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Harrell Fletcher's Interviews with Children

Interview between Laura and her four-year-old daughter Sylvie

Sylvie

Sylvie: Uh-oh, a fly’s in our house. If it has shiny green on it, it’s poisonous.

Laura: Really? How do you know that?

S: Someone told me that.

L: Who?

S: Someone nine days ago. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. (counts while revolving right arm in circle). Pig wants a graham cracker, Mom.

L: Wait, I want you to tell me about the poisonous flies.

S: Well, where is the poisonous fly in our house? Well I don’t think it’s poison because when it’s very very very very very I forgot the name. Well, they have shiny green, I already telled you. Some black, some green. Green is on their back. Then I don’t know all of it though. I don’t know all about it. Here’s a graham cracker (bends and feeds pretend graham cracker to wooden pull-pig).

L: You’re feeding Pig a graham cracker?

S: “It’s not real, Sylvie.” (in falsetto voice)

L: Is that Pig talking?

S: I don’t want Pig to bother and bother me around.

L: He’s bothering you?

S: Yeah.

L: Is he the one who said “It’s not real, Sylvie?”

S: Yeah.

L: You don’t like him?

S: I don’t like him too much, and I don’t like his tail. Now can I have a graham cracker?

L: If I give you a cracker, will you keep talking to me?

S: Yeah, I’ll tell you everything.

L: So tell me about your day.

S: Um, school wasn’t good so much.

L: Why not?

S: Um, I don’t know why. But hmm. I don’t have very much things in my day. Oh! I’m going to talk about the ice creams.

L: What about them?

S: I had a really super yummy kind.

L: When?

S: (points to calendar) The one that’s on the calendar.

L: But that one on the calendar hasn’t happened yet.

S: Oh, that one. (points to calendar).

L: That’s happening in the future, because that will be Coen’s last day of school.

S: Oh.

L: Were you talking about when Jodi took you for icecream?

S: Hm-hmm (around cracker bite)

L: And that was really good? What kind did you have?

S: I don’t know.

L: What color was it?

S: Yellow. Look how tiny my bite is. (shows me her graham cracker) A mouse had a bite of it.

L: Really? While you weren’t looking?

S: Yeah.

L: Are you mad at the mouse?

S: Darn, that one takes a lot of bites. Look. (shows me the tiny holes in her graham crackers). I can eat 10,000 graham crackers without brushing my teeth. I mean the mouse can eat 10,000. Now look.

L: Do you have anything else you want to tell me?

S: Um, Coen’s old lunchbox is here.

L: What do you think about that?

S: It’s good.

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