the author

Sometime this summer Julianna really got into "writing books".  She staples together pieces of paper and comes up with her story line and gets to work :)  It's so fun to watch her create.  I seriously hope that I manage to hang on to copies of some of these early writings, but just in case took photos and decided to document them here as a second method of memory keeping!

One of her earliest creations, and my personal favorite is called Boy Booc [book] and she interviewed her little brother to get an expert opinion before writing her manuscript.  Each page has line(s) of text and illustrations.  I wish I had pics of Boy Booc but it's late and the camera isn't readily available, so I'll share some of my favorite lines (taken straight from the little brother interview) instead:  "I like mie sistr." and "I like parcing lots." 

And one entire page that says simply "bloo pas" - she butchered "blue pants" and has this awesome sketch of an empty pair of blue boys pants.  I can so picture her asking Isaac "what do you like, you know, what do boys like, I need to write something in my boy book".  And Isaac answering "Boys like blue pants." 

Lydia was inspired and wrote the sequel, Girl Book, which is equally entertaining.  The writing in "Girl Book" is a little tougher to decipher, but Lydia is a great artist, so what she tends to muddle with text she nails with her illustrations. 

So, all that to introduce the one book I do have pics of.... on Thursday she came bouncing out of her classroom, "Mom, I need to find all my books, I need to bring a book that I wrote to show my teacher."  After more consideration, she decided to start from scratch.  Her teacher specified "no text just pictures" and that she needed to be able to narrate the book to her classmates.

Julianna got out her paper and scissors and stapler and crayons and went to work.  She LOVES this kind of project, poured her heart into this little book and was delighted to present the final product:

[obvious: She did her own hair on Thursday.  yeah.]

The title is 小猪的学校 （Little Pig's School).  I wrote out the characters on a different sheet of paper and she copied them on to her book cover.  As far as I know she can only write a very limited number of characters - following in her mommy's footsteps on that one!  Ha!  Seriously, while I will easily outpace her in ability to read Chinese for a few more years, she's probably not far away from being able to out-write me.  I can't write hardly ANYTHING!!!

The plot line isn't that complex, but she did manage to illustrate approximately 26 pages detailing most every aspect of little pig's day at school.  (I say approximately 26 pages because while she numbered every page I noticed she skipped at least one number and am open to the possibility that she duplicated others?  Apparently her editor was a little off task that particular afternoon!)

Below is little pig eating lunch and then getting ready for his afternoon rest :)  She's probably not a future artist, but does include details like cloven hooves and a hair bow between the ears to distinguish that his lunch buddy was female :)

She also clarified that she almost wore out the pink crayon because every pig on every page had to be pink :)  The trials and troubles of a book illustrator, I guess :)

If you ask Julianna what she wants to be when she grows up she will definitely answer "Mommy".  [Confession: I have brainwashed my kids and almost every time we have a conversation about "what people do" or "that's their job" I will finish with "who has the best job in the whole world?" and they each grin up at me and say "you do!"] 

Julianna often adds to "Mommy" that she wants to be a ballet teacher - she and Lyds have worked out a plan where they will share ballet teaching responsibilities and childcare with one another  - one will teach class while the other watches both sets of children and then switch.    While I could care less if they teach ballet (and realize the chances are slim) I am delighted that they both aspire to be Mommies, and would be thrilled if they were close friends and watched each other's children!  

Maybe Julianna will soon add "author" to her career list though?