Three Minutes with a Rock

Normanday #99: I walk my pet rock around the block every day.

Write for three minutes about…

…a rock.

Email what you wrote to woof at bright dot net by the end of the day October 27 (put “Norman has a Chiseled Jaw” in the subject line). I’ll post as many of my favorite entries as I want next Monday. Include your first name (or, even better, use a pen name) and age (unless you’re tortoise-old).

Here is the single entry from last week when I asked you to write for three minutes about…

…your imaginary hobby.

Penny C. Monster

My imaginary hobby is collecting autographs. A lot of people collect celebrity autographs, but I collect regular people’s autographs. Well, kind of regular people. What I do is pick a cemetery to visit. I make rubbings of the headstones there. That’s when you put paper on top of the names and dates on a headstone and rub charcoal over the whole thing until you end up with an impression. I make impressions from January through October. It’s fun to wander around the cemetery reading the headstones. Then I go back on Halloween night, around midnight. That’s when I get my headstone rubbings autographed.

ReRunday: S.C.R.E.A.M. 2011

A Message From Bigfoot:
 
A couple years ago Penny had the idea for all us cryptids to come up with lists of our favorite Halloween-type books. She loves all that scary stuff. Me? Not so much. But I went along with it and managed to come up with several books I like that are great to read in October. So did Norman, Beverly, and the puppies. Guess who didn’t make a list? That’s right. Penny. Her contribution ended with the project’s name: S.C.R.E.A.M. It stands for Super Creepy Reading Extravagnaza A la Mode.

Below are links to the S.C.R.E.A.M. lists that we posted in October 2011.

~
 

Bigfoot’s S.C.R.E.A.M.

 

Morzant’s S.C.R.E.A.M.

 

Norman’s S.C.R.E.A.M.

 

Beverly’s S.C.R.E.A.M.

 

Oliver’s S.C.R.E.A.M.

 

Lenny’s S.C.R.E.A.M.

 

Violet’s S.C.R.E.A.M.

 

 

 

 

Briar’s Journal (October 8 to 22, 2013)

Dream Entry*
April 23, 2004

I can only remember fragments of my dream:

Morzant is wearing a Norman costume. Norman is wearing a Morzant costume.

Bigfoot and Penny are throwing toilet paper on the trees in front of Beverly’s house.

My friends, a duck, and three puppies trick-or-treating. At the end of the evening they dump out all their treats—books—and read them while eating candy corn.

BIGFOOT’s treats:

THE ABOMINABLES
by Eva Ibbotson,
with illustrations by Fiona Robinson
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Amulet-Abrams
October 8, 2013

BATTLING BOY
by Paul Pope
[YOUNG ADULT—GRAPHIC NOVEL]
First Second-Roaring Brook
October 8, 2013

COALTOWN JESUS
by Ron Koertge
[YOUNG ADULT]
Candlewick
October 8, 2013

RESIST
by Sarah Crossan
[YOUNG ADULT—
SEQUEL TO BREATHE]
Greenwillow-HarperCollins
October 8, 2013

STICK DOG WANTS A HOT DOG
by Tom Watson
[MIDDLE GRADE—SECOND IN THE
STICK DOG SERIES]
HarperCollins
October 8, 2013

JUST ONE YEAR
by Gayle Forman
[YOUNG ADULT—
SEQUEL TO JUST ONE DAY]
Dutton-Penguin
October 10, 2013

THE LOST ISLANDS
edited by Kazu Kibuishi
[MIDDLE GRADE—GRAPHIC NOVEL—
SECOND IN THE EXPLORER SERIES]
Amulet-Abrams
October 15, 2013

REALITY BOY
by A.S. King
[YOUNG ADULT]
Little, Brown-Hachette
October 22, 2013


MORZANT’s treats:

HOW THE METEORITE GOT TO THE MUSEUM
by Jessie Hartland
[PICTURE BOOK]
Blue Apple Books
October 8, 2013

MAPS
by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinska
[MIDDLE GRADE—NON-FICTION]
Big Picture Press-Candlewick
October 8, 2013

WALK THIS WORLD
by Jenny Broom,
illustrated by Lotta Nieminen
[PICTURE BOOK—NON-FICTION]
Big Picture Press-Candlewick
October 8, 2013


MORTIMER's treats:

ANTON AND CECIL: CATS AT SEA
by Lisa Martin,
with illustrations by Valerie Martin
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Algonquin Young Readers-Algonquin
October 8, 2013

MOUSE HOUSE
by Susan Pearson,
illustrated by Amanda Shepherd
[EARLY READER]
Blue Apple Books
October 22, 2013


PENNY’s treats:

BACKWARDS
by Todd Mitchell
[YOUNG ADULT]
Candlewick
October 8, 2013

BLYTHEWOOD
by Carol Goodman
[YOUNG ADULT—
FIRST IN THE SERIES]
Viking-Penguin
October 8, 2013

THE BROKENHEARTED
by Amelia Kahaney
[YOUNG ADULT]
HarperTeen-HarperCollins
October 8, 2013

EMERALD GREEN
by Kerstin Gier,
translated by Anthea Bell
[YOUNG ADULT—
THIRD IN THE RUBY RED SERIES]
Henry Holt
October 8, 2013

CONSTABLE & TOOP
by Gareth P. Jones
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Amulet-Abrams
October 8, 2013

PREMEDITATED
by Josin L. McQuein
[YOUNG ADULT]
Delacorte-Random House
October 8, 2013

PULL DOWN THE NIGHT
by Nathan Kotecki
[YOUNG ADULT—SECOND IN THE
SUBURBAN STRANGE SERIES]
Houghton Mifflin-Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
October 8, 2013

TANDEM
by Anna Jarzab
[YOUNG ADULT—FIRST IN THE
MANY-WORLDS TRILOGY]
Delacorte-Random House
October 8, 2013

ACROSS A STAR-SWEPT SEA
by Diana Peterfreund
[YOUNG ADULT]
Balzer & Bray-HarperCollins
October 15, 2013

UNSOULED
by Neal Shusterman
[YOUNG ADULT—THIRD IN THE
UNWIND DYSTOLOGY]
Simon & Schuster
October 15, 2013

ALLEGIANT
by Veronica Roth
[YOUNG ADULT—THIRD IN THE
DIVERGENT TRILOGY]
Katherine Tegen-HarperCollins
October 22, 2013

THE MYSTERY OF MEERKAT HILL
by Alexander McCall Smith,
with illustrations by Iain McIntosh
[CHAPTER BOOK—SECOND IN THE
PRECIOUS RAMOTSWE MYSTERY FOR
YOUNG READERS SERIES]
Anchor Books-Random House
October 22, 2013


THE DUCK’s treats:

EVER AFTER HIGH:
THE STORYBOOK OF LEGENDS
by Shannon Hale
[MIDDLE GRADE—FIRST IN THE
EVER AFTER HIGH SERIES]
Little, Brown-Hachette
October 8, 2013

THE KINGDOM OF LITTLE WOUNDS
by Susann Cokal
[YOUNG ADULT]
Candlewick
October 8, 2013

THE SNOW QUEEN
by Hans Christian Andersen,
illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline
[PICTURE BOOK]
HarperCollins
October 8, 2013

THE PRINCESS IN THE OPAL MASK
by Jenny Lundquist
[YOUNG ADULT]
Running Press Teens-Running Press Book Publishers
October 22, 2013

THE TWISTROSE KEY
by Tone Almhjell,
with illustrations by Ian Schoenherr
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Dial-Penguin
October 22, 2013


NORMAN’s treats:

THE EYE OF MINDS
by James Dashner
[YOUNG ADULT—FIRST IN THE
MORTALITY DOCTRINE SERIES]
Delacorte-Random House
October 8, 2013

THE GRIMM CONCLUSION
by Adam Gidwitz,
with illustrations by Hugh D’Andrade
[MIDDLE GRADE—
THIRD IN THE SERIES]
Dutton-Penguin
October 8, 2013

THE NINE LIVES OF ALEXANDER BADDENFIELD
by John Bemelmans Marciano,
with illustrations by Sophie Blackall
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Viking-Penguin
October 3, 2013

WILL IN SCARLET
by Matthew Cody
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Knopf-Random House
October 8, 2013

THE CASE OF THE TIME-CAPSULE BANDIT
by Octavia Spencer,
with illustrations by Vivienne To
[MIDDLE GRADE—FIRST IN THE
RANDI RHODES, NINJA DETECTIVE SERIES]
Simon & Schuster
October 15, 2013

THE TEMPLETON TWINS MAKE A SCENE
by Ellis Weiner,
with illustrations by Jeremy Holmes
[MIDDLE GRADE—
SECOND IN THE SERIES]
Chronicle
October 15, 2013

“WHEN DID YOU SEE HER LAST?”
by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Seth
[MIDDLE GRADE—SECOND IN THE
ALL THE WRONG QUESTIONS SERIES]
Little, Brown-Hachette
October 15, 2013

THE MISCHIEVIANS
by William Joyce
[PICTURE BOOK]
Atheneum-Simon & Schuster
October 22, 2013


BEVERLY’s treats:

ALL THAT’S MISSING
by Sarah Sullivan
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Candlewick
October 8, 2013

THE EXTRA
by Kathryn Lasky
[YOUNG ADULT]
Candlewick
October 8, 2013

MEETING CEZANNE
by Michael Morpurgo,
with illustrations by Francois Place
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Candlewick
October 8, 2013

GIVING THANKS: POEMS, PRAYERS, AND
PRAISE SONGS OF THANKSGIVING
by Katherine Paterson,
illustrated by Pamela Dalton
[POETRY]
Chronicle
October 15, 2013


OLIVER’s treats:

DAISY GETS LOST
by Chris Raschka
[PICTURE BOOK—SEQUEL TO
A BALL FOR DAISY]
Schwartz & Wade-Random House
October 8, 2013

THE INVISIBLE BOY
by Trudy Ludwig,
illustrated by Patrice Barton
[PICTURE BOOK]
Knopf-Random House
October 8, 2013

THE SILVER BUTTON
by Bob Graham
[PICTURE BOOK]
Candlewick
October 8, 2013

THERE ARE NO MOOSE ON THIS ISLAND!
by Stephanie Calmenson,
illustrated by Jennifer Thermes
[PICTURE BOOK]
Islandport Press
October 11, 2013

COME BACK, MOON
by David Kherdian,
illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian
[PICTURE BOOK]
Beach Lane-Simon & Schuster
October 15, 2013

NUMERO
by Marion Bataille
[PICTURE BOOK—POP-UP]
Chronicle
October 15, 2013

THE CHRISTMAS TALE OF PETER RABBIT
by Emma Thompson,
illustrated by Eleanor Taylor
[EARLY READER—SECOND IN THE
NEW TALES OF PETER RABBIT SERIES]
Warne-Penguin
October 22, 2013

DREAM ANIMALS: A BEDTIME JOURNEY
by Emily Winfield Martin
[PICTURE BOOK]
Random House
October 22, 2013

FOREVER
by Emma Dodd
[PICTURE BOOK]
Templar-Candlewick
October 22, 2013

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
by Clement Clarke Moore,
illustrated by Holly Hobbie
[PICTURE BOOK]
Little, Brown-Hachette
October 22, 2013


LENNY’s treats:

CAPTAIN CAT
by Inga Moore
[PICTURE BOOK]
Candlewick
October 8, 2013

LAIKA: ASTRONAUT DOG
by Owen Davey
[PICTURE BOOK]
Templar-Candlewick
October 8, 2013

MO’S MUSTACHE
by Ben Clanton
[PICTURE BOOK]
Tundra
October 8, 2013

THE TINY KING
by Taro Miura
[PICTURE BOOK]
Candlewick
October 8, 2013

BATTLE BUNNY
by Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett,
illustrated by Matthew Myers
[PICTURE BOOK]
Simon & Schuster
October 22, 2013

BEDTIME MONSTERS
by Josh Schneider
[PICTURE BOOK]
Clarion-Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
October 22, 2013

LOST CAT
by Roger Mader
[PICTURE BOOK]
Houghton Mifflin-Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
October 22, 2013


VIOLET’s treats:

FAVORITE STORIES FROM
COWGIRL KATE AND COCOA: RAIN OR SHINE
by Erica Silverman,
with illustrations by Betsy Lewin
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
October 8, 2013

MADELINE AND THE OLD HOUSE IN PARIS
by John Bemelmans Marciano
[PICTURE BOOK]
Viking-Penguin
October 8, 2013

MOO!
by David LaRochelle, illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka
[PICTURE BOOK]
Walker
October 8, 2013

PETEY AND PRU AND THE HULLABALOO
by Ammi-Joan Paquette,
illustrated by Joy Ang
[PICTURE BOOK]
Clarion-Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
October 8, 2013

HERMAN AND ROSIE
by Gus Gordon
[PICTURE BOOK]
Roaring Brook
October 15, 2013

I’M A FROG!
by Mo Willems
[EARLY READER—
AN ELEPHANT AND PIGGIE BOOK]
Disney-Hyperion
October 15, 2013

ELEPHANT’S STORY
by Tracey Campbell Pearson
[PICTURE BOOK]
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
October 22, 2013

NEVER PLAY MUSIC RIGHT NEXT TO THE ZOO
by John Lithgow, illustrated by Leeza Hernandez
[PICTURE BOOK]
Simon & Schuster
October 22, 2013




* The dream entries from Briar’s journal contain premonitions of books that will be published in the future. Briar’s dream self foresees the books’ summaries and knows which will likely appeal to each of her friends. Briar always wakes up before she can see whether her friends will enjoy the books.

Three Minutes Putting a Ship in a Bottle

Normanday #98: The anchor is a gumdrop.

Write for three minutes about…

…your imaginary hobby.

Email what you wrote to woof at bright dot net by the end of the day October 20 (put “Norman Collects Bottle Caps” in the subject line). I’ll post as many of my favorite entries as I want next Monday. Include your first name (or, even better, use a pen name) and age (unless you’re tortoise-old).

Here is the single entry from last week when I asked you to write for three minutes…

…using a random word as a free-writing starting point.

Bigfoot

Random Word: WorseCould things get any worse? Apparently they could. It started to rain. Then my umbrella blew inside out. It flew out of my hand and hit a big guy in the back of the head. He turned around and I saw that he wasn’t just a big guy, he was an enormous guy. I tried to explain about the wind, but the big guy didn’t want to hear it. Did I mention I was next to a duck pond? I was. Normally I get along fine with ducks. Who doesn’t? But these ducks were possibile having an even worse day than me because they were cranky. They started to swat at me with their flappy webbed feet. I thought things were looking up when I managed to get out of the pond, but I slid in a mud puddle and went rolling down a hill. It was totally Jack and Jill. At the bottom of the hill I realized I had lost my bag. Did I mention I was carrying a bag? I was. It wasn’t a bag to carry things, it was a sleeping bag. And it was gone. So I’d have to sleep in a pile of leaves. Wet leaves. I think I mentioned already it was raining.

Three Minutes with a Random Word

Normanday #97: Word of the day: Coconut.

Pick up the nearest book. Without looking, point at a word. You can look now. That word you’re pointing at? Use it as a starting point for three minutes of free-writing.

Email what you wrote to woof at bright dot net by the end of the day October 13 (put “Norman is Fearless” in the subject line). I’ll post as many of my favorite entries as I want next Monday. Include your first name (or, even better, use a pen name) and age (unless you’re tortoise-old).

Here is the single entry from last week when I asked you to write for three minutes about…

…something scary.



Kelly Bingham
www.kellybinghamonline.com
author of SHARK GIRL; FORMERLY, SHARK GIRL; and Z IS FOR MOOSE

Something Scary

One night while my parents were out to dinner and I was babysitting my little sister, I did something stupid. After my sister went to bed, I watched a scary movie on TV. My parents had told me not to watch it because it would scare me too much. “You know how you are,” they said to me. “You’ll have bad dreams if you watch that.” 

But I watched it anyway. The movie was about aliens who came to earth and hid in a cornfield in the backyard of this one family. The aliens were very tall and thin. They were green and had huge eyes and thorny claws for fingers. They tiptoed around at night and they crept into people’s houses and one got locked in a neighbor’s closet after it tried to attack a man who lived there. The family heard the aliens scratching around on the roof and stuff. They ended up boarding up all their windows and running to the basement, but the aliens found a way to reach into the basement through an old window or something, so there were these green alien arms waving all around, clawing at this little boy who was standing nearby. 

Fortunately, the little boy got away, and everyone in the movie-family was safe, and for some reason, the aliens all went away and the movie ended. 

But I couldn’t stop thinking about those green alien arms clawing at people, or the way the aliens hid in places in plain sight, but hid in ways you couldn’t see them right away. And you know what? I had bad dreams at night. 

But that wasn’t all. One night, my mom asked me to take the garbage out. 

“In the dark?” I asked. 

She looked at me funny and said “It’s not that dark. Is there something wrong?” 

I couldn’t tell her I’d watched the scary movie she’d told me not to watch. So I said, “No,” and I took the garbage out. 

The cans were on the side of the house. It was super dark, I don’t care what Mom said. And there was no moon. The wind ghosted around in little breathy swirls, sending leaves skittering across the driveway in a crunchy cascade. The walk from the front door to the side of the house felt a thousand miles long, and the entire time, I felt as if I were being watched. I listened to my footsteps slapping across the driveway. I could easily imagine a big green alien hiding behind the tree in the front yard, or leaning over the garage roof, about to reach down and snatch my hat. Or maybe one was crouched behind the garbage can…. 

CRASH!! The garbage can fell over just as I reached for it. I screamed and dropped the trash. 

And that’s when our cat Barney raced out from behind the can and zipped away into the bushes. 

It took a minute for my heart to stop pounding. My legs wobbled like Jello. And when I finally got myself together and gathered the trash, my hands shook like crazy. It was just Barney, I told myself, as I gathered up the spilled trash. In fact, I almost laughed about it. 

Until I felt something tap me on the shoulder! 

The End

ReRunday: CAT SECRETS (Picture Book)

Originally posted on February 12, 2011.

~


by Jef Czekaj

Balzer & Bray-HarperCollins, 2011

A Book Review by

Lenny the Levitating Puppy

Cats do things I don’t understand. One time I saw a cat batting a bunched up piece of paper. I always thought paper was for chewing.

There’s a book called CAT SECRETS. I wanted to read it to find out why cats do the things they do. In it three cats were about to read their own book of cat secrets to each other. First they checked that only cats were reading CAT SECRETS. They were worried dogs or people or mice might find out their secrets. All their sneakiness made me wonder even more what cats are up to.

The three cats were suspicious of me, so they made me prove I was a cat. They told me to meow for them. That’s hard for a dog to do. But I did it. The hardest thing to do was to purr. I did that, too. While I was pretending to be a cat, I noticed a little mouse trying to steal the cats’ book of secrets.

I never did find out any cat secrets. I’m not going to give up. I’ll read CAT SECRETS as many times as it takes.

If you’re not a cat and you try to read this book, make sure to practice pretending to be a cat first. Maybe you’ll have better luck than I did and find out some cat secrets. If you find out what cats are hiding in their sandboxes, please tell me!

Three Minutes Carving a Pumpkin

Normanday #96: It’s beginning to look a lot like Halloween.

Write for three minutes about…

…something scary.

Email what you wrote to woof at bright dot net by the end of the day October 6 (put “Norman is Fearless” in the subject line). I’ll post as many of my favorite entries as I want next Monday. Include your first name (or, even better, use a pen name) and age (unless you’re tortoise-old).

Here is the single entry from last week when I asked you to write for three minutes about…

…the moment you realize it’s autumn.

Cranberly

The leaves start to change color in early September or even late August and I get excited. But I know better to be fooled. You will still get summer-like days after the leaves start to change. I don’t start thinking it’s Fall until that first morning I wear pants because it’s a bit too chilly to have bare legs. And I love the feeling of pants on that first crisp, cool morning. I have ignored pants all summer, choosing dresses and long shorts and capris. But the feel of the fabric against my calves is such a comfort. It floats and glides as I walk, skims my ankles and tickles the top of my feet, which are usually still in sandals. I know, then, it is Autumn. And when I finally put on socks and a proper pair of shoes, it is Winter.