Book Review: Journal Sparks

Journal Sparks: Fire Up Your Creativity with Spontaneous Art, Wild Writing, and Inventive ThinkingIn Journal Sparks, Emily Neuburger delivers exactly what she promises. This delightful book simply brims with ideas to fire up the reader’s creativity with “spontaneous art, wild writing, and inventive thinking.” Organized around seven themes, including invention, color and construction, wordsmith, and journal making and hacking, each section uses colorful photographs, illustrations, and guest journalers to provide numerous prompts to spur the reader’s own creativity. For example, Neuburger suggests making a visual record of the day, creating and naming new colors, and creating alphabetical lists of interesting things. As an added bonus, Neuburger includes over ten double-sided, pull-out pages of collage paper and stickers to nudge the reader to begin. However, what makes this book really stand out is Neuburger’s abundant enthusiasm for creative journaling that is so apparent in its pages. That enthusiasm is contagious and will make it hard for the reader to resist trying at least a few of the prompts. For the person who fears the blank page or the experienced journaler looking for new ideas, Journal Sparks is an excellent choice.

(Originally reviewed for a free copy of book for Manhattan Book Review.)