Lucy and Rabbie's Safari Party: A Feminist Tale

April is be an author/illustrator month at Lucy's school (as well as being ocean/beach month, but they're not connected). The children's assignment was to dictate a story, have a parent write it down, and then to illustrate. Then they present their book to the class. Here is Lucy's:



Lucy and Rabbie went on an adventure safari in the jungle.

The first animal they met was a cheetah named Freckles Daniels. She said to them, "Let's go camping in the jungle."

Lucy and Rabbie said, "Yes, let's go camping together. We brought our tent." The tent was pink with blue lace and a rainbow on it. They set up the tent underneath a tree.

Suddenly, they heard a humming noise. It was a hummingbird, humming "Good night, good night."

Next they all heard a roar. It was a friendly lion, coming over to say, "Hello!"

So Rabbie, Lucy, and Freckles decided to have a party in the jungle. Besides Mrs. Lion, they invited Miss Gorilla, Mrs. Leopard, and Mrs. Squirrel (even though she didn't live in the jungle). The only boy allowed at the party was Rabbie.

The party began. They cooked fish in the fire and roasted turkey and had ham and rice. To drink they had milk, tea, coffee, and raspberry cordial. For dessert they had poppyseed cake, ice cream, and pumpkin pie. There was music, and they all danced in their lovely skirts. Rabbie wore a new bow and suit.

After the party, Lucy, Rabbie, Freckles, and all their friends got in sleeping bags. Before they went to sleep, they looked up at the moon and stars and said, "I think we'd better wish." They wished they could have a party like that every year.

After we finished Lucy's book, I dug around in some of my stuff and found this:

I'm not sure when I wrote it, maybe first grade since I did all the writing as well. I read it to Lucy, and she loved it. It was really funny to see all the elaborate food and clothing descriptions. As my dad always says, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." I was going to take pictures of this book and post the story too, but...y'all. It has at least seven chapters and 36--thirty-six!--pages of text. The urge to dump out my thoughts on paper started early, I guess. Fortunately for Lucy, she has an editor.