This is Allison. My baby. Everything needs to be experienced fully for her. As a toddler she'd ride in a shopping cart or stroller with her arms extended out hoping to grab hold of whatever her pudgy arms could reach. We inadvertently shoplifted more stuff than I care to admit thanks to my little monkey. She also had a chap stick fetish. She'd smooth it over her lips again and again until her lips were caked with waxy build up. Sometimes she ate it - but it grosses me out to even think about that so we'll move on. Now that she's in school this need to experience things to their fullest is in overdrive. We can't just read about the solar system, we have to get telescope, go to a planetarium, book some sort of space trip with NASA! I'm kidding of course, but I think you get the point.
My baby also has the most amazing way of describing and explaining things. She uses simile and metaphor like a pro! I learn much from her. The other night I was explaining my latest writing project to her. It'll be a Picture Book for the 4 - 7 set and I was stuck on a particular scene. With not a moment of hesitation she spouted off the perfect scene. And detailed! More details than I knew what to do with. If she becomes a writer of Picture Books herself one day I fear she may have trouble keeping her word count under control with the amount of detail she imagines!
It is this imagination of hers that inspires me. As I write my stories I think about what it's like to experience it as a reader? Does my imagination take me to the place I'm describing? Is it real to me - can I feel it, smell it, taste it? Will my readers get into it this way? Will Allison? She's a great sounding board, and a pretty good representative of what most children are like. Hopefully this translates into a published book -or two or twenty!
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