The Wildness Of Ideas and Solving Problems in Kobi Yamada and Mae Bosom’s Inspirational Picturebooks for Children

Myra here.

It is not often that I come across inspirational picturebooks for children that are clearly designed to encourage children to think differently or provide very clear prescriptions on what to do under specific circumstances. While the message can occasionally be too explicit to borderline heavy-handed, it was really Mae Besom’s luminous art that really made me take a second look. The visual metaphors and its surreal quality could not fail but appeal to me.

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What Do You Do With An Idea?

Written by: Kobi Yamada Illustrated by: Mae Besom 
Publisher: Compendium, 2013
ISBN: 1938298071 (ISBN13: 9781938298073) Literary Awards: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Picture Books (2014) 
Borrowed from the Jurong West Public Library. Book photos taken by me.

In this book, an idea has literally taken a life of its own. It invites the child to think about the many things one can do with an idea – from its inception to its full flowering.

I was especially taken by Mae Besom’s art as she plays with Kobi Yamada’s vision. Her background in design is evident given how she plays around with colour, perspective, and the use of full-page spreads as can be seen above.

It also speaks about the insecurities young children often feel about sharing their ideas:

I was afraid of what they would say. I was afraid that if people saw it, they would laugh at it. I was afraid they would think it was silly. And many of them did. They said it was no good. They said it was too weird. They said it was a waste of time and that it would never become anything.

The book will not only resonate with young children but with anyone who may be battling their own anxieties about not being good enough. What happens to this idea once it is embraced, nurtured, and given sufficient attention, I shall leave for you to discover.

What Do You Do With A Problem?

Written by: Kobi Yamada Illustrated by: Mae Besom
Publisher: Compendium, 2016
ISBN: 1943200009 (ISBN13: 9781943200009) 
Borrowed from the Jurong West Public Library. Book photos taken by me.

This one is a little reminiscent of Shaun Tan’s The Red Tree where a child is plagued by troubles and difficulties. Once again, Mae Besom has successfully layered the narrative with visual metaphors, adding a different texture to what may actually be perceived as a borderline-prescriptive narrative.

It also speaks about the very nature of anxiety which we teach in psychology:

And the more I worried, the bigger my problem became.

And so the general advice here is to face one’s problems head-on, literally; get to its very core, and maybe one could find something surprising right there at the very centre of it all. Both very helpful and inspiring books that I am sure would find readers who may be in need of its message.