A CHOICE-FILLED ADVENTURE STORY
THE MAGICAL HOTEL— Help From the Fairies
Written by Students of MS. WINTER’S 4TH GRADE CLASS at ERICKSON ELEMENTARY
FIRST EDITION PRINTED AND BOUND AT 826MICHIGAN
Copyright © 2021 by 826michigan and Blotch Books. All rights reserved by 826michigan, the many whims of Drs. T & G Blotch, and the authors. The views expressed in this book are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of 826michigan. We believe in the power of youth voice and are thrilled that you picked up this book. No part of this book may be reproduced without express written permission from the publisher, except for small excerpts for the purposes of review or scholarly study. By purchasing this book, you are helping 826michigan continue to offer free student programs. For more information, please visit: 826michigan.org
You find a magical hotel in Lunya. It has a bunch of different magical rooms such as a space room, a room full of unicorns, a magical ice cream shop, and a secret base in the basement of the hotel. You go into the unicorn room and a unicorn gently taps you on the back with their horn. The unicorn gives you a game setup to play Minecraft! You put the Minecraft setup in your private room. Then, you want to get the unicorns out of the hotel somehow! They are fighting with each other and taking over most of the place. To give the unicorns more room, a girl named Lucy walks in and offers to expand the hotel with magic.
If you decide to expand the hotel with magic, turn to page 2. If you decide to get the unicorns out of the hotel, turn to page 3.
1
You choose to let Lucy expand the hotel with magic. Lucy has short pink hair with a little pony tail in the back, a purple shirt with blue jeans, and she always has a backpack for all of her magic. She always carries a wand in her pocket. Her cat is named Lily. Lily is black and white with stripes. After she expands the hotel she offers you some magic tea. The magic tea is supposed to taste like strawberries and blueberries. It lets you see things far away, makes you really strong, and gives you flying powers.
If you decide to drink the magic tea, turn to page 4. If you decide to save the tea for later, turn to page 5.
2
You decide to try to get the unicorns out of the hotel since they are fighting. To get them out of the hotel, you tell them there is a picnic for them outside. You set up a picnic for them to enjoy. For the picnic, you set out caramel apples, cotton candy grapes, and pie. Then, to make them stop fighting, you make two new hotels so they can have more space. To make these hotels, you have to ask one of the magical fairies in Lunya and give them Cheetos. The fairies look like Tinkerbell, but they have a rainbow disguise and are robots! While making the new hotels, the robot fairy drops their wand which accidentally puts a curse on the unicorns. You need to help the fairy get the wand back.
If you decide to send another fairy to help, turn to page 6. If you decide to run to find the wand, turn to page 7.
3
You choose to drink the magic tea. You drink it and turn into a big blue blueberry, before exploding. Shortly after you explode, Lucy walks into the space room where you are and says, “SURPRISE, WE’RE GOING TO DO SOMETHING FUN!” Lucy says she is going to teach you magic. She says a spell that places a wand in your hand. The wand is in the shape of a flower with a seed on top, and the seed grows bigger as you learn more magic. The first spell you learn is the easiest spell. It’s the spell to fly. First, you point your wand towards the sky and little itty bitty stars come out of it and you say the spell to fly. You don’t fly high. You begin to levitate one foot off of the ground. Then, Lucy whispers, “Zip Zap Zam, make you fly Alackazam!!!” Depending on how fast you want to go, you either yell or whisper. Lucy doesn’t want you to go fast because you are learning. Lucy gives you a choice. If you say “Rings Appear” portals will appear to transport you to another part of the hotel. If you say “Frog Hop”, you can fly really bouncing to another part of the hotel.
If you decide to say “Rings Appear”, write your own ending. If you decide to say “Frog Hop”, write your own ending.
4
(start again at page 1)
You decide to save the tea for later, but you let Lucy expand the hotel. The hotel gets as big as a skyscraper! It has 200 floors now. As thanks, you offer Lucy and her cat, Lily, a free stay in one of the rooms. The unicorns are so happy because now they have room to sleep. You decide to invite your family to stay in the hotel now that there is a lot of room. Your parents decide to stay in the black and blue room. You decide to explore the hotel and look at all the different rooms. There’s a pool room, a gaming room, a space room, and a HUGE pink and purple room to play hide-and-seek in. All of the rooms look super interesting, but you wonder if there’s still more to see.
If you decide to stay in the room with the pool,
write your own ending. If you decide to look at the other rooms,
write your own ending. 5
(start again at page 1)
To find another robot fairy to help, you press the emergency fairy button that sends an alert to all of the fairies in the magical world. The Fairy Efficiency Squad comes quickly to help you and the robot fairy find the dropped wand. The Fairy Efficiency Squad has tools that glow and shoot rainbow lights. They also have a rope like Wonder Woman that glows. While looking for the wand, a small hologram bad guy named CJ shows up. He makes lots of holograms around you so you don’t know who the real one is. The Fairy Efficiency Squad uses their rainbow light to stop the holograms, which reveals the real bad guy! He came to steal the robot fairy’s wand. He grew up with mean parents, which made him mean. His parents never let him play with fairy things, so now he wants the dropped fairy wand.
If you decide to be CJ’s friend, write your own ending. If you decide to put CJ in a beautiful fairy jail,
write your own ending. 6
(start again at page 1)
The fairy’s wand breaks so you look for the wand with unicorns and fairies. The fairy becomes cursed because her magic is gone. The fairy turns into a human since she loses her powers. When she finds the wand, she go to the wand shop to try and get her wand fixed. The wand shop is closed since it is the nighttime, so the fairy can’t get her wand fixed! The fairy then goes back to her wand village and cries because she loses all her powers. She does, however, still have her wings. The fairy is sad, so she tries to get a rainbow fairy dust snack — which can be many different things, but it turns out that her wings don’t work since she lost ALL her powers. The fairy then wakes up and asks you to help her fix her fairy powers. You could take her to the fairy port to find a new wand shop to try and fix her wand, or you could make her a potion to get her powers back?
If you decide to take her to the fairy port to fix her wand,
write your own ending. If you decide to make a super potion to get her powers back,
write your own ending. 7
(start again at page 1)
inspires school-aged students to write with skill and confidence in collaboration with adult volunteers in their communities. Our writing and tutoring programs uphold a culture of creativity and imagination and support students in establishing strong habits of mind. Through publication and community engagement, we provide students with an authentic and enthusiastic audience for their writing. Our programs provide an energizing creative outlet for students and meaningful volunteer opportunities for community members. We believe that with one-onone attention from caring adults, students improve their academic performance, develop a sense of belonging, and discover the unique value of their voices. We also believe that the more fun a student has, and the more directly we speak to a student’s interests, the more we can help students find the fun in learning. That’s why our programs are more than just extra homework. All of our programs are challenging and enjoyable, and ultimately strengthen each student’s power to express ideas effectively, creatively, confidently, and in their individual voice. ONLINE LEARNING LAB In the spring of 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we quickly transitioned all of our programs online. Our priority is to ensure the safety of our community, while continuing to offer engaging, high-quality opportunities to students. Each of our main programs—Schoolwork Support, Workshops, Field Trips, and In-school Projects—has been reimagined for the virtual space as part of our new Online Learning Lab. For the 2020–21 school year, our programs will remain virtual. When is it safe to return to our in-person programs, we plan to continue to offer virtual program opportunities as well! SCHOOLWORK SUPPORT The program formerly-known as tutoring has been given an updated name, but the same great foundations remain. We organize trained volunteer tutors to work with students one-on-one with their homework after school. Schoolwork Support is available for all subjects, for students ages 8–18. Generally, we offer this program at three locations: at our Liberty Street Lab in Ann Arbor, at the Michigan Avenue Branch of the Ypsilanti District Library, and at our Winder Street Lab in Detroit’s Eastern Market, though in-person programs are on pause this year. We have added a Virtual Schoolwork Support program. Students are paired with two tutors to work on assignments for school and writing projects of their choosing.
WORKSHOPS We offer a number of free workshops taught by professional artists, writers, and our talented volunteers. From comic books to screenplays, bookmaking to radio, our wide variety of workshops are perfect for writers of all ages and interests. One of the most popular workshops we offer is our weekly Wee-bots program for elementary-aged writers. IN-SCHOOL PROJECTS Our trained volunteers go into local public schools every day to support teachers with their classroom writing assignments. Based on the teacher’s curriculum, assignments range from writing tales to crafting college essays to exploring poetry. In addition, we hold regular Writers Clubs, in which small groups of students are able to work on a writing project over the course of a semester, culminating in a publication. We also partner with schools to hold Family Writing Labs: laughterfilled events in which families to come together and participate in an evening of engaging writing activities and community connection. FIELD TRIPS Always full of surprises and theatrics (and usually a visit from our crotchety editor, Dr. Blotch), our Field Trip program is an experiential writing extravaganza. We welcome teachers to bring their classes in for field trips during the school day. Students join a group of volunteers, interns, and staff to help solve a problem through writing—whether that is Dr. Blotch’s insomnia, our looming story deadline, a mystery in need of solving, or one of the many others we encounter. Our field trips always end in a finished publication of original writing that students take home. Often the field trip writing is connected to a second leg of the students’ journey, whether a trip to a museum, library, or local record label, thanks to our many incredible community partners. OUR STORES Our Robot Supply Co. stores are one-stop shops for robots, robot owners, and enthusiasts alike. They are designed to inspire creativity and bring awareness of our programs to the community. When it is safe to do so again, come visit the Ann Arbor Robot Supply Co. at 115 East Liberty Street in downtown Ann Arbor and the Detroit Robot Supply Co. at 1351 Winder Street in Eastern Market in Detroit. In the meantime, please visit the Robot Supply Co. at onwardrobots.com. All proceeds from our stores directly fund our free student programming. Onward robots!
WRITING IS
A way to figure things out by ourselves
We create a safe place to be ourselves and try new things We support the ways that writers work (like thinking, sketching, talking)
A way to help us connect to our world
We study the writing we want to do so we can try it We learn how to change our writing for genre, audience, and purpose
A way to help us learn who we are and who we will become
We work with a group of writers who help and support each other
A way for us to use our power to make changes and build a better world
www.826michigan.org
826 National was inspired to take a stand on issues of inclusion and diversity in light of the many events that spotlighted social and racial injustices throughout the country. We as educators, volunteers, and caring adults need to be aware of the wide range of issues our students face on a day-to-day basis. We need to support these young people as they navigate through and try to make sense of the world and their own identities. We need the support and the feedback from our community to ensure 826 is living up to these standards. Through our inclusion statement, our internal diversity and inclusion group, cultural competency resources provided to staff and volunteers, and partnerships with other organizations, we are always working towards being a more inclusive and supportive organization. We at 826 have the privilege of working with the next generation of scholars, teachers, doctors, artists, lawyers, and writers. It's our job to make sure they are able to take their own stands. As an organization committed to encouraging youth in their creative expression, personal growth, and academic success, 826 National and its chapters recognize the importance of diversity at all levels and in all aspects of our work. In order to build and maintain the safe, supportive 826 environment in which great leaps in learning happen, we commit ourselves to inclusion: we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, nationality, marital status, English fluency, parental status, military service, or disability. The 826 National network is committed to encouraging youth to express themselves and to use the written word to effectively do so. We encourage our students to write, take chances, make decisions, and finish what they start. And 826 strives to do this in an environment free from discrimination and exclusion.
by Gerald Richards, CEO