Day Five... I'm still alive

Day five of the writing frenzy, and I'm still gamely going at it.

For this story, I really had nothing. NOTHING! It was quite a day for me. I was so busy and stressed at work I came home from lunch and de-stressed (a little) with a book. On the way home from work five hours later, dredging up ideas and hammering my mindless grey cells against the stony emptiness of my skull, I walked by a meadow that was rushing water, and thought, "What does a stream think as it streams along?"

Voila. A poem popped into my head. It started with the line:

"The stream goes dreaming, streaming, gleaming,"

followed by the rest of these lyrics:

"Through a meadow merrily,
And it dimples dappled ripples
Lost in rushing reverie."

What does a stream dream? Hopefully, this poem will enliven, one day!

Tomorrow's day six. Onward, upward, ever forward! (No picture accompanied this poem. I can't do water, yet.

Day Four... Stress gaLORE!

It's amazing to realise we're already four days into NaPiBoWriWee. For this story, my mind actually decided to take me down the NF aisle...rather to my surprise, since I couldn't see a NF PB that would impress children.

However, my effort came through. I call it "Alligator Bugs", and it's about baby ladybugs, who start their lives looking something like little black alligators with orange spots.

See that bug, crawling up that leaf? It looks nasty! It must be a mean bug. Squish it. Wait! Wait! Don't squish that bug, 'cause it's a baby ladybug! Really.

Since baby ladybugs eat and eat and eat so many of the bugs that are bad for plants and trees, it's important not to kill them. They are a farmer's friend. Love the alligator bugs, 'cause one day they'll become a beautiful ladybug, and ladybugs are lucky!

The Name of This Book Is Secret: Pseudonymous Bosch

"Cassandra" is your normal, average, eleven-year-old school-girl...except she has pointy ears. She carries a backpack all the time, because her motto is "be prepared".

Also, Cassandra isn't her real name.

Cassandra and her colloborator Max-Ernest (a small, hyper, non-stop-talking boy whose name really isn't Max-Ernest) are thrown into a dangerous predicament when a real-estate agent drops off the box called "Symphony of Smells" to Cassandra's surrogate uncles. Cassandra is curious about the death of the magician, to whom the Symphony belonged, and when she and Max-Ernest go to investigate the house they come face-to-face with the eerie Ms. Mauvais and strange Dr. L, who are after a certain journal that contains a dark...Secret.

Cassandra and Max-Ernest manage to keep the journal away from Ms. Mauvais and Dr. L long enough to discover the message hidden "underneath" the journal's pages. They are clever and plucky enough to rescue a classmate, Benjamin Blake, a unique boy with "synethesia" (the gift to see things as a mixture of colours, smells, and sounds), from a dismal fate.

This book started out very, very deliciously, with an intriguing twist of writing-style and a delightfully confusing plot. I felt that the end kind of got a little too weird, but I want to read the second book in the series, to see if I really do like the books.

I recommend this book at least for a one-time read. It's got a good pace and intriguing style. It wasn't until the very end that I felt a little disappointed.

 My Rating:

* * * * *