Published Author

During her first year in elementary school K-bao made significant progress with her writing, to the point where she officially "published" several short works. Near the end of the school year, the K-folks spent a morning at K-bao's school learning a bit more about her journey as an author. She has come a long way from the when she self-published her first book in late 2014.

The works pictured above include a narrative of her first soccer game, a spooky story about an evil witch, a poetry anthology, and most recently a non-fiction work about her favorite animal, the horse (in a 3-way tie for first place, along with ponies and unicorns).

For the book about horses, K-bao had to spend some time researching her subject. In the process, she learned about the physiology of the horse (205 bones!) as well as distinctions among breeds. (By the way, the reader with a long memory might recall this early post in 2009, when K-bao was first exposed to horses. Clearly her interest has grown quite a bit since then.)

Naturally, the fact that K-bao loves to read has been quite helpful in her overall progression. Over the past year she has devoured countless short chapter books about detectives, rainbows and fairies, ponies and other related topics. It is also certainly true that K-bao's school and first grade teacher have actively fostered in K-bao's class a sense of authorship and a pride in writing.

Rainbow Magic

Over the course of the last half year or so, K-bao has gotten seriously caught up in the Rainbow Magic series.

K-Mum was the one who first turned her on to the series in the fall by borrowing a couple of the books from the local library and incorporating them into the bedtime reading routine. Soon thereafter, K-Pop found himself being coerced by the little one into including a chapter or two of the latest fairy adventure whenever it was his reading turn.

Luckily, over the course of her kindergarten year, K-bao's reading skills improved by leaps and bounds, such that by the beginning of this year, she was starting to read them by herself. (To which the K-folks said: "Hallelujah! Thank you Lord! Unlock the magic within! Goodbye Jack Frost the goblin!").

Indeed, over the last few months, unless she is going to school or the park, K-bao doesn't leave home without her literary friends Kirstie Tate and Rachel Walker accompanying her. In fact, K-Pop has even caught her reading crouched by the night light an hour after bedtime. We thought that problem was at least 6 years away.

Furthermore, upon investigation - how did six new Rainbow Magic books appear every time K-Mum returned from the library?? - it turns out that there are over 150 Rainbow Magic books published over the last dozen years or so. Gasp! (which, by the way, is Kirstie and Rachel's favorite thing to do. They gasp pretty much on every page). Of course, the magic is explained by the fact that author Daisy Meadows is a fictional character herself; the books are ghostwritten by a committee.

But the K-folks won't complain. The Rainbow series has unquestionably contributed an average of at least 80-90 decibels of peace a day to the K-household. God bless Daisy Meadows!