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Eight-year-old Ollie questions the meaning of life after the death of his grandmother. He is frustrated with grownups avoiding his tough but important questions. The only answer that satisfies him comes from his Aunt Leeza, a composer, who shows him that life is like her music sketchbook. She shows him a wide variety of methods to make and share the ongoing compositions of our lives, whether professionally or through other altruistic interactions. Ollie comes to understand how the contents of his own sketchbook can affect others’ in an ongoing sonic realization of everyone’s experience. With these new tools, Ollie creates his own song involving the whole family and audience. Aunt Leeza gives Ollie his own blank sketchbook for the hard questions yet to come.

Sketchbook for Ollie by Rachel J. Peters

Adapted from the story Life Is a Jar of Paint by Bill Folman