It’s International Dot Day! — ish

Actually, International Dot Day is actually September 15th-ish, but I figured the 10th was ish-ish enough to celebrate. International Dot Day grew out of Peter H. Reynolds’ wonderful book, THE DOT, which my friend Patricia Tilton reviewed here. If you haven’t read THE DOT, please do, and also read the companion books ISH and SKY COLOR which comprise Peter’s “Creatrilogy.”

International Dot Day was the brainchild of teacher Terry Shay, who introduced the book to his students in 2009 and had them create their own dots. It has grown enormously from that first classroom of kids. When I started celebrating in 2012, I was impressed that there were nearly 500,000 participants all over the world. This year, there are (as of the moment I checked in the afternoon of Saturday, September 8) over TWELVE MILLION participants! 12,393,233 in 176 countries. That’s registered participants, including school kids around the world — and me!

One of the tenets of the book and the celebration of the day is to “make your mark and see where it takes you,” which is a direct quote from the book. Many, many (many!) people of all ages create dots of their own to express their creativity in a myriad of ways. There are even Celebri-dots — dots created by celebrities of the kidlit world.

I usually make a dot, too. This year, I wanted to make a dot that expressed my concern for our world, and my belief that we need to keep creating and spreading hope. Here it is:

There’s still time to get involved in International Dot Day! Check out the Dot Club’s website for information. And when I searched the phrase International Dot Day history, I was delighted to note that it has made it onto many online calendar/holiday sites, such as the Holidays Calendar.

Note: The tiny earth featured in my dot is a plastic half-globe covered with plasticine modeling clay, which I created for a Christmas card about 25 years ago. Back then, creating unique Christmas cards each year was one of the ways I made my mark.