The Little Old Lady Who (Said She) Was Not Afraid of Anything

Fear is a part of life. How we face our fears (or don't face our fears) determines whether we live life fully or live on the fringe of life. We learn to start dealing with our fears as children.

What do young children fear? They often fear separating from parents to attend preschool. They might be afraid of the dark, or of flying insects. Because they engage in magical thinking, they are able to embrace the notion of Santa Claus or The Tooth Fairy. Magical thinking has a dark side, however, allowing children to believe that monsters inhabit the world with us.

Fairy tales often present sinister scenarios, bringing childhood fears to life. One of the reasons fairy tales have been popular for hundreds of years is that they allow children to safely explore their fears and in the end, witness the triumph of "good" over "evil."

I love fairy tales. I loved them as a child and I love them as an adult. As an adult, however, I have a problem with the preponderance of female villains and victims. The villain usually takes the form of an evil stepmother or wicked witch. The victim is usually a beautiful but personally powerless princess who ultimately needs rescuing.

This week all three classes are reading and discussing The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything written by Linda Williams and illustrated by Megan Lloyd. The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything is a wonderful modern-day fairy tale with a strong female protagonist who faces her fears and solves her own problem.

Don't be fooled by the titled. (The children weren't.) The LOL was most definitely afraid, but she kept her cool and took command of the situation. The book provides enough tension to push the preschool thrill button, but never crosses over to truly scary. Its enormously satisfying conclusion leaves the reader smiling, and just a bit more personally powerful than he or she was at the beginning of the story.

To read more about this subject, check out Mentor Monday -- Horror: How Much Is Too Much? posted on October 26th over at The Write Sisters, the blog on writing for children.

CPG Kids Respond (Added CPG in on 10.29.09)

Aria: The little old lady just went out to get seeds and pumpkins. The shoes go CLOMP, CLOMP. She said, "I'm not afraid of you, Shoes!" She saw pants and she go, "I not afraid of you, Pants!" She run away and then a shirt did CLOMP, CLOMP. And the gloves go CLAP. The pumpkin smiled and the pumpkin go CLOMP. Then she run away. She was staying home and the door knock. She said, "What do you want, you things?" He want to scare her. And she said, "Go scare the crows." He turn into a scarecrow and all the crows fly away.

Teagan: She said, "I'm not afraid of you, Shoes." The scary pumpkin face went, WOOO! WOOO!  She saw that scary pumpkin face and she run away real fast. The shoes go CLOMP, CLOMP. She said, "What do you want?"

Ryan: She was hot 'cause she was red. [The LOL was rather red-faced in the illustrations.) She said, "I'm going to pick some blueberries." She heard footsteps. CLOMP, CLOMP, CLOMP. She said, "AAAH! I'm not afraid of you!" And she runned in her house, and said, "Oh, okay. You can stay with me. I'm not ascared of you! Okay!" And they put it all on like a scarecrow.

Brady D.:  She going go outside and walk. But it keep getting darker and darker. CLOMP, CLOMP. The pants said, WIGGLE, WIGGLE.  A shirt said, SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE. A hat said CLOMP, CLOMP, CLOMP. A gloves said CLAP, CLAP, CLAP. And a pumpkin said BOO, BOO! She was running really fast.  Then she was sitting down. Then she open the door and then, "I'm not scared of you!" Then, "You can be a scarecrow." Then they scared all the crows. The end!

J.J.: I like the whole book when she went for a walk, and the little old lady wasn't afraid of anything. And the clippity, cloppity shoes didn't scare her. And the pants chased her and she bumped into a shirt, and gloves, and hat and a pumpkin. And then they came in and they tried to scare her and when she looked out the window was a scarecrow. I liked that!

Aiden R.: It was about a little lady. She heard a noise -- shoes!  The shirt was in the way. She said, "I'm not afraid of you!" The scary pumpkin did BOOO! [Flipped to final illustration.] It's a scarecrow!

Aidan C.: The little old lady got scared by a pumpkin. She went in her house and somebody came knocking. She whispered something in his ear, "You can't scare me!" She woked up and then there was a scarecrow.

Lindsey liked the story!

Alec didn't feel like talking about books today.

EK Kids Respond

Brooke B.:  I liked it when the old lady saw the big spooky pumpkin face that went, BOO! BOO! I liked it when she was running inside her cottage. I liked it when she heard the KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK on her door and then she opened it and she saw one clomping pair of shoes, one shirt go SHAKE, SHAKE, one pair of pants go WIGGLE, WIGGLE. And I liked it when one tall black hat went NOD, NOD, and I liked it when the pumpkin head went BOO! BOO!  And then I liked it when the little old lady whispered into the pumpkin's ear and said, "You can be a scarecrow!"

Daniel: The little old lady who was not afraid of anything I think was afraid of the pumpkin. I know what she whispered in the pumpkin's ear. "Go out in the garden and be a scarecrow!" I think that's what she whispered. And I also think he's ruining the garden with his feet. And I also think the crows are going because of him.

Dev: I like that part with the little shirt there.

Allison: The lady's walking out her cottage. She hears the shoes clomping. She says, "I'm not afraid of you!"

Keegan:  There's no such thing as all of the dancing shoes, the pants, the shirt, everything. Even the pumpkin. It's all made up. Even the pants don't do whatever they do. Shake, wiggle. Even that thing that says, BOO! They wanted to scare her, but I don't know why. I think they just wanted to scare her for fun. She was not scared of anything. Nothing scares me. Not even a giant pumpkin.

Brady:  A little old lady was running away from the shoes and the pants. She was sitting in her rocking chair in the cottage and they knocked at the door. They said they're there to scare her. She said, "I'm not scared of you." The little old lady whispered in the pumpkin's ear to go outside and be a scarecrow. He was a scarecrow.

Brooke N.: She wasn't afraid of anything. She heard CLAP, CLAP and she heard WIGGLE, WIGGLE. She's running away to her college [cottage]. She's looking behind her chair because she heard a knock on her door. She saw everything that was following her. Everything was trying to get in her house. She looked out the window and she saw a scarecrow. They made a scarecrow.

Hayden: The little old girl was not afraid of anything. She hear some shoes clomping in behind her. And she look behind her and she saw a pair of shoes. She just keep walking back to her house. She saw a pair of pants, but she didn't be afraid of the shoes or the pants. She almost kick the pants out of her way. When she kick them away they backed up and ran to the lady. And she saw a pair of a big white shirt and it might can't fit on her because she already have a dress. And the pants and the shoes follow her all the way to the shirt. And the pants and the shoes were jump into the shirt because they were afraid of the gloves because they go CLAP, CLAP, CLAP and hurt all of their ears. And look!  I see a hat! And the hat's behind the gloves 'cause he didn't know he'd been hiding a pair of gloves. The shoes and the pants and the shirt and the gloves and the hat and the girl have a parade all the way back to her house. A pumpkin going to fall out of the tree and go in the lady's way. And the shoes and the gloves and the shirt and the pants and the pumpkin face knock her over onto the floor. So when she falls all the nuts and leaves [in her basket] fall down to the floor. The lady hear a knock on the door and she thought, "Should I answer the door?" And the lady said, "No, I can't." She answered the door and there been shoes, and a shirt and a pumpkin head and gloves and a hat.  So she whisper something to the pumpkin's ear. She said, "Make a scarecrow!" So a lady look out her window and she saw all the clothes fall off the scarecrow. And you know what else happens? The scarecrow falled down 'cause he's leaning.

Leah:  She was running 'cause she was scared 'cause she didn't want all these to scare her. Then she was scared of the pumpkin 'cause he said, BOO! BOO! She was running in her cottage. Somebody knocked on the door. She speaked in the pumpkin's ear, "Go make a scarecrow."  The next morning she woke up and she saw a scarecrow. And it scared all the crows away.

Bella:  I like when they were all like running behind the lady. I like when she saw the hat and gloves. I like the scary pumpkin. We got a lot of pumpkins on our step. 'Cause we got a garden and one got aten by the worms. My mom squished them, though. They ate our tomatoes, too, did you know that? [Turns attention back to the story.] I like when she was rocking. Then she heard a knock on the door. All the pants and the gloves and the shoes and the pumpkin and the shirt were at the door. I like when he turns into a scarecrow.

Sophie:  The little old lady was not scared of anything. It was the shoes and the pants and the shirt and the gloves and the hat and the pumpkin -- they were all following her. And when she got in the cottage she heard a knock and she opened the door and she whispered to the pumpkin to be a scarecrow.

Annalee: She went out. She found shoes. She's running away from them because the pumpkin's saying, BOO! She locked the door. She opened the door. She's whispering in the pumpkin's ear. The pumpkin made it into a scarecrow.

Arthur:  This is my favorite part. The scarecrow was scaring all the crows away, but I like all of it.

John:  The little old lady came upon some gloves that went CLAP, CLAP and a hat that said NOD, NOD. The little old lady was going at a fast pace to her house because she was scared. I think the scariest part was when the pumpkin was, BOO! BOO! She whispered into the pumpkin's ear and said, "You should go outside and scare the crows away." I like it that there was a scary pumpkin face that scared all the crows away.

PK Kids Respond

Emelyn: I like she being scared of the WOOO pumpkin. I like she said, "Get out of the way, Clomp Shoes!"

Emmett: [Looking at final scarecrow illustration.] See the post-ez that go all the way up here? The scarecrow just built its own things.

Brady L.: The lady bumped into a shirt. She bumped into two gloves and a hat. All these followed her. The scary pumpkin said, BOO! The lady runned as fast as she can. Then she rocked in her rocking chair. And she heard a knock on her door. And then she put her arms like this [akimbo] and she said, "I'm not scared of you!" And then the pumpkin said, BOO! The lady whispered and telled him a secret to go outside and be a scary scarecrow.

Eva: A little lady was scared because she was scared of the pants and the pumpkin face. I like this part because she was scared like this, "Aaaah! Aaaah!" and she ran away. She heard two knocks on the door. She answered it, "I'm not scared! I mean business!" And she whispered to the pumpkin, "If you can't scare me, go outside and scare the crows!" And she looked out her window and there's the scarecrow.

Summer: The shoes were following her. The pants wiggled in front of her. She said, "I'm not afraid of you!" There was a shirt in front of her, and then she said, "I'm not afraid of you!" Then she saw gloves and a hat, and then she said, "I'm not afraid of you!" She saw a pumpkin that was a head and then she put her hand on her hat and runned home. Someone knocked on the door and then she was going to open the door, and then she opened the door. She saw shoes, pumpkin, gloves, a shirt and pants. They wanted to scare her. She said, "I'm not afraid of you!" Then she told the pumpkin to scare the crows away. She saw the pumpkin out in the garden.

Acadia: They can't walk without people. [The shoes, pants, etc.] That's so silly! The pumpkin said, BOOOO! BOOOO! and that scared her. She runned and runned. Where did that come from? [The pumpkin in the tree.] I don't know where that comed from.

Kaitlyn: Two big shoes thumped. She said, "I'm not afraid of you!" They were following her. Then she saw one pants RATTLE, RATTLE. She bumped into a shirt and she said, "I'm not afraid of you!" She saw two gloves CLAP, CLAP, CLAP and a hat. And then they followed her back home. Look it! There's the pumpkin! She saw the pumpkin up in the tree. WOOOO! WOOOO!  She went home. There was pants on the other side [standing on her doorstep] that she saw already and the pumpkin. She told the pumpkin to scare the crows away and not scare me.

Camryn: The little old lady wasn't afraid of anything. She heard shoes TAPPING, TAPPING, TAPPING. Something was in her way. Then WIGGLE, WIGGLE, WIGGLE.  Then SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE. Then the hat said, NO, NO, NO [nod, nod, nod]. And then the pumpkin said WOOO! WOOO! And then she scrammed home! Like the pretend monsters scram at my house. And then she rocked in her chair by the fire. Then her hands were on hips and she unlocked the door and all the things came home with her. She whispered, "Make a scarecrow."

Mack: The little old lady that wasn't afraid of anything said she wasn't afraid of anything. She walked away from the cottage and then she saw some shoes that walked all by theirselves. And then pants, and then a shirt, and then she started go home and then she saw a humongous pumpkin that went BOOO! and that scared me. And then they all did their stuff together and they totally scared her out. And then she ran in her cottage and then the knock and then she opened it and then that thing that moved by itself came in and then it turned into a scarecrow and scared all the crows away and then the end.

Mikayla: Those guys [shirt, shoes, etc.] were trying to get her because they like her. She's sad 'cause they following her.

Katherine:  She heard everything -- the shoes, the pants, the shirt, the gloves and the hat. She was going home and they were all following her. The pumpkin said, BOOO!  She ran! She rocked in her rocking chair, sitting by the fire. She hears a KNOCK, KNOCK on the door. They all come out. She whispers in the pumpkin's ear then he's a a scarecrow.

Christel: It was about pumpkin scary. Shoes came and they went CLOMP, CLOMP. And the little old lady said, "Get out of my way." And then a pair of pants came, and she said, "Get out of my way, pair of pants." And then a shirt came and said WIGGLE, WIGGLE. And she said, "Get out of my way, you pair of shirt!" And then she saw a pair of gloves and a hat, and they went CLAP, CLAP and NOD, NOD. And then they followed her. And then a pumpkin came and said, BOOO! BOOO! And then everything came and she went, "Aaaaaaah!" And then she ran, ran, ran until she got home inside her house. She rocked and she rocked and she rocked and she rocked. And then this was my favorite part. Everything she saw when she was on her adventure are in her home. She said, "Go outside and scare the crows!" She looks kind of freaked. And then this part, I thinked this was her shirt on her bed and she's using it as a pillow. And this part, he was happy to scare the crows.