Get on your P’s & Q’s with Charlie & His Imaginary Friend
An advocate for restoring the creativity back in our youth, I was more than excited to offer support to one of my favorite illustrators – Popephoenix – and his literary venture with author and long time friend Qimmah Saafir. Charlie & His Imaginary Friend is a story about friendship, which is more than distorted among our youth.
Pope and Qimmah drew their inspiration from the lack of diversity in children’s books. With Pope being a parent, it was important that he and Qimmah, created stories that shared a reflection of themselves, as the majority of children’s books lack not just the diversity, but the open creativity to allow children to be dreamers. As P & Q began their journey down “storybrooke lane”, they discussed more contextual issues such as lessons learned, and the association children would receive if they saw more stories that reflected how they looked and felt. Through this process, Charlie was born.
With such extraordinary feedback for Charlie, P & Q took matters into their own hands and created a Kickstarter campaign to cover the cost of the printing and shipping demands. Their video campaign (which can be accessed here) displays the quirkiness of P & Q’s friendship. This same tone is reflected in the book. To reach their goal of $7,000 by June 1st, they need your support. Kickstarter pledges for Charlie & His Imaginary Friend range from $1 – $5,000. For those who pledge between $5 and $5,000; funky and eclectic incentives are rewarded that include an autographed hardcover copies of the book, a sticker pack, a limited couture Charlie t-shirt, a private look at P & Q’s trademark secret “Grandpa dance” and much more. In addition to the array of incentives, are the titles themselves; which reflect their personalities and love for 80s & 90s TV shows. The incentive titles include:
- Friend Sticker Pack
- Grandpa Dance reward
- Book reward
- John Hancock reward
- T-shirt reward
- Night Night award
- Good looking out award
- Brangelina award
- The Uncle Phil award
- The Mr. Dummond award
Some of you may not have children, like myself, but many of you have younger siblings, nieces, nephews, godchildren, “fake nieces and nephews”, etc. The point is, you have access to young children. Instead of inundating them with all these tablets – which is great – why not provide them with a good old fashioned hardcover book, with the same quality pictures that will allow them to tap into their creative juices. Who knows, Charlie & His Imaginary Friend could breed the next Carter G. Woodson!?
- Now imagine that!
For more information about Pope, check out his “B-sides” post here on GraeGram or popephoenix.com
For more information about Qimmah, check out her website lifeonque.com
