So, instead I went through some old papers, stories and poems in my closet and I found this. I rather like it and I thought it was pretty safe for the first post.
First this book was written for a Kidnergarter, so don't judge.
Maggie, the main character of this story, is a very cute little girl who is insane about Princesses. She’s very quiet, contemplative and angelic. She loves the library, giraffes and animals of all kind, vegetables and cleaning her room (Hey... for all we know she could be a princess in disguise). She hates bats and other creepy crawlies.
So when I was interviewing her, (becuase she was the main charachter after all) she told me that she wanted to be a princess for Halloween but her mother told her that a costume was too expensive. I wanted to console her a little. I added explanations along the way in (parentheses.)
Oh by the way you should have seen the illustrations done by my sister (Sydney) they were gorgeous!
Maggie and the Giant Bat
Once there was a perfect child named Maggie. She did everything that a little girl should. She cleaned her room, set the table and ate her vegetables, but more than anything she wanted to be a Princess. And everyone knows that every princess needs a crown.
“I’ll find a crown another day,” Maggie thought as she and her little brother went outside to play. Besides being a princess, playing was her next favorite thing.
Suddenly a huge bat appeared, flapping and speaking, “I’m lonely. Will you play with me?” Maggie didn’t like bats, they scared her and this was an extra big and extra scary bat.
“No!” She told the bat.
But her brother was not afraid of bats so he said, “Okay, I’ll come with you.”
The Bat swooped down and plucked up Maggie’s brother and flew away. Maggie called after them. She was afraid the Bat would hurt her little brother. Looking around, she saw the swing set that they had been playing on. She jumped on a swing and started pumping, back and forth and back and forth and back and forth until finally she was high enough to let go and fly after the Bat.
Flying was fun. (Flying you ask? It's a children's book, anything can happen) She could see everything, and the wind felt wonderful, but unlike the Bat, she didn’t have wings and couldn’t steer. So when a big tree got in the way instead of going around, she crashed straight into it. She bounced all the way down to the ground, hurt, tired, and very hungry. She had forgotten to eat lunch and now her stomach growled.
As she sat by the tree, she felt very lost and very alone. She was far from home, and she didn’t know where her brother was or how to save him. “Are you alright?” said a voice. Maggie looked up and there was a tall woman with glasses.
“Who are you?” asked Maggie.
“I’m your fairy librarian,” said the woman, “Are you alright?”
Maggie shook her head and explained what had happened.
The woman nodded, “If you can answer this riddle correctly, I will give you three wishes.”
“What’s the riddle?” asked Maggie.
“What looks beautiful, smells beautiful, loves water and light, but you wouldn’t want to touch?”
Maggie thought hard, pacing around and around and then she saw a dandelion. It reminded her of her Father’s flowers (Her father worked with flowers in real life) and she bent to pick it. Then she realized that flowers loved water and light and they smelled and looked pretty too. “Roses!” she said. “Roses have thorns so you don’t want to touch them!”
The woman nodded, “Now you have three wishes. You may choose three things to take with you. I have already given you a map to the Bat’s castle.”
Maggie thought and thought and her stomach growled. “Food,” she decided and she thought some more. What else would she need? She didn’t need anything else so she said, “Flower seeds and… a crown.” She almost jumped up and down with joy. She had always wanted a crown of her very own. The librarian nodded again and suddenly she was holding a backpack full of everything she had asked for.
“Good luck,” she said and then she was gone.
The first thing Maggie did after putting her crown on was study the map. On her way to the Bat’s castle there was a zoo! Maggie was so happy she jumped up and ran all the way there. At the zoo there were lots of animals, but Maggie wanted to see a certain one. A giraffe was trying to eat some leaves at the very top of a tree and she called to him. “Hey, giraffe!”
He looked down at her. “Hello, who are you?”
“I’m Princess Maggie!”
“Oh, since you’re a princess can you help me? I can’t reach these leaves and I’m terribly hungry.” Maggie looked up at the leaves and knew there was no way she could climb such a scary tree. Being a princess was harder than had she thought.
“I have some food!” she said, and then her stomach growled; she still hadn’t eaten and she was still hungry.
The giraffe heard her stomach and said, “You must be hungry too, I’ll share with you.”
So they ate the food together, once they had eaten all of the food. The Giraffe sighed gratefully. “Thank you, I feel much better. Is there anything I can do for you?”
Maggie told him about her problem and he said, “I’ll come with you.”
And to Maggie’s and everyone’s amazement he stepped over a tall fence and told her to climb on his back. Maggie climbed up and rode the rest of the way to the Bat’s castle.
The Bat’s castle was floating in the sky, so even on the Giraffes high neck she couldn’t reach it. Not knowing what else to do, she threw the seeds up onto the castle and waited. The seeds were magical and soon vines grew all the way down to where Maggie was waiting.
“You’ll have to climb up,” said the giraffe.
Maggie grabbed the vines and pulled herself to the top trying not to look down. When she reached the top, her arms ached. “Being a princess is hard,” she thought and ran into the castle.
“But if your brother leaves who will play with me?” asked the Bat.
“I don’t know. Find some other bats to play with!” said Maggie. The bat still scared her very very much, and she didn’t want to stay here for long.
The Bat said quietly, “There are no other big bats to play with and all the little ones don’t like me.” And then he started to cry.
Maggie had never seen a bat cry before, and now she felt bad. She always felt sad when she had no one to play with. The Bat kept crying, so Maggie gave him a big hug.
The crying stopped, and when Maggie looked, the Bat had turned into a cocoon.
“What did you do?” asked her brother
“I don’t know. The Bat must be inside,” she said
“Probably because he’s so sad,” her brother said.
Maggie looked at the cocoon and looked around; she didn’t know what would make the bat happy when he came out. She had no flowers to give him or food, but she did have a crown. She took her crown off and looked at it. To become a princess she needed the crown, and she wanted to keep it, but right now the Bat was sad, and she had nothing else to make him happy. So she put her crown on the cocoon and she and her brother went down the vines on to the giraffe and back home. The giraffe went back to the zoo since that was his home.
Maggie was sad that she still didn’t have a crown, and she still wasn’t a princess. One day while she was playing outside, she saw a butterfly on a flower, but it had her crown! It was a very small butterfly and she was afraid, she would scare it. “Hello Maggie!” it said.
“Bat?” she asked.
“You broke the curse on me and now I’m no longer a bat,” said the butterfly and he fluttered away. “Thank you!” she heard him call.
Maggie watched the butterfly and she heard a voice behind her. “You never needed a crown to become a princess,” said the fairy librarian. “To become a princess you need to act like a princess, with kindness towards everyone and everything.”
Maggie smiled. She had done it! She had flown, helped a giraffe, saved her brother, and broken a curse. She hugged the librarian, “Thank you, Fairy Librarian.” The librarian smiled and then was gone.
