"Just Couldn't Put It Down" Review

New World Kids is making it into some of the well-read "mommy blogs,' and San Diego based mom gave the book a rave review in her popular blog, Mama Sparkles.

New World Kids is chock-full of activities that we can do with our children to develop their creative growth. It also has wonderful photographs and illustrations. One of my favorite sections was the Sensory Alphabet. I loved reading and learning about each element: line, color, texture, movements, sounds, rhythms, space, light and shape. I felt I actually viewed the world differently and appreciated it more after reading this section. The whole book kept me interested the whole time I was reading it - in fact I pretty much read it all in one sitting because I just couldn't put it down.

We're planning on seeing a nice turnout on the web, with lots of copies out there being reviewed. We'd love to have your comments and reviews, too. You can add them on our Amazon page -- tell us what you think and join the conversation.

Innovation and the Artistic Imagination

What does the Morse Code have to do with the Sensory Alphabet and creativity?

This article about innovation, art and scientific advances in the Psychology Today blog may help us understand!

The kinds of innovation and inventiveness that the authors write about in this post -- including the development of the Morse Code -- is the kind of linked-up thinking that "learning your sensory alphabet" makes possible. Yes, it's also about arts experiences, but under that " art label" what the innovators cited in the article had in common was the ability to think across fields, to use the sensory information of the world in ways that solve problems in technological fields, health, medicine, communication and more. Knitting might help with medical knots; Seurat's color field paintings inform television communication. Here's what the authors, Michele and Robert Root-Bernstein say:

The fact is that the arts foster innovation. We've just published a study that shows that almost all Nobel laureates in the sciences actively engage in arts as adults. They are twenty-five times as likely as the average scientist to sing, dance, or act; seventeen times as likely to be a visual artist; twelve times more likely to write poetry and literature; eight times more likely to do woodworking or some other craft; four times as likely to be a musician; and twice as likely to be a photographer. Many connect their art to their scientific ability with some riff on Nobel prizewinning physicist Max Planck words: "The creative scientist needs an artistic imagination."