The Paintbrush that Just Wanted to Help

Casey Neistat with a printed copy

[SUMMARY: Click HERE for the PDF or scroll down past the text to view it online.]

[UPDATE: The book has been listed on Freekidsbooks.org HERE. Please swing by and leave a review/comment.]

Back in 2012, I was listening to Adam Carolla (which I do daily, and highly recommend), and among his many rants of dissatisfaction, he mentioned that a decent children’s book was hard to come by, especially given the relative ease with which he imagined a children’s book could be created. Obviously, there are amazing children’s books (The Little Critter, Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein), and there are pieces of absolute crap. Not all are created equally. One of my best friends is a remarkably talented artist and illustrator, and I know the immense amount of time and work she can put into a single illustration. In my opinion, a children’s book can fly or die based solely on the illustrator, and they ought to have top billing. I, myself, am striving to be a writer, so I decided to try and churn out a decent children’s book as quickly as possible while still creating something I could be (relatively) proud of. One of the main issues Adam has with our youngest generation is the over-coddling and false-empowerment that lead to entitlement and what he calls “lack of grit“. Based on this, I decided to pander directly to Adam by writing a book about personified tools who engage in construction and, ultimately, teach a lesson not about “being anything you want to be“, but about finding one’s calling, talent, or passion, and embracing it wholeheartedly – something I truly believe in.

As I stated, I don’t claim to be a great writer, but I am striving to be one. I wrote and illustrated this book in about two weeks of casual evenings at the coffee table, and then got distracted and shelved it for two years. Let me take this opportunity to also point out that I am not an artist. I built these pages in MS-Paint and inked them with a gel pen. Two years later (two weeks ago), I discovered my unfinished project and decided to finish it – that is, color it – with magic markers, over the course of two more weeks of casual evenings at the coffee table. Done.

Thus, friends, I submit to you for your approval, the culmination of one month of casual evenings at the coffee table, two gel ink pens, and a 64 pack of markers:

The Paintbrush that Just Wanted to Help

(Click the link above for a printable PDF)

Please share this, copy it, print it, give it away, or use it as fireplace tinder.

Thank you,

Eric Dean