Ara the Dream Innovator

The lead character in this story, Ara, is a girl, but this is more than a book for girls. As author Komal Singh states in her introduction, “I hope this book gives children (and adults) a peek into the amazing world of start-ups and the journey of innovation.”

As an adult, I can confirm that I learned a lot. Who knew, for example, that unicorns and narwhals are “start-up companies that have achieved unusually great success and are now valued very highly (at more than a billion dollars!)”

Ara the Dream Innovator is based on Singh’s own entrepreneurial journey. The main character, Ara, likes to invent gadgets. With her grandmother as her first mentor, Ara sets out to turn her invention of a Dream Decoder into something that can be shared and used by other children. She attends a Hackathon to recruit a team to work with her. Along the way, Ara and her team must face some setbacks and some failures, but, with the help of mentors and supporters, they improve their Dream Decoder design so that it is more inclusive, respecting and including the ideas of all to create a device for everyone, and can find a “futuristic funder” to launch their Dream Decoder.

Illustrator Ipek Konak’s artwork is the perfect match for Ara’s story. The human characters are wide-eyed young people with a variety of skin tones, clothing styles, and include one member of the team in a wheelchair. Ara’s assistant is a green robot named Dee Dee. Each character is active in contributing and improving the Dream Decoder. It is possible to interpret each character as female, but, given today’s reality, all I would say is that they make a great team.

The book ends with a “Hall of Founders”, including some of today’s “tech start-up superheroes who inspire us Super Solvers”. None of these “Hall” names were familiar to me, but a quick internet search confirms these are all inspirational young movers and shakers in the tech field: Maayan Ziv, accessibility activist; Julia Collins, first Black woman unicorn founder; Meagan Byrne, Métis game designer; Helen Greiner, tech disrupter; Huda Idrees, digital health records innovator; Alexandra Zatarain, Hispanic trailblazer; Sanskriti Dawle, inclusive education advocate, Arlan Hamilton, angel funder, Emma Yang, Alzheimer’s AI app entrepreneur. The “Hall of Founders” alone is worth the purchase price of this book.

Ara the Dream Innovator begins with a page of “Praise for Ara” that includes praise from Eric Schmidt, Former Executive Chairman and CEO of Google. “Ara and her friends are more than just characters; they are models for girls and boys to follow if they are curious about the world – and want to build a better one.”

I couldn’t agree more.