• My daughter is at that age where her imagination is out of this world. About 18 months ago, she looked at me and said, “Mommy, tell me a story about a dragon named Oreo.” So it began, I started the tale of Oreo the Dragon. The next night she took over the story and added characters and silly events.

    About three days in, I began writing down all of her stories as we went. She was completely impressed and has began recognizing words as I wrote them. Nearly exactly one year later we read the story back to her; she elaborated on some events and described in detail what she saw in her head.

    We printed the whole thing out, and bound them with a hole punch and some yarn

    The next day I had her draw out all the pictures that would go along with her story. This was a task that only a four year old could take so seriously. She labored at our kitchen table for days, drawing out her favorite scenes. While she drew, I typed. She had nearly 40 pages of story that I typed out into one file. Once she was satisfied with her artwork, we analyzed where in the story they should go, making her book roughly 60 pages (this included a title page of course). We printed the whole thing out, and bound them with a hole punch and some yarn. It was perfect, except it wasn’t holding up to the wear and tear of a four year old.

    Inspiration hit, and I went to www.blurb.com. I scanned all her pictures, and copy and pasted the text into her very own bound hard back book. I ordered four copies, one for her, one each for grandparents, and one to give her kids. They haven’t gotten here yet, but we are all anxiously awaiting their arrival. How many four year olds can say they are published?