Ladybugs

And now to part 3: "I Am a Ladybug," from circa June 1987.

From Stories By Mrs. Thompson's First Grade Class

Again we have the ad nauseum repeated details: I have a red body and black spots, I have black spots, we are red-orange with black spots, I am an insect, I am shiny, I am nice, I like to fly, I like aphids, I, I, I I I me me me.

But some notable departures:

"I like you very, very much."

"I am chubby and nice."
Here we go with the personals ads again.

A mini-epic: "He went on an adventure to find gold. He went past high mountains. He found the mine. He looked for gold. He found gold. He brought gold back to his family. They felt happy."
Aww, but were they happy? Is gold the key to happiness, young one?

The autobiographical: "This morning I saw something that I have never seen before. It was something new to me. I was so scared. So I ran to my mom and dad. They did not believe me. So they spanked me. I cried all the way to my room."
Awwww.

The autobiographical projection: "One day when I went to school, I met a police man. His name was Mr. Kilpatrick. He was very nice. He said, "I am going to arrest your teacher.""
Hahahaha! Hope you didn't get an F for this one.

Conflict resolution: " I saw some aphids and then a greedy ladybug came. It ate all the aphids. It said, "Do you want a fight?" I was scared and I saw some aphids. I said, "Do you want to share?" "Yes," and we did and I flew home."
Well done.

The almost cool: "One day I saw something in front of me. I was very scared. I thought it was something from outer space. It had two things on its head. But it was not something from outer space. It was a bear."
Agg, almost there!

And once again, the cavalcade of ladybug names: Gilbirt (again?! really??), Freddy, Blazer, Tornado, Sparkler, Charles, Shiny, Dottie, Dot, Spotty, Joe, Tony, Ray, Harry Scarry Pot and Mot, Rad, Sandy, Windy, Happy, Messy, Spots, Lady, George, Lupe, Cloudy, Spotty, and Charlie.

And, once again, little Gordon's story starts out in an ordinary enough fashion: "I am a ladybug. I am red with black spots."

Here, we may conjecture, is where all the rigid requirements have been fulfilled. Next comes: "Once upon a time there was a bad witch Ladybug." ...and the adventure begins. Here it is its entirety, again with corrections from the original manuscript.


Along with a couple of illustrations:

the bad witch ladybug's castle

prisoner of the bad witch ladybug