A 64-PAGE ACTIVITY BOOK

Orem City commissioned a custom coloring and activity book that’s FULL of local pride, fascinating history, and fun community traditions! From legendary Orem lore to real landmarks, jokes, puzzles, and mazes, this custom book helps kids and families connect with their hometown in a clever, engaging way. We loved bringing Orem’s unique personality to life on every page!

MIKE GREW UP IN OREM!

Mike, our illustrator extraordinaire grew up in Orem. While Mike and Alma call Springville home, they find themselves in Orem all the time, whether it’s attending family events, or spending money at many great restaurants and stores that are found in Orem! It was easy to highlight a place we love and know so well!

THIS IS A HOME-RUN FOR HOMETOWN PRIDE!

We believe every child should feel proud of where they come from. When kids see their hometown celebrated through jokes, stories, and fun activities, it builds a sense of belonging, confidence, and connection. Helping them believe they grew up in an amazing place shapes how they see themselves—and their community—for years to come.

THIS BOOK IS A KEEPSAKE!

We make books that we, as adults, can also enjoy! The books we create for cities are designed to engage residents of ALL AGES! As one Orem grown-up said, “I picked it up to look through the pictures, but ended up reading every single word! It’s so good! I love Orem!”

A 32-PAGE ACTIVITY BOOK

South Utah Valley Solid Waste District has built an AMAZING new Transfer Station where our community’s waste is handled responsibly. And part of their mission is to help educate the community on best waste practices. We were thrilled to create a great book all about trash and recycling for our own community!

TAKE-HOME EDUCATION THAT’S FUN!

Our new Transfer Station was built with education in mind! The Transfer Station boasts a huge Education Room that is perfect for school field trips. Students are invited to come visit the Transfer Station, and will take home this activity book that reinforces what they observe and learn on the tour.

FOR GROWN-UPS WHO ARE SHORT ON TIME

As we imagine kids taking these books home, we see lots of opportunities for kids and caregivers to interact. And as busy parents ourselves, we understand that sometimes the best way for a grown-up to get the info is in a handy FAQ! We used the back cover to address adults directly with the most common questions and answers that come up in our community.

WASTE, RECYCLING, LANDFILL & HHW

This book is a 10-year investment in the waste management habits of our community, covering important topics like how our trash is handled, how our community recycles, what to do with household hazardous waste, and why our landfill is so cool. As kids and families learn about how our waste is handled, they will have the confidence to make smart waste decisions at home.

A HEALTH LITERACY ACTIVITY BOOK

Medical Librarian Lorraine Sheldon with Children's Health, Texas, discovered our coloring and activity books and knew that this was exactly what the hospital network needed! An activity book all about health literacy for patients, their families, and the community! We worked with Lorraine and Children's Health to create an 80-page book and a 16-page booklet!

FOR CAREGIVERS AND THE COMMUNITY

In addition to the 80-page book and 16-page booklet, Children’s Health made all activities available for on-demand printing! Hospital caregivers can access these files and print the specific content that best supports the patient they are working with. These pages are also freely available to the wider community, providing an impactful way to extend the reach of this valuable educational material!

A VARIETY OF ACTIVITIES TO HOLD YOUR ATTENTION

Like all of our books, these books feature a variety of activities that are designed to boost engagement! Instead of a regular word search, our word searches reveal the punchline to a joke upon completion. As we work on each activity, we ask ourselves, "Would I be excited to do this activity if I came across it in a book?"

CREATING ACTIVITIES THAT SUPPORT HEALTH LITERACY

As we worked closely with medical librarian Lorraine Sheldon on this project, she said that supporting educational materials for health literacy were not available: “Things that are my specialty just don’t exist in this space. Many medical librarians are teaching health literacy, but to have something beautiful and professional I think is going to blow people away.”

A SUMMER READING PROGRAM REWARD

Thank to the success of last year's activity book, the American Fork Library commissioned us again to create an exciting summer reading program reward for their patrons! The theme for 2024 was "Adventure Begins at the American Fork Library," so we decided to create a clever and engaging adventure journal.

EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE AN AMAZING ADVENTURE

While adventure journals or travel journals often fit far-off trips and expensive vacations, we wanted to make sure that our adventure journal applied to all patrons, no matter where they find adventure! Here, we position the American Fork Library in the middle of Utah and ask the writer to fill in favorite Utah places, whether it's right next door, or in the farthest corners of the state.

THE PAGES BEG TO BE COMPLETED

We know that not all patrons want to write long, detailed adventure logs! So we took the opportunity to use the pages to expand the reader's definition of "adventure" with a variety of activities like Q and A, drawing, and funny check lists. The book has a great pace that never feels overwhelming, which means patrons of all ages are more likely to fill out every page!

MEETING AMERICAN FORK LIBRARY'S GOALS

The book ends with a reminder that many adventures have yet to begin, right at the American Fork Library! Here, we underscore the library's role in the community as a resource for starting a variety of adventures, from imagination, to creation, to exploration!

HAPPY TO WORK WITH THE LIBRARY AGAIN!

Thanks to the success of last year's coloring and activity book, the American Fork Library trusted us to deliver another outstanding project for 2024! In 2023 and 2024, American Fork's PARC Grant helped fund the production of these books. Both books have 64 pages full of content. The Adventure Journal is half-size, perfect to take on all adventures!

A FUN STUDENT OUTREACH PROJECT

In 2024, the Springville Museum of Art in Springville "Art City" Utah, celebrated their 100th Spring Salon art show. This art show was actually started by the students of Springville in the early 1900s. The museum asked us to create a zine to go out to all students K-12 in Springville to invite them to come visit the show!

BRINGING THE STORY TO LIFE

The museum director asked us to learn the story for ourselves, and tell it through our own lens. Without giving us too much input, she wanted to see how we told the story. This museum is in our own community, so it was meaningful to learn about figures who shaped the museum that we know and love today!

MEETING THE MUSEUM'S NEEDS

The museum needed 13,000 zines to pass out to students and the community! They worried that their limited budget would not go very far! We told them to let us look into what we could produce that met their budget restrictions! We worked with a local printer who was able to propose an 8-panel black and white folding zine on a nice-quality card stock! The final piece exceeded the museum's expectations!

ENGAGING THE STUDENTS

While we were working on this project, we were privileged to have Emily Daines interning with us from Springville High School. We worked closely with Emily to decide which details to include from the story, and which activities to create that she felt students would enjoy doing!

CONNECTING STUDENTS TO THEIR HISTORY

Emily Daines was a Springville High senior at the time of this project. When she told us about the Springville High Art Queens, we knew they had to get their own panel on this invitation! Emily loved the story of students voting for their Art Queen with pennies for their fund raiser, and we agreed!

IF WE'RE NOT HAVING FUN, NO ONE'S HAVING FUN

Our projects truly feel like play while we get to work on them! For each activity, our team discusses what to do to make it fun! We love this panel crammed full of students, educational supplies, and artwork!

HEY, THAT'S OUR MUSEUM!

Mike and Alma chose to live in Springville because it is called "Art City" and because of its beautiful museum. This is where we had our wedding reception! We didn't know this part of the museum's history. It was fun to realize that Mike's mom was one of the first groups of students to attend the NEW high school, right after all of this happened!

IT ENDS WHERE WE BEGAN

The format of this invitation was so fun. It is one piece of paper folded into 4 panels. When you get to the last panel, it loops you right back to the beginning, reinforcing the invitation to come to the museum to check out the Salon 100 show for yourself, now that you understand why students are so important to the museum's identity and character!

A CLEVER PUBLIC EDUCATION TOOL

The City of La Quinta and their Waste Management provider, Burrtec, collaborated with us to create educational and fun activities that help residents improve their waste management habits, in line with California’s recent Senate Bill 1383.

EXTRA EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

We learned all about California’s Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Strategy so we could bring it to life for La Quinta residents through fun activities! One major challenge in waste management is that best practices vary from one location to another. We helped solve this for La Quinta by creating activities specific to their local rules.

ENTERTAINING AND EDUCATIONAL

Our activities are engaging and entertaining, which some have described as “educational in a sneaky way.” That’s right! Kids and families just think they’re having fun, solving puzzles, but they’re actually learning important concepts that will stick in their brain!

FIGURATIVELY AND LITERALLY

These educational activities plant seeds of change in our communities! But also, the City of La Quinta requested ACTUAL SEEDS. Families who complete this book are given a certificate made from seed paper. As they complete the activities, residents can think of what change they’d like to make, write it out, and plant their new habits. Watch them grow and make a difference!

A COLOR JOURNEY THROUGH THE GEM OF THE DESERT

Marcie Graham, the marketing manager of the City of La Quinta, California, wanted to do an A to Z coloring book about her city for years, but couldn’t find a team who could do illustration, graphic design & layout, and printing! She was excited to find out that that’s exactly what we do!

ON-THE-GROUND RESEARCH

Our team visited La Quinta in July, basking like lizards in the extreme high temps! We toured the city A to Z to gather information & inspiration, take photos to work from, and experience for ourselves why La Quinta is such a cool city! WE CAUGHT THE VISION.

PUTTING LA QUINTA ON THE MAP

Okay, we weren’t the ones to put La Quinta on the map per se. They did that all by themselves! But we did, actually, put them on THIS map of highway 111, the corridor that connects these desert cities from Palm Springs to Coachella!

AN UNEXPECTED GIFT!

We moved heaven and earth to make sure books were printed and delivered on time to be given as a delightful gift at the State of the City event in September, 2023. Kudos to our printing partner for prioritizing this job and delivering!

FROM CITY MARKETING MANAGER MARCIE GRAHAM:

“We debuted them at our State of the City and had folks calling the next day to where they could purchase more. Our residents love them and our City Council was incredibly happy with the final product. Looking forward to more projects with Your Very Favorite and all they bring to make us shine!”

A SUMMER READING REWARD

The Library Director at the American Fork Library wanted a custom coloring and activity book to offer as a summer reading reward. She was thrilled to have a reward that ties directly to the library’s goals of literacy, lifelong love of reading, and building community.

ON-THE-GROUND RESEARCH

Library Director Casandria Crane provided us with helpful resources to start our research. On-site visits to the library fed our creativity and sparked ideas of how to bring the library to life in the pages of this book.

A BROAD APPEAL TO ALL AGES

We developed engaging coloring pages and activities that celebrate the American Fork Library history, highlight current services and programs, and feature American Fork community favorites, such as their annual Steel Days Festival.

CASANDRIA JOINS US FOR PRESS CHECK

Because we do all our printing in Spanish Fork, Utah, it was easy for Library Director Casandria Crane to join us for press check at North Star Printing. We had fun showing her the exciting production side of how our books are made!

ALL TOGETHER GET-TOGETHER

On July 28, 2023, American Fork library patrons who participated in the summer reading program were able to come to a party and receive a book as their Summer Reading reward. The library has additional copies to give as gifts to special guests in the future.

CELEBRATING THE LIBRARY’S CHARACTER

The Children’s Section of the library features wall tiles designed by American Fork elementary students in 2000. We used these same tiles in a secret decoding activity! A spot-the-difference activity illustrates a 1st grade reading program run by the library.

100 YEARS OF AMERICAN FORK LIBRARY DIRECTORS

Library Director Casandria Crane is part of a legacy of powerful women who have served as library director over American Fork Library’s 100-year history. This spread honors and celebrates these directors, showcasing a history that the community is proud of.