First of all, did you know that TED, the fabulous producer of videos with “Ideas Worth Spreading”, now produces ebooks? If you did, why didn’t you tell me? Fortunately, I read the San Antonio’s Express News on Sunday, and found out about it when they published a brief review of one of the ebooks you can find at TED, Things Don’t Have to Be Complicated.
Things Don’t Have to Be Complicated is a book of Six-Word Memoirs collected by Larry Smith. If you have not been introduced to Six-Word Memoirs, yet, I highly recommend that you read my original post on this topic, as it includes some other resources in which you may be interested.
In this new publication, which can be downloaded for Kindle, iBooks, or Nook for $2.99, Mr. Smith collected memoirs from students of all ages (grade school to grad school), and included the pictures that they drew to accompany them. Some of them, like “Hey, my swimming lessons paid off,” by Charlotte Berkenbile (8) in Keller, Texas, are amusing. Others, like “My alarm clock killed my dreams,” by Shawn Budlong (13) in Rockford, Illinois, are more thought-provoking. Some of the illustrations are just as moving as the text.
I highly recommend this very affordable download. If you are working with younger kids (K-3), you probably won’t want to show them the whole book, but select a few pieces as examples. For older kids, there are many possible discussion starters in here, and definitely inspiration for them to create their own Six-Word Memoirs.
(By the way, TED Books also offers an app and a subscription. If you subscribe for $4.99/month, you have immediate access to all of the current ebooks, and will receive a new ebook every two weeks.)
