Colby Sharp is a fifth grade teacher in Parma, Michigan. I first heard about him through the Nerdy Book Club (of which he is a co-founder) and Nerd Camp Michigan (ditto). He runs The Yarn podcast with his friend Travis Jonker. You can find Colby on his website, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
Thanks to Colby for answering Three Questions for me today!
I love Colby’s classroom tour, especially hearing the stories behind some of the art! Did you know that Deborah Freedman created the header for The Nerdy Book Club?
Colby’s advice for young writers: Start out by copying the people you love. Doing this can help you eventually find your own style and voice.
What he’s excited about now: independent bookstores. Colby described the amazing things he sees indie bookstores doing and encourages us to make sure we use some of our book buying power to support these community bookshops.
Colby is one of the most positive and enthusiastic people I know, especially when it comes to helping kids find the books that help them fall in love with reading. I was honored to be one of the contributors to the just-released THE CREATIVITY PROJECT, published by Little, Brown Books For Young Readers.
Synopsis of THE CREATIVITY PROJECT (Little Brown Books For Young Readers, 2018):
“Colby Sharp invited more than forty authors and illustrators to provide story starters for each other; photos, drawings, poems, prose, or anything they could dream up. When they received their prompts, they responded by transforming these seeds into any form of creative work they wanted to share. The result is a stunning collection of words, art, poetry, and stories by some of our most celebrated children book creators. A section of extra story starters by every contributor provides fresh inspiration for readers to create works of their own. Here is an innovative book that offers something for every kind of reader and creator!”
For more insights from book creators, see my Inkygirl Interview Archives and Advice For Young Writers And Illustrators From Book Creators.