I forgot about this submission for the story marathon. As the title suggests the subject matter might be a little macabre but I think it’s okay. Some of the best children’s books deal with mortal peril: Lion and the Mouse, Three Billy Goats Gruff and the spider and the fly among many others.
I really like the idea of the juxtaposition of fantastic science fiction with the mundane patterns of school.
This is obviously autobiographical.
Tattle-Tail This is a story of sibling rivalry between two brothers; Tad and Eli. Tad the younger brother has always been behind his brother. As tadpoles Eli sprouted arms and legs before him and in good brother fashion rubs it in too. Tad in his own insecurity and jealously constantly tattles on his big brother. Tad is told that “No one likes a Tattle-Tell. Eli and his older friends start calling Tad Taddle-Tail and unfortunately for Tad the name sticks because he’s late loosing his tail. Eli the over confident older brother decides to leave the safety of the pond to explore the marsh. This is completely against the rules and Tad knows it. No likes a tattle tell, but Tad for the first time decides to taddle, not out of jealously but out of genuine concern for his older brother. It’s a good thing too because Tad’s parents are able to save Eli from the razor sharp beak of a hidden heron. Eli is grateful to his brother and now everyone loves a taddle-tail.
Clean Freak!
Is the story of an unlikely friendship
between and ocd cleaner shrimp and a
hording hermit crab.
Manny, an OCD cleaner shrimp never
stops cleaning and organizing his small
nook on the reef, a regular Felix Unger.
Manny’s world is turned upside down
when a new neighbor moves in. He’s not
just a hermit crab, he’s a hermit hoarding
crab named Louie. Manny tries to be a
good neighbor, but it’s hard, Louie is so
messy and his junk constantly spills over
on to Manny’s home. Louie’s sloppy habits
and obnoxious behavior drive Manny up
the wall he can’t take it anymore and
becomes a Clean Freak. He cleans
everything in Louie’s house while Louie
is sleeping. When Louis wakes up he’s
astonished and touched at the act of service.
Louie tries to reciprocate the act of service
by giving Manny a gift ( to Manny it’s
disgusting junk, but he accepts the gesture).
With a few acts of kindness an uncommon
friendship is born between a cleaner shrimp
and a Hoarding Hermit Crab. In the end
Manny even clean’s Louie’s gunk and barnacle
ridden shell. In the end this “odd
couple” make great neighbors, one is always
messy and the other always cleans and in
their own way balances out the eccentricities
of the other.
I was inspired by the story marathon Jed Henry did several months ago, and after getting approval from my overworked literary agent I set out on a 25 five story marathon myself. It was a great experience forcing myself to come up with a new story and art every day. A lot of bad ideas came out of it and some good. I will not share all of my stories here. The marathon helped weed out some new concepts and stories I want to develop further into actual picture books. This was my second submission entitled Pidge and Pudge. The first page has a synopsis of the characters & story. Enjoy!
Scribble, Scrabble, Babble 