My youngest daughter is a writer. At almost eight years old, she’s self published about a dozen books. OK, not with Lulu or iUniverse, but in the old fashioned, handwritten way. And she does her own illustrations. (Though she collaborated with a classmate on a recent project where she was the illustrator and the story was “authorized” by her friend. I think she’s been channeling a certain prez who makes up their own words, but I digress…)

I’d like to share a sample of one of her shorter works, an Easter story assigned at school. For the assignment she had to use certain words (peep, basket, golden egg and fox). I’ve cleaned up the spelling and some of the mechanical issues like making paragraphs, but this is essentially her work. Enjoy!

Easter Surprise
(posted with permission from the author)

One day on Easter I looked in my basket and there was a little yellow peep but it hatched from a golden egg. I knew peeps weren’t alive so I thought it was a trick.

Then the Easter bunny came and said, “Opeepy!”

Then a sly fox came. It was drooling. It mumbled, “Bunny for dinner! Heh, heh, heh.”

Then ZING! animal control was there!

I thanked animal control and the Easter bunny wasn’t eaten.

As proud a parent as I am, I’m also a writer, so my poor kids are often subjected to my editing pen. I don’t tear into them like I do my crit partners : ) but I do make suggestions. I didn’t worry about that here, however. Sure, there are some plot holes, but basically the kid hits the main points of a story: interesting characters (peeps-gotta love ’em, Easter bunny-familiar face, and the sly fox-our antagonist), a conflict (fox wants to eat the bunny) and resolution (animal control comes). All in all, not a bad little story.

I wonder if she’s willing to partner with me….