Peter H. Reynolds, THE DOT
[0:00]Hi, this is Zibi Owens, and you're listening to Totally Book to Zibi.
[0:06]Formerly, moms don't have time to read books.
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[0:45]Peter H. Reynolds is the author and illustrator of The Dot.
[0:50]Born in Toronto, Canada with his twin brother Paul, author illustrator Peter H. Reynolds
[0:54]is the New York Times number one best-selling creator of inspirational picture books
[0:59]for all ages, including The Globally Acclaimed Create-Tilted G series, The Dot-ish
[1:05]and Sky Color, as well as The North Star, so few of me and playing from the heart.
[1:10]His other acclaimed story books include Happy Dreamer, Say Something, Our Table, Love You
[1:14]By Heart, BU, All We Need Is Love, and his newly released The Gift of Words.
[1:19]With nearly 80 titles to his name, Reynolds is also the illustrator of the beloved Judy
[1:24]Moody and Stink chapter book series written by Meghan McDonald with over 32 million copies
[1:29]published worldwide in 28 languages.
[1:31]Thirty years ago, he founded Boston-based educational media company Fable Vision Studios,
[1:37]which creates positive storytelling, mobile games and interactive, his nonprofit Reynolds
[1:42]Center for Teaching, Learning and Creativity, provides creativity programs to teachers and
[1:47]students, and also overseas International Dot Day, which by the way just passed the annual
[1:53]global celebration of creativity, which has been celebrated by over 31 million students,
[1:59]teachers and librarians in 190 plus countries.
[2:02]Reynolds also founded the award-winning indie bookshop, The Blue, Bunny, and Data Massachusetts,
[2:07]where he currently resides.
[2:09]Welcome, Peter.
[2:10]Thank you so much for coming on totally bugged, so thrilled to be talking to you today.
[2:14]It is wonderful to connect the dots with you, Zibi, really made it to connect with you,
[2:20]and I love your beautiful book shelf, by the way.
[2:23]Oh, thank you.
[2:24]I appreciate it.
[2:25]Am I the only one?
[2:26]I hope that you've used the connect the dots joke on.
[2:29]You were the first person, just popped into my head.
[2:31]Oh, good.
[2:32]I'm so glad.
[2:33]I'm so glad to hear it.
[2:34]Peter, you are so accomplished as an author, illustrator, creator of the International Dot Day
[2:41]Movement, book store owner, it's so exciting, where to begin.
[2:45]And you have a new book coming out, Gift of Words.
[2:48]That's right.
[2:49]You're always working on something.
[2:51]You're just relentless.
[2:53]Do you have trouble sitting still, is that the issue?
[2:56]I, you know, yeah, I do.
[2:58]My brain is just like, the metaphor I use is popcorn, you know, it's popping in my head
[3:05]the whole time.
[3:06]Anytime I'm having a conversation, if I'm looking at something, I just ideas are popping,
[3:13]and I try to write them down so I don't forget.
[3:16]Do you have any ideas popped in the past minute we've been talking?
[3:19]I'm many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, but I have
[3:24]a twin brother Paul, and I always tell people that if you plan on having a busy life that
[3:30]you should be born a twin, because, you know, you're born with that person right by your
[3:35]side, and we are, while we are very, you know, different people, we're also, there's
[3:40]so much of us that, you know, that are the same, right?
[3:44]Yes, there's a lot of, I think the passion for making the world a better place.
[3:49]We both share that.
[3:50]We have since, so day one, so amazing.
[3:53]And you are doing your nonprofit together, isn't that right?
[3:57]We are, yes, the Reynolds Center for Teaching, Learning and Creativity, Reynolds TLC.
[4:03]You can check it out, ReynoldsTLC.org and see all the work that we're doing, a lot of projects
[4:08]that we feel like the world needs, like international.day.
[4:12]And, you know, there's, so there's no client, there's, we have some lovely donors and
[4:20]support grants and things that allow us to do, things like international.day, keeping
[4:26]that website going in and doing all the events that we do, and we update the guide every
[4:33]year.
[4:34]A lovely free guide that people can download on international.day.org.
[4:41]And when you register, you get a really lovely guide that compiles a lot of the wonderful
[4:46]ideas that have been popping up around the plan 190 countries last year participated.
[4:53]And so every one of those countries, they have their own way to celebrate Dacte.
[4:58]So maybe back up and explain to people who have not read the book and don't know what
[5:02]we're talking about, what is international.day, why did you start it?
[5:06]Tell me about the original idea for the book.
[5:09]Sure.
[5:10]Well, very early on, I'm back in the late 90s, I had met the folks at Kennelwood Press and
[5:18]they really liked a book that I self published called the North Star, which was my philosophy
[5:25]about learning and becoming who you are meant to be.
[5:30]And so they got a copy of that book and then they said, hey, we have a manuscript that
[5:36]we think you would really like.
[5:38]We hope you like it.
[5:39]We really love your sensibilities and let's see what you could do with this.
[5:43]So the title of that manuscript was Judy Moody was in a mood, not a good mood, a bad
[5:49]mood.
[5:50]And of course, at the beginning of the Judy Moody series and I read the book and illustrated
[5:55]that one in subsequently 25 years fourth of Judy Moody and Stink series.
[6:03]And but because of that connection, they ask me what else are you working on?
[6:08]And I said, well, I have these three stories about creativity and the dot ish and skydecolor.
[6:16]And so over lunch, they said we will take all three.
[6:19]And so it's a trilogy about creativity.
[6:21]So I call it the create trilogy.
[6:25]Right here, this is the create trilogy.
[6:27]And so it's the three books, the dot ish and skydecolor, but the top started it off.
[6:33]And it was inspired by a little girl who was in an art class that I was doing.
[6:38]And I told all the kids just just more and more, but you can draw anything you want.
[6:41]Just could be a flower or a ruckship, whatever it makes you happy, just draw the little
[6:46]girls drawing first grader.
[6:49]And as I approached her to look at her artwork, she covered her artwork.
[6:55]And she wouldn't let me see it.
[6:56]And at first I thought she was joking around, but she was clearly in distress.
[7:01]So I just quietly asked her, you know, what's the matter?
[7:05]And very slowly she just looked at me and she said, I just can't draw.
[7:09]And that like broke my heart and like, wow, okay, first grader saying she can't draw.
[7:15]And then I'm thinking, where did she, how did that notion even enter her head?
[7:19]And then I thought probably was a clumsy adult because adults often will say, I can't
[7:26]draw.
[7:27]I can't draw my way as a paper bag.
[7:28]I can't draw straight line with the real, I've heard them all.
[7:31]And if you're saying that around kids, kids are little sponges and, you know, they can
[7:36]feel like, wow, you know, if my hero can't draw, I guess that means I can't.
[7:41]So the, and that whole, I can't just bugs me to think that anybody would say that, but
[7:47]especially children.
[7:49]So I thought, I am going to, I am going to address this in the way that I, the best tool
[7:53]I know is story.
[7:57]And so I planted that seed, I'm going to write a story to help this little girl.
[8:02]And so I was in bed one night, that was, I like to read and I also like to draw my journal
[8:08]at night.
[8:09]And I fell asleep with my Sharpie marker on the page.
[8:12]That's as far as I got.
[8:13]I was so tired.
[8:14]I woke up and I'm guessing about an hour later because this little dot had turned
[8:20]into a big, big one.
[8:22]I put my journal down, turned off the light.
[8:24]When I woke up the next day, I climbed out of bed in there on a ground, was my journal
[8:30]opened up to the page and there was a big dot there and I thought, that's actually a pretty
[8:34]cool looking dot.
[8:35]I took the mark and I wrote the dot by Peter H. Reynolds and that was the, the next step.
[8:42]And I basically connected, I thought to myself, at one point, I'm seeing this dot as
[8:47]a mistake.
[8:48]And then in the light of day, I reframed it and but this is a great mark.
[8:53]This is a great dot.
[8:54]And so that's where I picked up my pen and I started to imagine my story.
[8:59]I, the way I write is I imagine I make a movie in my head and I had this little film on
[9:05]my head, this little girl in our class and she's really frustrated.
[9:09]Unfortunately, she has a wonderful teacher who comes in and says, just make a mark and
[9:13]see where it takes you.
[9:15]And Basti grabs the marker and she jabs the paper and leaves one little dot behind.
[9:20]And her teacher takes a look at it and hands it back to her and says, please sign it.
[9:26]And so Basti is like, well, I can't draw, but I, you know, I can sign my name.
[9:29]So she signs her name, V-A-S-H-D-I, Basti stomps out of class, goes home the next week when
[9:35]she comes into class, hanging above her teacher's desk is her little dot, all framed
[9:42]in Swirly Gold.
[9:43]And Basti looks at it and you would think she'd be happy, but she's, she's actually,
[9:47]she says, hmm, I can make a better dot than that.
[9:50]And that's the, the rest of the stories, seeing her blossom and bloom, now that she has
[9:54]has the confidence to, to create.
[9:57]And at the end of the books, she inspires of...
[10:00]little boy who's struggling as well.
[10:02]And so she was inspired by her teacher,
[10:05]but we all can be teachers
[10:07]and I can encourage each other.
[10:10]Children can do it for each other.
[10:13]Dolls can do it for each other.
[10:15]Dolls can do it for kids.
[10:16]So the book really is about confidence
[10:18]and the metaphor happens to be art and a little dot,
[10:22]but it's much bigger than an art book.
[10:24]And I love art teachers.
[10:25]I love what they do with this book,
[10:26]but I also love that classroom teachers
[10:29]have figured out that this is a great tool
[10:32]to get kids understanding what their gifts are,
[10:35]gaining confidence to share their ideas,
[10:38]taking risk also being kind to each other.
[10:41]So it's a lot packed into that little book,
[10:44]which I wrote 22 years ago.
[10:46]And along the way,
[10:47]I met a lovely teacher named Terry Shea from Troyer, Iowa.
[10:52]And he and his kids had fallen in love with the book
[10:55]and they were reading it.
[10:57]One of the kids noticed that it said
[10:59]publication date was September 15th, 2003.
[11:04]So they asked Mr. Shea,
[11:06]is that the birthday of the book?
[11:08]And so he said, well,
[11:11]ask, don't ask me, ask the author.
[11:13]So they reached out to me.
[11:14]And I thought, how delightful that a publication day
[11:17]really is the day that a baby, the baby book is born.
[11:22]And so I said, yeah, it's the birthday.
[11:25]So they had a celebration.
[11:26]They had a birthday party for the dot.
[11:28]And they made dots and they made frames
[11:30]and they signed their work.
[11:32]And they had dot food and dot clothes
[11:34]and a lot of fun.
[11:36]They, of course, shared it on social media.
[11:38]And Terry's teacher friend said,
[11:41]are you going to do it again next year?
[11:42]So yes.
[11:44]And so a couple of hundred teachers heard about it
[11:48]and celebrated.
[11:49]And then the next year, a couple of thousand teachers.
[11:51]So and it kept snowballing like a dot, I guess.
[11:55]And it has now become international dot day.
[11:58]As I said, 190 countries last year participated.
[12:02]And it's just phenomenal to see how much creativity
[12:06]is flowing around the world.
[12:08]And this year, I've been saying that every dot
[12:11]create is a dot for peace and that if we can connect
[12:15]all of these little dots of peace,
[12:17]that this planet, which happens to be a big blue dot,
[12:20]will be a more peaceful place.
[12:22]And I think it's encouraging for kids
[12:23]especially in challenging times to know,
[12:25]like they're not alone, that there are people
[12:27]on the other side of the planet who believe the same things
[12:31]that they do.
[12:31]That creativity is important and helping each other
[12:35]is important too.
[12:36]I mean, that is such an incredible story.
[12:38]How does it make you feel seeing what's happened with it?
[12:42]And when you've done so many other things,
[12:43]but with this one thing, are you just blown away?
[12:47]I'm completely blown away.
[12:48]It's that it's a wonderful feeling that something
[12:51]that started, you know, a little thought in my head.
[12:55]And in this case, it was an accidental thought.
[12:58]It was that little dot left behind.
[13:00]For it to have done what it has done
[13:04]and already it's growing as we speak.
[13:07]And there's a musical now, theater works USA,
[13:10]created a musical of the dot,
[13:11]issue and ski color called dot, dot, dot,
[13:13]and other just animated film.
[13:16]I think you can even, on Netflix,
[13:17]I think you could say show me Peter H. Reynolds, the dot.
[13:21]And you could see it.
[13:22]So it is amazing.
[13:24]It is amazing.
[13:25]And I sort of pinched myself.
[13:27]And I also think teachers for activating the book
[13:30]because there's a difference between reading a book
[13:33]and activating a book.
[13:34]Reading a book is, I'm done next.
[13:37]But teachers know how to like hang on to that book and say,
[13:39]hey, well, we're thinking about this.
[13:43]We can dive in and ask the questions,
[13:47]what's going on in the story?
[13:48]Have you ever felt that way?
[13:49]And then also create something from that book,
[13:52]some artifact and of course, the dot, it's pretty easy.
[13:55]Everyone can do it, including adults.
[13:58]And I was like, adults, like, you can make a dot.
[14:00]Don't tell me you can't draw.
[14:02]You can make a dot.
[14:03]Well, I do think it speaks to the desire people have
[14:06]for creating itself and just needing
[14:09]just a little list bit of encouragement is enough.
[14:12]They just are craving it, I think.
[14:14]I agree.
[14:15]And I'm hoping that that craving continues
[14:20]I fear with AI and I'm a big fan of technology.
[14:24]I think technology is wonderful doing amazing things.
[14:26]AI is an amazing tool.
[14:29]One thing it might, unfortunately might do
[14:31]is give us less opportunity to create ourselves.
[14:36]And if we hand that over to AI,
[14:39]I, you know, those skills will atrophy
[14:42]and you're instinct to even pick up a pen
[14:45]and say, I'm going to make a little drawing.
[14:46]I'm going to make a little note.
[14:48]We'll disappear.
[14:49]And over time, I think we'll have lost one of our superpowers
[14:54]as humans is to imagine and then not forget.
[14:58]I imagine, don't forget.
[15:00]And that don't forget, right?
[15:02]Don't forget your brilliant ideas.
[15:04]The best way I find is a piece of paper and a pencil.
[15:08]I mean, I have technology, you know,
[15:10]I carry around my devices and I still love my paper.
[15:13]I love seeing something emerge from my pencil
[15:17]my marker on a blank sheet of paper.
[15:20]I hope that people still find that to be a delightful,
[15:23]magical thing, you know, 10 years from now,
[15:25]20 years from now, you know, we have to stay tuned
[15:29]right now.
[15:30]God willing, we're here to find out
[15:31]as well to this experiment of my goodness.
[15:34]Where along the way doing all the books,
[15:36]oh, and I should say too that I have been following
[15:39]Susan Verde for so long.
[15:41]She was one of the first guests ever on this podcast
[15:43]and you illustrated all those books.
[15:44]And I have loved everyone as they've come out
[15:47]so anyway, I'm huge fan of those.
[15:49]But where along the way did you decide
[15:52]just open your own bookstore and tell me more about that?
[15:55]Well, first Susan Verde loved Susan.
[15:57]We met at the Southampton Writers Festival
[16:01]that I was teaching at and she was my teaching assistant.
[16:04]And I was looking at everyone's work.
[16:06]And then she's like, am I allowed to show you my work?
[16:08]And I'm like, of course you are.
[16:10]And so she had a little folder.
[16:11]And I read several poems that I just fell in love with.
[16:16]And the first was the museum,
[16:18]lovely poem called the Museum about how art makes you feel.
[16:22]She had me look like I'm like, I told her.
[16:25]I said, if anyone else, I said, number one,
[16:27]this is a book.
[16:28]Number two, if anyone else illustrates this book,
[16:31]I will be very jealous.
[16:33]And that was our first book together.
[16:35]And then of course the IAM series and a book
[16:37]called You and Me, Friends Forever, which is one of my faves.
[16:41]But anyway, that so love Susan.
[16:43]And I love collaborating in general.
[16:45]I probably, I look at the 100 books that have my name on them
[16:49]and 80% or collaborations.
[16:53]And I would actually make more money if I did the writing.
[16:57]I can do both, right?
[16:58]And illustrate.
[16:59]But yeah, my track record so very is about 20%
[17:03]are mine writing and illustrating.
[17:06]I think I just love helping other people,
[17:09]tell their stories, encourage them to tell their stories.
[17:12]And I, and of course, over the past 22 years,
[17:17]I have had a place to put my books.
[17:19]I have a bookstore.
[17:21]And so that we opened the Blue Bunny Book
[17:24]story in Dead Amasters in my hometown 22 years ago.
[17:28]And it has been an absolute delight
[17:33]to own a bookstore, to get books into the hands of kids
[17:38]and grown-up kids too.
[17:40]My name for the kind of adults I like to hang out with
[17:43]or grown-up kids, some adults get very serious.
[17:47]I like the ones that are still having fun.
[17:49]And I think reading and adults who love picture books
[17:52]are my kind of people.
[17:53]So as you probably know, I'm a big fan of picture books
[17:57]for all ages.
[17:58]And that's kind of the secret formula for my books
[18:01]is that I'm really writing for humans.
[18:03]I'm not writing for a particular age.
[18:05]It's like I'm just writing for humans
[18:07]who need a little bit of inspiration.
[18:09]I love that.
[18:10]As a bookstore owner, have you seen anything's changing,
[18:14]trend-wise, reading-wise?
[18:16]And we talked about AI.
[18:17]So we don't have to talk about that.
[18:18]But with the advent of all the e-books and everything,
[18:21]do you still feel like people are coming in,
[18:23]sitting on the floor across the grid and just diving in?
[18:27]Oh, yeah, yeah, it's almost like it's like a time machine.
[18:32]Like when people walk through the door of our bookshop,
[18:35]they've gone back in time.
[18:38]To a time where, yeah, curling up with a book was what you did.
[18:42]And we have tin ceilings and hardwood floors,
[18:46]and a big red comfy couch.
[18:48]And we have a cafe as well.
[18:51]So tell me about your bookstore.
[18:53]We did have that come to be.
[18:55]I opened that two and a half years ago in Santa Monica.
[18:57]I always wanted a bookstore.
[18:59]And I really love curating based on topic and emotion.
[19:03]And I always are putting out these lists and all of the stuff.
[19:06]And I thought, well, what if I could somehow
[19:08]have each shelf be one of my recommended lists in a way?
[19:11]So there's like, motherhood, melez,
[19:14]and here are the 12 books on that.
[19:16]And also, but also, I feel like a bookstore is all about community.
[19:19]I mean, yes, there's commerce.
[19:21]But it's more about the events and the people
[19:23]and everything that happens inside the walls.
[19:26]Right, right, it's lovely.
[19:28]That curation is so important because yes,
[19:33]you can order, I always tell people, yes, you can double click
[19:36]and you can have a book shipped to you.
[19:38]Of course, I remind people that there's another company
[19:41]other than the big giant one that sells everything.
[19:45]If you do need to order a book online, bookshop.org
[19:49]is great, not for profit, that is helping independent book
[19:53]stores where a member of bookshop.org.
[19:57]And they do great work.
[19:59]But if you have.
[20:00]If you're lucky enough to have a local independently owned bookstore in your area, go there and
[20:07]you know support that bookstore because at the end of the day we do need to,
[20:12]we actually do need the money to buy the books and pay our staff and pay the rent.
[20:16]But for I always tell my employees in my bookshop that your job is not to take people's money.
[20:22]I said eventually you should probably take some money if they're willing to give it to us.
[20:27]But your number one goal is to make humans happy.
[20:31]And I'm like any question, you don't have to ask me any question, run anything by me.
[20:35]Just answer that question. How can I make this human happy?
[20:39]And then you can kind of reverse engineer. It's like, okay, do you want the person to
[20:43]let their wallet in their car? You give them their coffee and their muffin and even, you know,
[20:48]I'd given, I actually, someone came in on a Sunday and we were, this is back when we were closed on Sundays
[20:54]I popped in and I left the door unlocked. And this woman comes racing in and she's running around
[21:00]the shop and she's grabbing stuff, plinking it down on the counter and she's like, do you give
[21:05]wrap? I'm like, guess we give wrap. So I give wrap everything and I put it in the bag and she's
[21:10]like, I'm going to a, I'm going to a baby shower and I'm late and I can't believe I forgot,
[21:16]blah, blah, blah. I'm like, don't worry about it. And then she reaches for her wallet.
[21:21]She doesn't have it. Everything is wrapped. A big bag, probably over $100 worth of books and toys.
[21:28]And so I just can't refer to the bag. I said, you go and enjoy your shower. Don't worry about it.
[21:34]You could catch, catch just on the flip side. She was stunned. I obviously stunned. She's like,
[21:38]really? I'm like, yes, go, go to your party. On Monday, on that Monday, the next day, actually, she,
[21:46]I wasn't in the shop, but somebody from the shop called and said, this lady dropped by with a
[21:51]tray of brownies. She paid her bill and she had brownies for all of us. So it's just lovely that,
[21:57]you know, and you can't get that online. You have to be in person. So we love our customers. We
[22:04]love the community. And you know, we do feel like we're helping preserve one of the really lovely
[22:10]things that we shouldn't lose as we're kind of squeezing through the portal of the future.
[22:16]Yeah. I would say, right? Grab a few things that you don't want to leave behind. And bookstores are
[22:22]one of those things we cannot leave those behind. Where did this come from? This instinct to make
[22:28]other people happy? Have you always been like that? Did something specifically make you happy?
[22:35]Being born was pretty awesome. Then turning and saying, I have a twin brother, that was pretty
[22:39]awesome to be born with a twin. Growing up in a big family, I would say, or mom and dad, well,
[22:44]the Zab was born in Argentina. Mom was born in England. We eventually made it to Canada,
[22:50]Paul and I were born there. Then we came to the United States. So we had five kids, mom and dad. So
[22:56]pretty noisy house, but it was filled with books and joy. My, our dad, their mom and dad were
[23:04]both accountants. But at night time, my dad was busy in his workshop making chairs and cabinets.
[23:11]But one of his requests from mom was to build bookshelves. So, you know, mom would buy the books,
[23:16]dad would build the bookshelves. And so we lived in a house that, you know, people were making stuff
[23:22]and it was a little messy, a little chaotic. I think that's also kind of a good thing because
[23:26]creativity is messy. That's why it probably doesn't square well with especially public education
[23:34]because public education is a system and it's in systems inherently don't like to be messy. They
[23:40]don't like the messy bits. So they kind of get chopped out. So that's why like the first thing
[23:44]to go in schools when, you know, money gets tight. The arts, right, music, arts, theater, libraries,
[23:52]that's all kind of messy because it doesn't, right. It's like, we only have, we have these, you know,
[23:58]these little silos where it's going to teach science and math. And as long as we have those textbooks,
[24:02]we're all good, right? It's like, no, we're not all good. We need all of that extra stuff. So
[24:08]creativity is messy. I'm glad that we grew up in a, in a, I call it creative chaos. It's just a lot of
[24:15]stuff out. My parents, mom was also involved very civically engaged in scouting program and in
[24:24]all sorts of clubs in town. And I think that also was sort of informational for us
[24:30]to realize that, you know, your extra time that you can use your energy to help the community.
[24:37]So that was, that was also kind of baked in very early. Interesting. That's great. Just the
[24:44]role model of parents can't be underrated. Right. Right. Well, I like to say that if we want our
[24:50]kids to be creative, we have to show them what it looks like. If we want them to be brave,
[24:53]we have to show them what it looks like. If we want them to be readers, we have to show them what
[24:57]it looks like. Like, it would be good to show them a book in your house and show them that you
[25:02]like to read and be intentional about it. Like, if you see the kid on their self, grab a book
[25:09]and curl up on the couch. You don't have to say, look at me, but they will notice that you actually
[25:15]enjoy this experience called reading a book. 100%. Your new book is beautiful. Speaking of the love
[25:24]of reading and the love of words and the power of words. I love the holiday tree decorated with
[25:30]the nicest words ever and even the image that you have in there of the newsstand with all the
[25:36]terrible words. I feel, I feel that deeply. Yes, the gift. Yeah. So there's the actual version
[25:44]somewhere. This is the advanced reader copy. So this is hot off the cross. Hot off the press.
[25:51]This is the sequel to the word collector. A lot of people out there probably know the word
[25:56]collector featuring Jerome who loves love's words. He collects them the same way that people collect
[26:02]rocks or stamps. He collects words. In that original story, at the end of the book, he throws
[26:10]all of his word collections into the wind. I love reading that book to kids because they're
[26:14]like kind of stunned. They're like, well, he spent all this time collecting. And he just threw
[26:19]his words into the wind. Of course, you turn the page and there were kids in the valley below.
[26:23]And they're all grabbing words from the air. Of course, they have become, they have become
[26:27]word collectors too. And the last scene is him standing on the mountain looking rather pleased.
[26:33]And Jerome had no words to describe how happy that made him right seeing his friends
[26:39]become word collectors. So this is the sequel. It's the holiday season. And he's
[26:45]looking for positive words. And as we get busier and busier, the holidays can be lovely,
[26:53]but they can also be kind of frantic. And people say things that aren't kind words. And there's
[26:59]a lot of commercialism. A lot of the words in this book, you see right by this, by that,
[27:07]safe and as seen on TV. And he also has a little dog that he has adopted a rescue dog named Echo.
[27:15]And there's a little sign. It's just a subtle little detail, but it says new dogs allowed.
[27:18]Yes. So yeah. And so he goes back home and he realizes like, actually, this town needs some
[27:26]this town needs some positive words. So he's got some and he brings them to the park and there's
[27:31]a bear tree. And he decides to create garlands of these positive words and his friends and family,
[27:37]join him in creating these garlands and light up this tree with with positivity. So and I think
[27:45]the times that we are in now, which are very challenged, we need more positive words and kind
[27:51]words. I would say that he is a lot louder than love and kindness. So we kind of have to amp amp
[27:58]up the positive words. Well, you are just a dose of goodness, a positivity infusion and it is
[28:07]so lovely to meet someone who is so just who keeps everybody else in mind so much. And that is
[28:13]a gift. So thank you so much for coming on and good luck with all of your stuff and happy
[28:17]international dot day. And thank you. Thank you. And good luck with your book. I want to
[28:22]to come visit. Please do. Please do. What's the name of your bookshop? It's called Zibby's
[28:26]bookshop. And if you ever want to do an event, we would love to have you. Santa Monica. Tell
[28:30]you what? Will you come and do an event at the Blue Bunny bookstore? All right, well, do Boston.
[28:36]So if you're in any one listening, if you're if you're in the Boston area, come and visit us
[28:41]in our little historic New England downtown, Dead Amass, Joseph's and our studio's TLC studios
[28:48]is right around the corner. So that's our not-for-profit headquarters. And you can learn more
[28:53]about what what we're up to. And join join us. We're looking for kindred spirits who want to make
[28:59]the world a better place like you Zibby. So thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right,
[29:05]take care. Bye bye. Bye bye. Thank you for listening to totally booked with Zibby formerly mom's
[29:12]don't have time to read books. If you loved the show, tell a friend, leave a review, follow me on
[29:17]on Instagram at Zibby Owens and spread the word. Thanks so much. Oh, and bye the books.