Driving my almost 4 year old home from school, I tell her about my day as she tells me about hers. I had to record our conversation today:
“When you were in school today, I began writing a new book.”
“For grown ups or children?
“For children.”
“What’s it called?”
“It doesn’t have a name yet. Maybe you can help me with that when it’s finished.”
“How about strawberry tiger?”
“Well, it’s not about strawberries or tigers.”
“Okay. How about ummmm monkey.”
“It’s not about monkeys either.”
“How about I guess what animal it’s about.”
“Well, it has animals in it, but it’s not really about animals.”
I go on to tell her what it is about.
“But this time, I’m going to need help with the pictures because I can’t draw that well.”
“You need an artist.”
“Yes.”
“I’m an artist.”
“Okay. Do you want to do the pictures for my book?”
“I’m an artist, but I can’t do pictures. I do art and it’s just a mess with art all over. I think you need a grown-up artist.”
I loved this conversation! And what I loved even more is how much my daughter loved the beginnings of the story. For the first time, I read her what I have so far, which is about 1/3 of a draft. She laughed and responded at all the right moments, and wanted me to read it again and again. And this was just my scribbles on a piece of paper, without the art that I hope will make it even more amazing one day when I find a grown-up artist!
Lori Fettner 