDonald) and a film animator. Any teacher, parents or
grandparents who has posted a child's artwork on the wall (and I
am one of them) will be able to relate. With his book The Dot
(and its sequel called Is