Book Review: Creatively Ever After

I have attempted to teach problem solving skills to students and families for years.  It is not always an easy task.  Students are often impulsive decision makers.  I do not mean to imply that adults are not impulsive with their decision making at times as well!  I learned recently that the average person’s brain, particularly the region that controls impulsive thinking, does not form completely until they are 25 years old.  This is amazing to me!  All people learn better when you help them create a personal and meaningful connection to the information. 

Creatively Ever After, written by Alicia Arnold, teaches creative problem solving to adults through the use of a nursery rhyme.  Basing Creatively Ever After upon the nursery rhyme “Jack and Jill”, Arnold teaches the CPS model.  The CPS model stands for Creative Problem Solving.  Six steps are involved in the model, including identify a goal, gather data, clarify the problem, generate ideas, develop a solution, and execute a plan of action. 

In Creatively Ever After, Jack and Jill fall down the hill every single day.  They are on a mission to change their destiny before their eighteenth birthday.  They attempt to retrieve water in different ways and through taking alternative paths; however, the result is always the same.  They fall down the hill.  Through the assistance of King Cole, Greta, Humpty Dumpty, and other characters, Jack and Jill learn the CPS model and are able to think creatively to solve their problem.

Creatively Ever After teaches the CPS model in a clever way.  The book is advertised as a great book that helps business professionals and managers take their businesses to the next level.  I do believe this is true, but I think that this is a good book for any adult to read, regardless of your occupation.  I am wondering whether this book would work with high school students as well.  Personally, I am definitely a rational thinker.  However, as I read the book, I realized how much more I could be doing to develop creative strategies for both my personal problems and my small business.  The CPS model appears to have concrete steps and is comprehensive in nature.
About the Author:

Alicia Arnold holds a Master of Science in Creative Studies from the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College and an MBA in Marketing from Bentley University.  She is a certified facilitator of the Osborn-Parnes Problem Solving Institute.  Alicia has published on the topic of creativity with Bloomberg Businessweek, The National Association of Gifted Children , and iMedia Connection.  Her utilization of nursery rhymes in workshops was the catalyst and inspiration for this book. 

Creatively Ever After can be purchased at Amazon.com HERE!

 

*Disclaimer: I did not receive monetary compensation for this post.  I received a free copy of the book for the purposes of the review.  The opinions expressed here are my own.