NOLA'S SCRIBBLES SAVE THE DAY

Nola loves to draw, and she “scribbles” on a sketch pad everywhere she goes.

Her town—illustrated as a pencil-and-ink sketch of large rectangular buildings—gains colorful crayon squiggles and doodles as Nola walks past, immersed in her sketch pad. Unfortunately, no one else seems to appreciate Nola’s scribbles, and she feels the need to hide them. Nola also tries to “fix” her scribbles and create art that the people around her understand, contorting her scribbles “in ways they didn’t like to bend and twist.” The harder Nola tries, the more exhausted she gets. Ultimately, Nola literally draws a blank, a “big, boring blank,” and falls right inside it—where, much to her surprise, Nola finds that she’s not alone. Other creators are stuck on the same blank page. Can Nola summon enough scribbles to inspire everyone out of their respective creators’ blocks? Lalli’s picture-book debut highlights the delights of doodling and sketching as well as the lack of inspiration that sometimes follows. Colorful sketches on otherwise gray illustrations mark the difference between imagination and lack thereof. Nola has brown skin and puffy brown hair, and her fellow creators on the blank page are children of different races and abilities.

A lighthearted tale that validates following your own artistic vision.