"A Trip To The Library"

Madison has been writing short stories, mainly at night before she goes to bed. She'll take a few piece of paper, fold them down the middle and staple along the folded side to make a kind of binder, then she writes out the words around little pictures she draws with crayons. The pictures are important, she says, because it makes her both an author and an illustrator.

"That's very rare, Daddy," she told me with complete conviction when she first introduced the concept a few months ago. "Most times there is someone who does the words and someone else who draws the pictures. It's very rare to be the author and the illustrator." Who am I to argue?

I was wandering around my MacBook Pro tonight, playing with Leopard and looking at documents and other files in "cover flow" (Thanks very much, Steve), when I stumbled upon a story Madison had written at some point over the summer, one I actually typed into my computer as she dictated it, and had long since forgotten.

Gwen was tucking her into bed a little while ago. I went upstairs and said I'd found an old story of hers on my computer, a story about a little boy who went to the library. I asked if she remembered it and what happened and after about half a second she said, "Yeah, the one with the trucks, right? The boy gets the book about the trucks?" I have to admit I was stunned, and amazed, particularly since she's related to me and at this moment I can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning.

Anyway, here's Madison's story:

A Trip To The Library

Once upon a time, a little boy went to the library with his mother. He went to the librarian and said, “Do you have any books about trucks?” The librarian took him to the kids’ section and she found a book about trucks. “Here’s a good one,” she said.

The little boy said, “Look, Mommy, can we get it?” And she said, “Sure, let’s go check it out.”

They checked the book out and they brought it home. Then the little boy said, “Mommy, Mommy, can you read it to me?”

She said, “Sure, let’s go to the comfy couch and read it.”

On the first page, it talked about cranes. On the second page, it talked about dump trucks. On the third page, it talked about cement mixers.

At the end of the story, the little boy said, “Mommy, it was a long day.” And she took him to his room and put him to bed.

The end.