The Story Maker

By Angie Bromeland

Callen was very aggravated. He had a story to write. He knew he could illustrate it, but he couldn’t write words, yet. He tried hard to concentrate on the sounds to write the name of his book: Power-Man. But when he handed it to his mom, she read, “puraman,” so he knew he had it wrong. Sometimes it was so irritating to be 5 years old.

“How about you dictate the story to me, instead?” Callen’s mom asked.

“Dictate?” he asked.

“Yes! You just tell me what to write,” she said.

Callen didn’t hesitate to hand his mom his pen. She listened carefully as Callen told her what he wanted on each page. He knew all about periods and exclamation points and when to use uppercase letters. Soon, they were finished with the last page. Callen sat back, pleased. But when he closed the book, he saw that he hadn’t yet made the cover. He really  wanted to do the cover himself. But how could he write if he couldn’t spell? His mom saw him puzzling.

“I have an idea,” she told Callen. “I can demonstrate how to write Power-Man on a piece of scrap paper. Then you can write it yourself on the cover!”

Callen thought a moment, then nodded. He was good at imitating the letters he saw on pages. He would be able to do this. His mom wrote the word nice and clear. Then Callen set to work, making bubble letters. He even accentuated the writing with some zigzags to make it look like electricity was coming out of the word.

His mom peered over his shoulder. “Wow,” she whispered. “Those marks really elevate the cover.”

Callen kissed his mom’s cheek. She had helped him write his first book…and he knew it wouldn’t be his last.