See my list here!
shepherd.com/best-books/funny-picture-books-about-cats

Sometimes it's hard to keep a diary, especially when nothing much is happening. But I'm a great fan of Lynda Barry and I use the four-minute diary (sort of) that she describes in this video and in her book Syllabus.

Here's a sneak peek at some of my entries . . .

For me, three things are really important:
1. Don't censor--just get down what you can remember; it doesn't seem like a big deal at the time, but when you go back and read what you wrote it's pretty interesting to see that you went to see Jaws at the movie theatre yesterday. (I did that!!).
2. Use the $1 journal Lynda Barry suggests--this is important for all writing, I think. If you buy a big, fancy journal, you'll feel that only "perfect" stuff can go in. Get something cheap and scribble in it whenever you want.
3. I use colour because it makes me HAPPY. You could buy colouring books, but it's way more fun to draw your own pictures and colour them in . . . you can see I get a bit carried away with the drawing part of the exercise and I usually spend more time than 30 seconds, but if drawing isn't your thing, a quick sketch will do!

T

When I was small, I used to have a blankie. It was pink wool with a satin border and I carried it with me everywhere, just like Linus in Peanuts. At some point, my mother told me it had gone missing . . . hmm, I wonder where she hid it?

Our special possessions usually have interesting stories . . . why don't you tell the story of one of your favourite objects today? Try telling the story in the first person from the point of view of the object. How does a blankie talk, anyway?

In A Bedtime Yarn, Frankie's mother knits him a blanket that is full of stories. Here's a page for you to draw on.