From the time children begin their journey along the interaction learning curve, they are running a gauntlet -- learning to play, socialize, share, adjust, adapt. They are immersed in situations which impress upon them the fact that everyone is different, that they can’t always be first, and that good behavior is not always the most surefire way to be noticed.

They must make choices…and they must endure consequences.

Bad Bill

and the marshmallows

Bad Bill gets into some serious trouble with a big bag of marshmallows.

Bad Bill

AND THE JAcket

Bad Bill is back and this time, he needs a new jacket. He is veryyyy particular when it comes to the color!

Bad Bill

and the pumpkin

Bad Bill takes a field trip to the pumpkin patch with his class. How heavy is the pumpkin Bad Bill chose? What's that smell?

Written by: Cindy Simmons

Illustrations by: Nanci Powers and Anna McNaught

BAD BILL MAKES BAD CHOICES...

His unfortunate, “unfiltered” activities – from glomming marshmallows to throwing a brand new jacket in the trash to a series of misadventures with a certain PUMPKIN– are the source of his documented plight in the Bad Bill Stories.

Children (and former children) are drawn to Bad Bill as a representation of their other self…their naughty self – the one that invariably must pay the piper for succumbing to the impulse to cross the line. With acknowledgement of the Bad Bill within us all comes also a sense of pride in the realization that we can control those naughty impulses – at least most of the time. And as “bad” as he is, even that rascal Bill manages to find redemption at end of day.

Kids love the element of surprise -- the audacity of Bill’s misbehavior – and they embrace the redemption that comes from having to suffer the consequences of choice and the sheer fun and freedom of indulging the naughty side, without having to really suffer for it. Bill suffers for them….learns his lessons the hard way, and is ultimately redeemed.

Cindy is available for Readings (Classroom or Assembly), Personal Narrative Writing Sessions (Grades 2-5), Interviews, One-on-One Teacher Consultations. She can be contacted at: Badbillstories@gmail.com

Cindy reading Bad Bill and the Marshmallows at Barnes and Noble — Cindy reading **Bad Bill and the Marshmallows** at Barnes and Noble

Cindy Simmons and illustrator Nanci Powers