Origin
This book started out to be about kids forming a club. The members of this club had to help others. The problem I then had was to figure out who they could help. Why not Jillian’s younger sister? What kind of problem could a little girl have? Why not a scary dream? By the time the story was finished, I had taken out all the club stuff because I didn’t have enough room for it.
Fun Facts
I later found out that Jillian helped her sister in the same way that child psychiatrists do. They help children by having them draw a picture of and then speak to whatever is scaring them in their dreams. They encourage children to give themselves helpers and protectors during this process. Magic things, like the monster squishing machine, helpers, like Jillian and Rachel and Peter. They discourage them from killing the thing that is scaring them. It made be a disowned part of themselves.
I painted my husband and myself on a bench in the park.
Hide and Seek
Jillian’s pigs
The book, Grandma & the Pirates
The book, Once upon a Golden Apple
Jillian’s old boxes
A painting of the balloon tree
The blanket from Something From Nothing
Jillian’s old dress
The Toronto CN tower
A Chicken!
Activities
Activity #1: Make monster masks using paper plates, cups, strings, bottle caps, etc. Count how many bottle caps/strings etc. were used to make a mask.
Activity #2: Pretend you are the monster in Jillian’s monster machine. What would you say to her?
Activity #3: Make a monster machine using cardboard boxes.
Activity #4: Have students draw a picture of a nightmare they’ve had. Suggest that they also draw in helpers, for instance: a magic wand, an invisible cloak, a fairy Godmother, a magic pebble. Next they draw in a barrier to protect themselves. For instance: a cage around the nightmare subject, a deep hole, a high wall etc. Once this is done, they write or speak a conversation with the nightmare subject including the nightmare subject’s response.