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Speaker 1: Arrow dot net is more than just a podcast. It

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is a podcast network, twenty different podcasts to choose from.

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One of my favorites is Foody Paradise, talking with the

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chefs who truly understand what it's like to be at

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home in your own kitchen, chefing a beautiful moment. That's

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the kind of respect these chefs have for you. Plus

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there's so much more on Foody Paradise only on Arow

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dot net, r r Oe dot net. Enjoy your exploration. Hello, Hello,

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and good morning. How are you doing, Peter, doing so well?

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Speaker 2: Doing this so well up here in the frosty Boston.

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Speaker 1: Well, come on down to the Carolinas.

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Speaker 2: Man.

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Speaker 1: We're a little cold today, but it's gonna be near

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eighty on Wednesday, so come on down. We'll sit here

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and we'll talk about writing and getting your book out

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there and putting you on a big national tour. Oh yeah,

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we'll do the authentic thing.

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Speaker 2: I love it, I love it.

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Speaker 1: I gotta ask you a question, only because I'm so inspired.

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They always tell us not to judge a book by

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its cover, but by god, I want this as a poster.

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I you know, I mean to have this thing framed

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and hanging on a wall when you dream big and

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then you jump into the story and the illustrations in there,

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with the wording and everything. I mean, you have got

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something here that is I can't wait to continue to

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share this with young adults as well as even younger readers.

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Speaker 2: Well, thank you. It's funny because I was just sketching

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a T shirt idea based on the book, and you

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just disparted me to do a print as well. This

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book was so much fun to create, and I guess

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it's coming true that I had a lot of fun

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with this book.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, you can definitely feel it. You can feel it.

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One of the things that really inspires me, Peter, is

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the fact that the font that you chose to use

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looks like handwriting. And I think that to a young

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reader right now, in this digital age, I need to

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see that font. And I think kids do too, because

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the rest of us are still using a pencil or

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a pen and we're writing like this. And I just

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think that you, whoever put that in the book with

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that font, what a brilliant idea because it has to

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be in our lives.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I appreciate that you pointed it out. That

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is actually my handwriting. I started my very first book

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was called The North Star, and I, just because I

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didn't have a computer handy, I wrote the whole book

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by hand, and the publisher looked at it and said, wow,

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we love your handwriting. Can we use it as the

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font in the book. So I handwrote. In fact, I

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would say probably eighty percent of my books are all

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done written by hand. So when you see that font,

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that's the Peter A. Truantle owned.

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Speaker 1: My god, did you take drafting class, because I mean,

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your lettering is spot on, dude, I mean, how did

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you get such legible lettering?

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Speaker 2: I loved writing. I remember mixing print and cursive together

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a teacher saying I would want to do that, and

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of course I was a bit of a gentle rebel.

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I'm like, well, I actually I sort it was fascinated

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with how letters connected, and I did take a calligraphy course,

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and I did in college, I took a architectural writing course,

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and I found it just fascinating writing by him. I

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think you're right, in the agent of AI, everything's being

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generated for us and I seeing something hand crafted. I

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think it's really important for kids to remind them that

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they are capable of that too.

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Speaker 1: I want to know how many moms and dads are

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going to reach this page, Charlie smiled. Ten toes all

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pointing in the right direction. Mom and dad are going

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to put the book down for a second and say,

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take a look at your toes. What do your toes

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look like? Are they all pointed? And I mean because

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it's that kind of book. It is such an interaction book.

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It is a tool for mom and dad or even

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a young reader to go, yeah, Charlie's my hero. I'm

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loving me some Charlie, right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there are lots of opportunity in the book. As

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you're reading. You know, when the teacher says, you know,

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you know who wants to share their dreams, hands shoot

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up waving wildly. So I asked, kids, you know, raise

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my end of the air and wave your arms, and

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they're all waving their arms. And you know, in the book,

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the teacher posts that big question, you know, what do

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you want to be when you grow up? And the kids,

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you know, most of the kids are excited. There are

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a couple of quiet ones, and there always are. Yeah,

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Charlie is that quiet one. It takes her a little while,

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and that's The message of the book is you don't

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have to know what you want to be, you know specifically,

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but you just have to stay positive, keep moving for it,

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don't freeze in your tracks, and eventually they'll it will

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come to you. And at the end of the book

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there's this joyous celebration of all the kids together and

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the teacher, and you know, Charlie is finally in step

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with the rest of the kids. She's made her big,

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colorful wings and she is ready to dream big.

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Speaker 1: Well, you must have been sitting at a Starbucks or

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at a mall or something, because the subjects that you

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can inside this book are so spot on. And I

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got to give you kudos here on how you handle

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how Charlie was nervous. And it was her school teacher

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that said, don't worry if you need more time. This

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is a very big question. And the thing about it is, though,

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the fact that you even brought up nervous that to

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me is in tune with who your listener and your

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reader really is, because you show me somebody who isn't

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nervous right now, and then you're speaking about it. See,

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it's not that big of a problem according to the teacher.

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Speaker 2: Right right, kids ain't grown up. I mean we grown up.

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You know, we get swam. It's we get overwhelmed. I mean,

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there's so much stuff coming at us. There's so many demands.

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You know, there's a lot of pressure to you know,

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to be correct, to be right and get it right

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and you know, have the perfect life and perfect body,

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and you know, people are just so much pressure and

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you know, being able to say, you know, it's okay,

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it's okay to be anxious, and but you know, there

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are some there are some tools that we have to

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deal with that. And in this book, you know, I say,

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wiggle your toes. You can't wiggle your toe, you can

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wiggle your fingers. You can just sort of activate your

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body in some way. And you know, I tell kids,

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you know, like I told the kids who were nervous

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about taking a test. Once. I said, the teacher said,

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do you have any advice for my kids? They're nervous

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about taking this big, you know test, And I said,

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tell your kids to take their left shoe off, and

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and she wrote back a few weeks later she said

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the kids also their left shoe off, and they they

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scored the highest of any classroom in their school. And

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they credit you for this great technique. But you know,

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all I said, I suggested something. It was, you know,

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kind of funny, but it turned out that it helped

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them with their confidence. And I think that's the big

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the key, right, if you're confident, if you're feeling like

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you've got this on, your brain works better. See.

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Speaker 1: I can still relate with that because I mean, I mean,

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I'm one of those people. I will take my right

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shoe off. If you see me somewhere and I've got

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my right shoe off to me, that should be a

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signal that I'm trying to find my focus and I'm

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confident about taking you know, something that is so uncertain,

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but I'm going to make sure that I learned from it.

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But man, that's got to be a thing that stretches

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across this nation about taking the shoe.

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Speaker 2: Off, right, Yeah, well that might I think that might

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be my next book. I wrote story down, so I

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have to find that one and share that. I've got

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sony book ideas. Arrow's counted about four hundred book ideas

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and they and they keep coming at me every day,

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So I love it. My brain is popping like.

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Speaker 1: Puffcorn and see, and that should be a lesson for

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these young adults too, and these readers. And the reason

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why I say that is because everybody I talked to,

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I got into writing because of an author that I

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had when I was young in my life. You see

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what I mean. You're setting up their future by saying, hey, look, yes,

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if you just take the time to write stuff down,

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then you will have future projects you can work on

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as well. If you've got four hundred on the way. God, dang,

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I'm proud of you, dude. That's exactly how it happens

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to a creative mind.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I do feel like my books are conversations.

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I feel like I'm having a conversation with that reader

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and if I can be there to cheer them on

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and say, you've got this, you know, keep going, don't stop,

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keep going, don't stop. You know. I feel like i've

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you know, I've had a pretty good life, you know,

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encouraging people around the world.

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Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Peter H. Reynolds

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coming up next. The name of his book, and it

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really is for everybody. When you dream big. We are

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back with author Peter H. Reynolds. If I were sitting

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here with my grandchild, but they're up in their twenties now,

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but I mean if they were eighty biddies in front

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of me right now, I would put folks on Charlie

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waking up. And over here to the right is the

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word paris that is done in cursive writing. I would

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put focus on that. And that's what I love about

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your illustrations. Your illustrations are just as important as the

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paragraphs because in cursive writing, that's exactly what that word says.

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It says paris. But I want a young mind to

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know cursive writing is so important in your chapters.

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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, Well, the picture books are lovely that you

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can keep reading them and seeing more and more and

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more detail. And I do pack a lot of in

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this particular one. You know, there's a whole classroom, so

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I had, you know, twenty twenty five chances to show

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a different kind of kid. And you also a little

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peak at their dreams. You see them working on their

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dreams on their desks. So there's a lot of there's

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just a lot packed into this book. So it'll take

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a long time to probably notice all the details, but

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have fun doing it. Well.

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Speaker 1: And here's some of those details as well, dude, And

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that is the fact that Charlie is sitting on her hands.

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I want you show me somebody who does not sit

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on one hand or both hands when they're confronted with

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a situation where they don't want to be chosen, they're

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going to go to Hazel instead.

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Speaker 2: Right. I think we all can experience that in school,

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right when the teachers like, all right, I need someone

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to you know, read their poems, and it's like, oh,

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please don't pick me, Please don't pick me. And I

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wanted to have that that capture that angst, and I thought,

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what better way than Charlie actually sitting on her hands.

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There's no way she's going to raise her hand and participate.

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But unfortunately she has a great teacher who does notice

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that she's she's having a little she's having an issue there,

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and she gives Charlie permission to relax, you know, and

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I do I do like that that what she says,

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you know that take your time. You know, this is

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a really big question. Your future is that's pretty big.

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Speaker 1: Well. And the fact is that I'm not going to

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spoil the book, and that is is that when when

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Charlie finally admits to something in class, and it's it's

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the page with the angel wings. But I don't want

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to spoil it because I want mothers and fathers with

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the readers to sit there and go through with what

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her answer is. But once again, this book is so

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in touch with the reality of what is right now

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and it just it just blows me away. How you're well,

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you said it, you write in conversational form. It's beautiful.

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It's beautiful.

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Speaker 2: Thank you. I love that you are so affusive about

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this book because I am super excited about this book.

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I can't wait for it to reach We'll reach everybody,

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but I think that they are going to be particular

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people who who this book is the exact right book

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at the right time. The kids, you know, kids and

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as I say, grown up too, who are struggling a

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little bit and need need that little encouragement. So I

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hope that when You Dream Big inspires people to to

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to do that, to dream big.

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Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more aboutout you?

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Speaker 2: Well, you can go to PETERH. Reynolds dot com. Don't

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forget the h H stands for Hamilton. I'm based on

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a hip Broadway musical, so Periods dot com and you

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could order books autograph books from there, but I also

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encourage people to combine my books that anywhere to find.

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Books are sold online as well as if you're lucky

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enough to have an independent bookstore like I actually own

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my own independent books burgess outside of Boston, Massachusetts, called

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the Blue Bunny. So if you're in Boston, hop on

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down to my bookshop celebrate in twenty three years this year.

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, you are such the inspiration and the influence,

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because that's it's full circle for you. Dude.

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Speaker 2: It is well Era naxt time you're in Boston, come

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come over. We have a coffee shop too, will I

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will take your cappuccino and we will we will sit

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there and we will talk more because I feel like

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we have. We have hours and hours the book about

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all of these things.

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Speaker 1: You're so right, So you got to come back to

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the show anytime in the future. The door is always

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going to be open for you, Peter.

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Speaker 2: I love that the door is always open. That might

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be my new.

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Speaker 1: Book, Carol will be brilliant today.

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Speaker 2: Okay, thank you you too.

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Speaker 1: Thank you