Sometimes a gem jumps up and lands in your change purse. I had that delightful experience last night.Many of you know that I host a Kids Night craft every Tuesday at my restaurant. Last nights craft was "Decorate a Glitter Wand"
Can you say MESSY?
Covered in glitter, I looked like a Fairy God Mother by the end of the night. I got a lot of stares when I went to the grocery store before returning home.
Anyway. . . . back to the purupose of the story
One little girl, about 4 or 5, was in heaven making this glitter wand. Her enthusiasm shined brighter than the glitter. At one point she put her nose as close to the glitter and glue as she could w/o getting it on her skin as she gushed
"Ahhhhh, there's nothin' like the smell of sparkly and sticky!"
And so I thought "Wow! What a great example of how a small child thinks."
As adults we've been programed to think inside the box. You CAN'T smell "sparkly" you see it. You CAN'T smell "sticky" you touch it.
Not for this child-like innocence. She associates a smell with what she sees and touches.
How sweet. How pure
As an apiring children's author, I'm constantly on the lookout for how I can escape an adult mindset and tap back into the perspective of a child.
This little girl inspired me to think of the things that I love and rethink how I would describe them. My challenge is for you to do the same.
This little girl didn't just like glitter and glue. She liked the sparkly and sticky.
I love the beach: the weather, sand and the water
But that just sounds boring. How would this child describe the beach?
It's been harder than I thought.
Some that I've come up with is
There's nothing like the smell of blue, splashy hot and shell hunting.
What can you come up with? You can use the beach or anything else that you may love. (I hear that some people don't like the beach.) Shocking. I know.
Anyway. Just pick something you like and try it! I'd love to hear what you come up with.
I appologize for the progressively huge letters. I keep trying to make the font smaller, but it's not working. I don't know why. !?!?!?!?!
8 comments:
I have many picture books "in the works" and ideas come from things exactly like this. This is an especially good one. Kids don't separate their senses the way adults do.
I do think picture books are the hardest to write. Novels are much easier!!!
All best, will get the interview done soon...
k
There is nothing like the sound of icing and the feeling of cake belly.
Christy...what a great story...and what a great title for a pb book...
Jacqui...I love it! Icing does sound soooo good and I can definately feel my cake belly when I get done eating the whole cake...grin...
I'm useless, right now, in the "there's nothing like..." department -- but I really enjoyed your post!
loved your comments on seeing life through the eyes of a 5 year old. Sometimes I think of cold as blue, or the number 5 as orange (yellow is a 2, red is 3) ...so maybe there's hope for me yet!
also was impressed that you entered Ms. Snarky's contest. I'm trying to figure out how to put a blog feed unto my blog, so people can subscribe to updates. Do you know how to do that? I too have gotten stuck on font sizes.
How did you hook up with Kathleen Duey? I love her books! My kids have read many. Carol
I can relate to the personalities of numbers. I've always envisioned a triangle of sorts between 4, 5 & 6, 4 and 6 being female and 5 being the guy in between. 6 is more worldly and not as nice as 4 who would be red; 5 is blue and 6 is yellow to me. Oh, and my cat has nice fuzzy warbles that he gives when petted.
Hi Kathleen! Thanks for stopping by! Good luck with your PB works. If they are anything like your novels, they'll be outstanding!
Jacqui, LOL! I knew I could count on you for a great perspective.
Brenda, I think that would make a good title too. Now I just need the rest of the book. hmmmmmmm . . . .
THanks Wordwrangler!
Carol, I love how you associate numbers with colors!
I'm not sure about the subscribe feed. i think if you customize your account there's probably something there for that. I would first look under "Add a page element."
I added Kathleen as a friend on my facebook account. She is super friendly and approachable. And I'm super giddy to give you a heads up that in the near future I will have a blog interview with her with a book giveaway for Skin Hunger. !!!! I'm excited about that.
Cathy, I love your association w/ numbers too. And the "fuzzy warbles" is too cute! :0)
Christy
I think you'd like the book BORN ON A BLUE DAY.
I think the girl in your post would say this (after rolling around in the hot sand and the cool water and leaning in to sniff her sand castel just at the moment when the water swirls around the moat) "There is nothing like the smell of hot crunchy (meaning sand) and cool splashy"
I once worked with a boy who had communication and sensory issues. He said, "I have smoke in my stomach" just before he "lost his lunch"
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