Lately Scarlette’s favorite activity is to create her own storybook. At bedtime she loves for me to make up stories for her and then she likes to tell me a made up bedtime story of her own.
One day I was working at the computer when she sat down across from me with a handful of paper and a fistful of crayons and said “Look Mommy, I writing a book like you!” And so I told her that if she would work on all the drawings for her book she could tell me the story and I would write it down and then we could put it all together to make a special book.
I’ve just been writing them down exactly as she tells them to me and they absolutely make my day. (But not the characters day, because apparently the theme in Scarlette’s work is that everybody dies. I don’t even know.)
This one, entitled “The Girl Ate The Oranges” is my favorite. It is several pages long so I’m going to type the whole thing out here for posterity. And also hilarity.
“Once upon a time a girl ate an apple from a tree like this: NOM NOM NOM. The little girl was born and she had a dog who got an orange and she took it to the castle. The dog wanted a crown but the girl said NEVER NEVER NEVER! Then there were no green apples and everyone’s almost gotta DIE. Then she walked along and there was a great KABOOM on the path and then she died in the thunder. So there were no apples for her.
The thunder was loud again and SCARY SCARY! The girl was all alone and dead so the dog ate her ice cream (editors note: I was really glad when she added in “ice cream” there.) Then she head a great big BOOM! Then she had an idea! She tried to write her name I think. Other people were sad and they didn’t like when they were dead because they just like to be happy.
All the dogs were gone because it was too late. All the oranges flew away. They flied really fast. They didn’t know what to do because they were just oranges so they got on an airplane and went ZOOM! That’s the end of my story.”
I predict a New York Times best-seller.
