Jace, The Author

Jace is so creative. He tells me he doesn't like to read books that use imagination. "I prefer non fiction." It's true he does. He just got two new books with a gift card from his birthday, one about sharks and one about the brain. He's already planning his next trip to the book store! And every time we go to the library he comes home with factual books as well, about animals, weather, and people. But don't let him fool you. He may like reading non fiction better, but I think he'd be great at writing fiction.

He has a summer journal and I keep trying to get him to write stories in there. He mostly pens songs, though. I love that! Today, in the car, he started a story and I encouraged him to keep going. Together we came up with this:

Once upon a time there was a little boy who didn't eat his vegetables. After a whole week of not eating his veggies at dinner, he went to bed and dreamed about all the foods he loved. But when he woke up...he was in a garden!

He looked around and had squash, tomatoes and cucumbers to one side. On the other side he saw carrots, lettuce and mushrooms. He closed his eyes and rubbed them. When he opened them back up, he was still in the garden! He began to panic.

He jumped up and squished a squash. Then he tripped on the tomatoes and crushed a cucumber. He cracked some carrots when he fell and tried to get up in a hurry. The lettuce wouldn't let him. It made him try a mushroom. "Mmmm," he said.

All the vegetable stopped and said, "What?"

"Mushrooms are mmmmm," he repeated. The lettuce let him go. He carefully made his way out of the garden and back to his house. He ran through the door and yelled to his mom.

"Mama! Guess what? I woke up in a garden and got scared. I squished a squash and tripped on tomatoes. I crushed cucumbers and cracked carrots. When I tried to run away the lettuce wouldn't let me and made me try a mushroom and I liked it. I like it, mama!"

Mama squatted down and smiled at her son. "Does this mean you'd like a salad for dinner?"

He thought about it, and remembered the veggies in the garden, and answered, "Yes! Can I make it?"