My first “books” written when I was 5 and 6 y.o.
Some kids liked to spend their days at the playground, some couldn’t be pulled away from videogames – I was writing stories. I learned to read and write earlier than a majority of my peers which I owe to my grandmother. My favorite part of the day since I was 5 was reading time. I loved to get cozy in my room and immerse myself into the world where characters from Grimm’s fairy-tales or Dumas’ “The Three Musketeers” were my best friends. At some point I found myself composing stories of my own. I turned them into small books made of folded paper and created my own “illustrations” as you can see on the photo:) (Mind that they are written in Russian which is my native language). Recently when going through the boxes with my childhood stuff I came upon these precious pieces of memory. Among the “books” were: a fairy-tale about a magician who decides to teach a kid disobeying his parents a lesson; a story about a sailor in love with a beautiful girl and his evil secret twin; a volume with epic adventures(because there were 100 pages total:) of a lost puppy in search for his home. The last one was actually turned into a play at the local children’s theatre and I remember I had to write a screenplay with the help of the director. Besides happiness from my discovery, I also felt gratefulness – I finally was able to finish a middle-grade novel I was working on. I was debating between two endings and couldn’t decide for a long time already. Then, reading the ending of the story about the magician which appeared to have a similar plot with my novel, I realized – that was the ending I had to work on! I grabbed my laptop and in three hours the first draft was finished! In addition, a few weeks ago I visited Margaret Mitchell’s house and was surprised to find out that she began her literary journey when she was seven. As a teenager she was writing stories about Civil War and the South; scenes from many of them were later included in “Gone With The Wind”. Perhaps some of you have similar first “masterpieces” hidden somewhere in the attic of your parent’s house. If you find them, I’m sure you’ll get an incredible wave of energy for your current work and an inspiration to start a new novel, because reading your first scribbles will be like a magical conversation with a childhood YOU who was already a great story-teller:)
An Amazing World of Children's Books 