ideas please

hi guys, ive wanted to write a book of kids poems revolving around insects of the garden, been something ive wanted to do for ages and finally got around to getting a couple finished, was pleased with the results but am looking to do about 10, i found the problem was not creating the poem, rhyming scheme etc but the concepts!!! i mustve spent 80% of the time trying to come up with stories, morality related that kids could identify with, creating a character and what story i wanted to tell, that was the really hard part once i got all that sorted knocking up the poems were easy but ive hit a wall coming up with insect related stories and characters that go through a journey within a garden enviroment and are relatable to children inside of a poem, any ideas on how i should be approaching this or any specific ideas? any input would be great, thanks guys.

[roobaby]

I think Aesop might have beaten you to this idea, but the insect twist is sort of interesting. I am not sure that kids are really that enthused with insects, but time will tell! In a sense, every story (poem or otherwise) has a moral subtext, so rather than focussing on this, why not create something a bit more 'global' like stories about insects and bugs around the world? At least that way you will get a greater variety of more exoctic insects.

[QUOTE=~Bubbles~;65109]Hmmm interesting!

Do you mean like the following??

Buzzy Bee collecting pollen but coming up against someone who is afraid of him (say a child) who swats at him?

or

Anthony Ant (I know I'm not terribly original) who is so very small but through perseverance, determination and team work manages to gather food - usually much larger than himself - for the benefit of the whole colony?

or

Catherine Catterpillar who is rather unnattractive and portly as she has an unhealthy obsession with eating and doesn't understand why... ( ooo no you could do a better job there that's more a reflection of my own life!) Anyway she changes into a beautiful butterfly.

or am I really far off the mark? That was fun though!

Bubbs x[/QUOTE]

hi, thanks for the comments, lol very funny you mentioning "anthony the ant" nearly everyone i spoke to about this suggested that lol, it became such a cliche i HAD to go with the name for the ant story lol!!!!!

the idea with the ant story was that he was a child ant and didnt like doing his work, he runs away for the day to play instead during which he falls and hurts his leg, he gets misserable and drags himself home where his parents are relieved to see him back safe and sound and a lesson was learned, he resolves to always make sure his work was done first before playing.

after that i was thinking about a spider that was a witch but didnt really know how to develp that one, how she'd ineract maybe with the other insects and what story about her i'd be telling, also thought a about one of the insects having a tooth ache and not wanting to go to the dentist but subsequently finding out there was nothing to worry about but i'm not sure what insect that wold be, i'm not sure if any of the individual charaters in the poems at any time should interact so i'm really not sure where to go, like roobaby said i dont want them to all have the same boring underlying message of morality!!!

[QUOTE=roobaby;65131]I think Aesop might have beaten you to this idea, but the insect twist is sort of interesting. I am not sure that kids are really that enthused with insects, but time will tell! In a sense, every story (poem or otherwise) has a moral subtext, so rather than focussing on this, why not create something a bit more 'global' like stories about insects and bugs around the world? At least that way you will get a greater variety of more exoctic insects.[/QUOTE]


yeah i dont want to get bogged down in the moral subtext and have 10 peoms winding up the same but i'm struggling enough with domestic insects let alone ones from around the world at the moment but it's a good idea!!! lol, cheers.

[roobaby]

Scorpians, dung beetles. blow flys....how more exotic can you get? You could also mix the poems up with some limmericks: There was a dung beetle from Texas, who always wanted to drive a Lexus.......

........but he had no skills, and he crashed those wheels, leaving damage to his solar plexus.

[tommysize1]

i wish i had some ideas for you but i dont.
id just like to wish you the best of luck!
kids cartoons are mostly fart jokes & kung fu moves so i think what your doing is definitly worthwhile.

watch some bbc natural world on the internet maybe?

[QUOTE=tommysize1;65184]i wish i had some ideas for you but i dont.
id just like to wish you the best of luck!
kids cartoons are mostly fart jokes & kung fu moves so i think what your doing is definitly worthwhile.

watch some bbc natural world on the internet maybe?[/QUOTE]


thanks for that, yeah i was thinking that, am definently gonna do some in depth research on the net about insects, i think learning a bit more about their traits and behavioural patterns will give me some more ideas about which insects are applicable for which ideas, cheers.