Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Text and images copyright - Michael Smith - Doodle Bag Productions


Week 2


08.27.10

            Sara picked herself up from the ground and dusted off her knees, “Where in the world am I?” Looking around she could see a great big field full of grass and rolling hills in the distance, “and how the heck did I get here?”  The beanbag was slumped on the ground next to a dirt road that was swinging its way back to a log house in the distance with a great big chimney.  The sun was high in the sky and the wind was blowing the grass happily along the edge of the little path.

            “Well, this stuff isn’t going to clean itself.” Sara began to gather her books that had been scattered around, finding the book about the boy wizard in the roots of a nearby tree, and a grabbing book about a wardrobe that was hanging from the limbs above, it had her straw stuck into its spine.  She had just reached for another book that had landed wide open when she heard her name in the distance.  The noise scared her so much that she tossed everything high in the air and spun around looking for who called her.

            “Sara!” Came the quiet call again, but she couldn’t see anyone nearby.

            “Who’s there!?” But no one could be seen!

            “Sara!” There it was again! She looked around and the book that had been perched on her head flopped over and landed next to the one she had been reading before she was sucked down into the beanbag.  It was still open to her favorite page, and she reached for the open book when she realized that the page didn’t have the pictures anymore!  Instead of horses she was looking at Ms. Robinson and all of her class staring back up at her!

            “That is really strange! What are you guys doing in that book?” Ms. Robinson waved for Sara to pick up the book.

            “Sara, you have to cli…” Sara was reaching for the book but she could barely hear Ms. Robinson, the wind was picking up now and blowing even harder making the pages of the book flap back and forth!  Suddenly the page that Ms. Robinson was on ripped from the book and floated on the breeze high into the air and off into the distance.

            “Come back!” Sara called

            “Who are you talking to?” A new voice questioned from behind her and Sara turned to see a little girl about her age wearing a plaid dress and brown buckle boots, behind the girl a family was climbing down from a wagon.

            “You’re Laura Ingalls!” Sara exclaimed and the little girl in front of her looked confused.

            “Nope, I’m Maura, Maura Shingles, and who are you?

For the second post...an Introduction

Character's from Sara's World
All images and text copyright Michael Smith - Doodle Bag Productions



Doodle Bag Productions

The artifacts from Doodle Bag Productions are limited edition, fully functional story bags.  Each lunch bag is uniquely efficient; the artwork having no impact on the size, capacity, or performance of the standard or large sized student lunch bag. 

Created originally as a method for a kindergartener to identify her own lunch on a field trip the custom lunch bag has grown into a weekly serialized story revolving around the adventures of Sara as she goes on a Freaky Field Trip, deals with the trauma of Soggy Stickers, overcomes a Problem Puppet, and fixes a Broken Beanbag with her friends, family, and teachers.

Quite simply, these are Sacks of a Different Flavor.

Monday, August 30, 2010

All images and text copyright Michael Smith - Doodle Bag Productions


Sara and the Broken Beanbag

Week 1

  Sara settled into her favorite beanbag chair, snuggled into the corner of the class and pulled a nice cool drink next to her and reached for the top book on the big stack next to her.  After lunch on a Friday afternoon was the best time of the week!  School was almost done and if you got all of your regular work done Ms. Robinson let you curl up with a good book!

  Sara pushed her head deep into the vinyl of the red reading beanbag and felt the crinkle of the beans popping under her hair.

  “Ahhhh!” She reached over for a sip of water and picked up the book on top of the pile, it was one of her favorite stories about a little girl whose family lived in the old west and had a house at the edge of a big field.  She couldn’t wait to see what surprises Ma and Pa had for the girls.  Quickly Sara flipped to her favorite page with the family in a wagon, she loved to see the drawing of the horses and imagine what it would be like to ride along the bumpy road into town with the family.  She shut her eyes and could almost feel the hot summer wind blowing over the prairie and around the wagon, brushing the smell of the grass past her nose.  She was lost in her daydream of riding with the Ingalls when she felt the beanbag move under her!

  “Whoa!” she called out, pulling back on the book like the reins of a horse and sitting up suddenly, looking around for one of the boys in her class, those guys were always playing some kind of prank.  But to her surprise, no one was around!  Everyone was still busy at work.  Shrugging her shoulders Sara slid back into the beanbag and pulled her book back up and stared at the picture again and read about the family as they headed to town.  Sara was so focused on the book that she didn’t feel the beanbag start to shake again until she was so deep in the bag that the ceiling seemed like it was really far away and the walls of the chair had grown around her, books were falling down next to her.  She couldn’t see her class anymore, but for some reason she could actually hear the sounds of horses clumping down a dirt road in the distance.

  “That’s odd.” She said to herself as she fell deeper into the beanbag and the warm smell of a prairie filled her nose until the beanbag had pulled her down and plopped her out on the underside and she fell down to ground below!  She was suddenly outside in a big field and books were falling around her and the beanbag plopped next to her, wherever she was!