Sylvia The Disobedient

For my final project in my children's literature class this last semester, I had to wrte my own children's story. Mary always asks me to tell her "bad stories". She means she wants a story about a kid who does something bad and gets in trouble. This was my inspiration for Sylvia The Disobedient. Anna made some original drawings for the book, to which the children in Mary's 1st grade class (to whom I read the book) exclaimed in wide-eyed wonder: "Your friend is a good drawer!"



Sylvia is a little girl who is very bored one afternoon and decides to go down to the lake alone even though she has been told not to.











She finds an old boat down at the lake, gets in, and floats away without realizing she has no oars. She is afraid, but is found by a friendly duck named George who keeps her company.




Sylvia has a few problems including no oars, getting caught on a log, and becoming cold, tired, and hungry.







She is eventually found by a police boat and taken home to be with her parents. The next day she is grounded and must apologize to the man whose boat she took.















The children I read this story to loved it and the pictures. One little boy raised his hand as high as he could at the beginning and asked what disobedient meant. When I told him, his eyes lit up and he exclaimed, "Oh yeah, I'm disobedient every day!" I just love kids!