Last week, we received in the mail a black notebook with a map of the United States on the cover. It had come to us from Massachusetts via California. Its owner is readersguide's nephew, who made the notebook for a school project. The notebook is to go from person to person, from state to state. Each person is supposed to write about the town and state where he/she lives until May 1, at which point whoever has it is supposed to send it back to its point of origin.

All three of us have embraced the project. Mr. Spy has published several books and magazine articles about our state, so we are well equipped with information. I�ve been focusing on the local information and also am contemplating pasting in an envelope with a CD of songs about Chicago or Illinois. AJ, however, has enthusiastically embraced the project as a whole. He has drawn several stellar pictures (one of the Sears tower, one of the barn next door to our house, and also a small map of Illinois with our town, Chicago and Springfield marked on it).

Here are AJ�s written contributions to the project:

Personal Account of Life in[ Lake Stepford], Illinois, by AJ, age 5

We live in a pretty house, but sometimes my room's a mess because I play in
there with my friend The Girl Next Door. We like to play Pac-Man. Sometimes we walk past dogs and when we drive, we see cats. When I look out the window I see robins and cardinals and chickadees and horses. I go to [Local Elementary] School. We have science center. It's a little table with science stuff. Books and rocks and things. We do centers at the end of the day. Sometimes it's work and sometimes it's fun stuff. Like we have a play house and we play in there.

Four things to do in Chicago, by AJ, age 5

--go to the top of the Sears Tower.
--stay at the Hotel Monaco at Christmas time
--eat hot dogs at Superdawg
--go to White Sox games

Three things that AJ, age 5, knew about Illinois without looking
them up:

--Chicago is the biggest city in Illinois
--Illinois' nickname is "Land of Lincoln"
--Illinois' state bird is the cardinal

The only thing that AJ doesn�t like about this project is the fact that we don�t get to see the notebook when it�s done. �It�s only been to one state!� he laments as we leaf through the collection of postcards from California, pausing at a picture of governor Schwartzenegger from his body-building years. We have no such colorful pictures of our state governor. His reasons for being colorful are hopelessly adult. But we�ll be pasting in a picture of our state senator with the caption, �He might be our next President.�

When we're finished, the notebook heads to Atlanta, Georgia, where a high school friend of mine will work on it with her two boys. Who knows where it's headed next?

7 people said it like they meant it