Building Katy Bear
May 30, 2017
Building Katy Bear
“Tell me a story about creation!” Pipes Christina.
“Animals!” bubbles Rebeccah.
So began a little story about a bear named Katy who wants to see God create something. This story was told for about three years before I wrote it down because Rebeccah wanted to read it to her younger sisters. We added Ralph Bear and the raven changed to a wise old owl. Ralph was added because the girls wanted Katy to have a brother. Rebeccah said we had to change the raven to something that lived longer so it would be more believable. (Animals talking and praying is believable, but an old raven isn’t)
They had lots of discussion about different birds but the owl won. He could be very old. Birds were made before mammals so he could remember God creating. The Bible calls owls wise. Kimberly was the toddler when we wrote it down on paper (okay, typed it on the computer and printed it out) so Christina wanted another bear. Rebeccah said bears have singles and twins, so a third bear wouldn’t really work. Christina reasoned it was a fairy tale and anything could really happen. We looked up lives of bears. Because they usually do just have twins, Christina pointed out that this story takes place before the flood – maybe pre-flood bears had triplets and quadruplets! Rebeccah wanted to know why bears would have more babies before the flood. Christina’s reply was that they were obeying God’s command.
“Which one?”
“Being fruitful and multiplying and filling the Earth.” Christina said, “that would easily explain why animals in olden days had more babies.”
“Mice live today and they have tons of babies.”
“That’s because they have lots of things that eat them. Who eats bears?”
Well, that prompted some more investigation into the lives of bears. We learned a great deal about bears in the few days while we wrote “Katy Bear’s Request.” Christina and Rebeccah even bought a National Geographic DVD special on bears from the resale store because now they love bears. (Kimberly LOVED watching this movie, along with the VHS tape about African lions – zoologist in the making)
I learned a lot about bears. What I really like about researching for a book is that I can drag the girls into it too! We all take a few days and launch into learning about whatever subject. For Daydreamer, most of our knowledge was already there (farming, food without processed flour, community) but for Pirate Child, we dove into learning about “the deep” ocean; building challenges, what kinds of creatures Ethan would see, basic physics of underwater travel.
For Katy Bear’s Request, we learned about bears. I always wonder what subject we’ll become “little experts” (as Rebeccah calls it) on next time!
Thanks for reading!
Type at you later,
~Nancy Tart
