Clever Cardboard Creativity

Given the opportunity children, in their infinite wisdom, inventiveness and openness, will amaze you.  It's a joy to see how they can create something marvelous from nearly nothing.  Fortunately for the world, they think outside the box.  Not only do they think outside the box, but give them a box, any size of box, and what they do with it is extraordinary.

Their first thought is not to cut up and flatten a box for recycling.  Their first thought is what can I make with this box.  To them the possibilities are limitless.  In her first book as both author and illustrator, Boxitects (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, January 14, 2020), Kim Smith introduces readers to Meg, a genius at using boxes to build anything her heart desires.

MEG was a boxitect.  She loved to make things out of boxes.

The size of her handiwork ranged from small to large and from low to the ground to the top of the ceiling.  Her results filled her with pride.  Her mother believed, like Meg, there wasn't anything she couldn't construct from a box.  Meg's mother decided to enroll her in Maker School.

At Maker School children crafted creations from all kinds of materials, blankets, pasta, tin and even egg cartons, but Meg was the only boxitect.  Here Meg refined her skills.  She ensured her constructions were practical, stable and lovely to look at.  It was wonderful until the new student, Simone, arrived.  Simone was a boxitect.

She was as gifted as Meg.  She believed it was her duty to point out the possible flaws in Meg's work.  In response, Meg pointed out the possible flaws in Simone's work.  Tension filled the air between these two designers and builders.

As a finale to the last day of Maker School, the Maker Match was held.  You had to work in teams.  This was an easy rule for the other students to follow.  Meg and Simone refused to work together. They divided an enormous box in half and got busy.  Boxes in the school disappeared as the two objects, separate but bound together, grew. When disaster flies in, Meg and Simone must decide what is most important to them.


To begin, Kim Smith honors the tradition of making things from cardboard boxes with the term boxitect.  (People are or will be wondering why they didn't think of that.)  In her word choices she uses alliterative descriptors,

tiny houses
tall towers and
twisty tunnels.

A cadence,

brilliant and creative,

is repeated to tie sections of the story together.  As Kim Smith builds on Meg's successes and happiness, we can feel a tension growing.  Simone's entrance increases this unease until, in a moment of humor, the tiniest of things can provide a shift in attitudes and in the results.  Here is a passage.

The blanketeers built with blankets and pillows.

The spaghetti-tects built with pasta and glue.

The bake-ologists built with cake and frosting.

But the boxitects were not building at all.


A bright, colorful palette signals a happy resolution on the front of the dust jacket featuring Meg on her cardboard castle creation with Simone "flying" her box rocket.  Both girls are pleased with their inventive structures.  Meg's pooch pal adds a charming touch to the scene.  Many elements are varnished on the front.  This image extends over the spine to the left on the back. 

There, beneath the hanging clouds, are more cardboard buildings of all shapes and sizes.  There are the backs of trees, tall towers, a barn with a chicken weathervane, a windmill and scattered construction supplies.  It is a collage of inventiveness, one layer on top of another layer.

On the book case readers are treated to a box builder's delight.  A cardboard box is the background.  Scraps of paper and labels are pasted on it along with universal symbols.  On the front, between the title and the author illustrator's name, is a hand-drawn picture.  It looks as if it was done in crayon.  It's Meg standing in front of her home with a lawn, tree, a single cloud and a sun in the upper, right-hand corner.

On the opening and closing endpapers Kim Smith has placed, in shades of brown and white, all shapes and sizes of boxes and other items made from cardboard.  On the initial title page, Meg is carrying an armload of cardboard boxes over her head.  On the formal title page, surrounded by boxes and other supplies, she is happily at work drawing plans for her next project.

Rendered digitally in Photoshop the illustrations are double-page pictures, small vignettes grouped together on a single page and full-page pictures.  Each image size serves to heighten the current mood of the narrative.  Kim Smith shifts her point of view to draw us further into her pictorial story.  Readers will enjoy the large expressive eyes, and facial features on the diverse characters.  This is a school they will want to attend.

One of my many favorite pictures is on a full-page.  Meg's mother has walked into their living room.  She is staring at Meg's latest building, open-mouthed.  It's a massive castle, nearly to the ceiling, with multiple rooms and towers and cut-outs in the walls.  A tiny heart is placed on the top of one of the turrets and a star is on another turret.  Meg is leaning over a rampart wearing a helmet and waving a sword made from cardboard.  Her canine companion is positioned slightly below her and wearing a crown.


It is guaranteed that anyone, regardless of their age, will be searching for the nearest cardboard box after reading Boxitects written and illustrated by Kim Smith.  The ingenuity of Meg and the other characters is wonderful to see honored here as well as the support of the adults.  At the close of the book four pages are dedicated to Why is cardboard so extraordinary?, Be a Boxitect! Build a Boxitect Tunnel and Build a Boxitect Castle. Necessary supplies are listed with numbered instructions and colorful explanatory visuals.  For each of the projects a Boxitect Challenge is added.  You'll want to add this title to your personal and professional collections.  This book would pair well with What To Do With A Box by Jane Yolen with illustrations by Chris Sheban.

To learn more about Kim Smith and her other work, please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  At her website the page for this title contains numerous interior images.  Kim Smith has accounts on Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter.  At the publisher's website is a link to some activity pages.  This taped television interview will give you more insights into Boxitects and Kim Smith.

Cardboard Capers

Children and children at heart go hand in hand with boxes.  When they look at one they see more than a container, they see endless potential.  To them it's more valuable empty than full, despite the worth of possible contents.

Almost six months ago nearly everything I owned was placed into a box.  The unpacking to this day continues.  Load after load of cardboard has been taken to recycling.  Each time the tape is removed and the box is folded for ease of transport, a part of me says no.  This can certainly be used for something else.

Depending on the size and shape and with a shift in perspective and a pinch of creativity something simple can become something marvelous.  What To Do With A Box (Creative Editions, an imprint of The Creative Company, March 8, 2016) written by Jane Yolen with illustrations by Chris Sheban is an exploration of inventiveness.  It's time to imagine.

A BOX!  A BOX
IS A STRANGE 
DEVICE.

You can open it more than once.  If you seek shelter inside with something to read, it's lined with shelves.  It's a book nook within a larger whole.  If you're more than a little wealthy, possibly royalty, it's a lavish residence.

Quick!  With the right lock and key a safe haven can be accessed in the nick of time.  Hosting a time honored tradition with a bevy of beloved friends may be your preference.  Resting at the seashore and creating a flying feathered friend are all welcome wonders within the confines of a box.

If you crave the peace of a woodland glen and a gentle breeze, this can be done with ease.  If you have a need for speed, start your engines.  If you long to gaze upward at the Eiffel Tower, host your sails.

A box is where dreams can come true.  No wand is necessary to call forth enchantment.  You only need an open mind; one willing to think "outside the box."


Two words and an exclamation point reflect most people's thoughts when seeing a box.  Jane Yolen brings us together in a universally shared emotion.  Her rhyming lines come in threes, a pair or a single sentence.  It's all about placement, pacing and the use of parentheses. Here is another single sentence.  What you do think will follow?

YOU CAN PAINT
A LANDSCAPE
WITH SUN,
SAND,
AND SKY,  ...


Even though the front and back of the dust jacket are two separate images, they blend well across the spine. We are introduced to the three main characters, a boy and a girl and their dog, as they peek through the opening in a newly discovered box.  Their expressions already give hints as to their personalities.  To the left, on the back, the dog, as dogs will do, is carefully sniffing the box.  The ISBN has been strategically placed as part of the box.  The book case is a brilliant blend of two interior visuals and a third piece of a box.

A deep rich chocolate brown is used for the opening and closing endpapers perhaps to signify the interior of a closed box.  The text for the title page, verso and opening narrative page is placed on faded pieces of a box.  The first illustration is identical to that placed on the back of the dust jacket.

The layout, design and illustrations by Chris Sheban are fabulously fun.  He has rendered all the elements of his images on cardboard pieces filling each picture with texture.  You can almost smell the cardboard.  His pictures glow from a light color, perhaps white, used to highlight many of the items in his images.

Hints of humor appear in many of his illustrations.  When the girl opens the box lowering the flap, the dog is nearly covered.  He is peeking out, head and flat paws together.  As the boy rests, using a beach ball as a pillow, within the box, the girl, her head barely visible, is pouring either milk or white paint from a glass on top of him.

Sheban alters his perspective bringing us along to reside with the characters inside the box or stepping back, allowing us to see a grander view.  His illustrations sing with life; three boxes race along a track and the dog's ears flap in the wind as a box soars past clouds.  An ingenious conclusion; a fixed reality will leave readers smiling and reaching for the nearest box.

One of my many favorite images spans across two pages.  On the left is a box piece bearing only the two word text.  To the right on a continuation of the cardboard, Sheban has drawn a scene from the girl's bedroom at night.  She and the dog are cozily sitting inside the box, looking outside the window at a star studded sky.  Next to them is a small table with a lamp on top.  I can't think of a better way to end a day.

What To Do With A Box written by Jane Yolen with illustrations by Chris Sheban is a delightful rhythmic look at the blend of play and imagination.  I predict you won't even get to the end of the book before children will be calling out to you all the things they've done with boxes.  Wouldn't it be fun to have some handy to extend the story time?  And adults...release your inner child...you know you want to.

To learn more about Jane Yolen and Chris Sheban please visit their websites by following the links attached to their names.  If you go to The Creative Company website you can view interior pages.  Chris Sheban has illustrated many book covers.  I think you will find this interview at James Preller's site, An Interview with Chris Sheban: Illustrating Book Covers, from Rough Sketch to Final, very interesting.


You might want to pair this title with The Cardboard Box Book ( St. Martin's Press, LLC, July 15, 2014) by Roger Priddy and Sarah Powell, illustrations by Barbi Sido, crafts designed and made by Bethany Side and photography by Dan Pangbourne.  There are seventeen different creative projects along with an introduction, items needed and suggestions of what to look for in boxes.  At the end of the book is a large envelope filled with templates.  You can view eight interior illustrations at the publisher's website.