Beginning of a Great Adventure: New DIY Books

Ever since mom and I worked on writing "Pirate Adventure" with my Piglet Publications story kit, I've been obsessed with writing more books in my adventures series.  I'm usually working on several stories at one time and I'm big into planning the story out before I actually write it.  Seeing as blank board books don't exactly run cheap and given my newfound status as a prolific writer, mom thought she'd take a crack at these easy folded made from a single piece of paper.  She used large sheets of heavyweight watercolor paper and made a bunch of them.  And, of course, I refused to use them as my actual story books.  But I threw her a bone and decided I'd use them as a "planning book," which was good because we were running out of chalkboard space to plan.

For the actual board books, mom bought a few of these from Amazon and then also picked up one of Todd Oldham's Kid Made Modern board book kits from Target.  The Amazon board books were expensive and the KMM kit, at $14.99 for the book, markers and cool stickers, was a good price, but the quality wasn't that great.  We actually also have the KMM book, but mom seems to think we need to be a little older to tackle some of the projects in it.  Next up will likely be the KMM Comic Book kit, which is so right up my alley.  While they aren't of the best quality, the kits are not overpriced and they're pretty easy to take on vacation, so we've been making good use of them this summer.

I planned and wrote "Knight Adventures," started "Sports Adventures" (subtitled "Adventures in Chicago") with daddy, and have planned out "Dinosaur Adventure."  And I veered off the adventures series to write "Fire Apartment ... and bad guys and pirates."  Happy reading!

My "Dinosaur Adventures" Idea Board

Planning Book for "Knight Adventure" and "Knight Adventures" Book

"A long, long time ago, in a land far away, there lived some dragons.  Their names were "Two-One and "Two-Tap."  They breathed fire on everybody and even on the princess, who was a nice little girl.  They all lived in a land where there was a volcano."

"In the same kingdom, Robinhood & his Merry Men (Fire Till & Fire Kill) were in jail for helping the poor.  Sick King Borta's knights had shut them in tight.  They were chained up.  Knight Spike Red was guarding the jail."

"Sick King Borta & Knight Spiker were in the castle protecting the princess from the dragons.  While outside, Knight Whack Hacker cut down a tree to make a boat (with a canon on it) to fight the dragon."

"Paige Clicker is announcing the King.  The paige had a glitter doggy, "Tebatrone."  They were also guarding the castle to keep the princess safe.  Knight Neverchona, who fought Robinhood, was also in the castle."

"Close to the castle lived a magician named "Fire Cat," who was going to make the dragons disappear. So many knights guarded his house, including Tap (purple w/spear), Feather Green, Purple Tail, and Never Ever (blue on horse) who never ever lets Robinhood out of jail."

"Once the dragons had disappeared, the knights continued to take care of the people.  The knights kept the people away because they didn't know how to party."

And ... "Fire Apartment ... and bad guys & pirates."  I started helping draw my stories with this book.

"The fireman have come to put out the fire at the apartment building.  Fireman Jack was getting the hose ready.  These are puddles from the water."

"Here is rain.  These are bad guys tied up.  The police are coming.  And now they're in jail.  Police were at the fire."

"This is a special fireman for the jungle.  This is the secret map only for pirates who are nice to the map.  It's a surprise."

(a very faint yellow person)

"This person is hurt - he has a dorm in his head (which is a sharp thing that hurt him).   A dorm or thorn is from the cactus by the fire."

"The helicopter is landing.  This is the police station."

"This is Tuchero, the robber - the police caught him.  On the rope."