Last week, we showed kids this painting by Robbi and asked them to tell us the story behind it.

(FYI, this drawing is now up for auction over on ebay, so get your bids in! You won’t find an easier (or cheaper) new pet anywhere!)

We had a couple of newcomers to the writing prompt challenge. Thanks to you guys for jumping into the fray.

Here’s a story from Calli (with prompts and parenthetical commentary by her mom):

It’s Sitting

What is the dog doing? It’s sitting. (Note from mom: she is very literal.)

What is it’s name? Calli

What is it thinking about? About if he wants a leash on him. (Note from mom: Interesting twist that it is a boy dog named Calli)

What is he going to do? Take a walk.

Anything else? He wants to play with his cousin dog named Calli too!

And there you have it! A glimpse into the staggering narcissism of the young author. I’m comforted to know that Alden and Kato are not the only ones to suffer from this condition, which I must admit, is incredibly charming. And, further, I must admit that plenty of the older authors I know suffer from the same condition, though perhaps in slightly less transparent ways.

And here is a story from Kato:

A Puppy Dog

He’s a puppy dog. His name is Iggy. He is playing around. He’s bending his ear. I don’t know why. He hears a tuba. He likes how it sounds.  He had cheerios for breakfast. That’s all the things I can say.

Kato’s autobiographical input is limited to naming the dog in his story Iggy. The name of the dog in his house is also Iggy. I must admit this dog has some Iggy-like characteristics: the long and floppy ears, the mournful eyes, the bony knees. But our Iggy does not eat cheerios for breakfast. Unless one of the kids feeds them to her. Which happens more often than we’d like.

As for Alden, who was feeling a little less zippy and imaginative than usual this morning:

Dog

He’s playing with his friends and he’s happy. But he’s a little bit nervous because he’s a puppy. He’s really a little puppy. He’s worried if he bonked his head. He would get really hurt. But he’s pretty friendly. The end.

And here is a story from Melody:

Meow

The dog just woke up and is listening to the cat next door. “Meow!”
It is thinking of an idea of what it will do with the cat.
His idea is to chase the cat all day.

Thanks, Melody for contributing that essential element of any good story: dramatic tension. The unseen “cat” character is in for a doozy of a day, seems. And do we feel sorry for the cat? We do not. Why? Because the dog is our protagonist. He’ seems like a nice enough fellow. In the world of the story, if that cat is going to be chased, then that cat probably deserved it. I wish I could see the next page of the story. I’d like to meet this cat. I don’t like him already.

This one is from Tyler:

Puppy

The doggie’s name is called Puppy, and he’s thinking about watching movies for the day. Outside he wanted to watch a movie. Then a storm came, so he went inside.  The movie was too scary for him, but he really wanted to watch it. So he watched it!  Then, he went to bed at the farm. He hugged and snuggled with the other doggies. Goodnight!

Tyler’s “Puppy” is a resilient sort of hero, the kind we can admire, the kind who won’t let a little rain come between himself and a good movie. I like how Tyler named the dog, set the story in a specific place (the farm) and created some conflict. If only I could remember to add character, setting, and plot to my stories, I’d probably be a much better writer!

And now, from Joe, who always leaves us with the special treat of a story and a drawing.

Dog Named Didiluu

This a dog named Didiluu.
He is going camping for the first time with his family.
He heard them talking about Campfire and S’more.
Marshmallow and chocolate and cracker? (He raised his ear…)
That sounded yummy already~
Roasting with branch sticks?
Oh it’s gonna smell so good~
But oh oh oh
Do you think they will let Didiluu try some too?

And here are Joe’s drawings:
Drawing A:  “Dog?  That’s easy.  I can draw Dog!”  said Joe.

Drawing B:  “Ah, I don’t know how to draw a dog…  *_*”  said Joe.

And now for a special treat. The last writing prompt was based on this painting of a sailboat.

This week, we got another story inspired by the picture. It is from a kid named Kit and here it is (along with a stage-setting cover note):

Dear Bobbledy Books people,

We’re sending this very long story. We hope you like it. It’s the sailboat story. Kit wrote it and Nate typed. Kit has very good talent and dialog and is three and a half years old. Nate is Kit’s Daddy and has very charming manners and is very sweet to eat so please come down here sometime and eat him. (You probably can tell but Kit also wrote this note and Nate typed it, except for this parenthetical remark. Nate also asked the occasional question which helped with the writing process, such as “Should we write a note to go with this story?” and “is that the end of the story or is there more?” and suggested we close this note “Thank you, your friend, Kit.” I would also like to add that we love all of Bobbledy Books including the writing prompts.)

Thank you.
Your friend,
sincerely,
Kit,
The Kid

The Cats, the Baby, Kit, Mama, Grandma, and Daddy and the Boat

Daddy was at the front driving the ship and Mama was at the back make suring that there was big waves. Ayla was in Mama’s lap nursing. Kit was in the middle with the cats, Trina Anne, Chase, and Gabbie Rae. Grandma was keeping Daddy company. Ayla is a baby and Kit is a big girl and Daddy’s name is Nate and Mama’s name is Angelica and Grandma’s name is Faith Noe.

And there were rough waves that the boat sailed very quickly. And Daddy said “where do you wanna go, Kit?” and Kit said “to Egypt!” “Okay!” said Daddy. And Daddy said “Egypt is a very old place. It’s across this ocean, the River Nile Ocean. The Ocean runs into the River Nile.” And Trina Ann mewed “I know! I know! The River Nile Sea is part of the River Nile!”  And Chase meowed, “I know the River Nile Sea runs into another part of the River Nile.” And Gabbie Rae chirped “I know! I know! The River Nile Sea runs into the River Nile Ocean!” And Kit said “Whoa, this boat ride’s fun!”

They packed a camera, and some white paper to make murals with, and some markers, and some pencils, and some journals, and some crayons and a couple pencil sharpeners and erasers, and a photograph book. They brought the photograph book with to put their photographs in and write a description next to each photograph.

There was an octopus. The octopus was a very special octopus because the octopus could bounce up. The octopus also liked to wear a white dress, and white shoes on all eight legs, and they were all waterproof. The octopus even bounced into the boat because it was warmer in the boat. The octopus was standing in the boat welcoming everybody.

And the sharks were very special sharks because they liked to eat sand, and hermit crabs, and regular crabs, and the sun. But the sun grows back. And the seagulls are very special seagulls because they do what you tell them to and they even can talk. The seagulls are from Mexico and they are coming with to Egypt. It’s a room-temperature winter where it never gets snow.

And they sailed past islands with palm trees and they get to Egypt very late. And Kit and Trina Ann have night gowns and Ayla and Gabbie Rae have two piece pajamas and Daddy and Chase have one piece pajamas and Grandma has one piece pajamas and Mama has two piece pajamas. And Kit has dresses and slippers with bows and Mama has skirts and shirts and slippers with flowers tied on and Grandma has shirts and skirts and a necklace and earrings and slippers with shoelaces and Daddy has a bow tie, a top hat, pants, shirts, shoes with shoelaces, and Kit also has bonnets and Mama also has caps.

They knew it would took a long time to get to Egypt so it would be night when they got to Egypt so they brought flashlights and they shared a hotel called the River Nile Hotel and it had four different kinds of water: river water, ocean water, sea water, and pool water. Kit had a one piece swim suit with ruffles and flippers with ruffles
and Mama had a two piece bathing suit with ruffles and also had flippers with ruffles and Daddy had swim suits that had bows on them and flippers with bows on them and Grandma had a ruffly two piece bathing suit and ruffly flippers and goggles and Daddy had goggles and Kit had goggles and Mama had goggles and Trina Anne had goggles and Chase had goggles and Gabbie Rae had goggles and Trina Anne had dresses and Gabbie Rae had dresses and Chase had shirts and pants and Trina Anne had slippers and Gabbie Rae had moccasins and Chase had shoes and Trina Anne had one piece swimsuits with ruffles and Gabbie Rae had one piece swim suits with ruffles and Chase had the boy’s kind of swimsuit because Chase is a boy cat and Trina Anne and Gabbie Rae had flippers with ruffles on them and Chase had plain old regular flippers and a plain old regular bathing suit and Grandma even has waterproof earrings. And we have snorkels and swim masks. The water at the hotel is cold at night and warm in the day so they did not go swimming at night when they got there.

Kit wanted to go to Egypt because Kit wanted to see what was there. Right after breakfast we put on our bathing suits and go swimming. We dive into the water. The cats go first. (This is when Trina Anne is two and Chase is six and Gabbie Rae is five.) The cats all dive at once, they make a splash this big and they make the whole pool surrounding flooded and they make the pool wall be washed away. We first swim in the pool and we second swim in the ocean and we third swim in the sea and we fourth swim in river. There’s a seal in the pool. There are a ton of water animals everywhere. At our hotel there are a ton of water animals swimming.

All I can say is “wow.” The bar has been raised. With Kit at the helm, the proud American literary tradition will march forward in good hands. This story has so many wonderful details, but my favorite is probably the “room-temperature winter.” Only a kid could think up something like that. And only a kid named Kit, more specifically.

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your stories with us.

As for the dog, he is currently for sale (sort of). If you are so inspired, you can bid on him over on Ebay.

At this time, we can’t tell you how much it is for the doggie in the window. In a way, it’s up to you.

Also: if you’re interested in getting weekly Bobbledy Prompts delivered to your inbox, SIGN UP FOR PROMPTS HERE.

And: if you’re interested in getting auction notices by email, SIGN UP FOR AUCTION ALERTS HERE.