My Little Author

Yesterday morning, my 8 yr old son, Zachary, surprised me with what he called an early birthday present. It was a handwritten book about his favorite thing right now- Angry Birds. Over the past couple months he's been obsessed with the game on his iPod and even got the "real life" game. He plays it constantly (the board game, not on the iPod). (: He's even made two or three "instructional videos" to show people how to play the board game. He uses his iPod or the videocamera to videotape his narration, telling about all the pieces of the game, the rules, and strategies. Then, with the help of his trusty assistant (me), he demonstrates how to play. It is very creative and cute. He sounds so professional and serious when he's talking about it.

So back to my gift...actually, a side note first: Up until recently, getting Zachary to write has been a bit of a struggle. He used to have a hard time coming up with topics, and he also struggled with how to put sentences together to say what he wanted to say. Plus, his printing is not the best (although he does cursive beautifully) so that was an issue too. Overall, he just didn't like to write. He loves to tell stories though, so one day I told him just to write down whatever comes in his mind when he's thinking of a story or an idea. I told him not to worry about spelling and punctuation, just WRITE! It was hard for him because he's a perfectionist like me, but he tried it and was proud when he finally started coming up with things to write. First a couple sentences, then a paragraph, then a whole page! I could see his confidence growing. The more he wrote, the more he wanted to write, and then, miracle of miracles, he actually wrote during his FREE TIME, not just for school! Yay! As an extra bonus, he got into drawing pictures to go along with his ideas and now has drawing after drawing taped to the walls of his room. I love it because I can look around and see all of the things he's been interested in over the past year or so: Mario Brothers, the Solar System, Robots, etc.

Anyway, so here's his latest writing which is special because it's an actual book. He even stapled the pages together. (: It's complete with an illustrated cover page and a "teaser" of the story on the back cover. I will copy the story for you since he still has to work a little on spelling, capitalization and punctuation, but I think his other story elements like plot, expression and sentence structure are coming along nicely. I did make one suggestion that he possibly rewrite it and add illustrations for each scene of the story. He liked that idea. (: Update: Pictures have been edited to show illustrations he drew for each page!!

The Pigs Revenge by Zachary (last name)

Once, the pigs were up to something. The king pig was making an army of pigs in the king's secret hidden castle. He is sending his army to steal the bird's eggs. It was almost morning, and every morning the birds checked on their eggs. Just before the birds woke up, the pigs took the eggs. When the birds woke up, they discovered the eggs were gone! They became very angry. Back at the castle, the pigs were planning to fry the eggs. The birds found the king's castle. They set up their slingshot. They flew into the castle! They couldn't break it. Then a black bird came along. He hopped into the slingshot. He flew through the air! He exploded! He broke the wall. He could not break the king's throne! It was protected by a non-see force field! It was time for a plan. When they came to (the) castle, the king pig was asleep. They took their eggs. When the king woke up, he didn't find the eggs. He became very very very angry. Destroy the eggs! He sent his big army again to destroy the eggs! When they heard his plan they, the birds, became angrier than ever. "Destroy the eggs!" said the king. The pigs came closer and closer and closer to the eggs! The birds set up their slingshot. First they killed each pig one by one. There was alot of pigs to be killed. Then all of them were gone. Only the king was left. A black (bird) came along again and killed the king pig. All the birds cheered. The black bird was a hero! After that, the birds settled down in front of their eggs. They were all heroes. They were proud of themselves defeating the king pigs and saving their babies lives. And they lived happily ever after.

Back cover: Angry Birds- are the pigs (taking) over the eggs? Are the birds going to stop them? Find out.

Of course since I am a teacher, I see all the grammatical and spelling errors (we all make them), but nothing compares to how I see it as a mom- filled with creativity and potential. One of the best birthday gifts I could have received. (:

Click on pictures to see them up close