Not too long ago, my 7 yr old daughter attended a mini book club after school with her teacher and some of her classmates. Her and I made sure she read the whole book of "The Littles" prior to the meeting. This really was a wonderful turning point in my daughter's reading, as it was the first time she wanted to read something. She went happily to her book club and I felt a bit left out but I knew it was something she needed to do. When I picked her up after wards her teacher came up to the car and asked me if I was a writer. I was a little taken aback but replied that I was. She explained that my daughter had told everyone that her mom was a writer like one of the characters in the book. I smiled and felt my heart swell. Then the teacher asked if I had anything I could read to the class. Lucky for me I'm an eclectic writer and have a picture book on my hard drive. We set up a day and a time and that's how I found myself standing in front of a whole class of second graders reading my unpublished and unillustrated book. I must tell you it was the most fun ever. They loved the story and I even passed out pages of the story for them to illustrate. As I walked around the classroom I met aspiring writers and even aspiring illustrators. I left them with a copy of my book that they illustrated for their classroom. Later that day when I picked my daughter up from school, a little boy walked up to me and showed me some of his handmade books he'd written that day. As I looked at his carefully crafted construction paper covers and folded papers I couldn't help but beam. This is what I want to do. I want to write and inspire others to read and write. Reading to my daughter's class lit a new fire for my love of writing and I definitely recommend it to anyone who has forgotten why they write. What events have inspired you to keep writing?
It's amazing how the acceptance of children can be such a boost to one's morale! I have been working on a book of LDS poetry for kids, and I have used my own children (almost 7 and 5) as a test audience. I mostly just wanted to get their reaction to a few of the poems. The other night at dinner a friend asked me if I had any writing projects in the works and I told him about the poetry book. It had been more than a month since I'd even read any of it to my kids, but my son piped in with, "Mom, tell him the one about ______!!" And then my daughter said, "I like the one with the________!" Once night my son even came into my office when he couldn't sleep and begged me to read him some of the poems. I did, and it turned into, "Please, just one more, Mom?" :-) It is such a pleasure to have such an eager and open audience!!!
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome! And what a great idea to have them illustrate pages from your book!
ReplyDeleteIt's true, Kasie! It's hard not to beam from ear to ear when our kids talk our writing. I really like your idea of LDS poems for children. How awesome.
ReplyDeleteThanks Stephanie. The pictures were so cool. I even got to keep some of them. If I knew how t use my darn scanner I would have put some of them on here. It really was a ton of fun