For a little over a year now, I’ve been writing children’s stories for a company called Chapter One. (I talked about it in an earlier blog post.) You can find my stories on the Chapter One website, in the Global Free Library section, which is an online collection of stories and materials that celebrate the world’s diversity.

One of my more recent Chapter One stories is called “Milton Makes Things.” I think it may have just gone live on the Global Free Library yesterday, so I wanted to spread the word about it. “Milton Makes Things” was illustrated by the amazing Monique Parlevliet, and you can read it right HERE.

And if you scroll down on that page,  you can also see a few of the other Chapter One stories I’ve written.

Here’s the official description of “Milton Makes Things,” from the Chapter One site:

“Milton helps the environment by making old things into new things. He specializes in making these new things out of paper. Soon, there’s a mile-long line of children who want him to make them one of his ultra-stylish paper creations!”

I’ve also made short videos for all of the Chapter One stories I’ve written. In these videos, I explain what inspired me to write the story in question. You can see the “Milton Makes Things” video once you scroll down after reading the story of the same name. But you can also see the “Milton Makes Things” video right here: 

Monique Parlevliet, who illustrated “Milton Makes Things,” also made a video about the story, and it’s really great. In Monique’s video, she talks about how much she identifies with the Milton character. You can check out her video on the “Milton Makes Things” page of the Chapter One site (it’s right next to my video for that story). But I’ve also put Monique’s video right here: 

One last thing I wanted to mention about “Milton Makes Things”: When I was writing that story, I did quite a bit of research into cardboard furniture, cardboard toys, and all of the other cardboard stuff Milton makes. I wanted the story to be somewhat grounded and realistic, so I thought I’d see whether it was really possible to create (for example) a cardboard chair which is sturdy enough for an adult (or even a child) to sit in. Turns out that it’s very possible.

I’m explaining all of this because I want to make it clear that everything Milton makes in this story – whether it’s a cardboard table, a cardboard marionette, or a cardboard bookshelf – is something you can actually make out of cardboard. If you build it a certain way, that is. And as with almost anything in life, it’s largely about planning and designing it carefully, so that it’ll actually work in the way you’ve intended.