I’ve gotten quite addicted to reading TED Books on my commute. My latest read is Things Don’t Have to Be Complicated: Illustrated Six-Word Memoirs by Students Making Sense of the World. The inspiration of the Six-Word Memoir comes from the combination of Larry Smith’s grandfather (Smitty) and the legend that Ernest Hemingway was once asked to write a novel in just six words…according to this legend Hemingway’s response: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
Larry Smith joined forces with a then 6 month young company called Twitter (yeah, :)), and created SmithMag.net and it was a hit, getting press from everyone from the NY Post to Oprah being praised for the beauty in its brevity.
Teachers started using the Six-Word Memoir as a writing exercise for their students and discovered that children are brilliant and these memoirs made classmates feel closer to one another.
I found the illustrated Six-Word Memoirs of these kids really tender in a profound kind of way and was instantly inspired.
Look below the illustrations to see artist’s name, age and school. Enjoy!
Some of the memoirs read sweet and funny and some are a bit more serious or sad, but all of them feel personal and I love them!
I also think the Six-Word memoir is a great and super fun writing exercise. Secret time!- as soon as I finished the TED Book all I could do in my head was think of Six-Word Memoirs that described my week. It kind of felt weirdly satisfying when a phrase worked itself out!
Today I think can be summed up best with this one :).
Three day weekend…let’s cabbage patch.
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Ha! Possible new little feature on made-to-travel :). TED Books are available for iPhone, iPad, the Nook and Kindle HERE. Have a wonderful wonderful long weekend.
P.S. How great is the cabbage patch with James Van Der Beek?!?!
Ha ha at the gif at the end. The six words memoirs is awesome I loved the alarm clock one it was a bit sad but quite profound at the same time. I’m going to show this to my girlfriend as she’s a teach and maybe able to use it in her classes.
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Oh wonderful! I hope she finds it useful. It was really amazing what these kids came up with.