Last week Lucas’s school had a Parents’ Night/Book Fair. Among other things, this event featured a display of books the children had written. Lucas kept telling me, “You’re going to hate my book. It’s completely inappropriate.” I began to get nervous, as any mother would in that situation.
On the way there, my mind reeled with inappropriate possibilities. I was sure that he had revealed an embarrassing family secret. (Not that we actually have any of those.) Had he told what Grandpa says while he’s watching basketball? Did he give a description of the time he helped his dad make wine? Or of the PG-13 movie we shouldn’t have let him watch? The kid pretty much has a photographic memory, so there was no telling what it might have been. The only topic I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be was “Where Babies Come From”. We have purposely withheld that information from him because we know it would pop up at the most inappropriate of times.
When we got to school, we made our way to his classroom, where his teacher greeted us with a smile. I searched for his book, fully expecting his teacher to say something like, “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this. I think he should start seeing the school counselor immediately.” So imagine my surprise when I found his book and it was titled The Time I Almost Got Electrocuted. It was about the time when I caught him a split second before he stuck a key into a wall outlet. It happened over three years ago, and I had pretty much forgotten about it. I would have thought he had forgotten too, but like I said, he doesn’t forget anything.
I was amazed at what a good job he did writing his book. The story flowed well and he included just enough relevant details to keep it interesting. I wasn’t sure whether it was just the mother in me thinking it was good until he came home from school the next day. They’d had a schoolwide assembly where a local author (no, not me) came to speak. The teachers selected one student book from each grade level for the author to read aloud, and Lucas’s book was the one chosen for second grade. He was moritfied, and I had to explain what an awesome accomplishment that was.
I’m glad my son doesn’t fully understand the meaning of inappropriate. I’m also glad that he’s showing a knack for writing. He’s written a couple more books since then, and it is obvious that he has not only a good storytelling ability, but also my sense of humor. One of them has the lines, “There was a mad scientist named Mad Scientist. He made an invention called the shrinkinator, which obviously makes things bigger.” His other book is called If You Give a Kid a Corndog. It’s based on the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series. It lists all these crazy things that happen after I give him a corndog. Like the Mouse books, it goes full circle and ends with him wanting another corndog.
As you can probably tell, my boy has really done me proud. I’d better get busy on my novel, or he’s going to be a published author before I am!
Yea, Lucas. Can I get an autographed copy?. Tell him I’ll be his promoter!