My Little Author

On Sunday night Tralee told me she wanted to write a book for our library.  She found the paper, drew the pictures, handed me the pen, and told me what I should write for her.  She titled her book, Girls Around the World are Great.  Tralee informed me she decided to write about girls because she is a girl, and so she knows all about them.  The little stinker already knows one of the most important rules of writing:  write what you know.

After we "pinned" (stapled) her book together it DID NOT leave Tralee's side.  She slept with it next to her.  She walked into our room in the middle of the night, book in hand, and asked me, "is it time to go to the library?"  When I told her it was still time to sleep, she crawled into bed next to me, and kept her book safe under her arm.

The sun rose, and Tralee rose right along with it.  Every few minutes she asked again, "is it time to go to the library?"  And every few minutes Tralee walked away disappointed that it still wasn't time to take her book in.  It got to the point where Tralee found her pink Hello Kitty watch (something she NEVER wears), brought it over to me, asked me to put it on her, and point out when it's time to go to the library.  I showed her where the hands need to be pointing, and right at 10:00am Tralee sprinted up the stairs to find me.  As soon as she found me putting on my make-up, she shoved her watch in my face and announced, "Mom!  It's 10!  It's 10!  It's 10!  It's time to go to the library!"

All the way to our library I prayed that a nice librarian would help us.  I hoped she/he would understand the excitement that had been festering in Tralee's little body for the past 12+ hours.  I hoped the librarian would humor my little girl, and tell her how special she was for writing a book for the library.

When we arrived, we waited in line as Tralee's proud little smile stretched from ear to ear.  Her hands clutched her special book tightly.  Her eyes twinkled underneath the pink princess sunglasses she chose to wear for this "fancy" event.  When the librarian said, "I can help whoever is next."  I thought, "well, here we go!"

I watched Tralee march up to the librarian behind the desk -- so self assured -- and place Girls Around the World are Great on the counter that was just a few inches shorter than herself.  I listened to Tralee tell the librarian that she wanted to give her book to the library so everyone can read it.  I held my breath and waited for the librarian's response.  Would she scratch her head and wonder how to respond or would she sense how excited the five-year-old standing in front of her was about the experience?

To Tralee's delight (and mine) the librarian made a nice little fuss over Tralee's book.  She asked if she could be the very first person to read it.  She pointed to a specific page and told Tralee that was her favorite part.  You could feel Tralee's happy energy bursting out of her little body.  The librarian then thanked Tralee for bringing in the book, and assured her it would be well read.  I sighed a sigh of relief, and thanked the librarian several times for making my daughter's day.

We then continued on our way, and checked out some new material -- none of which, I'm sure, was writen by a cuter author than my Tralee.

If you're interested, here's a video of Tralee reading her book.  I took pictures of all the pages before we took it into the library, because I didn't want to forget it.