Shownotes:
What if your next brave act didn’t need to be big—just bold enough to begin?
In this heart-expanding episode, I’m joined by the incredible Peter H. Reynolds, beloved author, illustrator, and champion of creativity. Together, we talk about why starting matters more than getting it right, how to nurture creativity in kids (and ourselves), and what it really means to make your mark.
Peter shares the surprising inspiration behind The Dot, what being "ish” means to him, and the power of leaving room for imperfection and possibility.
Whether you’re an educator, creator, parent, or lifelong learner, this conversation is a reminder: your story matters, your voice matters, and it’s okay to begin before you feel ready.
Thrive Global Article:
About Our Guest:
Peter is a New York Times best-selling children's book author illustrator (Judy Moody, The Dot, Ish, Sky Color, Someday ), selling over 20 million books in over 25 languages around the globe. In 1996, he founded FableVision as a social change agency to help move the world to a better place by creating "stories that matter, stories that move." FableVision's signature blend of positive media, storytelling and interactive technologies is sought after by a host of best-in-class organizations, such as PBS KIDS, Reading Is Fundamental, the Jim Henson Company, and National Wildlife Federation. Peter also founded FableVision Learning, a K-12 educational publishing company, as well as the nonprofit Reynolds Center for Teaching, Learning, and Creativity, and independent book and creativity shop called The Blue Bunny Bookstore in historic Dedham Square, Massachusetts. Follow Peter on Twitter and learn more about his story on his website. Explore Peter's hand behind FableVision's mission films here. Learn more about Peter.
About Lainie:
Lainie Rowell is a bestselling author, award-winning educator, and TEDx speaker. She is dedicated to human flourishing, focusing on community building, emotional intelligence, and honoring what makes each of us unique and dynamic through learner-driven design. She earned her degree in psychology and went on to earn both a post-graduate credential and a master's degree in education. An international keynote speaker, Lainie has presented in 41 states as well as in dozens of countries across 4 continents. As a consultant, Lainie’s client list ranges from Fortune 100 companies like Apple and Google to school districts and independent schools. Learn more at linktr.ee/lainierowell.
Website - LainieRowell.com
Instagram - @LainieRowell
LinkedIn - @LainieRowell
X/Twitter - @LainieRowell
Evolving with Gratitude, the book is available here! And now, Bold Gratitude: The Journal Designed for You and by You is available too!
Both Evolving with Gratitude & Bold Gratitude have generous bulk pricing for purchasing 10+ copies delivered to the same location.🙌
Just fill out the forms linked above and someone will get back to you ASAP!
Transcript:
[00:01:48] Lainie Rowell: Welcome Peter.
I'm very excited about this. I'm not even gonna be able to keep my voice at a reasonable low. But I just wanna say thank you for being here. So excited to have this conversation.
[00:01:59] Peter H. Reynolds: Oh, it's, it is lovely, lovely to be with you. And of course, I got to see you fairly recently in Los Angeles, but through the magic of technology, we are connecting the dots to share more.
[00:02:12] Lainie Rowell: Oh, we're gonna talk lots about dots, so I really wanna take some time to dig into creativity. You are a champion of creativity and your work inspires basically people from all ages to create bravely and express themselves authentically. And what kind of sparked your passion for really that message and helping people get in touch with their creativity?
[00:02:40] Peter H. Reynolds: Well, I mean, I've been hanging out with kids for a long time. I mean, really right out of, well, even before college, now that I think of it. Because I was a camp counselor for a y camp and then at a special needs camp in my hometown, and I. I was just sort of just dazzled with, you know, the creativity of kids, but I did notice that around maybe fourth or fifth grade, it started to slow down.
And by sixth and seventh grade there was usually the class artist. And in fact, I'm, I'm one of those kids that just never stopped and I kept going. I also have a twin brother who was kind of my built-in support system and he, he's super creative too, and he encouraged me. He encouraged my writing and my drawing.
And then together we made our own newspaper and we published it and we sold it in school. And we found these lovely eccentric British kids who lived up the street, the Stanway brothers. And we formed SR Publications, or SR productions. What was it, Paul? Both of them. Yeah. Paul's hanging out in the studio with us in the background.
As always, Paul is cheering me on and helping me out. But so we, we started a company and it was a media company. And we published comic books and film review magazines. We did films. It was really an amazing childhood. And so we, we had we had these kindred spirits of, you know, I had my twin brother and then these two amazing creative kids and we just made stuff.
And this was not part of school, although we did find some amazing mentors in school and we had of course my math teacher. I, I love telling that story of my math teacher who invited me to use my art and my storytelling to teach math, which was kind of mind blowing. That was the first teacher who had ever asked me to teach.
Cool. Right? That's creative thinking, right? Turning things on their head is, is creativity. And he when he looked at this comic book that I had created he said, do you know what you did? And I said, well, I made a comic book. He said, well, it's also called a storyboard. How would you like to make an animated film?
And of course I'm like ready to burst into flames. I'm like, this is so cool. This is math class. And he, he said, I actually don't know how to make one. Which I think is another sign of creativity. Right. Creative people have the idea first. They figure it out later.
[00:05:23] Lainie Rowell: Yeah.
[00:05:24] Peter H. Reynolds: It's like the Irish proverb, the story of the farmer who comes up to the fence.
The really tall wall that he can't get over, and he takes his favorite woolen cap and he throws it over the wall. I just love that image of throwing your favorite cap over the wall, and it's like I'm gonna get that thing.
[00:05:43] Lainie Rowell: Yeah.
[00:05:43] Peter H. Reynolds: I'm gonna, I'm gonna figure this thing out. And so so my, my math teacher found the me, the media teacher from the high school, Jim Morrow, who's now in acclaim sci-fi.
author, if you look him up, he's, he's done some pretty amazing sci-fi books and he's award-winning. But anyway, he was my media teacher mentor, and he mentored the two of us. So Mr. Matson, my math teacher, was actually learning how to make an animated film.
[00:06:11] Lainie Rowell: Wow.
[00:06:13] Peter H. Reynolds: In, you know, here we are. Chelmsford, Massachusetts probably 1970, gosh, 74 something.
73 ish. And so he, he was learning alongside me. So that was also, I think, formational for me to have a teacher who thought up a project that he didn't know how to do. He taught me how to locate expertise, which is a 21st century skill. And, and then he also learned. Alongside me, which also is really, that's pretty powerful because a lot of times we're like, oh, we're gonna sign up my, I'm gonna, my kid is creative.
I'm gonna send them to, to art class. I'm gonna send them to a makerspace, and the kid gets dropped off and Wow, what a missed opportunity because that grownup could have sat with that child and noodled through and played and turned things upside down and, and, and animated and drew and, and told stories.
And in fact, I think that adults need more help than kids, because I think that's one of the things that inspired my sort of quest to help other people have creative journeys, is that I, I see a lot of adults who kind of gave up on it in sort of that, you know, fifth, sixth grade, they, they just slow down.
It's not that they're not creative, it's just that, you know, if you don't do something in a long time, you get rusty. You know, it's like if you, if you've ever tried learning a language and you give it a good go, you know, those first, you know, that first couple of months and then, and then you slow down and then, you know, years later you're like, oh yeah, I, I, I was trying to learn Spanish or, you know.
Fill in the blank what, what you're trying to learn. So not giving up, resilience, I think is a really, that was another thing that I learned and I learned that other people needed some encouragement. So I ended up using storytelling to help. Remind people and have conversations with people around the world and all ages.
And I, I do picture books. Some people say they're children's books, but they're really picture books for all ages because especially we busy adults, we actually need, we need some wisdom served up in shorter chunks, kind of like a podcast, right? We, most of us can handle, you know, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour maybe.
You know? And hopefully, hopefully we can inspire people with these little nuggets.
[00:08:38] Lainie Rowell: Well, you do. You inspire kids and adults and I have used the DOT and Ish and other of your books in workshops with adults as kind of a springboard for growth mindset. Just really being open to it because
I think we can all relate to that. By sixth grade, we know who the artist is. Mm-hmm. Like that's their identity. They're really good at it. And then everyone else kind of shies away and doesn't want to be, well, I, I'm not that good and
[00:09:07] Peter H. Reynolds: mm-hmm.
[00:09:08] Lainie Rowell: So the extreme of, by sixth grade, we know who the artist is versus your teacher when you were a kid learning beside you.
I mean, you can really see that spectrum of fixed mindset versus growth mindset.
[00:09:22] Peter H. Reynolds: Right, right. Yeah.
[00:09:23] Lainie Rowell: Let's talk a little bit about. A couple of your books. Let's talk about the DOT and ish. I mean, you really invite us to celebrate imperfection and to take those risks, and I think that's really beautiful.
I think that helps us move away from being so worried about like, I'm not the artist in my class.
[00:09:44] Peter H. Reynolds: Yeah. Yeah, the, the dot, which I wrote over 20, well, let's see, it's coming up on 22 years ago. Well, I probably wrote it 23 years ago, but I was almost immediately I, I knew that there would be a sequel and then.
As I started writing down the ideas, I realized that I needed one more story. So there were actually three stories in, I call the Creatrilogy. I, I made up a word permission granted, you can make up words. So it's a trilogy about creativity, and so The Dot is about just getting started. I think that's one of our, that's the biggest one, right?
Just getting started. And I think that sometimes we don't get started because of fear. And being brave is actually, you know, it's the thing I think we need to focus on. More. You know, how do we, how, how, how do we get brave? How do we get braver? 'cause some of us can be brave, but even the best of us get nervous.
Right? You get nervous getting on stage. You get nervous with that first sheet of paper. You're like, oh, I'm gonna write a novel.
[00:10:52] Lainie Rowell: Yeah.
[00:10:52] Peter H. Reynolds: And there it is, the blank page. And that blank page is scary. You know, it's scary for, it's scary for grownups, it's scary for kids. I mean you know, in kindergarten they have no problem.
First grade they pretty much have no problem. But I actually met a little kid, she was either in first or second grade and we were drawing. I had a workshop. I was getting kids just warmed up, draw anything you want. It's a little girl's drawing. I come over to see her artwork and she throws her body on top of her artwork and she would not let me see it.
And I thought, wow. First I thought she was kidding, but she was clearly not kidding. She was traumatized. So I, I gently had a little conversation with her and I said, you know, what's the matter? And she just looked at me and she said, I just can't draw. That kind of broke my heart. Yeah. And I thought, wow.
She's, she's, she's in first or second grade and she's saying she can't draw. And then I thought, I wonder where did she get that notion that she couldn't draw?
[00:11:54] Lainie Rowell: Mm-hmm.
[00:11:55] Peter H. Reynolds: Because, I mean, just, you know, she has only been on this planet. You know, six years. And the first chunk, she was probably completely fearless.
And then she realized there's a, I guess there's a way to do things right.
And so that's, that really is that particular moment was the, that was the lightning strike for me. I'm like, I gotta, right. A story for this little girl, and I bet you there are other girls and boys and guess what? They're grownups because where did she learn how to denigrate her own artwork?
Right? I can't draw. Probably an adult, and it was probably a clumsy adult who, they probably overheard them say, oh, I can't draw a straight line with a ruler. I can't draw my way out of a paper bag. I've heard them all and I always, I cringe because I'm like, please don't say that.
[00:12:43] Lainie Rowell: Yeah,
[00:12:43] Peter H. Reynolds: don't say it around kids.
Don't say it around anybody and don't say it to yourself, you know? So I encourage people. Who are, the polite term is artistically challenged, if you're artistically challenged, just be kind. Be kind to yourself. Be kind to your marks and just make a lot of marks. And if you don't know where to start, start with a dot, because a dot is actually pretty easy to do.
So I wrote The Dot, Ish, and Sky Color, those three books, The Dot is about getting started Ish is about developing your own voice, your own style, right? The way that you draw is very Lainie ish, right? It's your version of whatever it is that you do, whether it's, you know.
Singing or writing or or drawing that's your interpretation. And so if you're drawing a tiger, it doesn't have to look exactly like a tiger. In fact, it doesn't even have to remotely look like a tiger as long as it feels like a tiger to you, right? You're like, this has got tiger energy. And so I wrote ish to inspire.
Your voice, your original voice. And then Sky Color is, do you know what? With the right disposition, right, the right mindset. I know it's one of our favorite words, mindset that you can see the world in more interesting ways. Right. And I always, I love the example of, I'll read Sky Color, which is this quest, this little girl, Marisols is flummoxed, she cannot paint the sky because she doesn't have the color blue.
And as the book goes on and you turn the pages, you see the sun is setting, and then the stars come out in the morning, it's raining and the sky is silver and gray and the penny drops like, oh yeah, that's right. The sky can be a lot of colors. So at the end of that book, I always like to ask kids and grownups.
I say, alright, quick question. What color is an apple? And in unison, you know, the crowd will yell out red. And then I just wait. And eventually somebody will say, oh, it could be, it could be yellow, it could be green, it could be speckled it could be purple. It could be rainbow, it could be any color.
And I say, you know, if you cut it in half, what color is it? And they're like, oh, it's white. It's white-ish, right? Oh, sometimes it's green-ish and yellowish. And if you leave it there for half an hour. It'll turn beige and brown. And if you leave it there for months, it will probably be blackish and brown.
So that first answer was correct. Red is correct.
[00:15:12] Lainie Rowell: Yeah.
[00:15:13] Peter H. Reynolds: But the more we go right for that deep dive the more interesting or answers will become. And that's why. I'm a big advocate in helping public, especially in public education. 'cause we're in such a mad rush to get ready for the test.
Yeah, the tests are coming.
We gotta get rid of creativity, get rid of all this messy stuff because we don't have a lot of time, boys and girls. So we're gonna cram through a lot of stuff and guess what? The deep dive. It just can't happen. Yeah, right. It's just like we don't have enough time. It just doesn't make sense. So how do we solve that?
How do we magically come up with more time? It's going to take creative thinking, right? Yeah. Because that's a challenge. But that's the hat over the wall. How do we, especially in public education. By the way, in private schools too, they're in a little bit of a mad rush too, to get through stuff. So wherever learning is happening if we could figure out how to maybe do less right, but do a deeper dive, that's my particular bias, that's my, my favorite model.
So if, and maybe you can't do it in every classroom or even at home, you know, if someone's listening at home and saying, you know, how does this apply to me and my life. It's like, just look at your calendar. Look at all the stuff you have your to-do list. Have you provided enough time to hear yourself think?
And I think that's the simplest way to put it. Have you created a blank page in your day that is begging for something, right. Something new? Something that that hasn't yet emerged? Yeah, because there's a lot coming at us. Yeah. A lot, right? So those little blank page moments are really powerful.
[00:16:59] Lainie Rowell: Ooh, I love that Blank page moments. Now I wanna ask you, I think a little birdie told me, do you journal every night?
[00:17:06] Peter H. Reynolds: I do, I try, if I don't fall asleep. My bed is one of my favorite places and it's one of my favorite places to sleep because I, I do believe that when I'm dreaming that I'm, I'm working.
That's like when I go to work.
[00:17:18] Lainie Rowell: Yeah.
[00:17:19] Peter H. Reynolds: I actually, I like clock out of reality and I check into my, my, my dream space. And so I think I do a lot of storytelling in my, in my head, in my sleep. There's actually a little moment in between which I, I love, there's actually a lovely word called hypnagogia, and the hypnagogia is a state of being where you've got one foot in reality and one foot in a dream. And if anyone does TM transcendental meditation that is kind of the state that you have access to reality, but you're also having access to that lovely dream space and. You know, it's probably why the book The Dot exists because I actually was trying to journal at night and I fell asleep with my pen on the paper.
And when I woke up there was a big dot there, which I thought in the middle of the night was a mistake. I threw it off on my bed. Turned out the light. Got a good night's sleep. Woke up in the morning with blue sky, the sun is shining and I climb outta bed and there on the floor is the journal open to this big dot.
And I just looked at it differently and I, I thought that's a pretty cool looking dot. And I picked up the pen and I wrote The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. That became my little touchstone to write the story. And I thought, you know, that actually is very fitting right? That this little mark, that one attempt with the right perspective, it can be the beginning of something great.
And so don't minimize your little efforts that those little efforts might be the striking of the match to ignite and enlighten new ideas. So. So, yes, I journal. I have loads of journals. In fact, I even have a storage unit. I, I ran outta room in my studio. So I actually have a storage unit with many, many, maybe hundreds of boxes of, of scraps of paper, as well as my journals.
Because I don't always have a fancy journal. If there's a envelope nearby, I will grab it. I will, I will draw on it. And I, I, and that's, that's why I encourage people to doodle, don't, you don't have to intentionally be drawing, just have something nearby. So as you're sitting, listening to a podcast,
[00:19:33] Lainie Rowell: yeah.
[00:19:34] Peter H. Reynolds: You know, see, see where your pen takes you.
[00:19:36] Lainie Rowell: I love that so much and I just, I wanted to bring up journaling because what, what you said earlier about just getting started is so essential and I think that a lot of times, you know, the social scientists have proven the benefits of journaling. It's like a universal, there's a lot of different practices that can help us move out of stress or anxiety.
This is one it's shown it works. It just works. But it feels effortful to start.
[00:20:08] Peter H. Reynolds: Mm. When
[00:20:08] Lainie Rowell: people hesitate and we just have to get started. Like, I really want people to hear that because it makes, I mean like you have a whole book series because you just started and there was a dot.
[00:20:21] Peter H. Reynolds: And I started without even knowing I was doing it.
So but the yeah. Having, getting, getting into flow, you know, and, and also, yeah, I think it does require worrying less. That's why my book Ish is helpful for. For writing as well in the story ramone is really flummoxed by, you know, he can't get his drawings to look right and he quits. That's it.
He's done. And turns out he's a little sister Matsol has been collecting his artwork and she kind of shows him how beautiful his, his work is. And they're, you know, vsse-ish and afternoon-ish and fish-ish and you see in the story, he actually transfers ish to writing and he's, you see him write, he is not sure if he was writing a poem, but it's poem-ish.
Yeah. Which actually was inspired by a true story. I met a little girl up in Maine, in Falmouth, Maine, and I had discovered Ish, and I was using Ish, the Ish concept with kids to draw. Well, the kids left the classroom. This one little girl, little peanut sized girl, she came up to me and she had a little crumpled sheet of paper and she, she looked both ways and she's like, she said, I'm not sure if it's a poem, but it's poem-ish.
And I'm like, how cool is that? Right? She transferred the ish activity we were doing the ish concept to writing.
[00:21:47] Lainie Rowell: Yeah. Which I.
[00:21:48] Peter H. Reynolds: Which I always say that writing is a way to document your thinking. So she was an ish-ful thinker. That's pretty powerful. So that's actually the, for me, that was the moment.
And by the way, I didn't know, like the dot story sort of emerged and then I had this experience with this little girl and she, she inspired me to realize like, oh, this ish thing is working not only for drawing, but for, for writing and thinking. And so I thought, well, that deserves a book.
'Cause I had just written the word ish on a scrap of paper and I stuck it in my pocket and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna use that. And then when she had this lovely, moment of thinking and sharing. I thought, okay, well , now that has to be a book. So I always say that a story makes the mission transportable.
So whatever your mission is, whoever's listening right now, whatever your mission is, which by the way, I hope you have mission. I always tell people, I don't ask people, you know, what do you do for, for, for work? I say, what's your mission?
[00:22:43] Lainie Rowell: Yeah.
[00:22:44] Peter H. Reynolds: And for some people they're like, you know, they're a bit flummoxed by that.
They're like, oh. I don't know. I don't know if I. I mean, I have a job, but guess what? Your job not, is not always your mission. No. Hopefully it is. And if it's not, I, I say start researching to see, you know, what is, what's your passion? What are you interested in? I wrote a book called The North Star to help people think about, you know, what makes them unique and special. I think being a twin probably you know, that was another one of those seeds planted very early on when people Oh, are you identical? Well, they call us identical twins, but, well, that's interesting 'cause. I'm me and Paul as Paul, and, and we are not identical.
We certainly share a lot of the same we share the same mission.
[00:23:32] Lainie Rowell: Yeah, a lot of
[00:23:32] Peter H. Reynolds: the same mission. All Paul's a very good gardener. His mission is to have wonderful garden every year, and mine is to eat his tomatoes when I go visit him.
[00:23:40] Lainie Rowell: Those are very complimentary missions. I love that. That's great. First of all, I
want to go back to something you said about that moment being in between the state of dreaming and reality. Hmm. Because no one's ever really explained that so well to me. But I have written articles because of that state. I have written chapter of books because of that state. That is a state for me that like wake up and capture it because that is like where the two worlds have collided and given me the optimal ideas.
[00:24:14] Peter H. Reynolds: Mm-hmm. So write, write it, write it down. I whenever you yeah, when you have a brilliant idea. Jot it down or I, I would say you could also make a drawing too, right? I always say I write a drawing. Yeah. A painting a picture is worth a thousand words. I can actually remember whole stories just from the drawing.
[00:24:32] Lainie Rowell: Yeah.
[00:24:33] Peter H. Reynolds: So that's why I encourage, and even it's just a little icon, you know, could be like a, you know, a candle with a rainbow coming out of it and you're like, that will remind me. You know, that blah, blah, blah. So I'm glad that you write down your amazing ideas and I'm also glad that you share your amazing ideas with the world Lainie.
Okay? And so we, you know, hopefully we can encourage other people to do the same thing. And for those people who need a little, a little help in scaffolding, which kind of we all do, right? That's why we take workshops. We take courses and we read books 'cause we need a little nudging towards where we wanna go.
I actually did two interactive journals for adults. And as it turns out, kids love them too. And, but I, I really, you know, I don't say it explicitly, but I have a journal published by Abrams and it's called Start With a Dot. Yes. Because if, if, most adults will admit that they can make a dot.
And then in this journal I kind of coax you along and, and help you see that that dot can turn into a lot of different things and that if you have two dots and you connect them, you can align. And so, you know, once you know dot and a line, all sorts of amazing things emerge. And then I followed that up with, Start With a Word because I also, I know that there are a lot of people out there who have a lot of cool stuff inside, right? In their head, in their heart, in their dreams, and, you know, it's just, it is hard to start. So I, again, I sort of coax you through, you know, with just a few words. A few words, and then I, you know, I just kind of keep stirring it up.
And what I hope is that. You can then, you know, page through that later on, revisit that. Start With a Word journal and say, whoa, hey, that's actually, that's a cool concept, which I can now, I can pull out and I can expand it out to, you know, to a, to a book, a play, a song a, a podcast. So,
[00:26:29] Lainie Rowell: well, I wanna share with you how you have impacted my life so profoundly. So first of all, we have multiple copies of Start With a Dot and Start With a Word journals in my house. That was also one of the inspirations for the Bold Gratitude Journal because mm-hmm.
I loved how you provided that scaffolding. And I took that, and to me that translated into how could I design a Gratitude journal that offered all these different entry points.
[00:26:56] Peter H. Reynolds: Hmm.
[00:26:56] Lainie Rowell: So people who were overwhelmed with just having prompts or overwhelmed with blank pages or what could they do?
And so I wanna thank you for that. That's just one piece. The, The Word Collector is profoundly important to me and so could you explain that book and then I wanna tell you how it is a part of my daily life.
[00:27:18] Peter H. Reynolds: Sure. Well, number one thank you for that. That's means a lot to me that my work resonated with you and that, that, that my work worked.
Because if my work is working, it means that. People activate the ideas inside the book so it's not just like, okay, I'm gonna read and then, you know, next book. No, do that deep dive we were talking about. Right. And, and you know, what you're doing with your work is that you're using storytelling as conversation starters and that you activate the book, you activate conversations and, and thinking and doing.
And so I just wanna say thank you for the work that you are doing to activate, my stories and I know other stories and your own stories, so thank you. Thank you very much. And I am holding a copy of The Word Collector, which is sort of based on, well, it's based on a, a true story. I like to visit schools and I talk about.
The process of writing and where do ideas come from? And I show them, I'll just grab journals and you know, I have to be a bit careful when I open up my journals because they're, some things make absolutely no sense. I mean, it makes sense to me. But you know, I'll leaf through and I'll find something, you know, a little random drawing and often, I'll put, you know, I'll put a little caption underneath and sometimes it's a whole story. The North Star story actually was in one of these little nighttime journals. But I had one particular journal, I just grabbed it off the shelf and it, it was titled My Favorite Words. And I just thought like, what words, what words resonate with me?
I mean, there were a lot of words out there, but certain words. I just love, you know, like the word bliss. Oh, I just think that's just such a great, right. Just saying it makes your blood pressure
[00:29:06] Lainie Rowell: Yeah.
[00:29:06] Peter H. Reynolds: lower, right. And so I, I thought, well, I'll share this with the kids. So I was sharing my favorite words and the teacher came up afterwards and said.
That was so beautiful what you, what you shared, because you said, I collect words. And she's like, I never thought about it. You know, we call it vocabulary acquisition. It doesn't, doesn't sound quite as, as magical as the way you described it. And it was just lovely that. You know, there was no, like, your heart was telling you which words were the right words.
And I'm like, yeah, that joy, right. Connecting to your heart. It's not like, oh, these are useful words, you know, these will be useful in your career. You know? And they might be, but I think for me, that's, in a way reflective, you know, like she was able to, to hold a mirror to what I was saying and, and I thought yeah, that joy needs to be shared.
So I thought, I'm gonna write a story about a boy who loves words. He loves collecting them the way that other people love to collect art or Pokemon cards. He's just crazy for words. And his name is Jerome. And he, he collects words and you see him collecting, collecting, collecting. And we see how he uses his words, but at the very end of the book and I love reading this aloud to kids 'cause they, they're kind of flabbergasted 'cause he goes to the top of the hill, he takes his entire collection of words and he tosses them into the wind and the audience. Usually the kids are like, what? Why is he throwing, you know, he's throwing his words away and you turn the page and there are all these children in the valley below scurrying about collecting words. Yeah. From the priests. Of course he's seen, sees his friends becoming word collectors and the very last page says jerome had no words to describe how happy that made him. And by the way, Jerome is back. He's back because this is a brand new book.
Yes, he's a new book. And I know you'll like this because you're a big, you're a big gratitude fan and getting people to be grateful and to and to give right.
That, that idea of. Gifting yourself to others. And so Gift of Words is the brand new book, and Jerome is back. And its a holiday ish book. There's, there has to be snow in it. And there is actually a, a sleigh. The story is that he goes to his downtown. It's the holidays, the snow's falling.
He goes to his downtown and it's a bustling city street and he's got his notebook and he's ready to collect words for the season. And he sees lots of signs that say, buy this, buy that on sale. No parking violators will be towed. And he's got a little rescue dog and there's the sinuses. No dogs allowed.
And so there are all these kind of like non-holiday ish words. And he hears people using words that are maybe not so nice because they're in a rush and there's some kids who are greedy kids saying, I want this, I want that. So he's hearing a lot of negative words and he's like, well, do you know what this world needs?
My community needs some positive words. So he goes back home, he finds from his own word collection, which he has restocked and he puts them on a sleigh and he heads down to the park and there's a bear tree and he decides to string his words into garlands and it's a lot of work so his friends and family gathered together and they begin to
create these garlands, powerful garlands, and they share their, their encouraging words, their kind words, their positive words, their hopeful words. And I feel like this particular time that we are going through,
yeah,
we have to dig deep for those words and realize that the world needs much more love and kindness.
And turns out that hate is much louder than kindness and love, and so we have to amp up the kindness and love so.
[00:33:12] Lainie Rowell: Yeah.
[00:33:12] Peter H. Reynolds: So I can't wait for you to get a copy of that Lainie.
[00:33:15] Lainie Rowell: I cannot wait. So I wanna tell you and thank you to Paul for giving me the heads up that we get this gift of words.
The Gift of Words is a gift to us and we appreciate it and I can't wait to see it. I wanna share with you I had Gretchen Rubin on the podcast a while ago, and I got to share this with her. So the two of you inspired something that I use as a creativity tool. You with The Word Collector and the idea of gathering those words.
By the way, I've read The Word Collector in so many classrooms. Pretty much every class my kid was in, I went in and that was what I read. And it was so fun to have the kids, like say, guacamole with me or you know, just these fun words that are so fun to say. We would all like scream them together and it was just this really engaging activity that I love to do with them.
And so Gretchen Rubin came across her dad's old Rolodex, you know, old school with the cards and she decided like, Hey, this is like kind of a cool format for if I wanted to just randomly have some chance and come across an activity to help me get out of a rut or something like that.
[00:34:21] Peter H. Reynolds: Mm-hmm.
[00:34:21] Lainie Rowell: And so I had you and her in my mind and I was like, wouldn't it be cool if I had a Rolodex to collect my words?
[00:34:29] Peter H. Reynolds: Mm.
[00:34:29] Lainie Rowell: And then when I come across a word that I just absolutely love, I add it to the Rolodex. And then when I'm looking for some creativity, I'll spin the Rolodex and see where I land.
And then sometimes I put two words together and that's what ends up in the Rolodex. And that's actually literally how I came up with Bold Gratitude. The title of the journal was because two words that I thought were so special, but even more special when you put 'em together.
[00:34:54] Peter H. Reynolds: So I love that. I love that.
I, I think that is absolutely fantastic. It's funny that, that the Rolodex idea, because there's a there's something called notes and on our computer, right? Yeah. What was it called Paul? What was that app that we used to use all the time? Back in the day, quick Deck. Oh, it was called Quick Decks.
Called Quick Decks. It was a little Mac app and now notes is very similar to it, but it was just adding a card, you know, to random thoughts and searchable random thoughts, which is very helpful for people like us because we have, we have these random thoughts a lot, and you never know when they're gonna come in handy.
But I actually have a page called Word Collection. So I write in my journal, but I also have my, my phone handy. And I collect words, so like I have, I just called it up right now, like the word frenzy. I just heard the word frenzy and I just love that frenzy. Saunter. Ooh, isn't that a great word, saunter.
Yeah. Bring Carolyn in New York City. She went on a saunter. It was a like a, it's like a marathon. It's like, it's a. Two day marathon, but you don't walk you saunter. Sauntering is a very, it's just a relaxed way to journey. I just thought that was lovely. And cadence is a great word. Inkling.
[00:36:14] Lainie Rowell: Mm-hmm.
[00:36:15] Peter H. Reynolds: Just a lovely word. Sears sucker. I hear someone say Sears sucker. I'm like, you don't use that word too often, do you? But it's a,
[00:36:21] Lainie Rowell: not a high rotation.
[00:36:23] Peter H. Reynolds: It's just fun. Fun to say. So, I like petrichor. Petrichor is a pleasant, distinctive smell, frequently accompanying the first rain after a long period of warm dry weather in certain regions, petrichor. I love that.
I just isn't that lovely. So, so yeah. So I am, I am a word collector. I'm gonna keep collecting my words and, and sharing them. Yeah. I have, yeah. Many, many more stories to share, but thanks for the Rolodex idea. I think that's a lovely thing, and I'm sure we could probably find loads of them on, on eBay these days.
Right, right. These Rolodex and do you know what's fun to think that finding like a, I thought you were gonna say that. It's a Rolodex filled with well, it was her dad's old Rolodex. Well, I was thinking there are probably phone numbers and names in oh. From long ago. And wouldn't it be fun to, like, if you need a name for a character, you just like flip through, you know, buy something on eBay.
And by the way, I'm gonna get there first, so I'm gonna buy an od.
[00:37:23] Lainie Rowell: Yeah, I love that idea too.
[00:37:25] Peter H. Reynolds: I'm sure there are a lot of Rolodexes out there, but isn't that a fun thought to, to be inspired by. Sort of these random, random names and companies that exist.
[00:37:36] Lainie Rowell: Well, and I think just over time, I mean, certain words fall into high rotation and some fall out of rotation, and I just love the idea of going back and cherishing and honoring and shining a light on some of these words.
Like we don't hear saunter very often, but it's, it's very vivid.
I love this. I love word collecting.
[00:37:54] Peter H. Reynolds: You just inspired another story idea.
[00:37:57] Lainie Rowell: Oh, great. Go for it.
[00:37:59] Peter H. Reynolds: Yeah. Jerome, the word collector goes time traveling really? And he goes, goes back in time to collect words. 'cause the words right, that we used in the right, the turn of the century. In 1776, you know what in 1000 AD what were those words?
[00:38:17] Lainie Rowell: Oh, I love that.
[00:38:18] Peter H. Reynolds: That's pretty cool. So, alright. I'm gonna dedicate that book to you, Lainie when it comes. I'm writing that down.
[00:38:24] Lainie Rowell: I love that idea. How fun to resurrect those words from the past that so, so lovely. Oh my goodness. Okay, so remind me, when do we get to experience the Gift of Words?
[00:38:39] Peter H. Reynolds: Yeah. The Gift of Words will be hitting shelves in October, so the fall of this year, which currently is 2025. It will hit the shelves.
[00:38:51] Lainie Rowell: Anything else we get to know about it?
[00:38:52] Peter H. Reynolds: Sure. Well, there's the story, but at the very end there's a little bonus section and it's a catalog. It's a sort of a, a catalog ish. With of course none of the things in this catalog cost money because there were words that come from your heart, so I show little illustrations and suggestions of ways that we can gift our words, gift our words through song, through poetry, through conversation. And I just think it's a fun little bonus section of the book and and I hope that that will spark that activation, right story activation that kids and grownups will read this book and then they'll get this idea and say, oh, you know, I haven't written a, a letter to a friend in a long time, so maybe I should, that would be great. So that does my heart good when I know that my book has sparked someone to do to do something kind for other people.
[00:39:44] Lainie Rowell: I'm so excited. I knew the gift of words was coming, but you've just made me even more excited for it.
And I will be first in line.
[00:39:52] Peter H. Reynolds: Yes. I'll be going on book tour. So I'm gonna be going across the country. It's frustrating for me that I can only physically be in only one location at a time. Because when I go on tour, people are like, oh, you should come up to, you know, Toronto, or you should, you know, come to Paris.
I'm like, go, go Paris. I'll, I'll jump. No, I, I would love to go to all of these other places, but Scholastic sends me on a tour, but I am going to be, of course, online, we're gonna be doing all sorts of outreach digitally and we're exploring some interesting ways to transport me around the world.
And speaking of being around the world, The Dot International Day is September 15th ish. It's, it's just a suggested day that happens to be when the book was published, September 15th, 2003. And it has since blossomed into an international day of celebrating creativity. And not only creativity, but what is it to make your mark, right?
Yeah. To have impact. So it's not just art or creativity, but it's using. Using that positive energy to make the world a better place so it can span from kindergarten all the way to college and, and, and beyond. And communities actually have embraced International Dot Day. So people are interested.
internationaldotday.org. It's part of our not-for-profit. We have the Reynolds Center for Teaching, Learning and Creativity, and that's where Paul and I spend a lot of our days, these days in our not-for-profit, we also have a for-profit called FableVision. And I know you said that you, the way you came up with your book title was right you took two words that you liked and you stuck 'em together. And I, I took two words that I like Fable, teaching story and vision, being able to see, but also being able to see something that does not yet exist, which is a cool superhuman power. And I stuck 'em together, FableVision. So people check out FableVision.com, you'll see our other world.
We do interactive activities and gaming and animation, all sorts of cool stuff, combining storytelling and technology for organizations who are doing good in the world. So we, we do work with Jim Henson Productions and PBS and museums, Smithsonian and health organizations. So that's our day job.
And then our not-for-profit. We're, we're trying to bring more light and color and love and kindness to the world. So that's reynoldstlc.org. So if people wanna check that out and learn more about International Dot Day. So International Dot Day is fun because it's a one day that sort of has become a lot of schools.
They kind of prep for it and then they have, there's so much creativity that happens on that one day. Then they kind of, they, oh, we're gonna do a gallery. And then they have, you know, connect with the library and they have a dot show and then they're like, oh, we should get, we should get the librarians to do their dots and Oh, why not get the mayor?
I mean, we've seen these wonderful community dot galleries. And of course a gallery show can last for, you know, a couple weeks. So that energy lasts longer. And then it changes the mindset of the school, which is lovely because it's like, do you know what creative thinking creativity is good for us and it's probably good for us not just for one day. Yeah, it should be actually celebrated every day. And that is our mission, is to celebrate creativity and light and love and positivity every single day. And I just happen to have written a big basket full of books that help spark that conversation. And I know you have your, the work that you're doing, Lainie is to spark all of that positivity.
So keep sparking away. The world needs it more than ever.
[00:43:32] Lainie Rowell: Oh my goodness. That was so lovely. And I just wanna make sure, is there anything else? 'cause I think you've given us multiple ways for those who are not already connected to you, are there any other ways to connect with you that they need to know about?
[00:43:45] Peter H. Reynolds: Well, if you happen to be in the Boston area, that is where Paul and I hang our hat. So we have our studio downtown Boston FableVision. We have FableVision Learning and our not-for-profit rental center located in our hometown of Deta, Massachusetts, which is just 20 minutes as the crow flies from Logan Airport South.
And we also happen to have our own bookstore because 22 years ago actually. It's, we opened one month after my book, The Dot was published magically. We opened the doors of the Blue Bunny bookstore, which is a, a children's bookstore originally, and now we have books for grownups and we also have a cafe.
So we, we make really good coffee and sometimes I am making the coffee. So if you come in and by the way, if you know the secret password, you get a free gift. So just saying,
[00:44:40] Lainie Rowell: what's the secret password?
[00:44:41] Peter H. Reynolds: The secret password. Don't tell anyone. Okay. Rainbow potato.
[00:44:45] Lainie Rowell: Rainbow potato. I love it.
[00:44:48] Peter H. Reynolds: Oh, so if you come in and you mention that to somebody at the counter, see what happens?
Something magical happens. And so that is that's just a little glimpse into into my world. My twin brother's world, my team's world. And I, I do want to hear from people? I love hearing, so if you're listening, you had a thought you had a little dot connection you have an idea know that I'm, I'm here.
I'm easy to, to find PeterHReynolds.com and you can also drop me a line. I like snail mail. P.O. Box 1299, dedham, MA 02027. And you can always drop me a line. But for me, the thing that will make me happy is that if people listen to this podcast and say, Hey, today's the day I am gonna get brave.
I am gonna put pen to paper and I am going to get going on whether it's your story, your idea for your new organization a musical, a song, make something today. And even if it's just a dot, but I shouldn't say just a dot because a dot is pretty powerful. So may your dots inspire you on your amazing creative journey.
[00:45:56] Lainie Rowell: That's incredible. I was going to ask you if you had one thing that you just haven't been able to say enough or didn't get a chance to share, and you did it without me even prompting you because you're so good. Oh, well that was amazing. I appreciate you so much.
[00:46:11] Peter H. Reynolds: This was really lovely Lainie. Thank you so much. And yes, we could definitely talk for hours and hours and in fact, I just envisioned a cruise. We could do a, we could do a, a, a creativity cruise and we could invite all of our creative friends and anybody who wants to hang out.
'cause I think we'd need about six or seven days out on the, on the high seas with some good, good visibility of the stars.
[00:46:33] Lainie Rowell: I love it. Like a creativity retreat. I love it.
[00:46:36] Peter H. Reynolds: Right. I love that. Yeah.
[00:46:37] Lainie Rowell: That's so great.
[00:46:38] Peter H. Reynolds: Yeah.
[00:46:39] Lainie Rowell: Alright, well Peter, thank you so much for your time. Friends. I am going to drop in the show notes all the ways that you can connect with this genius, lovely, just amazing human that I am so honored that I have spent time with in the past and that I got to talk to you today and to share with all of you.
So Peter, thank you for your time and thank you all for listening.
[00:46:59] Peter H. Reynolds: Most grateful. Thank you. Thank you.