Fall 2013 Rough Draft: Anaphoric Picture Book

Assignment: Write the text for an autobiographical children's picture book using anaphora (repetition of the beginning of a sentence) with around 8 scenes.

One Summer at Falcon Lake

One summer at Falcon Lake, a big, brown rock bass came to live under our dock. At first, he was scared of people and nibbled on our toes as we swam, but he got so used to us that my big brother, Danny, accidentally stepped on him.

One summer at Falcon Lake, I let a newly hatched dragonfly climb onto my finger. Its prickly feet tickled a little, and it stayed with me to dry the green slime off its wings for nearly an hour before flying away for the first time.

One summer at Falcon Lake, Grandma Fradie heard a scratchy, crackling sound coming from the kitchen and found a huge black bear sniffing through the window at an empty foil wrapping from the morning’s cinnamon rolls. Grandma Fradie and the bear stared through the screen at each other, and then the bear wandered into the woods.

One summer at Falcon Lake, my dog, Blizzard, died. The day before was the first time he had gone swimming on his own without his funny orange life jacket. The chipmunks have it easy now.

One summer at Falcon Lake, I swam close enough to a loon to see its bright red eyes. It made a laughing call, and I watched through big goofy goggles as it dove and darted away.

One summer at Falcon Lake, Danny told me that the white plastic lawn chair that anchored the fresh water pump was where the leeches lived. Even though I played with slimy, squishy leeches onshore, and I was afraid to swim over their home because it looked like a skeleton chair.

One summer at Falcon Lake, my older cousin, Ben, was swimming as fast as he could, and all of us yelling at him to watch out weren’t loud enough to stop him from slamming into a huge snapping turtle. The surprised turtle swam away without a scratch, and Ben’s shoulder had purple bruises for a week.

One summer at Falcon Lake, Grandpa Roy, Danny, Ben, and I went fishing in the old cedar boat. Danny caught a walleye, but Grandpa Roy had forgotten the club, so he whacked the fish with the bottom end of a Raid can. It was delicious.

One summer at Falcon Lake, I found the images of animals, faces, and planets in the wood patterns on the ceiling. Grandma Fradie and Grandpa Roy’s room had a unicorn and someone throwing up soup, Saturn and an army of ants was above my bed, and a perfect image of my dog, Blizzard’s face watched over my mom’s room.