I made up GROWL in 1992 during a storytelling at a daycare in Antigonish, Nova Scotia on the same day that I made up LIGHTHOUSE. I did not link it to a specific kid and for a long time it was not part of my regular telling but it gradually got better as a story and then I was telling it all the time. It even had a class version that I sent out which used all the names in a class.
Then, all of a sudden, Scholastic wanted to do it and I did not have a kid to be in it. I had had a stroke and was stuck in my house getting better.
What to do?
I got up and walked across the street to a family that I knew and asked if they wanted to be in a book. They said “Yes!”
But the family had 2 young kids, Isaac and Elena, so I changed the story to a 2 kid story and I think it is better that way.
When I tell it, the audience joins in louder and louder each time I say “GROWEL.”
