Once upon a time...

A little boy found a very old piece of paper. The paper had once belonged to a kind and powerful wizard but the boy did not know that. He used the piece of a paper to write a story...

How the Butterfly got its Wings by Henry Grant

Once upon a time there was a fat ugly green caterpillar who lived in a beautiful garden. He was sad because all the other insects were unkind to him. The ladybird said that she was the most beautiful because of her shiny red and black wings. The bee said he was the most beautiful because of his yellow and black stripey body and the dragonfly was the most horrid he said the caterpillar was ugly and stupid because he culdn't fly.

So the caterpillar desided to make himself some wings. He visited all the pretty flowers in the garden and took some of their petles. Then he made himself a little house and went inside. There he sewed and stiched for three weeks and then he burst out of his house and flew around the gardn. All the other insects were amazed and said he was the most beautiful insect in the world.

(Spelling and syntax all Henry's own work)

Suddenly, the paper began to shimmer and a beautiful butterfly appeared...it grew and grew and then gently fluttered it's glorious wings.
"Climb aboard," it said to Henry, "Let the adventure begin..."

H's homework was to write the outline of a myth. They've been reading myths at school. There were lots of suggestions but anyone who knows my son will know he doesn't really do suggestions! They would also know he's mildly obsessed with butterflies. He wrote a shape poem about one before Christmas. Perhaps I ought to blip that too! Anyway, it was no surprise that he ignored all the suggestions in favour of a butterfly myth and once he'd written the outline he started to write the story. This was attempt number one, which was abandoned in favour of using red paper instead. I came across it today when I was tidying. The butterfly was one I found dead on my kitchen windowsill last summer. I...erm...popped it into a little plastic pot and kept it for a future macro project. The story reminded me about it. I photographed the three elements: pencil and writing, the texture and the butterfly separately and combined them in Photoshop.