Cat, by Daisy Meritt
Daisy and I have been writing stories together. We take some blank pages, stapled together, Daisy makes up the story, and I write down her words, verbatim. My plan was to have her do the illustrations. That part didn't work out so well-- she insisted that I do most of them, and I finally agreed to it because I realized she really wanted some kind of representation of the story, with recognizable images. It seemed only fair-- although my drawing ability is only slightly greater than hers, and she will soon outstrip me, I have no doubt. Anyway, I'm trying to compromise by having her do at least some of the drawing. When she is older, I will definitely have her do the illustrations as well as the text (which is what my parents used to do for me; I'd make up the story, they'd write it down, and then I'd do the drawings, in a blank book).
Daisy's first story was called Cat, and here is the entire text: "Cat falls down sometimes. He gets a cut and a boo-boo. Sometimes he has to go to bed in his own travel bed. He gets some scarves. He puts them under his chin. His friends are Big Bird and my koala bear, Shirley. They love to stand in the rain with their boots on. They love to stamp in puddles--splish, splash, splosh." Picture some hideous drawings, done by me, to go with each page, and some scribblings by Daisy in the background. Daisy specified that the boo-boo had to be on Cat's wrist, so that drawing looks particularly gruesome and I couldn't help drawing him with a Band-Aid on the next page.
Anyway, the cutest thing: today Daisy said, "Mama, I want to read Cat, by Daisy Meritt." I love it that she identified herself as the author that way. I wrote a little author's bio for her on the last page:
"The author, Daisy Meritt, is 2.5 years old. She lives in San Francisco with her parents, Mark and Sarah. Like Cat, Daisy loves to stamp in puddles when it rains." I am also going to put a little photograph of her above the bio, like in a real book where you read the author's bio on the flyleaf and there is sometimes a picture (this is what my parents used to do for me when we made these books together). A family tradition, passed along to the next generation!
Daisy's first story was called Cat, and here is the entire text: "Cat falls down sometimes. He gets a cut and a boo-boo. Sometimes he has to go to bed in his own travel bed. He gets some scarves. He puts them under his chin. His friends are Big Bird and my koala bear, Shirley. They love to stand in the rain with their boots on. They love to stamp in puddles--splish, splash, splosh." Picture some hideous drawings, done by me, to go with each page, and some scribblings by Daisy in the background. Daisy specified that the boo-boo had to be on Cat's wrist, so that drawing looks particularly gruesome and I couldn't help drawing him with a Band-Aid on the next page.
Anyway, the cutest thing: today Daisy said, "Mama, I want to read Cat, by Daisy Meritt." I love it that she identified herself as the author that way. I wrote a little author's bio for her on the last page:
"The author, Daisy Meritt, is 2.5 years old. She lives in San Francisco with her parents, Mark and Sarah. Like Cat, Daisy loves to stamp in puddles when it rains." I am also going to put a little photograph of her above the bio, like in a real book where you read the author's bio on the flyleaf and there is sometimes a picture (this is what my parents used to do for me when we made these books together). A family tradition, passed along to the next generation!
posted by Sarah Goss at 8:25 PM
6 Comments:
Sounds like great fun.
That is the best! If I weren't about to collapse from exhaustion, I would draw some pictures! What a great story, too.
I absolutely love the story of the story of Cat! Actually, everything Daisy says and does makes me think what a wonderful age that must be and what a wonderful daughter you have.
This is a great idea. I will have to do something like this with Phoebe when she gets older. I wonder if there will be something about the dogs! (I'm also a little concerned about my drawing ability.)
Adrienne
Yay!! Thanks, guys! Oh, and Adrienne: I am the worst, WORST at drawing, ever. I am not being modest. You should see my drawings. They look like... I was going to say a two-year-old's drawings, but they are worse. I just don't let it stop me-- or I make Mark do the illustrations. Really, I'm hoping Daisy will start doing them herself.
Do you remember at Mary B. Eyre where the teachers said we couldn't draw pictures for the children because the children would use as a crutch and never draw anything themselves...it may have only been one teacher and not the school policy, but I was told this...they also told me never to say no to a child, which I have learned is impossible, no matter how much redirection you use... :-)
Britin was a non-drawer until about 6 years old, never had much interest--until we got Boss and then he drew dogs a lot --he wrote his first book about a year ago, about Boss and him getting lost in St. Louis. (And being found by us!) I think it is great Daisy has you to narrate to...does she like to cut and paste yet? Maybe she could cut out images or pick them out and you could cut them and let her paste it onto the book?
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