Last year when she turned six, one of my daughter's friends gave her a "Create Your own Storybook" kit, which is kind of like a big scrapbook with fairy tale clip art. Both my kids enjoy writing stories so Jasmine was thrilled when she saw it.
We've spent a lot of time cutting and pasting the illustrations, but I have to say, when she showed me the story she had written, The Magical Mirror, I had no words. I just hugged her. Because even though the story had a princess and a castle and the princess was captured by an evil knight, Jasmine's princess is strong. And smart. She doesn't wait for a prince to save the day. She reaches out to her friend, a fairy princess, who saves her from the dungeon.
Now I have nothing against Prince Charming (I'm married to him, after all!) but I love the idea of friendship saving the day. And I really LOVE that this is my six-year-old's world view of how things work. Like I said, at the rate they're going, my kids are probably going to be published before me!
(I thought about putting the whole text in this post, but it's actually more than 850 words -- she's a PB author in the making!)
