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How to Deal with Your Various Emotions with Todd Parr
What the children’s book author can teach us about life
Todd Parr entered my life when my son and daughter was three and six, respectively. Almost every night for the past year and a half, my children would dutifully pick out one of his many books (40+ so far!), and together we’d read aloud together.
His books are fun, bright, and quirky. Upon first glance, you might say that the illustrations and words are the works of a child — but it’s all Todd. As a youth, he failed art class, which made him pause on the artistic dreams for awhile. It wasn’t until he got his art displayed in one of Wolfgang Puck’s restaurants in California’s Bay Area that he began to gain traction.
When I first began reading Todd’s books to my kids, I didn’t quite understand the allure the same way that they did. The more we read, the more I understood — his simple, childlike illustrations and empathetic words resonate with just about everyone. For me, personally, reading the words, “It’s okay to be different” (taken from the title of one of his books), and “It’s okay to be…” all these different things that makes us all unique…
