A story about letting go of convention, Bea’s Paper Imaginarium by Rachael Speirs is a book filled with inspiration.

Bea loves to make art, especially with a clean sheet of paper. She is so prolific that one day she runs out of clean paper and is distraught. What will she do without clean paper? She is so upset she doesn't do art for many days. One day, in a fury of anger, she takes a piece of paper from her sister, crumples it and steps on it. This becomes the inspiration for a new way of creating that doesn’t rely on just a clean sheet of paper.

Rachael Speirs’ delightful story is very timely. When we are doing about best to conserve and find new uses for objects, this is the perfect book for a found art project. Looking for things to do this summer? Pair this book with a community walk or a raid of the recycling bin. This story will show readers that a clean sheet of paper is not the only way to create something beautiful and captivating.

I also love that this story reminds readers that art is not about perfection. I see so many young artists get so upset about their art not being perfect, or exactly as they saw in a video. This story is about free expression and not being confined to a product but rather the process of creating. 

Rachael Speirs’ illustrations in the story match the text perfectly. I love how textural the images are, made with found objects and lots of interesting pieces of paper. It’s fun to go through the illustrations and try and find all of the different materials used to make the pictures and then go on a treasure hunt for interesting objects of your own.