Meet-the-Author Recording with Ashley Spires

The Most Magnificent Thing |

Ashley Spires introduces and shares some of the backstory for creating The Most Magnificent Thing.

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Ashley Spires: Hi. This is Ashley Spires and I am the author and illustrator of The Most Magnificent Thing. I'm going to tell you a bit about how I came to create this book and then I'll share a page spread with you. The idea for this book about a girl who wants to make the most magnificent thing, popped into my head when I was struggling to make a magnificent book. I was trying to write a story about a girl and a tiger and it just wasn't working. The more it didn't work, the more frustrated I got. I was so angry at myself for not being able to write a perfect story. I wanted to give up on the story. I wanted to give up on my career and give up on drawing ever again.

Then I realized that the frustration I was feeling was the same frustration I'd seen in students when they're drawings or reading or projects don't turn out just right. My frustration with my creative process was the story.

The spread I'd like to describe is towards the end of the book, pages 30 to 31. I created the artwork digitally and kept the backgrounds as simple line work to direct the reader's eye to the girl and her emotions.

This spread was important for me to include, because I wanted to show that the things that the girl considers failures, other people think are great. Whether or not a creation is good, is completely subjective. And more often than not, most of us that like to create are our on harshest critics. I wanted to show other people taking away her things to show that all creative endeavors—no matter the outcome—are important. Also, this spread shows a little boy picking up the thing that the dog peed on, and pee is always funny.

This Meet-the-Author Recording with Ashley Spires was exclusively created in January 2016 by TeachingBooks with thanks to Kids Can Press.