Email icon Back to Search
International Dot Day poster

International Dot Day is a global celebration of creativity, courage, and collaboration based on a book by the author Peter H. Reynold’s called The Dot.  The website https://nationaltoday.com/dot-day/  states that on September 15, 2003, Mr. Reynolds released his book, The Dot, which tells the story of a young girl in an art class who feels she can’t create art.  The teacher tells her to just make a mark, and she draws a dot.  The picture gets put on the wall and slowly the girl gains confidence in her ability to create art.              

One teacher in the States, Terry Shay, introduced the book to his entire classroom on September 15, 2009, and this grew into the observance of International Dot Day.  This day is now celebrated by millions of teachers and students around the world. The website claims that 19 million people in 192 countries celebrate this day.  Who knew?

We have this book  at our satellite location in the library at Northern College.  While many of us think of creativity as limited to the arts, others find creativity in gardens, fish tanks, Lego’s, architecture, graffiti, fashion, rock balancing, and many other ways that we as humans express ourselves.  I have pulled a list of books we have that speak to creativity in various forms.  On that note, I will leave you with a small poem I wrote over 40 years ago while tent camping on the Queen Charlotte Islands of the B.C. coast.

Moss webbed forest

Wind, and rain and night,

But, in the morning

Murmured sigh of raven’s flight.

Books you can check out!

  • Birds, Art, Life by Kyo Maclear 598.072 MAC
  • Wildflowers of the North by Ruby Gibbins Bryan 635.9 BRY
  • Aquariums by Thierry Maitre-Allain 639.34 MAI
  • The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by M. Magnusson 648.5 MAG
  • The Urban Wildflower Gardener by Emma Hardy     639.92 HAR
  • The Art of Blacksmithing by Alex Bealer 682 BEA
  • All The Living and The Dead by Hayley Cambell 363.75 CAM
  • Art Matters Because Your Imagination Can Change the World by Neil Caiman 707 GAI
  • The New Encyclopedia of Jewelry-Making Techniques by Jinks McGrath 745.58 MCG
  • Origami For Everyone by Didier Boursin 736.982 BOU
  • The Calligrapher’s Bible by David Harris 745.61 HAR

I hope this day and these books inspire you to create with courage!