Imagination and Creation

I remember just how I felt when I was a kid and had an assignment to begin a project.

Do you remember that feeling?

Excited to create something but scared to death that it won’t come out as planned and won’t be any good.

This blog is that project: A combination of imagination and creation.

I love children’s books: board books, picture books, chapter books, middle grade books.

I draw the line at young adult.

Magic, baking (a form of magic!), animals, fairies, fairy tales, make-believe.

I love it all.

Story, in all its forms, are the fabric of our society.

And we’re all storytellers.

When you post something on Facebook, you’re telling a story.

When you send an email, you’re telling a story.

When you share something on Instagram, you’re telling a story.

When you’re telling your kids about what your life was like when you were their age, you are, of course, telling a story.

You may even be a writer of stories or poems with the hopes of becoming published.

If so, I see you and I salute you.

And I join you.

I’ve been telling stories for years.

I remember being bitten by the writing bug when I was in middle school.

I had written a story for my seventh grade teacher for extra credit.

It was a spooky story.

She handed it back to me with a back-handed compliment, written in red pen at the top of the first page: “Did you write this? This is really good.”

What the what?

Of course, I had written it.

And I went on to write other things just to prove myself.

But my love of words started when I was really young, maybe five.

My mother read Robert Louis Stevenson poems to me, and I loved the one called Travel that began “I should like to rise and go Where the golden applies grow; Where below another sky Parrot islands anchored lie, And, watched by cockatoos and goats, Lonely Crusoes building boats.”

My bed became the ship that would take me on adventures.

I know children still have vivid imaginations that can be spurred along with a little quiet time to just think or a little bit of fresh air.

I was walking my dog the other day, past a house on the corner that has a swing and rocking horses for neighborhood kids to play on.

Two kids, I assumed it was an older sister and her little brother, hopped off their bikes and ran over to the rocking horses.

“You be the—” something, the girl said. (I didn’t stop walking because I didn’t want to interrupt them.)

I could hear their little voices telling each other ideas and laughing.

How refreshing.

This particular house also has a Little Free Library on the other side of their lot with books just for kids.

So, as I said, this blog is my project of imagination and creation.

I plan to include book reviews for middle grade kids (aged 8 – 12 years old), give you some food for thought to share with your kids about imagination, reading fun books, writing their own stories (even helping you write special stories just for your kids), easy recipes to try, and book-related crafts.

I look forward to your comments and any thoughts about what you might want to see as far as future content.