Paper Airplanes: A Girl, a Dream, and the Sky Between 

Written and Illustrated by Jennifer Li

This book carries a beautiful message written in a lyrical, poetic style.

It begins with a little girl who has a dream and launches a paper airplane. The airplane takes off and travels around the world. She is frustrated when she loses sight of it. Then she meets a little boy who has also lost his paper plane. Together, they search and continue to meet other dreamers. They stop to plant and create dreams together.

I like the way the illustrations begin in black and white. As the theme of friendship and connection continues, more color is added. Children learn that we are stronger when dreaming and connecting with each other.

A beautiful book with an inspirational message for children of all ages.

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Do you ever wonder what heights you could rise to in your personal and professional life if you put all of your thinking into focus? So much of our brain capacity is unused and lying dormant. In a world that centers on acting on impulse and making snap decisions, what we need to do is put on the brakes. Even more important, how can we teach our children to make their own decisions, form their own opinions, and learn to become the independent thinkers that leaders and inventors must develop? What if you knew the secret of thinking so that your life would improve tenfold and help you achieve all the goals you have in life? Then you could pass these skills on to your children and grandchildren.

Critical thinking is developed over time and is like learning any sport or art. You can’t just get up one morning and say, “I think I’ll become a critical thinker today.” No one can simply will it into happening. For many, it takes years to develop a critical thinking knack. In some older citizens, we call it, “wisdom.”

The only paths through which a person can develop insightful thinking are by knowing and accepting the truth that there are flaws in your thinking. You must also constantly practice becoming a thinker who can effectively solve problems through logical thinking rather than emotions.

Becoming a critical thinker can help you develop strategies where you overcome the obstacles that life presents. Here are some obstacles you may want to obliterate from your life – and that’s possible with critical thinking:

• Analyze the influences in your life. Learn to make your own decisions rather than falling under those influences.

• Get your ego under control. Your ego may be keeping you back from advancing at work and from developing better relationships. Critical thinking can help you think without the influence of an inflated ego.

• Solve problems. Being too scattered to solve problems and “thinking” with emotions usually doesn’t solve anything. Using critical thinking can help you get in touch with your emotions and solve problems through logical thinking.

• Stop wasting time. You may be wasting entire days of productivity by going in many directions at once. We pride ourselves on multi-tasking, but in doing more, are we accomplishing less? We may not actually be enjoying anything we do to waste time because we know we’re going to be behind on our work or frustrated about wasting the day. Critical thinking can teach you how to evaluate your time and spend it wisely.

We all have a great capacity to think critically and to improve our lives immensely, but most of the time, it’s dormant. That’s because it’s undeveloped. We can make it better with practice, just as we would when learning a musical instrument or sport.

Non-critical thinking is a habit that we’re not even mindful of most of the time. We sit, staring at a mindless program on television, playing mindless video games, or engaging in gossip or other pursuits that don’t require critical thinking. Deep down in our hearts, we know that we are spinning our wheels.

If you want to develop the traits of a critical thinker, know that you must study and research – then, put what you’ve learned into practice on a daily basis. It’s worth the effort. Your life and that of those you care about will be happier for it.

Remember, “If you don’t know your history, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”