The handful of children who attended my workshop worked hard on their stories, about a mouse at a birthday party, using six picture prompts I created. And although they each wrote using the same six pictures, each story was unique and quite interesting. It was so much fun to see each child write their ideas down on the paper and then start to craft them into a story. We discussed what a rough draft was and how it didn't need to be perfect. We discussed how it was good to have another person proof read to help find mistakes. We discussed the importance of reading and writing.
One special family, really made my day. The Baumgardner family, who had purchased my first book, Fern Valley, three years ago when I was at a home school convention, heard I was going to be at the expo, they made a special trip to buy book two. Their oldest daughter Katie stayed for the writing workshop and shared with me her desire to one day be an author. Her writing was quite good and I have no doubt that she will one day see her dream come true.
A last but not least, I rounded out a wonderful week by reading two fun fall books for this review. The first was Cork & Fuzz which told a story of two best friends, a muskrat named Cork and a possum named Fuzz. Fuzz believes in the saying finders-keepers, but what he finds and keeps is his friends special green stone. The story tells of the lesson Fuzz learns about keeping something that doesn't belong to him. It is a great lesson story for children six to eight without being preachy.
The second book I read was the Lonely Scarecrow. I must say I was surprised and thrilled with the beautifully embossed pages that gave a delicious texture to the fabulous illustrations. The story was quite surprising too. The lonely scarecrow just wants to make friends, but all the animals are frightened of his appearance. How he finally makes friends is lovely and unexpected.
