It’s my birthday this month, and I’m turning forty. I realize that forty today is nothing like forty was when my grandmother was forty, but even so, I find my thoughts turning toward childhood memories all too often this month. Rather than trying to fight it, I’m embracing it and inviting you to do the same…but there’s a catch. Rather than focusing on one children’s author, like the A. A. Milne project we did a few years ago, I’m pulling this months inspiration from some of the books that were my favorites when I was a kid.

To participate, pick a prompt (any or all) and use it for an entry in your own blog. Then leave a comment here with the option number, link, and your name as you want it to be displayed on the participant’s page.

This project will remain open until August 31st. The next project will open on Sunday, September 5th.

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Option 1: Picture It

Use the image above as inspiration to write something about childhood. Your piece can be fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, or any other form that suits you. (Please remember to copy the image to your own server and credit the photographer.)

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Option 2: Poetry

“At breakfast, Anthony found a Corvette Sting Ray car kit in his breakfast cereal box and Nick found a Junior Undercover Agent code ring in his breakfast cereal box but in my breakfast cereal box, all I found was breakfast cereal.”
– Judith Viorst, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Use the quotation above to inspire a poem about anticipation or disappointment.

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Option 3: Pick Three

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow–
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes goes so little that there’s none of him at all.

He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close behind me, he’s a coward you can see;
I’d think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

– Robert Louis Stevenson, “My Shadow”

Use at least three of the the bold words in the above quotation to write a short piece in whatever form (poetry, prose, fiction) you wish.

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Option 4: Tell Me a Story

“I wouldn’t be a bit afraid, and it would be lovely to spend the night in a wild cherry-tree all white with bloom in the moonshine, don’t you think? You could imagine you were dwelling in marble halls, couldn’t you?”

– Lucy Maude Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Use the quotation above as inspiration for a short piece of fiction or creative non-fiction about the power of imagination.

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Option 5: Seven Things

Jo on the next lid, scratched and worn,
And within a motley store
Of headless, dolls, of schoolbooks torn,
Birds and beasts that speak no more,
Spoils brought home from the fairy ground
Only trod by youthful feet,
Dreams of a future never found,
Memories of a past still sweet,
Half-writ poems, stories wild,
April letters, warm and cold,
Diaries of a wilful child,
Hints of a woman early old,
A woman in a lonely home,
Hearing, like a sad refrain
Be worthy, love, and love will come,
In the falling summer rain.

– Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

In improvisation, one of our exercises is a game called “Seven Things,” in which we go around in a circle giving each other the challenge, “Give me seven things that [whatever].” We are not going to go around in a circle here, but if you’re drawn to lists, this prompt is for you.

Give me seven items from your hope chest or toy box. If you didn’t have such a thing, make a list of seven keepsakes from your childhood.

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Option 6: Short and Tweet

I’d give all wealth that years have piled,
The slow result of Life’s decay,
To be once more a little child
For one bright summer day.

– Lewis Carroll, “Solitude”

Do you have a Twitter account? If so, use the quotation above as inspiration, and tweet your own childhood memory (in 140 characters or less) to @cw_barista.

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Bonus Option: Time It: For an extra challenge, set a timer for eight minutes when you sit down to respond to one of these prompts, and stop writing when the timer goes off!