Sharing a Book written by Mr. SP

A few weeks ago Mr. SP excitedly mentioned that he was working on writing a book at school when he was done with his work.  I was delighted.  Then he told me he had to keep the book hidden inside his desk and cover it up whenever his teacher walked by because “it is a little too violent for her.”  Oh no!  I felt more than slightly anxious about this.  In the post-Columbine era of education, any kind of weapon or writing about weapons or anything like them is strongly discouraged at school, with good reason.  But of course, Mr. SP loves a good weapon.  Like his little sister who makes an earring out of anything, he’ll create a weapon out of anything:  toast, sticks, leaves, duct tape, pencils, you name it, he’ll craft it into something that probably would not be acceptable for school.  At first I tried to stop this.  I’ve long since given up.  We’ve talked ad nauseum about how he can’t make things into weapons at school.

“Couldn’t you just write about something you wouldn’t have to hide from Mrs. Miller?” I asked him.

He looked up at me with clear, blue eyes.  “Mom, it’s a REALLY good book.  You are going to love it.”

A week or so later, a small stapled paper book came home in his backpack.  The back was really the front cover, and the pages read from back to front, but I knew he worked really, really hard on the book, and I could see why he really liked it.

None of my kids have actually seen any of the Star Wars movies, but Mr. SP loves to look at books and pictures of Star Wars, and he loves to play Star Wars LEGOS.  The excitement is probably only enhanced by the fact that his dad spends a lot of time building light sabers and we all have a lot of fun having light saber wars with the neighbors on dark evenings in our yard.

For those of you who are not gifted in reading phonetic spelling:

The War of the Stormtroopers

Luke Skywalker swings his light saber at Darth Vader.

Darth Vader chops of Luke’s hand.

Luke kills Darth Moll.

Luke Kills Darth Vader.

Luke jumps to another cup.

Luke cut another stormtrooper.

Luke kills the last clonetrooper.

The book is quite plot driven.  Ahem.  However, I love the clear sequence of events and that there is a great beginning and ending.  All of Mr. SP’s illustrations on any project are practically microscopic.  Sometimes I wonder how he can get his pencil to draw such tiny things.  I’m keeping the book.  I think it’s great even if he did have to hide it from his teacher. There’s a lot to be said for the freedom to write about what is interesting to you.  He was so excited about it, and I’m storing it in his writing portfolio.