{"id":53793,"date":"2014-12-27T00:09:31","date_gmt":"2014-12-27T08:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=53793"},"modified":"2014-12-27T00:09:31","modified_gmt":"2014-12-27T08:09:31","slug":"story-prompts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/53793","title":{"rendered":"Story Prompts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tDo you know Frederick? He has big ears, sleepy eyes, and a rather prominent tail.<\/p>\n

Oh\u2014maybe I forgot to mention\u2014Frederick is a mouse. He’s the unlikely hero of a lovely little book by Leo Lionni called \u2026 you guessed it:<\/p>\n

\"frederick\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s a children’s book, but I really don’t like making such a rigid distinction because, hey, we’re all kids at heart, right? And this tiny gem speaks volumes to literature lovers, no matter what age.<\/p>\n

Frederick, you see, is considered among his mischief (i.e. mouse tribe) to be a layabout loafer. In the eyes of his hardworking companions, he appears to shirk his pre-winter duties\u2014stockpiling grain and the like\u2014in favor of daydreaming.<\/p>\n

“Frederick, why don’t you work?” they ask. “Are you dreaming?”<\/p>\n

\"Frederick_work\"

Image courtesy of Story Philosophy blog<\/p><\/div>\n

But in fact, Frederick is<\/em> working, in his own way. Instead of corn and nuts, he’s gathering words.<\/p>\n

Words? How can words possibly be as important to winter survival as food?<\/p>\n

That’s for Frederick, in all his marvelously mousy wisdom, to tell \u2026<\/p>\n