Kid Reading: The Best Story

The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli was an interesting book that I saw recommended in a few different places.  I got it from the library and it took awhile for us to get to it.  I think that the cover might have thrown my son off a little but I told him that I had a special book for us to read and I pulled it out.  He sat next to me on the couch while I read it and really enjoyed it.

The Best Story is about a young girl who wants to enter a story writing contest at her local library so that she was win a ride of a roller coaster with her favorite author.  She goes home determined to write a fabulous story and win the grand prize but isn't sure where to start.  Each story that she imagines is more and more crazy because she is following the advice of all of the other members of her family.  Her brother tells her that great stories have action so she writes about a bus, a pirate, a tornado and great white shark.  The story didn't seem quiet right so she asked her dad.  Her dad told her that the best stories had humor.  So she took the same ideas and made it funny.  Her mother said, "I think the best story is one that comes from the heart. Your own heart."  Then, she realizes that the best stories come from you and are about what you are most interested in.

We were supposed to go make a book at the Lakeshore Learning store during their craft time to make a folding book but we didn't make it so my plans were changed to try to do another activity.  My son wasn't interested in writing so we made up a few stories that we could tell and took turns adding to them.  It was a little bit of fun after reading the interesting way that the character in the book worked through the process to make her own book.  If you would like, have your child make up the story and you can write it in the book for them to illustrate.  My son told me that he didn't want to so we went with verbal story telling.  If your children are older, they can make their own story just like the girl did and make all of the pictures.  Hope you enjoy exploring the writing process after reading this book.

The open ended nature of the story makes any child feel like this could be them in the story.  I realize the character is a girl but I think that it is open for both boys and girls to jump right into the middle of the story and imagine that it is them.  It doesn't talk about winning or loosing but rather deals with the writing process and shows you that the best writing comes from the heart.  I hope that you pick this up at your local library or bookstore.  I know that you will enjoy it as well as the fun adventures and laughter that it leads to!!