
Beautiful Oops!
by Barney Saltzberg
A spill. A tear. A hole. All of them become something better.
For you if
your child is a perfectionist who needs to see that the rip in the paper is where the idea lives
⚡ Choose Your Route ⚡
Not sold directly on this site. Support indie bookstores with a new copy, or go sustainable with a used one.
Buy New on Bookshop.orgSupports independent bookstores
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Find Used on Better World BooksSecondhand & sustainable
$17 MSRP
Reference price shown. Other editions may be available.
A torn page becomes a crocodile's mouth. A spill becomes a landscape. A hole becomes a window. Saltzberg's interactive book is a physical object that demonstrates its own argument — every mistake is a creative opportunity, and the only thing standing between a mess and a masterpiece is the willingness to look at it differently. Not a book about failure being okay. A book about failure being the beginning. The most honest creative process book for small children because it doesn't ask them to feel better about mistakes — it shows them what to do with one.
Where This Book Lives
Same pattern, different era
Different time, different place. The same thing keeps happening.
For the grown-up bookshelf
Same idea, written for a grown-up. Good for the adult in the room, too.
Steal Like an Artist
Austin Kleon

Break rules. Make stuff. Repeat.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Impro for Storytellers
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Make it up. Mean it anyway.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
The War of Art
Steven Pressfield

Punch procrastination in the face.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Art and Fear
David Bayles & Ted Orland

The messy truth of making things.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST



