Countdown to CREATIVITY

By Sheila Oliveri

Winter weather and outdoor play don’t always mix, so Ready Readers recommends a book that is sure to spur fun and imaginative indoor antics. “My Rainy Day Rocket Ship” by author Markette Sheppard and illustrator Charly Palmer can be enjoyed by parents as much as their children as they reminisce on childhood experiences using everyday items to spark their imaginations and create a fantasy world.

The story begins with a young boy and his dog gazing forlornly out the window on a gloomy, rainy day. Perusing a pile of toys in his room, the boy decides to forgo his action figures, balls and laptop in favor of making “a whole new world in a different place – a galaxy off in outer space!” He imagines a red-striped rocket blazing across a midnight sky filled with rainbow-hued planets and knows where he must begin. Scanning the living room, he spies a rocking chair and deems it the perfect starting point for building his spaceship. The ingenious youth continues exploring and finding boxes, brooms and other household objects to bring his dream to fruition. Enlisting parental help only when necessary, the boy constructs a homemade rocket, launch pad, spacesuit and more. With his faithful pet pug by his side, the fledgling astronaut blasts off on an imaginary space odyssey.

Author Sheppard, an Emmy-winning broadcast journalist, and illustrator Palmer, a painter whose work is collected worldwide, work together to create a rhyming story perfectly complemented by bold illustrations full of small treasures. While the text succinctly tells the tale, the acrylic paintings inject soul and deeper meaning into the experience. Palmer’s inclusion of clocks throughout the story illustrates the passionate nature of imaginative play as the boy’s inventiveness consumes an entire day. “My Rainy Day Rocket Ship” may be just the ticket to your own rainy-day fun.

Ready Readers shares the joy and power of literacy with our community’s most vulnerable children. Find opportunities to make a difference at readyreaders.org.