Lynda Barry “What It Is” Pg 51 Crop

The section from Lynda Berry’s book that I decided to crop is a small passage on page 51. The passage read “Or looked like we were playing by ourselves. I believe a kid who is playing is not alone. There is something brought alive during play, and this something, when played with, seems to play back”. Barry is saying that when a child uses their imagination, anything is possible, there is absolutely no limit to the extent of imagination used. A child can be just as creative, if not more, when alone. When I child is alone with only their creativity to play with, imagination is the appropriate getaway. Around the passage, there appears to be hand-drawn images that essentially border the passage. I believe these small doodles simply highlight how many different forms imagination can take. It can be in the form of a child playing cops and robbers with their imaginary friend, or it can even be in the form of little doodle cats floating on a boat in the ocean (as shown in my selected image).
I believe that Barry created the pages that make up her book in an extremely patient manner. To me, it seems like she hand drew all of the images in the book. In some cases, it appears that she hand wrote the passages as well. It’s clear that she spent a substantial amount of time on each page and every aspect of every page is a conscious choice. This relates to her message because she let her imagination format the book. Her original and creative vision is what makes her book so unique. It is essentially of piece of her mind.