An often compelling manual that may fan the embers of readers’ creativity.
Educational consultant Foster offers a guide for young people that promotes creativity as a motivational tool.
The author is an education specialist with several published works on nurturing children’s talents, including Being Smart About Gifted Learning(2021), written with Dona J. Matthews. The goal of her latest book, for readers 12 and over, is to provide practical tools and novel ideas that will help kids overcome creative obstacles. For instance, Foster explodes the idea that only those typically identified as artists can be creative, and asserts that creative thinking can be a jumping-off point or “spark” for all sorts of activities: “Creativity is not necessarily about coming up with some sort of product (although that might occur), but rather it’s about activating your mind and nurturing your ideas.” Whether one is born with natural creativity or must develop it through practice, one can build habits and employ techniques that develop one’s abilities, according to the author. Foster speaks directly to young readers in these pages, and uses illustrative quotes and examples from a wide array of figures—both well-known (LL Cool J, Albert Einstein) and obscure (author Luc De Clapiers). She redefines the clichéd directive of “thinking outside the box” as “divergent thinking” and expands on it, stressing the importance of being open to new possibilities. Although the book’s subject matter is organized into three sections (“The Light You Kindle,” “The Glow You Nurture,” and “The Blaze You Choose”), it does not always feel cohesive; however, it includes takeaways at the end of each chapter that crystallize key ideas for easier comprehension. Arguably, the most valuable content is in Chapter 5, which addresses common creative blocks and remedies, and Chapter 8, which offers 100 engaging suggestions for how to corral, instigate, and explore creative ideas. Although the book’s overall tone is down-to-earth and easygoing, some terminology may be a bit complex for younger readers; there’s a glossary of terms at the end, but caregivers or teachers may wish to provide occasional help.
An often compelling manual that may fan the embers of readers’ creativity.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2023
ISBN: 9781953360298
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Gifted Unlimited
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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