Last week, we asked kids to draw us something scary, telling them that…
It can be anything you’re scared of (or used to be scared of). It can be a lion or a tiger or a dinosaur or perhaps, if you are middle aged like me, you will draw a portrait of creaking knees, stacks of bills, or the failure to live up to one’s dreams. It’s entirely up to you.
Of course, we got all sorts of scary pictures.
Here is a drawing from Joe, who was uncharacteristically brief in describing his drawing of “ghosts and black bats.”
Seeing how scary Joe’s drawing is, I can see why he might not want to linger long enough to write an accompanying story. I like how the ghost in the lower right-hand corner of Joe’s drawing kind of looks like a bat. That’s doubly scary, if you ask me. But you didn’t ask, so I’ll move on.
Next up, we have a drawing from Tyler, who also shared some thoughts:
It’s a picture of the scariest snake in the world. It’s really, really, really scary. It can do whatever it wants. It can do magic. It can breathe fire out of its mouth. It can make force fields. It can even make a flood. Even if a sword gets stuck at him, he never ever grows dead. He can even scare away 100 army people. The snake can cut down trees with his tongue. If he sticks out his tongue and makes a sound with it, other people turn into bad guys, too. It has hands that can punch people to make them grow dead. If people even touch him a bit, the people grow dead. He’s the strongest thing on Earth. What it is called is “The Scariest Bad Snake of All.”
I’m almost too scared to keep reading. I am one of the 100 people that the snake scared away while he was busy cutting down trees with his tongue. I have no desire to see him breathe fire or make force fields. I have no desire to drown in his flood. I do not want to accidentally touch him and grow dead.
And here is a drawing (and story) from Spencer, who also focuses on a terrifying snake.
It’s the most powerful snake of all in the whole entire universe. It can even suck up stuff with its poisonous bamboo stalk, which gets puffed out of the circle spot in it’s body. It also uses poisonous fang technique to kill bad guys since he’s on the good team. The tail can rattle itself. If people are there, then when he rattles his tail, it makes them die. There’s a spot next to the guns that drops a ball and makes red stuff come out that checks to see if you’re a bad guy or not. if it’s a bad guy, the red stuff turns into laser beams, and if that doesn’t work then it turns into lava beams, and they grow dead no matter what. The things on the wings poking out are gun shooters. The ones that are blue are the most awesome and powerful guns that can kill a thousand google armies at once, in one flash, before even someone blinks. When he’s flying and sees a bad guy, the part on top of his neck shoots bombs out of his body. His name is “Power Snake.”
Oh dear. I don’t know if I’m going to make it through this post without hiding under my bed for a while. I will try to be brave. I am going to spend a moment thinking about fuzzy pink bunnies so that I will feel better about myself.
My big question is this: in a winner-take-all battle between “The Scariest Bad Snake of All” and “Power Snake,” who wins? Would Scary Snake’s force fields repel Power Snake’s lava beams? As scary as each of these snakes are on their own, when I try to think of them both at once, I find myself looking for my teddy bear. Since I am a grown man, I do not have a teddy bear. Which is a difficult position to be in when I’m this scared.
Here is a picture and story from Alden:
Me and Mama went for a walk without Papa, he was pretending to be superman. But then he noticed that a monster was coming. Then he wanted to bring a superboy present for me and Mama and Baby August and Kato. And the monster was making big bad breath and cloud was coming out of his horn. And his breath was all around us and we got trapped in the breath. And Papa came whooshing by with the super present, and the monster went running away when he saw Papa. And that was the end. The end.
This is not a story, of course. This is completely true. The only error is that I do not pretend to be Superman because I am superman. And of course I save my family from the bad breath monster all the time. Usually, I do this by brushing my teeth, but every once in a while, I do it by flying overhead and delivering superboy presents while the family goes for a walk. It kind of depends on how I’m feeling at the time.
And here’s a drawing from Kato.
This is an octopus. No, it’s a shark. It’s smiling but has scary teeth. I’m scared [he's the little guy in the far right corner]. Mama is happy. She is holding my hand so I won’t be scared. Mama isn’t scared. And there’s Papa. He has a big beard, on the front and on the back. The end.
I like this picture and I like this story, because in this story, I get to help someone feel less scared. And that is one of the most important jobs of a papa. I’m pretty sure my awesome anti-scared properties have something to do with my magnificent front-and-back beard.
When I wrote this prompt, I promised you all that I would show you my drawing of Monstro and Pinocchio, though it was almost too scary to draw.
Here you go.
For you mature readers, you should know that the above is an allegory. Or a metaphor. Or something like that. I am Pinocchio and Monstro is the world. And as much as I try to reason and rationalize, I’m going to get swallowed, digested, and transformed into something unseemly. Which makes this the scariest drawing of all.
Finally, we’ll leave you with a few late entries to last week’s writing prompt.
From Tyler:
“Mama Sweet”
The chipmunk is riding a unicycle. He’s happy and then he saw a worm. The worm is feeling good since he got to hug and snuggle with his mom before going off for his walk. The chipmunk said, “Hello! What are you doing?” And the worm said, “Should we play together?” And the chipmunk said, “Yes.” The chipmunk’s name is called Miffy. The worm’s name is called Taffy. They become best friends.
It’s hard to believe that this sweet tale sprung from the same mind that gave us “The Scariest Bad Snake of All.”
And from Spencer, here we have “Friends Forever”
It’s a chipmunk that is riding a unicycle. He saw a little worm and said, “Hey little worm! Want to be friends now?” The worm said, “Yes, I want to be your friend, but don’t eat me.” The chipmunk said, “OK!” They went off on a rocket ship to Mars to explore.
Again, the author of “Power Snake” surprises with his stunning versatility.
So now my question is, if Tyler’s chipmunk and Spencer’s chipmunk had a contest to see who could be the nicest, who could win? My poor scared mind is too feeble to decide.
But what do you think?
