Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Early stories

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I have been meaning, for a VERY long time, to document some of Joseph’s stories.  This was one of his first “books.”  Our friend Courtney came for a visit in the early spring and brought with her this project, as well as her adorable kiddos.  She had decorated lots of little pieces of paper and the kids picked out ones they liked and decorated some more of their own to make a story.  Then we just punched holes in the paper and tied them together.  Easy and fun!

One of the reasons I hesitated for so long to post this (well besides the fact this particular books got returned to the library by accident) is the “dark” (for lack of a better work) themes in Joseph’s writing and thinking.  But, this is him and I am learning to embrace it all!

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The text of this story reads:

They sailed on the boat and then they went on another ship and there were sides on the ship.  There were two planks that you could walk on.  After they walked the plank they got some hearts and they got some treasure and they put it on the ship and they sailed all around.  And then they sand the song, “Arrrr! We got some treasure and then we put it on the ship and we don’t let any cabin boys on the ship.  If there are cabin boys on the ship we push them into the water.”  The bad guys climber the ladder to their own ship.  The other pirates on the brown ship shot them.  The bad guys climbed over this and then swung over to the other side and then they were dead.  The bad guys pirates went in their cabin.  The pirates were deep man cave.  This is a little guy.  One of the pirates.  The pirates cave.  They sleeped on their beds right there.  And they waked up and it was the skeletons sleeping.  And they waked up and the skeletons were up.  Then they went grocery shopping.  This is one of the pirates.  They got good things.  They got macoroni and cheese.  Then they got back on their ship.  Then they got three swords and there were five scare-crows.They were feeling sick becuase they got a fever because they only ate macaroni and cheese.  They got some swords and they ate them.  They didn’t really eat them.  The End. 

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At Joseph’s school they put together tons of blank books like these that the children can use.  

This one reads:

The dad tried to climb up a mountain to try to get a monster.  Then the zombie laughed at the dad cause he couldn’t climb up the mountain.  He tried to get the monster but he couldn’t.  Then there was a waterfall  The monster wanted ice cream but it was at the edge of the waterfall.  The ice cream fell in the waterfall. Then there wasn't any more ice cream in the world.  Then there was a girl going to meet the dad-it was the mom.  Then the boy came.  He said, “I was in Jail.” A thing was around him so he couldn’t get out.  He found a key and then there was a lock on the door.  He put the key in.  He couldn’t get out.  Then he pushed the a button and got out.  Then he walked and walked till he got home to his parents.  The jail man said, “who got out of our cage? The boy was in it.”  Then the boy, the dad, and the mom found their own home and it was black.”

2 comments:

JG said...

Ruth, this was a great post, and thank you for sharing! I think that children can be very dark, and it's frightening for us parents. Lately Sophia has suddenly become afraid of the dark, and talks about ghosts a lot. It's frightening for me because I want her childhood to be so insulated and joyful, and it makes me feel helpless and a bit distraught. I worry about the schizophrenia in my family too, and some part of me worries/wonders if children might be receptive to "paranormal" or dark things that us adults have spent years learning to disregard. It's disturbing when our sweet babies start exhibiting dark thoughts/behavior! It's hard to resist psychoanalyzing and worrying that something's awry, and maybe there's some value in that, but I also think we need to be honest about the dark aspect of humanity, and recognize that children will want to explore the dark and be curious about it, as they are with everything else. I'm glad that you shared this post! It's very interesting/thought provoking!

Anonymous said...

BNice comments, JG. Thanks. Thanks to Ruth and J also.


RB

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