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 The flowers are blooming, the bees are buzzing, and pollen fills the air! {achoo!} Spring is here...and with it the 3rd Annual Spring Fling Kidlit Contest, hosted by Ciara O'Neal and Kaitlyn Sanchez. THEIR CHALLENGE: Using one Spring-themed GIF of your choice as inspiration, craft up 150 fun words into a story for kids ages 12 and under. (More details about the contest rules and prizes here.) I had a lot of fun choosing a GIF and then finding the story within. Hope you enjoy it as well. Thanks for stopping by & be sure to check out all the other entries via the link above!  THE LIST HOW DANI P. MONARCH CHANGED HER LIFE A Caterpillar's Story One fine spring day, freshly-hatched Dani P. Monarch was hungry. So very hungry. "But…first things first." Snacking on her egg case, the tiny larvae began a big list. TO-DO Start List Eat Egg Case "Easy-peasy!" Checking off one and two, she added number three. Find Food Luckily, Dani’s mom laid her on milkweed. Bitter Sticky Poisonous "Yum!" Dani. Loved. Milkweed. Even while eating her never-ending meal, Dani had more to do. TO-DO * Start List * Eat Egg Case * Find Food Grow Molt Repeat "Not so easy-peasy." Two weeks later, the caterpillar was tired. Very tired. But, she had one last task. Make chrysalis Hang- -ing U P S I D E DOWN, Dani wiggled and spun. "Wheee!" TO-DO * Start List * Eat Egg Case * Find Food * Grow * Molt * Repeat * Make chrysalis "Okay…next things next." Snug inside her chrysalis one fine summer day, ooey-gooey Dani P. Monarch began again. TO-DO Start list Grow wings... *** WORD COUNT: 149 **** BACK MATTER Glossary (in order of appearance) Monarch (mon-ark) Famous for their long migrations, grown-up Monarchs are orange-colored butterflies with black stripes and white spots. Monarchs are also sometimes called milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, or black veined brown butterflies. Their scientific name is Danaus plexippus. Egg case Monarch eggs are small, round, and off-white. You’ll find them stuck on undersides of milkweed leaves. The egg case protects the developing insect until it is ready to hatch. The case then becomes the monarch caterpillar’s first meal. As Dani might say—"Waste not, want not!” Larvae (lar-va) The wingless, feeding stage of an insect that undergoes complete metamorphosis (changing into the adult form). Just hatched, a monarch is about as big as an ant. The caterpillar will grow to 2,000 times their original size before making their chrysalis. Milkweed Any of various flowering plants that secrete latex. This is the same latex used to make paints as well as the gloves used by doctors and nurses. The plant’s sap makes the insects much less tasty to hungry birds who might want a monarch snack. Milkweed is generally poisonous, but not to the monarchs. In fact, it’s the only food for them. Talk about picky eaters! Molt To shed hair, feathers, shell, horns, or an outer layer from time to time. Chrysalis The hardened outer protective layer of a pupa. Monarch life stages: Egg, larvae (caterpillar), pupa (when the caterpillar turns into an ooey-gooey bit inside the chrysalis), butterfly. See it all happen in less than two minutes in this time-lapse video HERE Due to a dwindling food supply, these beautiful butterflies are in trouble. But there’s much you can do to help, even without leaving your own backyard. Find more out HERE.  Art by Vicky Fang Picture book author extraordinaire Vivian Kirkfield writes: "In 2016, I had an idea for a contest that would exercise our writing muscles and force us to make every work count. Over the years, several entries have become books, many participants have signed with agents…but what I love the most is the enthusiasm and the positive energy that this contest generates." And thus was born the 50 Precious Words challenge. This is my fourth year participating. My entry is below--it's only 50 words, but was OODLES and BOODLES of fun to write! You can check out all the fun-tastic entries on Vivian's blog here.
 Handprints from Cueva de las Manos (Cave of Hands), Spain. Most of us have seen photographs of the Paleolithic paintings on the walls of France's Grotte Chauvet. Some of the pictures are 32,000 years old.
While the horses, owls, and rhinoceros are exquisite, what I find haunting are the hands. Hundreds of outlined hands cover the walls, some imprinting the animal paintings with a kind of artist's signature, some all on their own or in groupings. Not limited to the famous European caves, similar handprints are found worldwide, in places as diverse as South America and Australia. Their makers pressed their hands onto stone walls throughout the centuries and millennium, forming 'a great crowd of witnesses' to humanity's unwritten history. While the words of men seem to dominate much of our written history, prehistory was more egalitarian. Modern analysis and measurements show that many, if not most, of the Grotte Chauvet's handprints, belonged to women. What were these women saying? What were their stories? I believe their stories are essentially the same as ours: I was here. I lived. I loved. For just a moment, I was. And so they were. And so we are. Let us whisper our adventures into our daughters' ears. Let's laugh with our friends, and write our hopes and dreams in our journals, letters, and blogs. Tell your story. Leave a handprint on the Wall.  Today has been an exciting day! Received the news this morning that my little 'trash bandit' poem for the 10th annual #Halloweensie contest received an honorable mention! Check out all the other winners and prizes here on Susanna Hill's blog. |
