The Art of Imagination

Since the day Bailee was born, I have tried my best to instill within her a love of reading.  To love reading you must first learn to read and to read well.  We've accomplished that pretty easily.  Bailee is an amazing reader! For a few years she has been able to phonetically sound out words...you remember, the way we all learned to read 55+ years ago....No "p - p - p" means dripping water but the actual sound of the letter and the way , blended with other sounds, it makes words.  Clapping out syllables was a game we played when she was just learning to speak. Often, within the last two years, she will grab a book and lie on the floor, curl up in a chair or hop on my lap to read.  We share most stories! I read one page and she reads the next.  She has learned, through listening, to inflect personality into each character and drama and humor into events. Yesterday she was under the weather and I stopped in to visit.  She couldn't wait to bring me her latest library book so we could read it together!! AS I opened the cover of The Silver Pony, I noticed there were no words..."No problem Grandma.  We'll make the story say anything we want to!"  How clever was that. This is not a small book. It's a chapter book with wonderful drawings on each page.  "We'll use our imaginations!" she said.... and that we did.  Thanks to this wonderful artist (and author of sorts), Lynd Ward, we began our journey with the Silver Pony.  Which, by the way, was a plain horse in the beginning and we later learned, in our imaginations, that it was indeed, a pony!  I became as enthralled in the story as did Bailee.  It was actually very interesting as we each saw the sketches a bit differently but managed to weave our story together.
What a forward thinker, educator and artist Mr. Lynd Ward (and his wife, Mary.. we all know she helped) was.  Through his skills as an artist, he taught his readers (both young and old) to think and imagine.  He knew from 1st grade that he wanted to be an artist when he realized his last name.....spelled backwards....became D-r-a-w!  I did a little research on Mr. Draw...aaaa Ward and found out that a documentary has been filmed about his life to be released in March of 2012...hmmm a little bit of Karma!!!  I went online to find the book and saw that ebay is auctioning this very book, The Silver Pony, a signed edition no less.  I just might bid and add it to my collection of "not worth very much monetarily but priceless in my eyes (and Bailee's)!"

http://www.ebay.com/ctg/Silver-Pony-Story-Pictures-Lynd-Ward-1973-Hardcover-/144053