What kind of stories did you write when you were a kid? Kid’s author Jarrett J. Krosoczka gave a heartwarming TED presentation (video embedded above) about how writing and art saved his life in grade school.
Here’s an excerpt from the talk:
When I was in the third grade, a monumental event happened. An author visited our school, Jack Gantos. A published author of books came to talk to us about what he did for a living.And afterwards, we all went back to our classrooms and we drew our own renditions of his main character, Rotten Ralph. And suddenly the author appeared in our doorway, and I remember him sort of sauntering down the aisles, going from kid to kid looking at the desks, not saying a word. But he stopped next to my desk, and he tapped on my desk, and he said, “Nice cat.” (Laughter) And he wandered away. Two words that made a colossal difference in my life. When I was in the third grade, I wrote a book for the first time, “The Owl Who Thought He Was The Best Flyer.”
The video includes snapshots of his grade school writing. His speech inspired me to dig out the book I wrote in fourth grade about a hardboiled private detective who gets abducted by aliens. I’ve posted a page from that book below–but now it is time for you to share!
Visit my Things We Wrote as Kids page on Pinterest to see what GalleyCat readers created as elementary school kids.
Email GalleyCat a photograph of your grade school storytelling and we will create an online gallery collecting our young writings. Be sure to include how old you were when you wrote the story!
You can also read copies of Krosoczka’s childhood work at his website.
Here is an excerpt from My Assignment, a paranormal thriller written by ten-year-old Jason Boog. (Video via Random House)
