An Awesome Book

I can count the amount of times that every sinew of my body has been utterly inspired by a project, and Dallas’s Clayton’s A Very Awesome World project is one.

In short, Dallas is helping kids to “Dream, and dream often” by publishing and giving away books that egnite a nipper’s imagination. Having sold 30,000 and counting, giving away the same amount in turn, what we have here is a project with boundless imagination, enthusiasm and significance. Dallas was kind enough to look up from his pages for long enough to let us know a little more, but please, please if you only have a few minutes, just watch the video here…

Hey Dallas, we came across you through the fantastic blog We Love You So that you help out on – can you tell us what you do and what your role is there?

Well, basically I did a blog of short stories of my own dallasclayton.com and Spike Jonze was a big fan of it and he knew that I was working on a kids book so he asked me what I thought about putting together a blog for Where The Wild Things Are. I of course said I would be honored, and after screening the film, came up with this idea of a culture blog that helped shed light on some of the influences that had helped make the book possible. Almost an online magazine, wherein the main story for the duration of its life is ‘Where The Wild Things Are’. In that magazine analogy, I suppose my role would be editor in chief? Titles are funny! Ha! Regardless of the title, the site has been a really amazing experience and a rare opportunity to work on a project so unique (especially in the world of big studio films).

Your book / foundation, An Awesome Book also looks like a great concept, helping kids to ‘dream, and dream often’, can you tell us a little bit about it?

*Well essentially I wrote a book for kids about dreaming – that when we sleep we dream of really crazy amazing fantastical concepts but often times when we are awake we dream of really mundane simple things like having our couch cushions match. I wanted to talk to kids about this, because they are all still in such a fantastical state as it is, and let them know that the dreams they have in their lives, their aspirations and hopes can be just as wild or far-reaching as they ones they have when they are sleeping. So I published the book by myself and it sort of took off from there, after the book hit the internet people started e-mailing me from all over asking me to come read to their classes, hospitals, camps, etc and so I went on tour and gave away books. That’s where the foundation was born. The Awesome World Foundation donates one copy for every book I sell. Now my job is essentially traveling around, reading to kids and giving away books. For the short answer to this question please watch this video

How are sales going, are you starting to make a difference?

Sales are unreal. We sold over 30,000 copies last year and are hoping to hit 100,000 this year. With that we are also hoping to give away 100,000 books which means 100,000 kids being able to read a book for free, get it into their hands and think about what it means to dream big. Beyond that we’ve partnered with several charities nationally and internationally and have been able to donate books to help a number of amazing causes. It’s the best! For the short answer to this question watch this video

Can we look forward to An Awesome Book 2?

Yes, I finished 3 books last year and am spreading them out for release throughout 2010. So excited!