Ever heard of anyone without a problem? I am sure, none! Everyone has a problem more or less to their capacity to deal with it. Well, what do you do with a problem?
There are tons of books around living a happy and inspired life that all revolve around this question. The author of the New York Times Best-selling book What do you do with an Idea, Kobi Yamada takes this question with an easy and conventional narrative everyone does have and unconventionally leaves the readers with a life-changing take away through this 20 leaves book. Kobi made the job easy for the readers and impactful that 250-page conventional adults’ self-help book find hard to do. This is a picture book meant for children but it’s a must-read for adults too.
Mae Besom, a Chinese internationally acclaimed fine artist made the text of Kobi Yamada almost like a subtitle of the animated looked powerful illustration of the protagonist that takes readers way beyond the text.
A boy wonders he neither asked for a problem nor he aware how it all happened, why is it there and what does it want. He doesn’t like having a problem. All sorts of thought start emerging one after another. He tried all means to go away from the problem or to ignore or to hide from, still none of them worked, rather thoughts popped up what if the problem sneaks up and takes away all his things or even swallows him up.
After all the blues he encountered in his mind he finally reached a tipping point of reflection that the more he thinks about the problem, it became bigger or maybe he is making it bigger and scarier than it actually was.
The story resonates with every one of us. And that moment of reflection and realisation is the most beautiful part of the story that every one of us do have. The boy felt he has to face the problem anyway. He buckled up, put on protective and musters up all courage to face the problem.
That’s the stage where the boy learnt a problem is not all the blues preconceived in his mind. He found something else the next - a life-changing opening. The subtitle of Kobi Yamada goes and takes you into something, I would say it deep and powerful. The three birds by Mae Besom that can be seen throughout the pages now fly with freedom above the gush of wind and no more around the boy that used to do…
I don’t want to open the surprise take-away before you open the book by yourself. Yet, “what are the problems for? They challenge us, shape us, push us and help us discover how strong and brave and capable we really are.” So, what will you do with your problem ?