This project was inspired by a childhood artifact brought in by FamilyFun editor Ann Hallock: Dr. Seuss's My Book About Me is filled with the author's prompting questions and Ann's crayoned responses: "I have 72 steps in my house"; "When I grow up I want to be a waitress or a nerse." The pages capture both Ann's imagination and the simple, everyday facts of her seven-year-old world. To entice similar revelations from six-year-old friends Grace Findlen-Golden and Rosalie Black, we filled blank notebooks with thought-provoking statements and left plenty of space for written and drawn responses about their families, pets, school, favorites ("mack and cheese"; "purple"; "my Scooby-Doo dress") and unfavorites ("math"; "dark brown"; "trash"). Some responses, like the wish to fly, may well weather the test of time, while others will reflect just this moment in their lives. At some point, Grace ran to get a similar book she had made a year ago. One page read, "I like it when I get pudding." Grace squinched her face in wonder before returning to her current mac and cheese drawing. "Can you believe I was so little?"

WHAT TO ASK

We like a mix of the specific ("These are three people I know who wear glasses"; "What I like best about the fall") with the abstract ("I wish I could ..."; "Here's what I know for sure:"; "I love ...";). Leave plenty of room for both writing and drawing. Tailor the prompts to your own child and throw in a surprise question or two.

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