826michigan OMNIBUS 12 – 2020

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the 826michigan OMNIBUS 12

826michigan

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826michigan Staff Dr. Naimah Wade Executive Director Catherine Calabro Cavin Education Director Frances Martin Operations Director Courtney Wise Randolph Communications & Development Manager Megan Gilson Program Manager Ariel Kaplowitz-Hahn Volunteer Engagement Associate Josi Ezinga Development Associate

Copyright Š 2020 by 826michigan and Blotch Books.

All rights reserved by 826michigan, the many whims of Drs. T & G Blotch, the illustrators, 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.

ISBN 978-1-948644-61-7 Printed in Michigan by McNaughton & Gunn Design by Amy Sumerton

By purchasing this book, you are helping 826michigan continue to offer free student programs. For more information, please visit: 826michigan.org

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ALSO published Young Authors Book Project:

Because No One Else Could Do It In Our Defense In the Clouds Over Ypsilanti A Moment to Remember Rare Air / Aire raro A Lantern of Fireflies Tell Me How It Was Where Is It Coming From?

Enjoy! Recipes for Building Community All I Could Do Was Look Up: Anatomy of a Middle School What to Call the Place I Call Home: Voices of 26 Ypsilanti Middle School Students The Moons Were Jealous 2020: Visions of the [Near] Future Don’t Stay Up So Late How to Rise Or, I Put My Heart into the Close Tall Tales & True Stories Suddenly My Heart Stopped for Just a Small Portion of Time: Defining Moments

OMNIBI:

826michigan OMNIBUS I 826michigan OMNIBUS II 826michigan OMNIBUS III 826michigan OMNIBUS IV 826michigan OMNIBUS V 826michigan OMNIBUS VI 826michigan OMNIBUS VII 826michigan OMNIBUS VIII 826michigan OMNIBUS IX 826michigan OMNIBUS X 826michigan OMNIBUS 11

An Incomplete List of Chapbooks:

140-Character Fairy Tale Characters And I Did My Best And Suddenly, We Ran Into a Cliff of Gold Because Their Feet Will Be Wet, They Will Agree to the Monster’s Demands The Big Mess-Up and Other Stories The Big Treasure Should Be Gold Bon Temps Roulez!

A Burning Forest, An Underground Castle, and a Misled Princess: The Papaya Problem

Cats Came to the Dog Party Carrying Ourselves Across: The Art of SelfTranslation Cinderella’s Bad Day, Prince Charming is a Monster, and Other Tragic Love Tales The Clouds Spell Detroit Colors Came Out Crazy Soup Cuando los robots atacan Don't Get Freaked Out, But I am a Fifteen-YearOld Vampire Deluxe: Tales from Two Tutoring Labs Detectives on the Case The Distance Between Two Sides of a Color Dr. Von Humor's Encyclopedia of Monster Botany Ekphrastic is Fantastic!

Even the Stars are Robotic Everybody Will Know You Every Day Got Better and Better Everything You Could Ever Want . . . and More!

Everything You Fight For And Gain Expecting Greatness and Excitement Feed Your Mac and Cheese To Your Pet Crocodile Flying High The Fog Was Geemy Four Years' Worth of Ice Cream The Golden Nose 2.0 Growl!! Everybody Will Know You He Gets in a Pickle Almost Every Hour He Liked to Hip-Hop All Around Hello Sandwich Hey Mom, Taking Flight The Hippo Ate Like a Regular Hippo How To Be Crazy How To Survive a Slime Attack with Me How To Survive an Underground Volcano How To Survive Being Chased by a Million Squirrels How To Survive Having All the Powers in the Universe How To Use Your Nine Lives I Am Thankful for the Moon So I Can See in the Dark I Have Hidden A Treasure Somewhere I Cannot Remember

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by I Hope You Consider What I’ve Said: Kids’ Letters to President Trump I Never Want to Leave I Rode My Yak to School I Suddenly Became Noodles I Use This Pencil To Write I Wrote All the Words Identifying the Common Bot Jot If I Ever Saw Mr. JK, I Would Ask Him These Things If I was a Unicorn (Ms. Todd Would Freak Out) It All Started Like a Regular Day It Tasted Like the Sun Joy Got Up and Laughed Let’s Make a Bridge Maybe I was Born to be One of the Big Creatures MEOWCH! The Monster Had a Whole Lot of Question Marks, Volume 1 The Monster Had a Whole Lot of Question Marks, Volume 2 The Moon Smells Like Pizza My Fish is a Good Fish My Heart Felt Sad for the Bird My Robot Eats Pie and Other Habits of Highly Successful Robots My Robot Eats Pudding and Other Habits of Highly Successful Robots My Strange Outfit Near and Far Never Runs out of Battery The Nicest Car in Monsterland, Volume 1 The Nicest Car in Monsterland, Volume 2 Now I Know Many People Here Oatmeal is My Worst Weakness Once Upon a Time, There was a Baby, Then Another Baby, and Another Baby, and One More Baby One Step Closer to the Robot Takeover Perry was in Love with the Wind Playing Chess with Owls in the Dark The Quest for the Diamond Candy Corn Read This Book!

Really, Really Melted Up Robot School 101

The Rothman Observer The Sandwich Never Wanted to be Eaten See Modern, Marvelous Ann Arbor by Train, Plane, or Automobile Shark Math She Found the Perfect Soup, but it Tasted Weird Shorter Days A Skeleton With Fire All Over Him With a Purple Jacket So Many Different Monsters at Monster School So Many Monsters at Monster School Someone Said You Were Looking For Me Spinach Doughnut The Stars Danced on the Ceiling Talking Back, Giving Thanks, and Why You Should Never Drink the Haterade That Moment Broke My Heart But Also Made Me Strong They Are Monsters, But They’re Nice Monsters They Have Pet Stars They Mean the World to Me There Was a Boom in My Ice Cream This is How I Became One of the Greatest Heroes in the History This Pencil is My Most Important Possession This Rock is Missing This Song Still Endures: A 1966 Motown Retrospective Thunder-, Lightning-, and Waterproof!

Tom the Robot Prince's Comedy Special: Live from the Enchanted Ice Jungle Kingdom A Tough Wolf With No Name Training a Shark The Ultimate Tacocat Underworld Archives Up in the Air We Went up with the Pearls and Were All Millionaires When the Whales Celebrate Where Everything is Written Where We Danced and Laughed A Whole Bunch of Candy The Wind Shushes and Hushes The Ypsilanti Community Review Zomb, the Formalist

INTRODU Josiah Atkinson Hello! My name is Josiah Atkinson, and I literally always skip the preface, foreword, or introduction to a book (I also really don’t like it when people use the word literally too much!

You literally can’t use it in figurative language!

Look it up!). If you are reading this then you have a kind of patience that I do not. I never thought that I would write (or read) one of these, but here I am!

826’s program was one of the reasons that I started writing more.

My stories have been in four different OMNIBI (is that right?). I have been going to 826michigan programs since I was eight years old. I am now twelve, and will be in eighth grade in the fall at Slauson Middle School. The OMNIBUS is a collection of writing that consists of many stories written

by students around the state of Michigan. A new OMNIBUS comes out every year, and there have been twelve (including this one). I am proud to say that this one is the first one with a preface written by students that have written at 826 programs. I didn’t really like writing when I was in elementary school. I thought it was boring. The idea of writing about blue pigs, or a time when I was disillusioned was associated with required school work and sitting for long periods of time and moving a pencil. Whenever I was given a prompt, I would automatically think of a dozen ideas not at all related to the subject.

I would much rather read, draw, play outside, or play video games.

When I arrived in the 826 tutoring program, I saw prompts that I

ction liked. I went with the prompts for a couple weeks, but the same feeling of blue pigs and writing about disillusionment swept over me as I got attached to the tutors and found other things to do there (such as homework). I soon found out that we could write about whatever we wanted, and weren’t limited to the prompt.

I started to write more, but liked to keep to myself. Then I met Ogi and Joe. We became an unstoppable trio of chaos (meaning we talked a little bit too much) and we couldn’t be defeated (well, until they had us sit at different tables).

But in newer years at 826 they slowly stopped coming to the tutoring program. Joe had moved on into high school and his extra time was slowly dwindling away.

Ogi moved on to eighth grade and just, um, kind

of stopped coming. Ogi was in the same school as I was though, and we were able to keep in touch. My life would have been very different if Ogi and Joe weren’t there, and I am glad that I met them. 826 is a place to be, a place where I can write, and a place to find great friends. During my time at 826 my writing slowly became more purposely ridiculous and absurd (“Dr. Blotch’s equally evil twin! hctolb.rD!!”), instead of grade school innocence’s unintended humor (“He was hungry but he found a sandwich on the ground and ate it.”). I believe that my newfound silliness is a gift from my old and new companions at 826michigan, who don’t overuse the word literally, and don’t spend too much time on prefaci.

I hope you enjoy this book full of stories.

TABLE Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi

FIELD TRIPS Ms. Lafferty’s Fifth-grade Class.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ms. DeRosia’s Fifth-grade Class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Ms. Lazarski’s Fifth-grade Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Jeremiah Stoudemire.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Cassidy Thomas.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Jasiah Reezer.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Elijah Walker.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Mrs. Jones’s Third-grade Class.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Ms. Drummer’s Third-grade Class.. . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Ms. Watson’s Third-grade Class.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Mrs. McWilliams’s Third-grade Class.. . . . . . . . . 32 Ms. Dillon’s Third-grade Class.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Ms. Page’s Third-grade Class.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Ms. Flott’s Third-grade Class .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Ms. Jackson’s Third-grade Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Ms. Patton’s Third-grade Class.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Ms. Ott’s Third-grade Class .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Mr. Cruz’s Class, Grades 9–12. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Ms. Garibay’s Class, Grades 9 & 10. . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Mrs. Tupper’s Second-grade Class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Ms. Kadian’s Second-grade Class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Ms. Davis’s Second- & Third-grade Class.. . . . . 61 Ms. Stewart’s Second-grade Class.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

OF CONTENTS WORKSHOPS Julieta Turon.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Fiona Kinnunen.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Verda Celiker.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Cyrus Hansen.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Zoe Ressler-Maerlender.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Emma-Kate Voth .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Marcus Goldblatt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Nonoka Tsuruzono. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Rihito Tsuruzono. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Addison Wade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Sydney Wade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Teague A. Stewart.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Josiah Atkinson.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Ashley Camila Reyes-Herrera. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Keara Day. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Hanako McDonald. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Lakota Redick.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Hunter Redick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Aubrielle Peltier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Sizwe Honablue.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Ella Yip.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Mona Spiteri. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Laila Crawley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Vivien Norton.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Lucas Tosi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

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Aliya Crawley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Tore Teig.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Matthieu Cras.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Eleonore Cras.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Max Turner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Oscar Shelton.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Andy Han.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Liliana Yamamoto. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Raymond Manning.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Oliver Bozaan.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Olivia Yamamoto. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Violet Querijero.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Nonoka Tsuruzono. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Arda Karabiyik.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Aubrielle Peltier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Sennen Querijero.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Maya Selvaraj. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Noah Han. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Sarah Ibarra .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Heidy Canseco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 A’shya Bostic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 McKenna Galbraith.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Collaborative Haikus.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

CONTENTS SCHOOLWORK SUPPORT Bea Woodward. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Clara Boyle.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Elona Ziegler.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Hanako McDonald & Ysela Ponce-Raya. . . . . 152 Josiah Atkinson.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Kayla Young.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Mira Mahmoud.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Ofelia Ziegler.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Yara Mahmoud.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Ysela Ponce-Raya.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Lakota Redick.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Xavier Sanchez-Miranda.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Andy Han.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Éloïse Cras. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Aaron Logwood.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

IN-SCHOOL PROJECTS Kaiya Ingram. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Evelyn Wybenga. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Sienna West. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Tyre McLemore.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Makenzie Reed .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Lamar Proffit .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

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Lujain Atiefa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Raneem Saleh.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Zerrick Lindsey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 LaVeah Dawson.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Bentley Williamson .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Olivia Koch .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Reth Gilipser.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Taylor Lang .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 La’Zaviun Self .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Wendy Canjura.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Krasne Taylor, II. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 Britney Leedy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Khaleb Rubanguka. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Kamiya Wilson.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Abiar Alshikh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 Aaliyah Roberts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 Zainab Hashimi.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 E’Maree Price.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Nerrance Conner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 Jadah Webb .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Robert Hall III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Ashton Johnson.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 JaKayla Myler.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Cameron Johnson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 Reginald Anderson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 Sydney Wade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 Samuel Hoffman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

NTENTS APPENDIX Acknowledgments.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 About 826michigan.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 List of Volunteers.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 Program Descriptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246 Collaborative Writing from the OMNIBUS 11  Release Party.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 826michigan Core Writing Values.. . . . . . . . . . . 264 The 826 Stand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 OMNIBUS Acronyms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 Top 12 Lists.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 BO(Note)OK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278 Fairy Tale Mad Lib Template. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 Dear Drs. Blotch.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

O The OMNIBUS 12 is dedicated to our Writing Core Values (page 264), especially our belief that WRITING IS A TOOL TO ACCESS POWER AND BUILD A BETTER WORLD. We hope the stories within the OMNIBUS 12— both those you read and those you create—delight, inspire, and motivate you in this work.

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K When OKO O“write K O your K Oown KO K O or K anything OKOKOKOKOKOKO youKsee ending” that sounds similar, you can do so in the margins O K O K O K O K O K O K O K O K O K O K O K O K O Kor— OKOKOKOKOKO Blotch recommend—the BO(Note)OK. K O K O K O K O K ODrs. KO KOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKO O K O K O K O K Oh! O KAnd OK O our K OPROGRAM K O KDESCRIPTIONS O K O KonOpage K O246 KO visit to K O K O K O K O K O K O K O K O K O learn K O more KOK O Kthe Osessions K O K the OK O trip, K Oworkshop, KOKOKOKOKOKOKO about field writing from!

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We have one rule:

field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips s field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trip field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips field trips 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FIELD TRIPS

2 | FIELD TRIPS

R E M E M B E R 1. When you see “write your own ending,” visit the BO(Note)OK on page 278.

2. For more information on each field trip, check out our PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS on page 246.

826MICHIGAN‘S OMNIBUS | 3

Ms. Lafferty’s Fifth-grade Class Eberwhite Elementary, Ann Arbor Choose Your Own Adventure

Rocky and the Hydra: Trouble in the Clouds Page 1

Y

ou are outside your castle-shaped house in Cloud City riding your living skeleton horse. The skeleton horse has a regular horse face, but it has a pig-like body.

While riding, you are holding your pet rock, Dwayne “Rocky” Johnson, feeding it a grilled cheese and cricket sandwich for lunch. Rocky doesn’t want it. All of a sudden, your robot flies begin to alarm! They sound like ZZAHHZZZAHH GUHHHGUHHH! Something bad is going to happen because the robot flies only alarm when there’s a hostile intruder. You look up and see a hydra that looks like Wreck-It Ralph and a komodo dragon combined. Ralph grabs Rocky, who is made of gold, and puts him in one of his mouths. | If you try to push Ralph the komodo dragon hydra off the cloud, turn to page 2. | If you try to capture Ralph, turn to page 3.

4 | FIELD TRIPS

Page 2

T

he hydra is flying back toward Evil Cloud City, which is below Cloud City. The hydra falls into the Evil Cloud. Evil Cloud City is also called Yorkenzork, and it smells like rotten pig bone. It rains a lot there. There’s a very, very small jail cell there, with twenty guards carrying lightning swords. The hydra locks your rock inside the tiny cell. You have to jump off Cloud City to get to Evil Cloud City, where your pet Rocky is located. But suddenly, an epic tornado sucks you up and brings you right in front of Rocky’s cell. Ralph gives you two options in order to get Rocky back. | If you choose to give up something you love, your beloved skeleton horse, turn to page 4. | If you choose to sacrifice yourself for Rocky, turn to page 5.

Page 3

Y

ou ride your pig horse to try to capture Ralph, reaching into a duat (a magical abyss), and the air around you smells metallic, as if it might rain. It is musty, cold, and moist. You pull out a sword and matchbox. You look back at the tall tower beside your castle, which is made of cotton candy and smells sweet, to see a dragon circling above. She helps you capture the hydra with a magic rope that extends from a small rod and is ten feet long and six inches thick. The rod automatically ties itself to the hydra. When the rope goes around the hydra, it bumps its heads and gets dizzy, making it easier to control. You tie the opposite end of the rope to a rocket ship that leaves a trail of cotton candy as it flies the hydra across to another cloud, where there is a dungeon. You want to continue, but you need to think carefully about your next step.

826MICHIGAN‘S OMNIBUS | 5

| If you decide to cut off the hydra’s head and capture its body in a giant energy bubble so it can’t regenerate, turn to page 6. | If you decide to take the hydra back to the dark cloud to obtain a peace treaty, turn to page 7.

Page 4

Y

ou grab your rock from the jail cell. You ride the tornado to Superman’s Fortress. There, the rock turns against you because Superman said, “The war would be over if you turned against your people.” He tells the rock to go back to Evil Cloud City. The rock’s older brother, Boulder, and little sister, Pebble, come. They try to convince Rocky that Superman is lying. All of the siblings start arguing. You give all of them chocolate wrapped in golden foil so they will stop fighting. You figured out that Superman was actually a hologram from Evil Cloud City, but Rocky still wants to go back. | If you let Rocky go back to Evil Cloud City, write your own ending. | If you force him to stay in the fortress until you can plan something else, write your own ending.

Page 5

W

hen you sacrifice yourself, unfortunately you die.

Thunder is roaring through the clouds and people in the Evil Cloud are happy about your death. Suddenly, lightning strikes you in the casket, and it revives your heartbeat. Dramatically, your eyelids flip open, and you are alive and awake. You immediately scream for help, but you remember that you are in the evil world and in the clouds. You push your hand up, and the casket just opens, easy peasy. You look for something that is heavy to weigh you down and slowly drag you down to Earth. You’ve never been to Earth; you’ve only heard about it. You walk

6 | FIELD TRIPS

over the casket. It looks heavy but you think you can lift it. You try and pick it up but break your pinky finger. No one can hear your screams of agony. Poor pinky finger. | If you go to the evil hospital for your broken pinky finger, write your own ending. | If you keep looking for something heavy to bring you to Earth, write your own ending.

Page 6

Y

ou cut off the hydra’s head and capture the hydra’s body in a giant energy bubble that is tied to your life force. You sign a peace treaty after capturing the hydra, but then the other hydras try to avenge the capture of the first hydra. You go into hiding to evade the vengeful hydras. While you’re in hiding, you begin to think about Rocky. You feel sad and feel bad for Rocky, who is stuck in the dead hydra’s mouth, which smells like puke and garlic breath, but most of all it smells acidic. Then, you remember that you can pull rocks out of the duat, so you pull Rocky out. Sadly, he has disintegrated in the hydra’s mouth, but then you take him scuba diving off a waterfall and heal him with the magical water. | If you choose not to take him to the magical waterfall and want to try something else, write your own ending. | If you choose to take him to the magical waterfall, write your own ending.

826MICHIGAN‘S OMNIBUS | 7

Page 7

T

he rocket ship is remote-controlled with a screen in the middle to see where it’s going. You follow, riding your dragon. The rocket ship lands on the dark cloud next to the dark castle that’s edible and tastes like black licorice. The king and queen see the rocket ship sitting on the cloud through their tinted pink window and exit the castle. “We’ll make a peace treaty with you if you give me back Rocky!” you say.

“Thank you for bringing back the hydra,” they say in unison, completely ignoring you. Then, the king and queen pull out their swords and chop off one of the hydra’s heads, the king cutting from the bottom and the queen cutting from the top. “Traitor!” they yell. “You’re never supposed to enter Cotton Candy Land!” After having one of his heads chopped off, Ralph opens his mouth, and Rocky rolls out. He’s slimy and covered in acid. He smells worse than if he had been sprayed by a skunk.

Rocky stares at you from the dark cloud, but you don’t want to approach him because of the stench. Suddenly, Rocky grows legs, and you discover he’s actually a golden Goomba! | If you run up Rocky to grab him, write your own ending. | If you don’t run up to Rocky, write your own ending.

8 | FIELD TRIPS

Ms. DeRosia’s Fifth-grade Class Eberwhite Elementary, Ann Arbor Choose Your Own Adventure

Candyland Avalanche: Surviving Melting Ice Cream, Freezer-Burned Icicles, and a Mysterious Ice Cream Man Page 1

Y

ou are one of the last people living in the deserted Candyland City in outer space. You are walking along, eating an ice cream cone, when you notice that the sides of the ice cream valley are melting. It looks like an avalanche of rainbow Superman ice cream dripping down the sides of the valley. The colors of the ice cream are mixing together and turning brown as it oozes toward you. You see your friend Bill, one of the other remaining people in Candyland City, skiing down the avalanche. He is going too fast to stop. You drop your ice cream and decide to try to save Bill. You sprint into the Ice Cream Ski Shop, quickly purchase some skis, put them on, and ski toward Bill. You realize that you can’t stop! | If you decide to sink into the ice cream avalanche, hoping to fall into one of the caves beneath, turn to page 2. | If you decide to speed even faster in order to save Bill, turn to page 3.

826MICHIGAN‘S OMNIBUS | 9

Page 2

Y

ou fall into the cave, and surrounding you are crystals made of freezer-burned ice cream. A figure that looks like a yeti appears from the shadows, and you are afraid they’ll try to hurt you, but it turns out to be Shawn the Ice Cream Man, your friend. Shawn leads you through a passage to another chamber in the cave. Then, you see Bill lying in the cave, unconscious. When you run up to him, he wakes up, confused. “Where am I?” he asks. “Who are you?!” You notice the freezer-burned ice cream beginning to grow around you. Shawn begins panicking, backing away from you and your friend. You realize the crystals are closing in around you, and you wonder why Shawn is trying to run away, leaving you and Bill behind. | If you decide to grab Bill and pull him out of the cave, turn to page 4. | If you decide to run after Shawn, turn to page 5.

Page 3

Y

ou decide to go faster. There is a big burst of speed, and suddenly you collide with Bill! After you run into Bill, you both fall into a big, brown lake of chocolate syrup with rainbow ice cream flowing into it. You’re swishing around in the lake, and the syrup is sticking all over your clothes when you hear a loud cry and big heavy footsteps.

The Abominable Candy Man gets bigger and bigger when he eats more candy. He is rainbow-colored and has eyes made of Skittles with a cherry head. The Abominable Candy Man’s weakness is that he starts to melt when he gets too hot! As he is rising up from Hershey Lake, he has brown, gooey chocolate syrup dripping off of him.

10 | F I E L D T R I P S

| If you and Bill team up and fight The Abominable Candy Man like ninjas, turn to page 6. | If you decide to sink into Hershey Lake and hide, turn to page 7.

Page 4

Y

ou grab Bill to try to pull him out of the cave while he keeps muttering, “Who are you? What’s happening?”

The crystals keep growing around you. You grab Bill’s backpack, looking for his crowbar to start chopping the crystals around you. As you look through his backpack, you find a note from Shawn detailing his plans to kidnap you both. Shawn’s hand reaches through the crystals, trying to grab Bill. Now knowing his plans, you grab tightly onto Bill and try running even faster out of the cave. The ground is watery and the path before you is dark, but you’re able to escape. You make it out of the cave and arrive at your house with Bill. When you open the door, Shawn is waiting for you. You grab Bill’s hand, run under Shawn’s legs, and go upstairs. You lock the bedroom door and hide under the bed. It smells like farts and hot dog water. You notice claw marks on the bedroom door and window from Shawn trying to get in before. The damage to the window makes it possible to escape. | If you decide to stay in the bedroom, write your own ending. | If you decide to jump out the window, write your own ending.

8 2 6 M I C H I G A N ‘ S O M N I B U S | 11

Page 5

Y

ou decide to run after Shawn and wonder why he isn’t helping to save Bill. When you catch up to Shawn, you ask him why he is not helping Bill. You notice that he is breaking into a sweat and looking around nervously.

Suddenly, Shawn, who looks like an ice cream blob, starts to grow hair all over his blobby body and turns a blackish color. He begins to expand and fill up all of the space in the cave. You are scared and confused. You thought Shawn was your friend, and now he is becoming a monster. You jump up and grab one of the candy stalactites that are hanging from the ceiling of the cave. Shawn pulls out a huge chocolate ice cream cone with sprinkles that he uses as a weapon. | If you run away and go back to try to save Bill, write your own ending. | If you continue to battle Shawn, write your own ending.

Page 6

Y

ou quickly come out of the lake and take your skis off.

You find lollipop swords on the shore. Then you and Bill make candy shields out of Lifesavers. As Bill is making licorice nunchucks, you do a really high front flip with the lollipop sword spinning in the air next to you, and you land on the Abominable Candy Man’s head. The monster shouts, “RAWRRRRR! YOU WOKE ME UP FROM MY 999 MILLION YEAR SLEEP!” You do another front flip onto the ground. The monster tries to grab you and Bill on the way down, but his syrup-covered arms cannot grab you. You and Bill start attacking his foot and throw your swords at his chest. You use your mint shield to protect yourselves from his arms. Suddenly, your shield starts to break in half.

12 | F I E L D T R I P S

| If you choose to make peace with the monster, write your own ending. | If you choose to run and try to escape Ice Cream Valley, write your own ending.

Page 7

Y

ou’re underneath Hershey Lake and keep sinking until you reach a dungeon, where you and Bill realize you can’t get out. A donkey named Miss BooBoo comes along with the keys in her mouth and starts to talk to you, but then she accidentally swallows the keys. You panic at first, but then you realize the bars are just far enough apart for you to wiggle through. Unfortunately, Bill is too big to get through, and you have a tough decision about what to do. You decide to leave him. You leave the dungeon and find yourself in front of two tunnels, and need to decide which to enter. | If you go through the tunnel that is dark and says “do not cross,” write your own ending. | If you go through the tunnel that has a bright light, write your own ending.

8 2 6 M I C H I G A N ‘ S O M N I B U S | 13

Ms. Lazarski’s Fifth-grade Class Marcus Garvey, Detroit Choose Your Own Adventure

The Most Powerful QUEEN of the Entire Dimension: The Mystery of Trooper & John Blake Page 1

Y

ou are transported to a world where John Blake, a cyborg with a powerful cybernetic arm, is carefully updating his arm’s magical liquid. Trooper, a ghost vampire zombie, looks into John Blake’s window. She wants that arm so that she can become the most powerful QUEEN of the entire dimension! Her slimy tears stream down her face. You are not sure who you want to help. | If you make an important discovery as you look into John Blake’s window, turn to page 2. | If you help Trooper bite through the power cords to turn off the electricity in John Blake’s house and then phase through the wall, turn to page 3.

Page 2

Y

ou and Trooper look through the window and see John Blake sleeping. You discuss how you should steal his arm. But while he’s sleeping, his face falls off—it was a mask the whole time! Trooper looks at John Blake’s real face and notices he looks exactly like her! Trooper

14 | F I E L D T R I P S

thinks John Blake might be her twin brother, but she needs to make sure. Trooper uses her ghost powers to float through the wall. Then she opens a window for you to crawl through. Now that you’re both inside, you decide how to make sure John Blake is Trooper’s twin. | If you help Trooper take a sample of John Blake’s hair to do a DNA test, go to page 4. | If you search his room for clues, go to page 5.

Page 3

Y

ou and Trooper have managed to phase through John Blake’s wall. As you reach the dark inside, you feel a twitching, tingling shock coursing through your body.

Suddenly purple lightning bolts shoot out of you. You feel powerful.

In front of you is a woman lit up by a flashlight beam.

You wonder if the woman is a vision. In front of Trooper, you see her talking to John Blake.

“That’s a good plan, but what if Trooper finds out?” the woman whispers.

You turn to Trooper and notice slimy tears running down her blank face.

“Why, Mom?” Trooper whispers low. | If you turn to Trooper and realize that the electricity was making you both hallucinate, go to page 6. | If you start to wonder if this might be an elaborate plot against John Blake, go to page 7.

8 2 6 M I C H I G A N ‘ S O M N I B U S | 15

Page 4

Y

ou and Trooper start searching John Blake’s room for clues that prove John Blake and Trooper are twins.

You find a picture frame that has a torn picture in it. Baby John Blake is in it, but the rest of the picture got torn away.

You pick up the photo, and a note falls out from the back.

You open the note and read it. It’s from John Blake’s mom.

She wrote, “I’m sorry I have to leave you, but just know that you’re not alone.” You call Trooper over and show her the picture and the note. Trooper looks at the picture and is shocked. She slowly reaches in her pocket and pulls out a torn picture of herself as a baby. She puts it next to John Blake’s half and it’s a perfect match! But Trooper is not sure if she can trust John Blake. After all, she was about to steal his arm a few minutes ago. Should you wake him up and tell him they’re related? Or do you look for more clues to prove he can be trusted? | If you wake John Blake up, write your own ending. | If you look for more clues, write your own ending.

Page 5

A

s you are helping Trooper get the hair sample, you accidentally trip the security system. John Blake wakes up, and now you both have to leave immediately.

Trooper quickly uses her transportation power to teleport you both to the lab. Luckily you were able to get that hair sample right before the alarm was tripped. Once at the lab, Trooper sees someone hiding behind some crates. It turns out John Blake has beaten you back to the lab: by tracking the stolen strand of hair, he was able to know where you were going. John Blake had long been searching for the lab, having heard of the power crystal that was powering the lab and could power a great weapon . . . like his arm. The two finally confront one another and realize they have the

16 | F I E L D T R I P S

same face. They are siblings. John Blake doesn’t believe Trooper is his sister, so John Blake pulls out one half of a picture of the two of them. Then Trooper puts John’s part of the picture with her part of the picture, and they match up. They start to fight. | If you stop the two of them from fighting, write your own ending. | If you help Trooper defeat John Blake so that he realizes that they are siblings, write your own ending.

Page 6

J

ohn Blake sees you and Trooper are in his house, and he starts to malfunction and glitch too.

Sparks and purple lightning shoot out from the cyborg’s body. The fingers of his magical arm fall off one by one.

You notice a photo of John Blake and Trooper when they were babies and realize they are brother and sister.

They have had the same reaction to electricity.

Do you help John Blake because he needs it and is Trooper’s brother, or are you attacked by John Blake’s malfunctioning arm and have to fight him? | If you help John Blake, write your own ending. | If you are attacked by John Blake, write your own ending.

8 2 6 M I C H I G A N ‘ S O M N I B U S | 17

Page 7

Y

ou notice that there is a portrait of a family hanging hanging on the wall—a little boy, a little girl, a man, a woman, and an old, old lady with moving eyes. Wait a minute! It looks like it could be Trooper as a little kid. You say quietly, “Trooper, Trooper!” Trooper snaps out of her dreamlike state. You show her the portrait.

Trooper again bursts into slimy, purple, electric tears, which glisten like diamonds. “MOM!” she says. “How could you be with this atrocious man?”

Mom sighs and says, “We gotta talk.” She goes into the other room. “Trooper, John Blake is your brother.”

You create a protective electric bubble so that Trooper can process this information. You see memories flash in her eyes. She speed runs over to John Blake and says, “Brother!” | If you and Trooper start to tell John Blake, “How could we have been fighting for so long? I’m so mad at you!”, write your own ending. | If you and Trooper teleport out of the situation, write your own ending.

18 | F I E L D T R I P S

R E M E M B E R 1. To create your own Fairy Tale Mad Lib, check out our template on page 287.

2. For more information on each field trip, check out our PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS on page 246.

8 2 6 M I C H I G A N ‘ S O M N I B U S | 19

Jeremiah Stoudemire Mr. Berry’s Second-grade Class Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences, Detroit Fairy Tale Mad-Libs

Goldilocks and the Three Foxes

O

nce upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks. One day, she was walking through the woods, and she saw a house that belonged to three foxes.

She went into the house, and saw three meats on the kitchen table. She tried the first one, but it was too much cold meat. The second one was too hot. She tried the last one, and it was just right. So she ate it all up! Then, she saw three robots. She tried using the first one, but it was too orange. She tried the second one, but it was too red.

She used the last one, and it was just right. But she used it so much that it broke! Then, she went into the bedroom and saw three beds. She laid on the first one, but it was too warm. Then, she tried the second one, but it was too soft. She laid down in the last one, and it was just right.

She fell into a very deep sleep. The three foxes came home and saw someone had used all of their stuff! They went into the bedroom and saw Goldilocks asleep. Then the foxes were mad. The foxes woke Goldilocks up and said, “Get out! Now!” She said, “No!” “Goldilocks! Get her now!” They all ran after her, but

20 | F I E L D T R I P S

she got away. She ran into the woods. Then she came back, and the foxes didn’t know she came back. The foxes were tired and mad. They said, “She is a thief!”

“I know, right?”

“Yeah!”

The End.

8 2 6 M I C H I G A N ‘ S O M N I B U S | 21

Cassidy Thomas Mr. Berry’s Second-grade Class Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences, Detroit Fairy Tale Mad-Libs

Goldilocks and the Three Horses

O

nce upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks. One day, she was walking through the woods, and she saw a house that belonged to three brown horses. She went into the house and saw three hay noodles on the kitchen table. She tried the first one, but it was too much like horses’ shoes. The second one was too yellow.

She tried the last one, and it was just right. So she ate it all up! Then, she saw three ropes. She tried using the first one, but it was too brown. She tried the second one, but it was too black. She used the last one, and it was just right. But she used it so much that it broke! Then, she went into the bedroom and saw three cupboards. She laid on the first one, but it was too green. Then, she tried the second one, but it was too orange. She laid down in the last one, and it was just right. She fell into a very deep sleep. The three horses came home and saw someone had used all of their stuff! They went into the bedroom and saw Goldilocks asleep. Then they said, “She is the girl who did all this damage!” Baby Horse was sad and hungry at the same time. He said, “Mama, what do we do now?”

“We take a walk!”

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Jasiah Reezer Mr. Berry’s Second-grade Class Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences, Detroit Fairy Tale Mad-Libs

Goldilocks and the Three Donkeys

O

nce upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks. One day, she was walking through the woods, and she saw a house that belonged to three donkeys. She went in the house and saw three eyeballs on the kitchen table. She tried the first one, but it was too brown. The second one was too green. She tried the last one, and it was just right. So she ate it all up! Then, she saw three more eyeballs. She tried using the first one, but it was too big. She tried the second one, but it was too small.

She used the last one, and it was just right. But she used it so much that it broke! Then, she went into the bedroom and saw three bone beds. She laid on the first one, but it was too big. Then, she tried the second one, but it was too big. She laid down in the last one, and it was just right.

She fell into a very deep sleep. The three donkeys came home and saw someone had used all of their stuff! They went into the bedroom and saw Goldilocks asleep. Then she woke up. She yelled. The dad came with a bat and said, “Get out!” She jumped out the window. The three donkeys chased her in the woods. She got away.

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Elijah Walker Mr. Berry’s Second-grade Class Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences, Detroit Fairy Tale Mad-Libs

Goldilocks and the Three Wolves

O

nce upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks. One day, she was walking through the woods, and she saw a house that belonged to three wolves.

She went into the house and saw three pieces of meat on the kitchen table. She tried the first one, but it was too cold. The second one was too hot. She tried the last one, and it was just right. So she ate it all up! Then, she saw three bones. She tried using the first one, but it was too white. She tried the second one, but it was too bumpy. She used the last one, and it was just right. But she used it so much that it broke! Then, she went into the bedroom and saw three beds. She laid on the first one, but it was too hard. Then, she tried the second one, but it was too bumpy.

She laid down in the last one, and it was just right. She fell into a very deep sleep. The three wolves came home and saw someone had used all of their stuff! They went into the bedroom and saw Goldilocks asleep. Then they said, “GET OUT!” She ran!

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Mrs. Jones’s Third-grade Class Carpenter Elementary, Ann Arbor How to Survive Anything

Milan Johnson

How to Survive One Thousand Brothers

F

irst, using your karate moves, jump up on the TV, jump off the TV, and then jump on one of your brothers’ heads.

Then, go into the kitchen and throw paper plates at them.

Next, run upstairs and jump out the window. Land inside the pool and make a quiet splash.

Last, run to your grandma’s house that’s one mile away.

Malachi Gilbert

How to Survive Being Sucked into Minecraft: Hardcore Mode

F

irst, get all of the wood and food you can, especially sheep because they give you wool to make a bed before night and skip right to day.

Then, build a house to survive and store your food.

And for safety.

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Next, make concrete and glass. Kill the Enderman and get one Ender Pearl, which will teleport you wherever you throw it.

Last, build a screen out of concrete and glass. Throw the Ender Pearl, throw the screen, and get out!

Avram Buchanan

How to Survive if Your Smart House Gets Hacked

F

irst, get something that can break glass. This item could be metal attached to a pole.

Then, shut off all technology that records videos or sound (baby cams, toys, etc.) so the person who hacked your house does not know what you are doing.

Next, if there are drones outside, put on a hat and a cloak so you don’t get recognized by the drone(s).

Last, break out through the window, trick the drone(s) into thinking you’re someone else, and tell the police about your hacked house. They could identify the hacker.

Drake Johnson

How to Survive Being inside an Exploding Factory

F

irst, you should look for an exit. Make sure you have safety goggles on so the gas and liquid don’t hurt you.

Then, you see an exit, but as you’re about to open the door, a pillar falls on the exit.

Next, you see a shiny, red car, and you jump in before you get crushed.

Last, you see the keys; grab them, find a weak spot, and drive right through it.

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Carli Culbertson

How to Survive the Arrival of the Evil Elvis Presley

F

irst, you buy a big cage. Put a microphone inside, and he will go in and sing.

Then, you will shut the cage. Go get his daughter, and she will come and calm him down.

Next, he will start to flake away into dust.

Last, it will be back to normal. He will start to come back next year.

Xavier Gibson

How to Survive a Night at a Bakery

F

irst, when I was looking at bread, the store closed. At first I was scared, but I had all the bread you could eat. All the bread.

Then, the bread could be my pillow and an apron could be used as a blanket to stay warm and comfy. I would probably eat the bread. I would eat the donuts for breakfast.

Next, I would fall asleep and dream of eating all of the baker’s bread—it would be the best dream ever.

Last, I woke up and the baker opened the door and I snuck out.

Mrs. Jones’s Third-grade Class

How to Survive inside the Belly of a Whale

F

irst, find a huge feather, one that is ninety-nine inches long. Try to tickle the whale all over the place. The whale will start to laugh.

Then, take out as many bottles of hot sauce as you have in your backpack. The flavor is super-hot-ghostpepper-jalapeño-chunky hot sauce. Pour all of the hot sauce that you have in the whale’s belly.

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Next, the whale will start to cough and laugh at the same time.

Last, the water in the stomach will move real fast and will start to push you up through the whale’s blowhole.

You should feed the whale some chicken nuggets, swim to shore, and then do your preferred dance to celebrate.

Team Tri-Color Chemists

How to Survive Being Stranded on the Moon

F

irst, you should attach a stretchy titanium cord to yourself and to the rocketship so you do not float away.

Exit the rocketship and walk around until you meet some aliens. If the aliens do not speak English, you can use sign language, write or type a note, or draw a picture.

Then, ask the aliens if they have anything that is sticky that you can use. You could draw a picture of jelly or gum to give them some ideas. The aliens give you everything they have that is sticky.

Next, our chemist, Drake, can use all of the sticky ingredients to make some super sticky goop. Make sure there are no toxic chemicals in the goop or it will not work.

When the super sticky goop is made, you have to put it inside all of the slots and holes in the rocketship. Make sure all of the slots and holes are filled.

Last, you should say goodbye to the aliens, and you can safely fly home with a rocketship full of super sticky goop.

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Ms. Drummer’s Third-grade Class Carpenter Elementary, Ann Arbor How to Survive Anything

Team Brainy Pythons

How to Survive Being Stranded on the Moon

F

irst, set your communication tower up and try to contact NASA. You will hear wiring and beeping sounds. Tell NASA your spaceship is broken and you need help. They will tell you how to try to fix your ship.

Then, try to use your tools to fix your ship. You will need your red and blue tool box that has screws, energy, a magnet, and electricity.

Next, if your ship still doesn’t work, use your materials to build a slingshot and shoot yourself back to Earth.

You will need rope, a pole, duct tape, and sticky gum. Use this slingshot to fly the spaceship to Earth.

Last, let gravity slowly pull you to land. Next time you will know how to fix your spaceship and get back to Earth.

Team Survivor

How to Survive Being Stranded on the Moon

F

irst, reach into your backpack and get materials to build a jetpack. Get an engine, fuel, a mounter that sticks to your back, space popcorn bags, super strong magnets, black and red paint, and a parachute.

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Next, build the jetpack fast before the aliens come.

The aliens are green with a bunch of big red eyes. They are big and tall and have a giant brain on the outside of their heads. Green slime comes out of their mouths. They levitate instead of walking. If you have time, paint your jetpack black with a red star on it, or maybe paint it army green.

Then, use the jetpack to fly back to Earth. It is kind of hard but kind of easy to fly back to Earth.

Last, once you are in the Earth’s atmosphere and start to run out of fuel, use your parachute. It takes half an hour to fall back to Earth. Your friend will fly a jet under you, and you will fall on the jet. Together, you guys will go see a movie.

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Ms. Watson’s Third-grade Class Carpenter Elementary, Ann Arbor How to Survive Anything

Team Rainbow Robot Unicorns

How to Survive Being Stranded on the Moon

F

irst, you should check to see what supplies you have, such as tools (screwdriver, monkey wrench, hammer), food (preferably chips!), water, extra oxygen tanks, an extra astronaut suit and helmet, rocket fuel, medicine, and a first aid kit, just in case. If you have anything else, remember where everything is, and keep it with you or close to you at all times. If you have a space backpack, you can use that to carry everything around.

Then, you should hold on to the rocketship so you do not float away since there is no gravity. If you have a rope, you can tie it to something on the rocketship to pull yourself around to the front where the engine is located.

If you do not have a rope, just use your hands and grab onto sturdy things on the rocketship and climb around.

When you get to the front where the engine is, tie the rope around you and tie yourself to the ship so you do not float away. If you do not have a rope, make sure one hand is always touching the ship.

Next, use your screwdriver to pry open the engine compartment. CREAK . . . POP! The engine compartment

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is open. Check and make sure that all of the colored wires are connected to the correct colored outlets. If the colors do not match, use the spare wires to change them out.

Last, ZAP! BEEP BOOP BEEP! The lights flash on in the spaceship. The engine is working again. Carefully climb back into the rocketship. Buckle up, program Earth into your GPS, smoothly fly home, and reunite with your friends and family. YIPPIE! YAHOO!

R E M E M B E R For more information on each field trip, check out our PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS on page 246.

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Mrs. McWilliams’s Third-grade Class Estabrook Elementary, Ypsilanti How to Survive Anything

How to Survive a Michigan Winter

F

irst, put on your warm coat. If you don’t have a warm coat, put on a different jacket and snow pants. Also, put on a hat, scarf, and warm Timberland boots. Don’t put on Sketchers because your feet will be cold. Always make sure you have on warm boots because if you wear tennis shoes, snow can seep through. Do not put on your golf pants, because you are going to get cold. You have to put on some pants that are nice and warm.

Next, make chocolate hot cocoa with a hundred marshmallows; use the jumbo colorful ones! Add some sugar. Get some Lay’s Barbecue Potato Chips, hot fries, and Takis. Get some video games, like Fortnite on your Nintendo Switch.

Then, remember to never jump into a frozen lake because you will get hypothermia. Never put on your shorts. If you go outside to throw snowballs, make sure you’re wearing lots of clothes, including three pairs of socks.

Last, remember that you shouldn’t drink too much hot chocolate, and don’t put too much sugar in there because you will get hyper.

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Ms. Dillon’s Third-grade Class Erickson Elementary, Ypsilanti How to Survive Anything

How to Survive a Michigan Winter

F

irst, you should make the fort taller with snow. Move snow and branches to make a roof. Put two branches in the middle of the fort to hold the roof up so it doesn’t cave in. The fort should be taller than you.

Then, you have to make individual rooms so everyone in your class isn’t crowded. Make beds out of snow for each student. You’ll have to figure out who is sharing a room.

Next, you can go outside the fort and eat some snow.

The snow tastes nasty, slushy, and like pool water. Eating the snow makes you feel sick.

Last, send Ms. Dillon to the store for medicine. You send two students into the forest to look for food. Since it’s still fall, you find purple carrots and blueberries. Don’t eat all the berries. You feel happy and healthy. You’re a little sad the snow is still there, but you’re glad you didn’t die.

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Team Super Robot Cheetahs How to Survive Dark Presence III

F

irst, you feel terrified because it’s so big, and you’re so small! Don’t panic!

Next, try to find the stairs to get to the top of the black mountain. You see something that looks like doors with giant buttons. Be careful—the top one is a trap that drops you into a river! You push a different button, and it opens the doors to a broken escalator that you use as stairs.

Next, when you get to the top, jump across the top until you find some stairs to get back down. You don’t want to stay at the top because you might get struck by lightning.

Then, if you see a cheetah, try to find out if it’s a nice cheetah or an evil cheetah. An evil cheetah has a mean smile with eyebrows straight to his eyes and teeth coming out the side of his mouth. His eyes will look straight at you.

A nice cheetah has a nice smile with normal eyebrows.

Last, use the metal, rocks, and electric blocks to build an electric board o turn the electricity back on. It will be less scary with all the lights back on.

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Ms. Page’s Third-grade Class Ypsilanti International Elementary, Ypsilanti How to Survive Anything

Team Boomer

How to Survive Dark Presence III

F

irst, you are in a big city that is a giant robot machine.

Then, don’t say, “Robot, come here!” If you do that, the robot might try to hurt you. Also, don’t say, “Is anybody in here?” The person who turns on the machine to make the robots might hear you, and they are evil robots. This person has the power to choose what kind of robots are made—kind robots, evil robots, or other robots. It smells stinky, like a skunk smell, and there’s green smoke coming out of the machine.

Next, climb on things. If you see something sliding out that you can put your foot on and it’s high enough, try to stand on it, and see if you can see your home city.

There’s disgusting food inside that will poison you, so don’t eat it. If there are stairs, go down them and see if you can find an open door. You will want to avoid the evil robots—they’ll come after you if they spot you. But it’ll be OK because you will have a chaperone with you.

Last, get out by sneaking under all the traps and shutting doors. Grab a shovel and dig your way out. If a robot spots you, use your shovel for defense. You can try to get in the robot control system and shut it down. Use your

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shrink ray to shrink any robot that comes toward you. Do this while you’re running so they can’t get you.

Team Awesome Cool Team Robot Number 12 How to Survive Travelers on a Mountain Pass

Y

ou are asleep. You wake up in a cave, and you hear loud noises and footsteps. You can’t see very well. But you hear very well. You see a spider, two robots, and five men in pink hats when you wake up. You think they are searching for you, but they’re not. They’re searching for something very rare. A diamond. The rarest diamond ever.

The men and the robots stop. You hear bears going grrrrrr.

You smell. . . (I don’t know what you smell, I haven’t been in a cave before). Bats are smacking into your face, and you’re like, “That’s a bat.”

First, you can either run or hide (I recommend you hide, though). Find a place to hide, and make sure there are no spiders or snakes.

Then, if you fall into a hole, use your pickaxe to chop your way out of the hole.

Next, get a bug catcher. Catch some bugs. You’ll eat the bugs that you catch, but you might get poisoned. Use an echolocator to find food, or animals that could possibly be food.

You need to be ready if someone or something attacks you. Try and get some sort of weapon to fight back. You could use the pickaxe. But if they turn out to be a peaceful, happy, little, cute kitten, if it turned out to be that, like it had yellow eyes, and you’re like “What is that, AAHHH!” and you raise the pickaxe above your head, and then someone turns on a light and you see that it’s a cute little kitten, lower your pickaxe and say, “Oh, sorry.” You can take the kitten with you.

Last, they (the men and the robot) see you. You should

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try to fool them into letting you pass. Say, “Hey, I need to cut my kitten’s fur. Can I go past to get some scissors?”

And they’ll be like, “All right, go on.”

Team Golden State Oreo Panthers How to Survive Take Your Pick

F

irst, you need to find food and water. You might be able to walk to a grocery store or a gas station. You may even be able to go to a party, since the women in front of you look pretty fancy. You can choose healthy food or junk food, whichever you prefer. If you like healthy food, you can eat broccoli, carrots, celery, salad, or apples. If you prefer junk food, eat hamburgers, hot dogs, M&Ms, French fries, and taffy. Whatever you do, don’t drink anyone else’s water! You could share germs, but even worse, they could have poisoned you! It’s also rude.

Then, to try to get back home, you should make a map so you know where you’re going. Include your house, stores close to you, and spots for airports. You can use paper, pencils, and cardboard to make the map. Do not get them wet, or the map will be destroyed.

Next, ask the women in the pink dresses to help you, because they work for NASA. They will bring you to the headquarters in their blue car. It’s inside a secret lair. It has eighty-four rooms, an upstairs, and a downstairs. Every room has computers and potions.

Last, build a machine to transport you into the future.

When you try to go back to the present time, it may not work. Instead, it could send you back in time to when the dinosaurs live, and you’d hear RRRAAAAA! There, you meet a liger named Lion who speaks to you and becomes your friend. After one day living with the dinosaurs, they may destroy your whole house except the cabinets and the fridge because there are snacks there. If the snacks are

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healthy, the dinosaurs will probably destroy the cabinets and fridge, too, since they don’t like healthy food. The liger might help you get back to the future, though.

Team Super Robotics

How to Survive The Bullfight

F

irst, find shelter. Look, there’s a fort up ahead. Stay together as a group to protect all sides. Crouch down and crawl through the grass. You find a shield that takes all five of us to hold. You run under the shield to the fort, but it doesn’t have a roof. You can’t stay there. You hear a low trilling noise and thundering footsteps.

Then, watch out for the mutant six-legged elephant with three spears! Run quickly. Slide down the ramp, through the tunnels, and around the bend. Take out a juice box and spill it on the ground to attract the giant fruit flies. They die! Breathe a sigh of relief. You escaped the elephant and the flies! What’s next?

Next, through the onion forest, put on safety goggles so you don’t cry. Stab the onions with a sharp knife. Climb up the ladder. You see a way out far ahead. Ew! What’s that? Sticky spider web. You grab the shield and use it to bounce on the web. You bounce right over the poisonous spiders.

Last, find a ladder and go up it to the treehouse. Climb through the window and you are free! Ya, ya, ya!

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Team Four Nefarious Electric Chromes How to Survive Pan-African Pulp

F

irst, you should get some clothes for the two men who are fighting. Get some water from a nearby lake, or maybe a waterhole or cactus. It tastes like mud.

Then, take a shower in the lake. Stay away from the men fighting. It smells like dirty sweat.

They’re trying to compete in wrestling for money and to get freedom. They’re so close it almost looks like they are conjoined twins. The winner will get freedom and not be trapped in this desert place. They get to go to a land that has other people and houses. The rainbow is the pathway to freedom, or maybe to gold.

Next, you’ll see the man on the left swing his hidden arm and hit the other guy in the head. You hear smacking sounds. You ask them if they’re from other countries. The guy with black shorts is from the desert place, and the guy with the white shorts is from America. The statue guy represents freedom, and he is trying to break the chain so they can get free. One of them farts, and it smells like rotten deviled eggs. They tell you they’re at war and they’re fighting for land. Both men feel pain and are exhausted. The blue and white colors in the background represent where they’re gonna stay. The yellow that you see in the background is a godlike bolt of lightning.

Last, you’ll see the chain start to break. Crrrrrrhhhhh, cling cling, clink clink—it sounds like a metal bar hitting some glass. Once it breaks, both men will be free.

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Ms. Flott’s Third-grade Class Ypsilanti International Elementary, Ypsilanti How to Survive Anything

Team Chakawifeja

How to Survive Take Your Pick

F

irst, you walk into the house. The house has a big pointy roof and two windows. Inside, you can hear the women talking outside and cars driving down the street.

Looking around the house, it seems like the people who live there are rich. There are three chandeliers: one in the kitchen, one in the basement, and one in the bedroom.

In the basement, you see a big painting that looks like a mechanical octopus. You move it to find a giant vault and open it to find piles and piles of gold. You only take three pieces at first, but then you take it all.

Then, if there’s someone in the house, pretend to be a painting so they can’t see you. Find a huge picture frame, place yourself and the frame on a ledge, and then freeze!

If you stay super still, they’ll never catch you.

Next, stay in the house until someone comes home.

Place traps all over. Make sure you don’t step on a trap! If they don’t get stuck in the traps, try erasing them, or mess them up, or smoosh them using water. That might make them disappear since they’re not real and just a painting.

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Last, since you’re hungry, you go to the kitchen to get some sandwiches and water. You want a tuna or PB&J sandwich, if possible. There’s nothing there, so you have to go out. You don’t have any money, so you steal a wallet from one of the women in front of the house. There happens to be sixty dollars in the wallet. You’re still hungry, so you drive the car to McDonald’s. As you drive, you see and hear an airplane overhead shouting, “YOU’RE THE BEST!!!” from a speakerphone. At McDonald’s, you order the following: a large chicken nuggets, a burger, a Big Mac, a cheeseburger, lots of fries, a Happy Meal, and every sweet thing they have. All the burgers taste like paint because you’re in a painting, and that makes you feel sad and like you want to return home.

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Ms. Jackson’s Third-grade Class Holmes Elementary, Ypsilanti How to Survive Anything

Team Unique Eagles

How to Survive Take Your Pick

F

irst, you find yourself in the 1860s. You see people taking pictures, and you see yourself changing into ugly old-timey clothes. Your friend is happy, but you are so mad you feel like your brain could pop out. The grass is super long, and it feels like it is sucking you in and eating you. You feel so scared that you want to scream and run.

Next, the helpful friends in pink say, “Calm down, you just shrunk! We will help you. We will give you growing powers. You can use our car to drive to the museum to get back to your own time.”

Then, on the way to the museum, you get pulled over because there is no license plate on the car. The police officer says, “Why don’t you have a license plate?! Let me see your driver’s license.” The police officer is on a horse, so you decide to push the gas pedal and zoom away.

Next, you get to the museum, but the guards don’t let you in. You put on a disguise and do the moonwalk. They still won’t let you in. Then you use the power of love. You give the guards a hug, and they let you in.

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Last, you jump into the painting of yourself, but right before you get in, you shrink. Your friend is back! They give you a lift into the painting, and you get back to your own time! You find yourself in an expensive hotel room, safe in a bed, and you take a nap. You snore loudly.

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Ms. Patton’s Third-grade Class Ypsilanti International Elementary, Ypsilanti How to Survive Anything

Team Voltage Invention Robots How to Survive Dark Presence III

F

irst, you hear robots singing in the distance. If it’s Christmas time, they’re singing Christmas songs. You can also request them to sing any song you want. The air around you will smell like gas and oil because of all the machinery. Try not to breathe it in. Put on a gas mask that conveniently happens to be near the entrance. It feels like the cotton inside a pillow and the crust of a pizza at the same time. The inside of the gas mask smells like cheesy, spicy meat-filled, Dorito-shelled tacos from Taco Bell.

Then, make sure you don’t go near the processors and do not touch the machines with water. In fact, don’t bring water at all. If you spilled water, it would overheat or fry the hard drive or make a big fire. What you may not know is that one of the processors is the way out. All you need to do is touch it and transport yourself out.

Next, find the place in the machine hotel without any machinery or where there’s waterproof machinery. It will be hard to find. However, once you’re there, there’s a normal water pool with water from Niagara Falls and an

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oil pool. Go for a swim in the water pool. If you swallow any pool water, it will taste like blue-raspberry cotton candy.

Last, find the invention shop or a mini-fridge. Since the mini-fridge is made of machinery, you should be able to find one somewhere. The mini-fridge you find invents any kind of sandwich you want and then cannons it into your mouth. You order a sandwich from Jimmy John’s and then a sandwich from Subway. Next to the mini-fridge is a machine that takes out all the germs and bacteria and such from the oil around you and pours it into a cup. You can flavor it however you want. Your favorite oil tastes like Pepsi and chocolate, and the aftertaste is like Diet Coke.

Team Robotic Tigers

How to Survive The Bullfight

F

irst, you climb the steps at the bottom of the painting.

Once you reach the top, you find a ladder and make your way up to the top of it.

Then, you find a field of thorny urchins. You walk through very carefully. When you get through, you realize it’s very hot, and you need to cool off. You find a pond. You drink some water and take a swim.

Next, you come out of the water and see another person. You get excited to find a friend, but then you see a giant man-eating worm behind your new friend! The two of you jump on his back, and you’re so small that he can’t even see you.

Last, he starts moving, and the two of you ride him all the way to the wall of rubber bands. He’s too big to get through, but the two of you are small and make your way through to a secret door, which allows you to escape!

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Ms. Ott’s Third-grade Class Erickson Elementary, Ypsilanti How to Survive Anything

Team Rainbow Unicorn Queens How to Survive Dark Presence III

Y

ou enter a secret kids’ place that is blackish brown with bookshelves inside of a tunnel. It looks like a city or a hospital or a doll house. You feel good and welcomed.

First, you will invite your cousin over to play hideand-seek and have a dance party. You are dancing and listening to music. You get hit by your cousin’s arm and you cry, “WAAAAAAA!” Then, you go into a room that is black, brown, and gray. You slam the door and sneak a snack. You eat M&Ms, candy corn, and Glow Pops. Your cousin comes to the door to see if you are OK, and you say, “Go away.” You find a secret tunnel in your room and you hide in it. Then, you follow the tunnel to the reading room. There is a ghost in the reading room and you get scared. You yell, “AAAAAA!” Next, you scream, and the ghost knocks all the books down. You scream for your cousin, and the cousin says out loud, “Here I come.” Your cousin finds a magic book and knocks the ghost out. The ghost turns back into a human.

And the ghost is your best friend.

Last, you, your cousin, and your best friend follow the tunnel back to the door. You walk out the door and

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say, “We are free, we are free.” You all go for chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla ice cream.

Team Spider Robot Spies

How to Survive Travelers on a Mountain Pass

F

irst, run. Run as fast as a cheetah or a Lamborghini.

You don’t want the horse to bite you. Run toward a cave in the rocks. It is pitch black dark and zero degrees.

There might be a friendly, fat, golden bear. You can wake it up by making bear noises—HRrhhrhrhH!—and then you can ride the bear. Its whole body shines to light up the cave.

Next, you will want to find some water and food (candy, if possible). You should go look for water at the bottom of the mountain where the waterfall is. You can play in the waterfall. You will find golden fish that are as small as ants. They are magical, so don’t eat them! They will turn you green, purple, and red. There will be robot fish that taste like pizza and chicken. You will have to make a fishing pole out of sticks and any string you find. When you are in the trees, say “hi” to the flying gorillas.

Then, go find the horseman. If you bring the horse a carrot, then you can pet him. You can ask him for food: “I need food!” If he doesn’t speak English, then you want to pretend to eat food with your hands so he knows what you want.

Last, he will take you to get food and a glass of water at his home. To thank him, give him your favorite candy: Sour Patch Kids, Snickers bars, ice cream, cupcakes, and Hershey’s. Now that you’ve been fed, go play tag in the water, or borrow some cord from the horseman and go bungee jumping in the mountains! Ahhhhhh!

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Team Synergy Squad

How to Survive The Bullfight

Y

ou find yourself in a town with two fire-breathing dragons! There are human-eating spiders. There is a pet-eating snake. You see dead ends everywhere.

First, you need to go find an underground shelter. You look everywhere, and you find a ladder that leads down to an underground lighthouse.

Then you find a whole bunch of friendly robot watchdogs. You turn and you see another door to a pantry full of food, like vegetables, snacks, pizza, and burgers.

Next, you hear a hiccup sound coming from one of the dragons, and then you hear the dragon crying. The spiders are surrounding the dragons, saying, “Are you OK?” The dragon says it needs someone to help it get rid of the hiccups.

Last, you decide to help the dragons. You come up and tell the dragon to hang upside down and hold its breath.

That doesn’t cure the dragon’s hiccups. You find some hiccup medicine, and that cures the dragon’s hiccups.

The dragons are so thankful. You make friends with the dragons and ask them to help you cook the burgers with their fire. The dragons breathe fire on all the burgers and sandwiches so they can be cooked. You are all friends. You have a barbecue to celebrate.

Team Wonderful American Flowers How to Survive Pan-African Pulp

Y

ou find yourself in a hot, sandy desert. You look to your right, and you see two guys with flower hair and beautiful pink and purple rainbow clothes fighting each other. They seem so strong that they’re made out of gold.

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First, you walk up to the two guys fighting, and you try to see if you can make them friends. You have to get them to compromise on what they’re fighting about.

Next, you start walking to the end of the rainbow, and you find some super scary scorpions. With the help of the two strong guys, you’ll fight and beat up the scorpions.

Last, you’ll make it to the end of the rainbow and find a beautiful oasis. In the oasis, you’ll find a shiny pot of gold.

R E M E M B E R For more information on each field trip, check out our PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS on page 246.

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Mr. Cruz’s Class, Grades Nine–Twelve Western International, Detroit Song Shop

Little World of Detroit

iving in a world where L We’re not treated the same.

They don’t even know our stories They don’t even know our names.

Beautiful yet broken, Alive yet at peace.

Many hide away, Afraid to show their face, For fear of rejection Feeling like a broken vase Home is where the heart is, But home made me heartless.

Started from the bottom but We’re rising up regardless Hurt here, heal there Depends on what you want here You can be successful But only if you truly care.

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The silent cries of The forgotten poor, Adventure and mischief Don’t exist anymore Thrown and left to hide With nothing left inside Beautiful yet broken, Alive yet at peace.

Many hide away, Afraid to show their face, For fear of rejection Feeling like a broken vase Rap: Detroit tiene raperos y lo pueden mostrar Asi como Eminem que salio a representar.

La gente hablando de como quieren matar Pero tenemos que juntarnos Y de la vida disfrutar Se que van a ver problemas Y los tienes que enfrentar Y al final de todo es tu Te puedes superar.

Detroit Such a Beautiful Sight

riving down Vernor, late at night swerving past Dpotholes, I’m hungry for a bite.

Gonne get some tacos, I’m feeling alright.

Oh baby, Detroit, such a beautiful sight.

Chorus: Detroit, such a beautiful sight.

I see a light, shining so bright

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It’s the future of Detroit Rose from night To shine again From all the hate We live in Detroit I keep the game 100 We doing so well We standing here together This is our moment This the life I dream We making it big We the ones that choose it I’m over writing With the whole family We doing so well We singing with harmony My name is Yuri Smith I’m the next Rap God Yea can you hear me Rap God? Bridge: Detroit is not as dangerous as it seems Motor City not depicted as a dream Lots of crime shown on the TV screen The good things aren’t always as they seem.

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Ms. Garibay’s Class, Grades Nine & Ten Detroit School of Arts, Detroit Song Shop

So Much Love in This World Chords: Em/C/Am/D Verse 1:

much love in this world Sbutothere’s pain

What to do?

Good people, mixed swirls So insane, love is true

We need to stand up (guitar) Before we run out of luck The city’s talked down on But we not completely stuck Chorus: Don’t stop believing Just come with me and see There’s a better place to be

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Bars I: See this twisted outlook they got for me Lonely soul ain’t nobody looking out for me I’m just tryna show my brothers there’s a different way Cuz lord knows I can be gone today Tryna make it out the struggle, hope that my plans won’t fold Looking out for my brothers duty, they could still do me bold They could pop me right now and leave my body there cold And that shows the dark side of my city, the tell tale that’s not told (Chorus) Bars II: This remind me of that home-cooked I’m just searchin’ for soul, look They ain’t struggled like I struggled You can see that they just don’t look Lost my biological Stuck with father time Wondering if he’s gonna help this little light of mine Do I suck Do I sound the same as everybody else Or is it the fact that I can spit a killer verse all by myself I don’t need nobody else I can do this on my own Everybody’s tryna talk to me but I’m just in my zone I’m a Detroit Native But this ain’t where I belong I’m tryna get up to the top And they want me to just stay home They tryna snatch my buffs

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And they wanna take my chain And everybody always rappin’ how they snipers got aim I swear I’m better than them people I can rap all day About how my people are strugglin’ and they slavin’ away And my momma she worked twice as hard to get what we need Got two whole kids That’s a family to feed Stepdad working hard too Man of the house tryna raise us up right And he’s just planning things out (Chorus) Bridge: There’s a better place to be Do not play me like a fool Do not use me like a tool I am like a diamond jewel I can clearly see you using me

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R E M E M B E R 1. When you see “write your own ending,” visit the BO(Note)OK on page 278.

2. For more information on each field trip, check out our PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS on page 246.

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Mrs. Tupper’s Second-grade Class Mitchell Elementary, Ann Arbor Storytelling and Bookmaking

Cloud World on Fire

A

long, long time ago, Dr. Blotch was a baby who had just turned two. He was bald with a little speck of hair and had two front teeth. He wore glasses in front of his tiny blue eyes. He was learning a lot about life.

One morning, baby Dr. Blotch wandered into the bathroom and sat on the toilet. Being so little, he fell in and through a portal. Suddenly, he found himself in a cloud world on fire. The first thing he saw were clouds moving through the air, and he heard wind noises. It was cold and rainy and not fun. The world smelled like it was burning and a little like a sewer. Looking around, baby Dr. Blotch saw futuristic robots. Some were missing arms, and the robots with arms held silver laser blasters. Zombie dinosaurs with long claws popped out from the clouds to fight the robots, saying BRRRRRRR. Baby Dr. Blotch could also hear laser beams and robots talking their robot talk: BEEP BOOP BOP. Just then, a dinosaur started chasing baby Dr. Blotch.

Since he had already learned about dinosaurs, he knew he had to run quietly as his two-year-old legs sprinted through the soft grass. While running, he had to dodge piles of dinosaur poop. He definitely didn’t want to stay

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in this world, so he started jumping on a trampoline to see if he could escape. As he jumped, his stomach started growling, and he wanted candy. He saw gummy worms and Skittles in packages on the ground. Being a baby, he didn’t know he shouldn’t eat random candy from the ground, so he ate it.

Roby Bob Knight, a robot troll that looks like a human, walked up to Baby Dr. Blotch and in a rusty voice said, “I can help you get out of this world. Follow me if you want to live!”

Write your own ending . . .

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Ms. Kadian’s Second-grade Class Erickson Elementary, Ypsilanti Storytelling and Bookmaking

Icy Pickle Island

O

nce upon a time, there was a giant mansion castle on an icy pickle island. Icy Pickle Island was covered in pickle popsicle trees that grow Sour Patch Kids and Hot Fries. Inside the mansion lived Pickle Man and Ice Penguin. They were friends and roommates.

Icy Pickle Island smelled like Sour Patch Kids, pickles, flowers, and candy. It was quiet, but sometimes you heard crickets. The pickle mansion was filled with rainbow Skittles and Reese’s cups and everything inside was very colorful. It was HUGE and the refrigerator was filled with cheese sticks. The mansion was shaped like a giant cheese stick. The grass was made out of individual tiny pickles.

Pickle Man and Ice Penguin were stranded on this island because their boat had been shipwrecked. They made a home there and are now looking for treasure until they can return to their lives before. So far, all they’ve found are pickles and, boy, are they sick of pickles! They live with a gentle and huge dragon named Komoh’o, who they adopted when he was little. His scales are gray, and the top layer of the scales are gray and yellow. He has fins—well, maybe not fins. They’re more like gills. This is a special dragon that can live under water! He puts his scales out to make a warning.

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The two roommates and their pet dragon decide to go look for treasure. All of a sudden, Komoh’o’s scales start to come out and shiver. There are new people on the island!

Pickle Man and Ice Penguin recognize them: they’re bullies from their old school. Komoh’o says, “These are dragon hunters.” The dragon hunters are holding poisonous cheese sticks and start to throw them at the dragon (the hunters are wearing gloves).

Write your own ending . . .

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Ms. Davis’s Second- & Third-grade Class Old Redford Academy, Detroit Storytelling and Bookmaking

Super Animal Squad vs. Dr. DJ

O

nce upon a time, on a really hot day in New Hawaii, smoke and the smell of gas was filling the air. The Super Animal Squad (SAS) was doing their daily routine when they saw the building fire. Super Pete the Dog flew really fast into action. Telekatnesis the Cat used her psychic and stretch powers to carry people out of the burning building. Mr. Norm Bamboo the Panda used his water tornado powers to save someone who was on fire inside the building.

Just then they heard a voice laughing, “HAHAHA! You’ll never defeat me!” It was Dr. DJ who had set fire to the building. The SAS had to stop him at all cost.

Dr. DJ grew up on a cursed island in 1717 and wanted nothing but to hurt all the animals in New Hawaii. He would use all of his lava, fire, and water powers to create a horde of cat zombies and unleash the volcano horses to burn everything down.

The SAS said, “We can defeat and stop you!”

The SAS decided to combine their powers to make a dragon using all the elements.

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Ms. Stewart’s Second-grade Class Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences, Detroit Storytelling and Bookmaking

Valentine’s Day in Mississippi, Ohio

O

nce upon a time, there was a group of friends: Amber, Gary the John, and Olivia. They were in Mississippi, Ohio, making cupcakes and fighting crime! It was a snowy Valentine’s Day morning, and there were giant alien robots taking over the city, shooting lasers out of their eyes.

Suddenly, the largest building in Mississippi, Ohio, transformed into the biggest robot yet. The great Mecha Smasher has a narrow yellow body with yellow eyes and great big chomping teeth to eat buildings with. Mecha Smasher could fly, smash, throw other buildings, and also control metal. There was a strong smell of fire, gas, smoke, and cupcakes throughout Mississippi. The sewers and smelly drains had burning coffee running through them.

As the team fought the giant robot Mecha Smasher, there was loud banging and falling metal all over Mississippi, Ohio. The city looked destroyed: fallen buildings were all around and fire ate up everything. Buildings were going missing as Mecha Smasher threw them across town.

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Gary the John flew super fast with big muscly wings and shot lasers while telling jokes, making everyone laugh.

Olivia flew with a long cape and her monkey friend on her shoulders, and Amber had long black hair with yellow streaks throughout.

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WORKSHOPS

Julieta Turon Age 11 Honey Creek Community Ann Arbor Summer Writers Club

I’m Julieta T. and I am eleven years old. I have gone to this writing workshop for a few years. I like writing about improvised and unusual characters that live a humanlike life. I like playing sports and going camping with my family.

I believe that education is important and that people with different ethnicities and races should always be treated equally. I like 826michigan because of the friends and the fun that I have there.

Soda Man

S

oda Man. He’s a funny guy. He does weird stuff. But he’s my best friend, and I’m not the one to judge. Well, enough about him. Hello. My name is Curious George.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Oh, Curious George?

He can’t write! He’s a monkey! Well, I am a monkey, but a monkey who’s adapted to the times. Anyway, Soda Man asked me to write a story about him, so please bear with me. Now here goes. The (un)official story of Soda Man. Once upon a time, there was a soda can named Soda Man. He lived in an apartment where he ate bagels, and Mr. C. George ate donuts. Soda Man was normal in this

66 | W O R K S H O P S

world. He once was a trashed soda can that was bitten by a frog that was bitten by a radioactive spider that was let out by crazy scientists. At first people were scared and surprised, but after a few years, they got used to him. His best friends were Mr. C. George and the baker at the pastry shop. The baker was weird. Well, the story starts on a sunny day, when Soda Man decided to be a superhero.

He had a plan: he would find something bad on the street and he would swing down on his apartment ladder and save them. He had his cape ready. It was Pride Month, so he wore a rainbow cape. Now, he just had to wait for something bad to happen.

“Mr. C. George, what do you think will happen?” whispered Soda Man as he peered out the window from his apartment.

“Ooo–ooo!”

“You’re right. Anything could happen.”

“Aaa!” “Wise! We’ll just have to wait!”

“AAA!” “I didn’t know you wanted to be a hero! You could be my sidekick!”

“AAA–AAAA!” Mr. C. George said, as he pointed out the window.

There in front of them were a few people dressed with bright colors, and they were screaming.

“Come on, Mr. C. George! Let’s go save some people!”

He opened his window and jumped down, with Mr. C. George on his shoulder.

“What’s going on?” asked Soda Man, raising his voice to be heard over the yelling. He could see the police arriving.

A pale woman with a blinding yellow shirt replied, “My son, he disappeared! He’s been gone for a few minutes, but we’ve looked everywhere! We saw some robbers pass by, too!”

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Soda Man confidently ran on the sidewalk, looking inside all the stores. Suddenly, he saw something move while running. Then something hit him. A revolving door.

He let it take him into an immense theater, where he could hear eerie music playing. The theater’s walls were tan, with a lot of pictures of acts from years ago. There were classic red curtains, and the room was filled with red velvet chairs.

“Mr. C. George, don’t you hear something? We need to be stealthy.”

Soda Man’s stomach grumbled. It’s from the lack of donuts, he thought.

Soda Man and Mr. C. George tiptoed through the carpeted path along the walls of the theater. It was dark, but Soda Man could make out a smallish machine—a crane—next to the stage. Some of the wooden floor panels were missing. The theater was probably under construction.

Suddenly, Soda Man saw two men, dressed in black, peeking out of the curtain. Between the curtain and the wall, Soda Man could see a young boy, maybe eight or nine years old, taped to the wall.

Soda Man started running. As he got closer to the stage and the crane, he tripped over an empty water bottle and started stumbling forward, and his cape got caught on the crane’s hook. The momentum swung Soda Man and Mr. C. George up into the air. Soda Man screamed as they swung up and down. Mr. C. George seemed to be enjoying it, so he jumped onto Soda Man’s arm. Soda Man looked down, and he could see the two men scrambling around the stage, looking for a place to hide. As Soda Man swung downward, his side flipped a switch on the wall, and the chandelier’s light blinded him for a second. When he swung back up again, Soda Man accidentally kicked one of the men dressed in black into a hole where one of the wooden floor panels was missing. Soda Man’s cape

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suddenly ripped off the hook, so he attempted to grab on to the curtain, but he landed flat on his face. The panel that he landed on catapulted a knife into the air. The knife dramatically flipped, and it landed perfectly, cutting the duct tape holding the boy’s arm to the wall. Mr. C. George jumped over and started tearing the duct tape off of the boy. Soda Man looked up, and the second man in black was walking up to him, with a knife in his hand. Soda Man desperately grabbed the curtain and pulled himself up, and then he ran behind the curtain. He tripped again and the curtains tumbled down and brought the metal pole that was holding the curtains down with them. It knocked the man unconscious, and Soda Man gasped. When he finally caught his breath, he backed away from the ruckus.

But when he turned around and ran out the door, he was attacked . . . by a big, clustered mob of people applauding.

To be continued . . .

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Fiona Kinnunen Age 13 Ypsilanti Community Middle Ypsilanti Summer Writers Club

Confessions of an Older Sister Wednesday, August 7, 2019

M

y life is honestly deplorable. My birthday was three days ago. And the only thing she got me was two chicken nuggets. Oh, “she” is my sister, my little sister, Kendra. She can be nice and kind one moment; the next moment she can be the worst. On days when she is in her own little bubble and I’m in mine, life is fine. Until she asks me to do stuff for her. Whenever Mom or our other caretakers ask us to take our dog, Ronnie, outside, she always shouts, “Dibs on NOT taking him out.” Or she uses some weak excuse to not do her chores. Now, being a good and responsible teenager, I do my chores.

But Kendra, she will throw a fit unless it’s a chore she likes. And she complains about when I invite my friends and how she has “no friends,” but then she can name a lot of her friends.

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Thursday, August 8, 2019

T

his isn’t a diary, no, it’s just a way for me to tell some (not all) people how I feel about my sister. I turned thirteen this Monday and this is day three of being thirteen, and Kendra is using my age as an excuse for my attitude toward her. Conversations go something like this: “Can we go to McDonald’s?” Kendra would say.

“We had McDonald’s yesterday. And plus, we haven’t had Arby’s in forever!” I would say, in a tired-like voice.

“No! It’s too spicy! And quit it with that attitude!”

Kendra would respond.

“Fiona is right, we haven’t had Arby’s in a while. I’m sure we’ll find something for you to eat,” Mom would say, trying to prevent a fight.

“And my ‘attitude’ is because I’m kinda tired,” I’d tell Kendra.

“Right, ‘tired,’” Kendra’d say, being the brat she is.

Yeah, she is like this. It’s really annoying. And yes, it is true I haven’t been to Arby’s in forever because of her.

But being the oldest, and most honest, it’s easy getting Kendra out of situations, sometiems for good reasons and sometimes for bad reasons. These aren’t the only times we are nice to each other. We work together; we’re sisters for heaven’s sake.

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Verda Celiker Age 7 Achieve Charter Ann Arbor Summer Writers Club

I am Verda and I am seven years old. I have two sisters, and I love cats and kittens. And I would love to have my very own iPad or a phone. I love, love, love to write and read. I like puppies too. I’ve always wanted a robot to do everything I need or want it to do for me. I don’t like meat or anything like meat. I have two birds and their names are Kiwi and Kiwi. One has yellow on the back of its head and that is Kiwi and the other is Kiwi.

The Potion

“I

hope I get an A on my Spanish test,” Agatha says.

“Agatha,” calls her mother.

“Yes,” answers Agatha.

“Do you know where the car keys are?”

Agatha pets her cat Midnight. She knows the car keys are under her pillow. She just didn’t want to go to school, so she woke up in the middle of the night and got them.

Her mother says, “You’re not going to school today then, Agatha.”

“Yes,” Agatha says. But tomorrow she will put the keys back. Tonight she plans the potion so she will get an A on

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her test. She is going to add two tarantulas, her hair, a bee’s brain, and her blood.

The next morning, her potion is made! Now she drinks it. She goes to school and says, “Oh, boy!” She gets her test. She shouts, “Why did I get an F? Munch, munch, munch. How did I get an F? I was going to have an A. I’ll have to do the potion all over again!”

That night, she remakes the forgetting potion. “This time I hope it will work. Feet of spiders, nail of baby, make my F turn into an A.” BOOM! “Fire!! Oh no! I can’t move!

MOM! Oh no! Why did I just call her?”

“Sweetie, what’s wrong?”

“I can’t move!”

“Why?” “Um—uuuu—nothing!!”

“What!” says her mom.

“I tried making a potion and I added too many fireflies and now it made a real fire and now I’m frozen!”

“Try, come on, I know you can do it!”

“I can’t!”

The End.

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Cyrus Hansen Age 11 Tappan Middle Ann Arbor Summer Writers Club

Cyrus is a logical, funny, and smart person. He likes playing it chill in every situation. He likes hanging out with his friends in the neighborhood he lives in. He loves watching Naruto and playing Roblox. His imagination is large, and it is still expanding. The rest is confidential.

The Story of Steve the Goldfish

O

nce upon a processed cracker, there was a goldfish named Steve. Now that might not be normal to you, but to everyone else in his world, he was felt to be pretty normal by the fellow crackers, cereals, gum guys, and mints around him. At least, that was what everyone thought. He was the owner of McFishys, a fast-food restaurant (causing him to be a multi-millionaire), and a worldwide-loved superhero known as Superfish. As Superfish, he protected the citizens and animals of Cearth (a combination of cracker and Earth, mind you). As his alter-ego, he served the people of his town popular fastfood. By now you should understand what I have told you, so you get the idea.

One average day in the city the Goldfish League, he was chilling in their tower playing ping-pong, eating

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chips and salsa, and drinking Cracka-Cola when the crime alarm sounded. Steve went to the alarm and read the description of what was happening, and he found out that the Bank of Graham Cracker had been heisted and robbed! The heroes bolted to the crime scene and found that the bank had also been half burned down!

They helped the employees who had been there get out of the building, and they got an ambulance. Then they caught up to the van that the criminals had escaped in.

“Hey, Jellybutt,” Superfish mocked. “Your IQ is lower than the number of people who escaped the Goldfish League, which is zero!”

The driver opened the window and pulled out something that looked like a weapon. Oh no! The weapon was a Savory Sword! The Savory Sword is a sword that is made of candy canes on the outside and gum on the inside. It’s strangely effective because if it breaks, it just becomes a sticky whip. The driver swung the sword at Superfish, but he dodged it and the blade flew back into the wall of the van, making it very, very stuck. The criminal tried to pull it out, but he couldn’t, so that gave Superfish the opportunity to make a plan for how to put these thugs out of business. He shot a BlazerBeam at a tire of the van, and the van swerved off the street into a tree. The criminals had been knocked unconscious in the crash, but the van was smoking and would eventually blow up. SuperSpeed, one of the five heroes, had the power to be super fast, so he went into the van, took out all of the criminals, stole money, and tied up the criminals. Then all of the heroes went to the bank to give all the money back to the guards in charge of the underground vault. Then the heroes were all given debit cards with five million dollars on them.

Next issue: the reveal of SuperSpeed’s identity?

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Zoe Ressler-Maerlender Age 9 Ann Arbor STEAM Ann Arbor Summer Writers Club

My name is Zoe, and I was born in Atlanta, Georgia. I like to climb trees, read books, eat chocolate, and pet puppies.

I’ve been writing since I was in third grade. I’m nine years old. I like to write about vampires, tigers, potions, and magic.

The Tigers of Magic

O

nce upon a time, there was a family of four tigers.

They had an underground cave full of treasure, but their most prized possession was a booklet of power. The tigers were magical. They were from another universe where they were stronger, faster, and did not tire as easily as other animals. But the father (named Tom) was reckless.

He would hunt all the most dangerous beasts like bears and lions. The first time he came home from hunting, he was carrying a big, great, fat, juicy bear with a honeycomb in its paws. Sriracha was overjoyed and outraged. She growled a warning: “If you ever hunt a bear without help again, I will personally drag you while you are sleeping into a hungry bear’s den. When I’m satisfied, I will drag you back here and feed you nothing but bear meat. Do you understand?”

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“Yes,” said the dad. The reason the tigers were magical was because they came from a planet called Timanea.

Once, a man got tricked into drinking a potion and he was turned into a mad scientist. He built a spaceship and made a planet out of vegetation. He turned into a wizard, got over the madness potion, and stayed and made himself a wife. They had kids, and the man and woman and their kids transformed themselves into tigers and got captured by the humans and taken to Earth, for Earth had no orange and no tigers. But the president had other ideas. He wanted the tigers for his private zoo. He captured Tom and Sriracha, the tiger cub. Tabasco, the other sister, almost got captured but escaped just in time.

She ran home to her mother and told her the bad news.

She almost tore up the cave in her rage and grief, and then she calmed down.

“Come on,” she said. “We’re going to get them out.”

They stalked through the night like cats creeping up on a mouse.

Finally they arrived at the zoo. It was midnight, or the witches’ hour. Once they were in the zoo, Tabasco let out a long and somewhat quiet growl. She was immediately answered by a loud roar. They followed the sound and found a wall of energy separating them from Tom and Sriracha. Tom’s eyes went wide and he almost ran to them.

He smacked himself back and said, “Blood and bones!

What are you doing here?”

“Shut up!” the mom hissed. “We can’t break you out, but I will revert back to human form and they will find me and take me to the president. Now here we go!” A brilliant white light glared from her body. Suddenly there was a young woman as beautiful as the stars there. No more Mom Tiger.

“Mommy?”

“Yes, dear?”

“What are you?”

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“I’m a human.”

The flash had not gone unnoticed. The president himself had gotten up to see if there was anything wrong with his tigers. Instead, he found a beautiful woman kneeling by a tiger cub.

“Away!” she said. The cub ran into the underbrush.

Then he noticed something strange. She had an orange stripe in her hair. She went back with him and then slipped away with the key. She unlocked the door to the cage containing the tigers. She inserted the key, transformed into a tiger, and ran away with her family.

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Emma-Kate Voth Age 9 Amerman Elementary Ann Arbor Summer Writers Club

Hi, my name is Emma-Kate, and I am nine years old. I live in Northville, Michigan, and I go to Amerman Elementary School. I like playing video games and drawing. I think that school is fun, and I think it can get you a good job. I get story ideas from stories!

The Magical Human

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nce upon a time in a magical world. Umm . . . well, there was a human who was magical and, well . . .

She was home alone and woke up. When she got up, she did her normal routine, and then her parents got home (because they were on vacation). Anyway, on with the story, lol.

She says, “Hey guys!”

“Hey, Jordan. How are you doing?”

“Good!” *A day later* She wakes up and screams for help (quick note: never scream for help, unless you really need it). Anyway, she gets dressed and races to her friend’s house. Her friend sees her.

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“What, Lexi?”

“Come here, Jordan.”

“OK.” She goes over.

“What’s wrong, Lexi?”

“My family is acting weird, and it’s not normal.”

“What the heck do you mean?”

“Let me show you.”

“Umm, OK.” Opens door.

Her mom: “Who are you guys?”

“See, she does not recognize us.” Closes door.

“Yeah, wow. That’s crazy, Lexi.”

“I know.”

Maggie comes along.

“Hey, Maggie.”

“Hi. What’s wrong, Lexi?”

“Oh, well, my parents are acting weird? Are yours?”

“Yeah, my dad did not go to work this morning.”

“What’s wrong, Jordan?”

“Well, come with m—” “Zoe come.”

“K, Jordan.”

“Has your family been acting weird?”

“Yeah . . . because my mom did not wake up when she normally does.”

“OK.” In Jordan’s head she thinks to herself, I think the girls need powers so they can help me find out what’s happening.

“My secret hideout/treehouse.”

“Wow, I like the rope that we get to climb up.”

“Anyway, let’s go in.”

The girls go in.

“OK, Zoe, lightness or darkness?”

“Lightness.”

“Ice or fire?”

“Ice.” “Maggie, lightness or darkness?”

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“Darkness.”

“Ice or fire?”

“Fire . . . ” Jordan turns into an angel to give them their powers.

Jordan gives powers.

Her friends start floating in the air.

They all start going down slowly.

“Was that fun?”

“Yes.” “Glad.”

“OK, now.”

Jordan magically puts down sleeping bags for her and the girls.

“Wow.” “How did you do that, Jordan?”

“Zoe, calm down. It’s just magic.”

“K.” Jordan magically gives them food.

“FOOOOD!” There were hot dogs with ketchup and mustard.

“Guys, chill. It’s just food, lol.”

“Let’s get some sleep.”

“Yeah, I am pretty tired. Goodnight, guys.”

“Goodnight, Lexi.” *In the morning* “Good morning, y’all.”

“Morning, Jordan.”

Jordan gives them food.

“Follow.”

“K.” “Guess what?”

“What?”

“Cars.”

“Yay.” “But do y’all know how to drive?”

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“Yeah.”

“K, good.”

“Let’s see who this guy is.”

“What guy?”

“The man who has been controlling our human minds.”

“Sounds legit.”

“Whatever, anyway.”

“Let’s find this house.”

“K.” *Thirty minutes later* “We’re here.”

“Looks old and dusty.”

They turn into bats, and they fly in through the crack of the door at the bottom.

They change the machine’s settings to turn off his powers.

They fly back out.

“Guys, let’s see where the guy is.” *Thirty-nine minutes later* “Hey, you.”

“What do you want?”

“Who are you?”

“Nico.”

“Nico, can you please come here?”

“Sure.”

“Please stop making people be your friend. They do not like it, and it’s not the right thing to do.”

The girls undo what he did.

“Thank you for doing that, and I am very sorry.”

“It’s OK. Do not do it again, please.”

“I won’t.”

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Marcus Goldblatt Age 11 Ann Arbor STEAM Ann Arbor Summer Writers Club

My first book was when I was in kindergarten, and there were three words: I am me. My name is Marcus, and I am eleven years old. I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and I go to A2STEAM at Northside. I am going into sixth grade. I love to write and play baseball. I have been inspired to write this by reading the book series The Seven Realms by Cinda Williams Chima. Although the series is amazing, it is rated young adult. I hope you like the book!

The Three Page Fantasy Part One

K

yle had been waiting for ten minutes for his sister Mary before he remembered she was gone. Kyle was sixteen. She had died when he was ten and she was eight.

He had found her lying on the doorstep with a sword in her hand. Kyle had taken the sword and never told his parents. Then he had called 911 and his parents. When his parents had come home, they had been stricken with grief. Just then, his friend Ben Sloveek shook him out of his trance.

“Kyle! Kyle! There are people coming. They were asking about you!”

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“What?” said Kyle, and sure enough, there was a group of 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5 . . . 6, he counted. They all had what looked like amulets around their necks. One of them shouted something, and a ball of light flew toward him. It was hot. He knew it was there before it collided. It hit him and his sword appeared in his hand. He felt something course through him. Somehow, he knew what it was. He ran at the men running toward him and thrust the sword into the ground with a strength that would have skewered diamond. Armor appeared on him and he jabbed his sword into the air. Instantly the people that he thought were wizards disappeared.

Ben just stood there for a minute before saying, “That.

Was. Radical.” Then he fainted. Kyle carried Ben back toward his house, but the houses started looking like they were from five hundred years ago. Then he realized they were traveling to a different realm, a realm of magic . . . ***** Raisa hated her mother! She had taken all of her drokel away for a week. Raisa was the princess and heir to the throne of Majoke, the eastern kingdom of Majic.

Drokel was the form of money they used in Mekole. Then she remembered she still had a pound of drokel, one thousand. For her it was a little, but anyone outside of the castle would kill for that kind of money, and in fact someone had.

A group of wizards had killed the guards and come into her room looking for the very pouch she had in her hand. Raisa had shot all the men and her mother, the Queen, said, “Raisa, no more drokel for a week! Why is there blood all over the carpet?! At least you could have shot them on the floor!” Then she stalked away without even an “Are you all right?”

Now Rasia took her amulets and pouch of drokel and snuck out the door, only to run into one of her bodyguards, who promptly pushed her back in her room. When she turned around, she said, “Oh my god,” and passed out.

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***** Kyle finally found himself inside an amazingly fortified castle standing in front of a young woman. When she saw him, she fainted. He knelt at her side and touched her.

What was that? An amulet! The amulet lit up and she sat up so fast that her head smashed into his shoulder. She was immediately on her feet with a bow in her hands.

“Where did the bow come from?”

“I conjured it, Dino-Head.”

“What?”

“Dino-Head, the most common swear in . . .” She faltered and stopped as it clicked. “You’re from Earth, aren’t you?” She smiled.

“Umm, yeeeah,” said Kyle. Just then a guard burst into the room with his hand in a bag.

“Your majesty, a letter from the King of Ardeem!”

Then he went through eighteen scrolls, never noticing Kyle. After he finished, he looked up and shouted, “OH!” He jumped backward and landed on the bed. The girl laughed, and Kyle couldn’t help laughing either.

“My name is Raisa. What’s yours?”

“Kyle. Kyle Jumper.” And at that moment he knew that this would be the beginning of a friendship that would last forever.

The End. To be continued . . .

Epilogue If you are wondering what ever happened to Ben Sloveek, he was still unconscious.

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Nonoka Tsuruzono Age 5 Logan Elementary Dr. Blotch’s Writing Challenge

Kiki with Her Friends

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here is a girl whose name is “Kiki.” She is six years old and lives in a treehouse in Japan. In the summer she went to take a walk on the beach and found a baby dolphin.

He was almost dying and very weak. Kiki went back to her treehouse, then she brought a “Happy Birthday” balloon, fish, and hyacinth. Then she went back to the beach, and she gave the dolphin all her items and took care of the dolphin every day. The dolphin was getting better.

After a few weeks, the dolphin was feeling good, and he went back to his family. When Kiki went back to her treehouse, she was very upset because she gave him all the stuff and he went back home. The dolphin was a best friend for her. So her mom gave her an elephant doll for playing, and now she was not upset. She called the elephant doll “Mimi,” and she had a good time with Mimi.

One year later, Kiki and Mimi took a walk on the beach.

Suddenly she saw the dolphin and they played all day. She was so happy to play with her best friend again.

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Rihito Tsuruzono Age 8 Logan Elementary Dr. Blotch’s Writing Challenge, Wee-bots Drop-in Writing

Jo’s Adventure

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here was a man whose name was Jo. He was training to be in the Air Force. After a few years, he became an F-22 Raptor pilot. He decided to travel all over the world because he wanted to eat different kinds of foods and see different cultures. He started on June 23, 2000, and he came back on June 23, 2001—that day was his birthday.

First he planned where he was going: 1) America 2) South America 3) Antarctica 4) Africa 5) Italy 6) India 7) Japan 8) Australia 9) Hawaii 10) North America He decided to stay in every country for one week. He carried a fishing rod, camera, passport, notebook, pencil, and phone. After a few days, Jo arrived in New York, he saw

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the Statue of Liberty, and he ate pizza and drank coffee at Starbucks. It was so good and tasty. There were lots of people and tall buildings. He spent $10,000, so he decided to move to South America. He went to the Amazon River, and he fished with his fishing rod and caught a thousand piranhas. He ate ten of them and sold 990 piranhas, and he was now rich. After one week he went to Antarctica.

In Antarctica there was a snow storm. One hour later, the snow storm was gone and he saw the southern lights.

It was beautiful. The next morning he saw a lot of wild animals: polar bears, penguins, whales, baby penguins, seals, dolphins, killer whales, and wolves. He ate seal meat, and he entered dog sledding and fishing challenges on the ice.

He moved to Africa, and he saw a pyramid in Egypt, ate pigeons, went rafting in the Nile river, and saw an archaeological site.

Then he flew to Rome, Italy. He went to the colosseum and fought in a bullfight. Then he won the fight and ate pasta and gelato.

He traveled to India. Then he visited the Taj Mahal and he ate curry. He took ablution in the Goddess of the Ganges river.

In Japan he saw “Skytree” in Tokyo and wrestled a sumo wrestler. He won and ate sushi.

In Australia he went bungee jumping, and he fought a king cobra and won. After that, he ate the king cobra’s meal. It was not so yummy. He rescued wild animals such as koalas and kangaroos.

Then he flew to Hawaii. In Hawaii he learned how to play the ukulele and how to dance hula. He ate steak, swam with sea turtles, and saw sea turtles spawning.

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Exactly one year later he came back to North America.

He wrote a book about his adventure and published it.

The book sold a million copies and he made ten thousand friends all over the world.

The End.

Superhero

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here is a superhero who lives in Foxfire. His name is Rihito.

He is eight years old. He lives with his parents and his sister. One day he had coronavirus and he was really sick.

He had a heavy headache and a high fever. He stayed in bed for one week. For the first couple of days, he could not eat anything. After one week, he wanted to eat mint that was grown in his backyard—he ate mint and drank water at the same time. He recovered from coronavirus.

He delivered his magical mint and water for sick people.

After taking Mint Water, people were getting better and recovered. He was very busy making Mint Water. Instead of sleeping, he was helping people who have coronavirus.

One day, our president was sick and he had coronavirus.

The vice president heard about Rihito and the Mint Water.

The vice president from the White House called him and asked him, “Hi, Rihito! I heard you have a magical Mint Water, so can you please come to the White House to bring some Mint Water?” After one day, Air Force One came to Ann Arbor to pick up Rihito. He flew to Washington, D.C. by Air Force One with his Mint Water. The president took the Mint Water and he recovered after a few days.

The president was so impressed with Rihito’s secret Mint Water. The president sent presidential awards for Rihito.

Rihito keeps trying to help people that have coronavirus.

The End.

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Skiing

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hen I was three years old, I went skiing in Nagano, Japan with my family. I was so excited to ski, but I didn’t know how to ski. First, I practiced on the grass and I thought it was fun, so I decided to ski on the snow.

A year later, I was four years old and I went skiing. It was snowing and I thought it was fun. I went to ski school, and first I learned how to ride a lift. I was ready to ski, and I rode the lift. When I went to the top of the mountain, I thought it was scary, but when I skied I thought it was so fun, and I skied lots of times.

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Addison Wade Age 5 The MPSI Early Childhood Center Dr. Blotch’s Writing Challenge

Unicorn School

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nce upon a time, I went to unicorn school. I ate steak-flavored cotton candy and it tasted bad. I gave it a thumbs-down! Then, I ate rainbow oatmeal because the cotton candy was terrible. Barbie, the chef, was thinking it would be better than the steak-flavored cotton candy because she tasted it. I thought the rainbow oatmeal was awesome, so I went outside, but it rained. So I got a color-changing umbrella from U-naia. The umbrella helped me fly to Addison, Australia, and everyone was miserable, so I got a can of laughter and everyone had the giggles.

The End.

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Sydney Wade Age 9 University Prep Science and Math Dr. Blotch’s Writing Challenge, Lunch Poems Virtual Workshop

A World Full of Mermaids

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nce upon a time, a girl named Sydney went to the beach and was living a normal life, but she was hearing the whole “mermaids are not real” thing. So she went to Five Below to get a charm necklace that was magic so she could turn into a mermaid and show everyone that mermaids are real.

So, Jessica was visiting Florida and she went to the beach. She saw someone to make friends with. So she went to go and say “hi.” Sydney said “hi” back. Jessica introduced herself and so did Sydney. Soon they became very good friends. Sydney asked, “Do you get tired of hearing the whole ‘mermaids aren’t real’ thing?”

Jessica said, “Yes!” So they became BFFs. Sydney said, “Hold on to my necklace. If two people hold on, then we will both turn into mermaids!”

Jessica said, “Cool!” So, she held on and they turned into mermaids. Sydney told Jessica that she was in Oshieana. Oshieana is a world full of mermaids. Soon, they proved to everyone that mermaids are real. Jessica went back to London, and they lived happily ever after.

The End.

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In the She-Hive posters everywhere Ilikenspiring on the door and on the wall.

She also has beautiful pictures on her wall.

She also has a chaise— a chaise is a kind of furniture.

She also has a whiteboard that she keeps her notes for work on, and she has beautiful flowers—but they are pretend— on her shelf.

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Teague A. Stewart Age 7 Charyl Stockwell Academy Dr. Blotch’s Writing Challenge

Lunch with John and Alddi

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ohn and Alddi are at a restaurant near Wayne State University.

JOHN: I’ll order first. May I please have some chicken noodle soup?

ALDDI: May I have a chicken burger?

JOHN: (whispers) Is that our friend Joe? ALDDI: (whispers back) Yes, I think it is and he is going toward the ATM. JOHN: (whispers) I know why he’s getting some money: because he loves to play Centipede, and he’s going to buy some fresh copies of the game Centipede.

Server comes back with the food. Splash! John’s soup splashes on Alddi.

ALDDI: John! Why did you spill your soup on me?

JOHN: I didn’t do that!

ALDDI: Then who did?

JOHN: I don’t know, but I’m positive it’s not me! I know—maybe it’s a ghost.

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ALDDI: Let’s go to the ATM to get some money so we can buy the new ghost see-er.

JOHN: Yeah, great idea, Alddi!

ALDDI: Let’s get out of here right quick.

John and Alddi get up from the table, stop at the restaurant ATM, and go next door to the shop.

JOHN: (whispers) Alddi, there’s only one more ghost see-er. We better get it quickly!

ALDDI: (shouting) WE GOT IT! JOHN: Let’s go back to the restaurant to test it out.

John and Alddi go back to the restaurant.

ALDDI: Maybe we can go in the bathroom to open it up so the ghost can’t see.

JOHN: Yeah, great idea!

They open the ghost see-er and go back to their table.

JOHN: May I please use it now?

ALDDI: Of course, it’s your soup.

John looks all around with the ghost see-er.

JOHN: Look, I got ‘em!

ALDDI: Awesome, may I please see too?

JOHN: See for yourself.

ALDDI: John, sorry for blaming you. Are we still best friends?

JOHN: Yes!

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Josiah Atkinson Age 12 Slauson Middle Dr Blotch’s Writing Challenge, Lunch Poems Virtual Workshop

A Pencil, an Eraser, and a Stork

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nce upon a time, in a tiny city called Ann Arbor, there was a stork. He worked at a popular small restaurant called Old Town. Recently, there had been attacks on nearby cities, such as Detroit and Bay City. The survivors claimed that the attacks were done by a ginormous eraser that desecrated their cities. The stork had heard of these attacks and was terribly frightened. While serving a penguin wearing an air-conditioned cloak in the far corner, the cool and refreshing air blowing against his face, he suddenly heard an outburst of yelling and arguments.

“The beast was one hundred meters high!” yelled a bear.

“No, he was up to the clouds!” a lion snapped back.

“I heard he was only fourteen stories tall,” a nervous mouse whimpered next to them.

“You weren’t there!” they both violently screamed at the mouse, so loud that all of the restaurant shook as the mouse backed away in fear. After, everyone left in disgust and terror as the pair were still arguing (although about different things). The stork decided to intervene.

“Hey!” The stork sauntered over cowboy style. “What’s the problem here, y’all?” (he emphasized the “y’all”). The two powerful animals grew slightly concerned.

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“He started it!” both hecklers claimed.

“Out,” the stork demanded sternly.

They didn’t budge. The stork leaned very close to the bear’s face. “If you two don’t leave the building right now, I’m afraid I will have to hack your Minecraft account and delete all your worlds.” Both the lion and the bear ran away, pale as a bear and a lion can get.

“That was a powerful display there,” the penguin in the cloak grunted as the stork cleaned up.

Apparently he stayed. “Can I have my check?”

“You didn’t order anything, sir,” the stork replied.

“Huh.” The penguin set a pencil on the table and left.

“You can keep it.”

Pff, thanks a lot, the stork thought, annoyed. Who just gives someone a pencil?

“And maybe succeed where I have failed,” the penguin mumbled as he walked out.

After his shift, the stork was walking home with the sun and the wind on his back. He heard a small voice.

After looking around, he didn’t see anything that would make such a sound.

“Down here.” There it was again. The stork looked down in his pocket and saw the pencil, and realized it had eyes and a mouth.

“Can you take me out of your pocket? I’ve been in here all day and it sucks.”

“O-OK” the stork answered, startled, reaching in his pocket and pulling the now-animate object out. There was a deafening boom!

“Wha­—” the stork gasped, startled. The ground shook, and the stork stumbled and dropped the pencil.

“HA-HA-HA-HAAAA,” a deep, deafening voice boomed. “RUN, YOU FOOLS! RUN FROM MY WRATH!” The laughing continued as the stork slowly looked up.

“No, no, no, no, no.” The stork started to walk backward and run, but he tripped. Pain shot up his back. “He’s here.”

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“Use me to draw something!” the pencil demanded.

“Quick!”

The stork pulled out a paper pad he used for orders and drew a sword. It flew off the page and went straight to his hand. It was balanced in his hand and had a perfect weight; he also drew armor and a shield.

“Wow,” he gasped.

“HA HA HA HA HA HA!” the voice boomed as it hopped up and shot straight at the clock tower. The thing producing this deep voice appeared to be a huge eraser. It slowly disappeared as the eraser rocked back and forth.

“HEY, FATTY!” the stork yelled as he quickly developed a plan. “You want some of this?!”

“What are you doing? Run!” the pencil yelled.

“FOOL!” The eraser hopped up and shot right at them.

“Yeah, I got that!” the stork replied, already running.

The stork flapped and flapped his wings and he flew. He drew a wall, and another. The wind plastered his feathers on his body, and he felt the wind on his face.

“What are you doing?!” the pencil exclaimed.

“Remember,” the stork replied, “at the restaurant, everyone was arguing about how big the eraser is?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, when you use an eraser it gets smaller.” He turned a corner.

“Ohhh, so if he erases too many things—” “He’ll use himself up.”

After drawing more walls, the stork turned around.

There were no walls to be seen, but the eraser was now the size of a tadpole.

“RAAAH!” the eraser screamed, and he apparently didn’t notice his change in size. He jumped at the stork.

The stork batted it away with his shield. The eraser’s scream continued as he bounced into an open manhole and was never seen again.

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There were many people who got why-my-lung-notwork-anymored that day, and lots of public and private property was lost, but the eraser was stopped for good.

When the police swept the city, it was nowhere to be found.

On top of that, the stork and the pencil were branded heroes, and Old Town became famous. The stork and his family soon became wealthy and lived happily ever after.

Fear

C

ooped up inside.

They know what’s happening.

Everyone does.

Their room is silent.

You can only hear the steady increase of notifications on their phone, Slowly, slowly but surely a bud rises from their room.

The bud copies itself, and moves to the next room.

It keeps going until the entire city knows every detail of the buds.

It doesn’t matter which one, it happens to all of them eventually.

The buds grow.

They bloom.

Suddenly, thousands of crows shoot from the flowers.

They fly up.

Then they dive.

They swarm the city.

And leave nothing but the flowers.

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Ashley Camila Reyes-Herrera Age 9 Abbot Elementary Dr. Blotch’s Writing Challenge

The Road Trip

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ne day, my family and I were packing. We were going on a road trip! The next day, we put all of our backpacks and luggage in the car and Sully, my dog, was coming too. The trip took two and a half days because we were going to Mexico. We were going to see my aunt, cousins, grandmas, and grandpas. When we got in the car, I got my game, Topple. My mom and I played Topple while my dad was driving, and Sully was doing her usual stuff . . . napping. Six hours later, we stopped to rest. After our rest, we realized that the problem was that we did not know when Sully wanted to use the restroom. So every once in a while, we watched Sully. Two hours later, that’s when I saw it. Sully was going to use the restroom in the car, so we quickly drove to a rest zone, put on her leash, and took her to the bathroom. When she finished, we got in the car and drove ten hours, and we got to Mexico.

The End.

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Keara Day Age 8 Pearson Elementary Dr. Blotch’s Writing Challenge

The Magical Blue Banana

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nce upon a time, a giant evil snail loved to play warm hockey. Warm hockey is different from cold hockey.

It’s where you’re in a pool, and then you sink to the bottom of the pool with all of your hockey equipment on. You just have to hold your breath. The bottom of the pool needs to be ice cold, and then you fight for a beach ball under the water.

The giant evil snail’s name was Bob. Bob’s parents did not like him playing warm hockey because they wanted him to focus on being evil. He would always wear striped socks when playing warm hockey, even though his parents hated it. His favorite snack was blue bananas even though they made him good. His parents didn’t like him eating blue bananas.

The next day, Bob took off playing warm hockey, but he expanded his pool. When he got to the edge, he bumped his head on something. It was a robot castle! He got out of the water and knocked on the door. Nobody answered, so he went inside. THERE WERE BLUE BANANAS EVERYWHERE! So he ate some of them.

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He explored the robot castle, and he found a lot of gears and computers. Bob decided that he wanted to build some stuff. He built a long sock robot and he named it Natalie. He figured he could trick his parents into living in the robot castle and being good.

Bob came up with a plan. His plan was that he was going to take the sock robot and put the banana inside of it and make Natalie able to dance. He remembered that his parents were having a gala so he realized that he could take Natalie to the dance as his partner. Then he would have his parents meet Natalie. Then the sock would cover the banana in green stuff. Green bananas turned giant snails evil, so then his parents would eat it.

On the day of the gala, he dressed up his sock. He put stripes on it and they made it look really cool. On the day of the gala, Bob and Natalie built two very big rooms for Bob’s parents in the robot castle. Then they built a big, nice limo to take to the gala. As they headed to the gala, they saw Bob’s parents! So, Bob had to hide in the back trunk of the limo. He thought that his parents would see a giant sock driving the limo. But he didn’t know that Natalie could disguise herself to look like a snail. And so when Bob got out of the trunk, he saw another snail and he was really confused. He was like, “Where did Natalie go?” Then, really fast, Natalie changed back into her normal sock self.

They finally got to the gala and met Bob’s parents.

Natalie had disguised herself as a snail again. Once they got to the parents, Natalie handed them a green banana.

They gobbled it right down because they knew it would make them more evil. But then something happened.

They felt really nice and wanted a new place to live. They realized that they had eaten a blue banana, but they liked being good. While Bob and Natalie were standing there, they said that they actually had a place that Bob’s parents would love. The parents said, “That is a great, amazing idea. Thank you guys!”

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When they got to the robot castle, they loved it and had a beautiful time. And Natalie and Bob got married and played warm hockey every day!

The End.

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Hanako McDonald Age 9 Ann Arbor Open Dr. Blotch’s Writing Challenge

How to Travel to Hawaii Without Leaving Home

F

irst, you put a seashell by your ear to hear the ocean waves. Then put sunglasses on, hang a hammock under two of your trees, and think that they are palm trees.

And don’t forget your smoothie to chill you out. You will need to open your imagination wide and think about (or draw) Hawaii. Your imagination will know what you are trying to see and will take you there. Then you can settle in and imagine what Hawaii really is!

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Lakota Redick Age 14 Pioneer High Dr. Blotch’s Writing Challenge

Nebula

T

he alley’s colors boomed with decades’ worth of art— that is, until maintenance came along and tried to paint over it. Nebula quickly realized this and shot toward them in a flash of color.

“How dare you cover up such amazing color!” Nebula scolded.

“We’re just doing our job,” the man to the right said.

“Who sent you?” Nebula asked.

A man in grayscale stepped from the shadows. “I sent them!” he boomed.

The man pointed his finger at the wall and the color vanished into a dark gray.

Nebula snapped her fingers and the color returned.

The man stared viciously at her and said, “I will be back,” and then he vanished into the shadows. Some say they still fight today.

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Hunter Redick Age 12 Slauson Middle Dr. Blotch’s Writing Challenge

Mooncat Rescue

I

t was a Friday afternoon when Alan Archer was sitting on his sofa watching his favorite show, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, when he got an alert on his phone. The alert said that the evil Dr. Blotch was trying to steal mooncats from the local pet store.

He jumped up from where he was sitting and ran out the door to his motorcycle. He jumped onto it and sped away toward the pet store. When he arrived, he pulled out his bow and a paralyzing arrow. He ran in and shot Dr. Blotch in the back as she was headed for the back door.

The police came and arrested her.

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Aubrielle Peltier Age 8 Wines Elementary Dr Blotch’s Writing Challenge

Back to Business

W

e were eating dinner and my friend Bob the minion was staying over for the night. Then we finished dinner. “Time for bed,’’ said my mom.

“Come on,” I said to my friend Bob. “Time to go to bed.”

“Oh, OK,” he said.

Oh, I am Jack, the main character. Now time to get back to business here.

Then we went to my bedroom, and once everyone was asleep, I showed him my secret door under my bed.

He was so shocked by what he saw with his eyes. I said, “Follow me.” We went down the long staircase that led to a secret playroom down there in midair. And I said, “Sit down and rest while I bake some blue grape soup for me and you. Let me pull out the recipe book. The recipe is to go get five grapes from the squirting flower bush. Do you want it to be dark blue or light blue?”

Bob asked, “Does it taste different from the color?”

“No, the taste doesn’t change, just the color changes.”

Bob said, “I would want light blue, please!”

“OK, let me go and get fifteen leaves from the blue weeping cherry tree. Oh, I forgot. Bob, do you want some beet soup, too? I am just wondering if you do.”

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“OK, sure,” Bob said.

“OK,” I said. “Let me get the recipe book out again. OK, get one bowl of cream cheese. Get one cup of sprinkles and blend them until the cream cheese is mixed in. Then get three beets and mush them up. Then stir everything together until everything is blended really well.”

“Time to eat,” I said.

When we were done eating, Bob said, “I’m getting cold.”

“Oh, let me get you and me a dog hair coat to warm up. Hey Bob, do you want to help me make a dog/cat car?”

“Sure, I would,” said Bob. “OK, here you go. You can put the dog hair coat on to warm up. Let’s get started now.” We worked and worked all night. Then we finally finished it. “Ha! We did it! Oh no! We have to get upstairs before my mom comes in. Let’s go, go, go,” I said. “Good, she’s not here yet. Let’s put my bed back and go downstairs now.”

“OK,” my friend said. “Let’s go.”

When we got downstairs, the doorbell rang. “I will get it,” I said loudly. “Oh Bob, it’s your mom.”

“OK,” said Bob. “I’m coming.”

I said “bye” to Bob. “See you soon,” I said.

The End.

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Sizwe Honablue Age 13 Detroit Waldorf Lunch Poems Virtual Workshop

Riding in the Neighborhood with You

more fun than hopping in a cold swimming pool in IsPhoenix, Arizona,

more fun than jumping on a trampoline and going one thousand feet in the air— partly because of your bright red color, partly because of the way your pedals and handlebars feel on my hands and feet, partly because of your love for going super fast nonstop.

It is hard to believe that when I am with you, I go faster than some birds in the air.

Even when we fall, we keep going.

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Ella Yip Age 12 Scarlett Middle Lunch Poems Virtual Workshop

Playing Board Games with You

is more fun than going to the beach in the summer Iort being in the pool on a sunny day in July

Partly because of your love for victory over me Partly because of the triumph at the end of the game Partly because of the panic to beat you to “uno” It is hard to believe that when I’m here with you there can be anything as still as tension itself We are drifting back and forth between frustration and celebration The score grows fragile until . . .

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Mona Spiteri Age 11 Ann Arbor Open Lunch Poems Virtual Workshop

Drawing

rom the pencil comes ideas of endless imagination F From the land where thought moves like birds From imagination to paper From ideas to reality

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Laila Crawley Age 15 Cass Technical High Lunch Poems Virtual Workshop

Baking

rom ingredients comes the cake F we waited hours to bake— at the store we gathered (all the factors were scattered) From the green sugar cane plant

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Vivien Norton Age 12 Ann Arbor Open Lunch Poems Virtual Workshop

Writing with You

s even more fun than a perfect beach, Ipartly because I love you, Jack,

partly because of your love for Minecraft, partly because of the madness inside you, partly because you love everybody and everything around you.

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Lucas Tosi Age 11 King Elementary Lunch Poems Virtual Workshop

Nature

ature is Earth’s beauty, N but people are snooty,

endangering Nature’s duty of being filled with beauty.

In every forest there’s a tree that is being cut down by thee— not one nor two nor three— many many more you see.

The person who cut down the tree has a smirk on their face with glee, but are they really truly happy to see a tree that will never be free, considering that neither will he?

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Aliya Crawley Age 14 Cass Technical High Lunch Poems Virtual Workshop

Softball

rom softball come the players, Fa group of girls with a goal.

This is a game of many layers— it is a journey to get back home making stops along the way— with nine positions, all needing someone to play.

Comes the familiar crack of a ball meeting a bat— watch it soar high and far followed by a sprint to someplace safe.

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Tore Teig Age 7 Bach Elementary Lunch Poems Virtual Workshop , Wee-bots Drop-in Writing

Sounds of Home

linking of pans.

C Radio in the kitchen.

The birds outside.

The clinking when my brother builds things.

I hear quiet, peace, pencils against paper.

I feel happy, safe, bored— I know where everything is.

Untitled

I

went to school. The teacher said, “We have a talking hamster.”

I said, “What? That’s not normal.”

“And we have a magic carpet.”

I said, “Double not normal.”

“Now we are going to the Alps on our magic carpet.”

Everyone said, “Awesome!”

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I whispered to myself, “I don’t think this is a normal teacher.”

“Come on,” said Ms. Darik.

“I hope we make it back in one piece,” I said to Mick.

Mick said to me, “I feel weird about this teacher.”

“Me too,” I said. By now the bus was nearly there.

“Now,” said Ms. Darik, “we will use the magic carpet to get up the Alps.” I felt sick. We flew up the mountain. We had a snow fight. We went down the mountain. We went down the classroom. We felt special about that sandwich.

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Matthieu Cras Age 9 Thurston Elementary Lunch Poems Virtual Workshop

The Band

drum behind me is beating like an elephant Thestomping its hardest

The piano is soft and peaceful like the woods and only animals are there The guitar is there like the rough sea storming on The strings and woodwinds are like the worst storms possible The band is in perfect sync not a single second late or early The band is perfect

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Eleonore Cras Age 6 Thurston Elementary Lunch Poems Virtual Workshop

The Beach

I hear the sound of waves and the sound Aoft thewaterbeach ...

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Max Turner Age 6 The Roeper Lunch Poems Virtual Workshop

About My Dad

y dad likes to wear funny hats.

M He likes to read Spider Man comics.

He likes to lay on pillows, and he loves, he likes books.

And sometimes I call him the TV Guy because he loves to watch stuff on TV.

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Oscar Shelton Age 10 Oak Ridge Elementary Lunch Poems Virtual Workshop

The Kitchen

s I look in the kitchen, I look past the pots and Apans—

I see the glass fruit never being used at all.

I see the popcorn machine that reminds me of the technology that surrounds me.

The tall glasses and cups aren’t in here much.

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Andy Han Age 10 Logan Elementary Wee-bots Drop-in Writing

Bob the Feeling Ghost

W

hen it was the first day of school, I had a feeling ghost following me all around.

The first time I walked in, Bob would not leave me. I said, “Leave me alone!”

The ghost said, “Oh, oh, oh” and would not leave my side! I just ignored him and really wanted a friend.

The next day, I asked him, “Hey, why don’t you leave my side?”

“I’m just scared, ohhhh, ohhhh, ohhhh.”

At school I was in the gym to find someone to play with. I decided to leave when a boy came out of the curtain and said, “Can I play?”

“Sure!” I replied. Afterward we were friends, playing together at recess, math, and also other subjects.

The next day, later in the morning, I saw my ghost was shrinking and shrinking and didn’t stop until he was the size of a bean—then plop! He disappeared!

A week, a month, and a month later another ghost appeared. “Oh no!” I said, but this one was a happy ghost.

Wow, it was a happy, happy ghost, so I was never sad and always happy forever.

The End!

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Liliana Yamamoto Age 10 Carpenter Elementary Wee-bots Drop-in Writing

Never Shy Again

O

nce upon a time there was a girl who was very shy.

She never went outside or ever came out of her room (except for dinner). One day her mother said it was time for school. The girl was awfully afraid but she went. When she got there, she was surprised to see all the other kids at the school, and they all looked very happy. Meanwhile the girl was still very scared. When her mother left, the teacher called circle and the girl went and sat down.

Her teacher said, “Well, class, we are going to go around the circle and say our names. I’ll start. I’m Ms. Lili.” The kids went turn by turn to say their names.

When it was the girl’s turn, she said quietly, “My name is Lilli.” Then the class kept going. When they did, she calmed down.

Then every day, she was never shy again. Her school helped because every day her attitude improved from shy to very outgoing, and she never was shy again.

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Raymond Manning Age 10 Ann Arbor STEAM Wee-bots Drop-in Writing

Angels Who Stopped Believing

I

look at the door, brown and boring, with one window.

I peer through. A boring old classroom. I am underwhelmed as much as I am overwhelmed. I feel heat rising.

I feel the blood oozing out of my eyes and cuts on my face split open. I touch my cheek; all that rubs off is my tension.

I hope one day I will rule. Streets will burn. Roads explode.

It is my canvas to set fire to, but for now I keep quiet. But I will not accept the world I live in. My heart is greyed and split apart, the crossing of worlds, the connections held by string, string being pulled apart one strand at a time. I enter. A brown table, rusty hinges. Chalk, white and ghosting. Slimy hands of nasty kids that I refuse to shake. Sometimes I wonder what is running through their heads. What could possibly go wrong to cause people to be so idiotic. But don’t we all think that?

Days end. Years pass. I have stopped believing. I will never be crowned. I will never burn the world’s canvas. All everyone wants is to rule. Why would it be me? I am an angel with red eyes. I am an angel who stopped believing.

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Oliver Bozaan Age 5 Bach Elementary Wee-bots Drop-in Writing

My LEGO

M

y LEGO toy moved with nobody touching it, and I didn’t know where it was. I asked my mom where it was. “I don’t know where it is either.”

I went looking for it and I couldn’t find it. I went downstairs in the basement and asked my dad. “I don’t know.”

Then I went looking for it again in the basement. And I looked upstairs. But we still couldn’t find it. Then two hours later, we found it in the basement.

I put it in my toybox.

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Olivia Yamamoto Age 7 Carpenter Elementary Wee-bots Drop-in Writing

W

hen I went to school, I felt stressed and sad and mad. I had a tough day, but when I got home my mom made me feel better with my emotions. When I was doing my math, I was very stressed, but when I was finished, I got to watch TV, and my sister played my tablet.

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Violet Querijero Age 8 Ann Arbor Open Wee-bots Drop-in Writing

Beeny

M

y name is Beeny and I love spaceships. They make me feel at home wherever I am. I have a spaceship-building team. I can tell you their names: Keeny, Jeeny, and Keeny. My friends and I, we journeyed across the land to explore new things. We went across the barrier, but it turns out we trod ourselves right into trouble. It was the LEGO Friends World, and I’m not too pleased, but they just knighted two new dragons on their crew. All we had was a spaceship and a rover for the moon, which we were not on, and a walkie-talkie and metal detector. We hid behind a statue.

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Nonoka Tsuruzono Age 5 Logan Elementary Wee-bots Drop-in Writing

cat sat on the mat A Bats eat fruit in the hat

Dog and fat rat in the log house

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Arda Karabiyik Age 9 Haisley Elementary Wee-bots Drop-in Writing

Important

important to not litter, because the plants will die.

IIt tisisimportant to help people clean because you are just wasting time.

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Aubrielle Peltier Age 8 Wines Elementary Wee-bots Drop-in Writing

Up the Hills

he sky so blue T Up we go to it.

We see stuff on the way Like red and blue Green and yellow Fishes swimming around in water And boats everywhere you can see And here we stop at the cottage.

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Sennen Querijero Age 10 Ann Arbor Open Wee-bots Drop-in Writing

The Poem of the Mary Celeste

creak in the distance A Scared out of one’s mind

Actually, I should explain Weeks ago, a ship goes missing Nineteen sailors are on the boat My father is one of them The ship is called the Mary Celeste It sailed from my home of England But now the creak grows louder My mother takes my hand And we run toward the sea Where the wild monsters live Where the dragons roam free With sharks and whales and pirates With the mischief and treasure Where my heart longs to go Where I am determined to go And where I am afraid to go Mom and I find sailors To go and find the creak in the crack

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And we row and row and row But when our arms are tired And when our breath is short We see it It is the Mary Celeste It cuts through the mist Mist that separates us It separates us from the truly unknown And as clear as the sun will rise tomorrow There is not a soul aboard this ship And no one knows what happened to this boat

I Burn the Skin

I

am anger. I follow a girl named Ruby Rose around. My mission is to make her acknowledge me. I tell her it’s a bad thing to share toys. I let her know she can scream at anyone who talks to her. I nearly kill the happiness and remorse and joy and sadness inside her. I imprison them in cages and hide them in the deepest dungeon. But one day . . . I see another girl, one who doesn’t have money, on the side of the road. And something touches the deepest feeling inside me. The girl I follow pulls out a bill. And I pull out the key that unlocks happiness, remorse, joy, and sadness. I shrink and shrink. I lock myself in a cage.

I know I need the girl to feel happy and sad and anxious and preoccupied and fearful. But when someone does something that is not right . . . I unlock myself and do my job.

The End.

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Maya Selvaraj Age 10 Ann Arbor Open Wee-bots Drop-in Writing

Delightful Dogs

elightful dogs are pounding, D shaking around in their cages.

Their voices are sounding, jumping through the pages.

The depressing dogs are boring, the cute ones are super fun.

They all cry out to fly out, soaring.

Dogs just wanna have fun.

They glare at cats, chasing rats, the rats cry out for help.

The cats roll and play all around the mat, dogs would rather eat kelp.

Dogs might always bite, they might leave a mark.

They won’t leave without a fight.

Be careful, it’s like scratching bark!

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Noah Han Age 8 Logan Elementary Wee-bots Drop-in Writing

The Easy Job

T

here was a guy who didn’t have enough money to buy a thing that he wanted, so he worked to get it. It was not easy to earn money, so he looked for an easy job.

Every time he looked, there was no job that looked easy, so he left and finally found an easy job, but . . . it was out of order. The next day he felt so tired that he slept a lot of hours. Finally he woke up, and he decided to give up, but he wanted to do one last try. He looked at the newspaper and he was shocked. There was a job that was easy. He got ready and rushed to get everything packed and worked to get money.

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Sarah Ibarra Age 7 Words on Our Streets

Untitled

A

long time ago, I was walking around and found this land made of pizza. Trees were made of pizza. The grass was made of little tiny pizzas. There was even a house made of pizza. I thought, “This house of pizza is mega big, and I can’t eat it all by myself.” So I decided to share with the animals. There were bears, ducks, birds, bees. The bears liked pepperoni, the ducks liked bacon, the birds liked cheese, and the bees liked onions. My favorite topping, of course, is pepperoni.

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Heidy Canseco Age 9 Words on Our Streets

e’re from TV and bath bombs and swing sets, W We are from the garden and safety, We are from strawberries and flower trees I remember as if they were my own.

We’re from baking and swimming and from Dad and Mom. We are from laziness and bed and from playing.

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A’shya Bostic Age 10 Words on Our Streets

The Real Detroit

S

o I’m going to tell you that some neighborhoods are not what you think they are—I’m talking about Detroit or my block I live on. Before you ask what’s going on with my block or Detroit, you should know that people are getting kicked out of their houses or can’t live there anymore. If you want to build a house to live there or buy a house, you need to know that if you’re black, they kicking you out because they want only white people in that neighborhood, and the people who lived there so long still have to pay rent. That’s what my family has to do. We lived in our house for six years, and we still have to pay rent. If you want to talk to the person who made Detroit or my block, you won’t, because I don’t think he lives in Detroit. So if you want to own your house, go to the neighborhood meetings they have, or you can protest at the rent office sites.

The End!

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McKenna Galbraith Age 8 Anchor Elementary Wee-bots Drop-in Writing

The Elephant

O

ne morning, I woke up and there was an elephant in the bookshelf! I walked downstairs and there was a talking donut! The elephant ate the talking donut. I heard the talking donut in the elephant! I knew what to do! I brought him to the squeeze-an-elephant zoo. They squeezed him until the donut popped out.

“Should we keep him here?” one of the zookeepers asked.

“Yes,” I said.

The End.

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Collaborative Haikus The Write Stuff Workshop YpsiWrites AACIL Partnership Ypsilanti District Library

eople newspapers P Lives described in black and white A deep thought ensues

Dingy dinghy—No! Dinner plate is not my fate!

Signed, fish in the sea.

Annoying old man Roaming free; no cage in sight Manatee revenge?

Coyote stole fire Human race; chaos ensues Impolite trickster

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S C H O O LWO R K S U P P O RT

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Bea Woodward Age 14 Chelsea High Ann Arbor After-school Tutoring

Resting

now shimmering while falling Scarefully upon her.

Cold breeze sliding past the forest trees.

She’s been resting for a month, waiting until the sun returns and gazes in her eyes once again.

Paws brushing through the green grass, ears listening to the spring rain.

Beautiful brown bear.

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Clara Boyle Age 9 Ann Arbor Open Ann Arbor After-school Tutoring

How I Met My Dragon

A

ll I ever do is chores. All I hear is, “Make your bed, Clara,” or, “Do the laundry, Clara.” Today it was, “Rake the leaves.” I looked outside. Right there in front of me were a lot of leaves. Well, better get to work. One bag, two bags, then it happened. The leaves came out of the bags, swirling and twirling, then they fell. “Hey, I just did that!”

“Rake the leaves Clara.” OK. One, two, three, four, four and a half. Whoooosh! The leaves just disappeared.

I thought I saw soft green wings glittering in the wind.

Fading. My eyes are playing tricks on me. How? Why? This is not a lie.

I hope.

“Clara, rake the leaves.” One, two, three, four, five, six, seven bags. Whoosh! They were gone! I heard a soft growling sound. Then I saw the same dark green wings; soft, dark, green. Almost like moss. Then it was there. A nature dragon. I kindly asked her to help me with every single leaf. She agreed, but only if I cared for her. I named her Mossy. I suddenly heard more loud growling sounds.

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I saw fire, ice, water, lightning, and way more. As this was happening, I got on Mossy’s back and flew off. It was more dragons! Many kids were riding them. Mossy said I, too, had her powers and had to protect our home. Those other dragons and kids were trapped in a cage. Oh no! We just got caught!

To hear the rest of the story, wait for: “To Rescue a Dragon”

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Elona Ziegler Age 10 Wines Elementary Ann Arbor After-school Tutoring

The Normal Parial of Mister Tusks’s World Chapter 1

I

swam to the nearest under-the-sea dance. My name is Mearl Mantiosky Maral and I am the most normal parial you’ll ever see. By the way if you’re wondering, a parial is like a mermaid if you know what that is. I forget what they call it in the Human world. My hair is a curly, wavy gold and has specks of purple at the top going down.

My clothes are a tight sash going around my chest and my bottom. I have a dark blue tail.

“Mearl, come in, come in. Let’s go dance, come on,” yelled my friend Carel. She says I’m shy. I can agree with that. She’s loud and has a lot of energy.

“Hey, what’s up?” I asked.

“You have to see what I found in the palace, it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Come on, come on.”

She sounded so excited it was hard to say “no” so I did not.

“Fine,” I said, but I didn’t see she already pulled me into the palace.

“OK, it’s just this way . . . A little farther now. Aha, there,” she whispered. It was a tall mirror. It was embroidered

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with gold and silver jewels. “Doesn’t it look just like my hair?” she asked. Carel had cropped silver hair with highlights of gold. Her clothes were a seashell crop top (like mine) and a skinny, shiny red tail.

“Wow . . . it’s—” I paused, noticing some colored letters along the side. It said Magic Mirror. “We have to get out of here,” I told her.

“Why?” she said with a sad look crossing her face.

“Um . . . To put on some more makeup! Yeah, I think it all washed off.” I came up with that answer quickly.

Carel moved me in right before the mirror and said, “You don’t need any more makeup. Look at you!” I had long black eyelashes and perfectly glossed lips. My cheeks were a soft pink and I looked like a superstar, and Carel had short black lashes and thick eyeliner, (forgot to say, I have gold eyeshadow), red lips, and blue eyeshadow (I also have thin eyeliner). She looked like a movie star.

I pulled her in front of me and said, “Look at you, you look like a movie star.”

“You look like a rock star,” Carel said and put me back in my spot in front of the mirror.

“Yeah, I know,” I said. We laughed so hard it put me off track. I stood there knowing someone was watching from behind. We slowly turned around and saw Ben, the son of the king. Everybody had a crush on him.

“Did you find something?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said. I told him and Carel all about the words Magic Mirror and how if you go in you will pop up in Fairytale Land!

“So, you want to go in?” Ben asked.

“Yay,” said Carel, jumping up and down on repeat forever.

“I’ll only go in if you will,” I said.

“Yes,” said Ben and Carel in unison.

“Wait. Mearl, I was looking for you everywhere,” said Ken. He and Ben were twins. Both royalty. They both had

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short, slick black hair, blue purple eyes (like every parial in the ocean), soft and muted lips, and a face of a prince (which they were). But Ken had a personality of jokes and Ben was more “normal.” “Hey you guys, you want to go into the Mirror of Neverland?” said Ken with a wink and a smirk that made my heart flutter.

“OK, ready on three,” I said. “One, two—” Ken jumped right in. We stood there screaming our heads off.

“Hey kids, get away from that mirror,” said a guard walking down the hall with his hand on his weapon. We whipped our heads around to see a long black tail just like every royal (Ken and Ben both had them). Which meant that was the king. He was, as you describe him, King Trident.

“Ready,” I yelled.

“Yeah, let’s get out of here,” said Ben. “Three,” yelled Carel. We jumped in. A blast of wind and softness blasted through my head and I looked all around: pink flowers, blue trees, purple grass, and birds singing their sweet songs.

“Hi, I’m Mr. Tusks, the king of the land Neverland,” he said.

“Told you,” said Ken with a smile that went up to his eyes.

Chapter 2 “Welcome, Ms. Mearl, Ms. Carel, Mr. Ben, and Ken,” said Mr. Tusks.

“Hey, wait a second, you forgot to say Mr. Ken,” shouted Ken and swam right in front of Mr. Tusks.

“K-k-k-en-n-n l-l-loo-k-k be-hin-d-d you-ou-ou,” stuttered Ben. I thought it looked amazing with gold, silver, glittery, sparkly, and had the most happy-homie feeling to it.

“Is that your home, Mr. Tusks?” I asked.

“Hey, you call him Mr. Tusks and I just get Ken,” Ken said, but really interrupted my question.

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“Yes, Ms. Mearl, that is home sweet home to you,” Tusks answered.

“We get to live there you guys, let’s go, come on,” screamed Carel. Her squeal seemed too excited to be stuck here in Mr. Tusks’s world. Ken and Carel swam up and down, doing spins. While they were practically bouncing off walls, Ben came and sat right down by me.

“You should have a fun time ’cause just think what would happen if we go back to the under-the-sea dance.

My dad will send guards all around the magic mirror, and they will demolish us with a snap of their magic fingers.

But if you want to go back . . . I’ll . . . go . . . with . . . you . . . ” I was so stunned with the way he made it sound so scary, and then said he’ll do it if I do.

“Thanks, but huh,” I let out a sigh. “I’ll stay.”

“Yes, yes,” Ben said, swimming up so far I might have thought he touched the water’s top. “Come on. Let’s explore,” Ben said, coming straight down from the top and taking my hand, leading me to the front door.

“It’s about time,” yelled Ken. “The palace is ours now,” he yelled again.

Ben hugged me toward one door and said, “That’s our room.” I opened the door and there were stairs going up at an angle.

“OK, ready?” I asked. Carel and Ken were at the top. I squeezed Ben’s hand tighter. I could swear his face was as bright red as the palace. I didn’t care because I needed all the support I could get.

When we got up, Ken pointed to the giant bed at the top and said, “That’s your bed.”

“Wow.” I didn’t think I let it out of my head until Carel came up to me and said (more like screamed), “We’re roomies!”

I looked over my shoulder to find a bright blue bed with a canopy like mine but blue, not red.

“Ben, through that door are our beds, just if you were wondering,” Ken said.

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“Oh, I thought we were sleeping on the ground, what a relief.” Ben practically did the perfect smile and dashed to the door, then said, “It’s locked, but why?”

“Because we have a button that says ‘press to not disturb,’ and if you press that you can’t get in or out,” I said, and my cheeks flushed bright pink, and how I know that is the walls were mirrors.

I unlocked the door and they walked into their room and yelled, “We have our own button” in perfect unison.

Carel swam over to her bed and whispered, “Ha ha.”

“What?” I swiftly swam over to see her holding a button saying, “the wall to detach.”

“Press it, come on, you do the honors,” she whispered, handing it to me.

“Fine.” I pressed it and a bright red glow came between the two walls and we were left staring at Ben and Ken in pajamas.

“What? You know we have to fit in to survive, right?”

Ken said, pressing another button and making a catwalk come up between the rooms.

“You can close it now,” I told Carel, handing her the button.

“No,” Ben, Ken, and Carel said in perfect unison.

“Fine.” I plopped down in the bed, closed the wall, hit the do not disturb, and we got dressed into velvety long nightgowns, mine red, hers blue. They had embroidery that said our names and they were tight in the waist and puffy in the skirt. We unlocked the door and we got wows from both of them and I turned my head the other way and went to sleep.

When I woke up, there was a table in the middle with all kinds of sweets and savories. I had a rack of clothes behind my bed. “Where did these come from?” I asked.

“I bought them for all of us,” Ben said. “I know you might not like them, but—” “I love them,” I yelled, closing the wall between us and changing into a puffy gown with wire in the skirt. It was

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a lavender green and had puffy, wired sleeves. Carel got a flat shirt and a cropped shirt. Me and Carel redid our makeup. I got the same eyeshadow as my gown. I brushed my hair, clipped my sides in front of my head with bobby pins and Carel and I looked amazing. We opened the “do not disturb” button so when Ben and Ken were done they could open up the walls. The walls opened and we got some more wows and we gave some wows.

“Let’s go, let’s go,” Mr. Tusks stormed in. “They are here,” he whispered.

“Who?” we all said in unison.

“The Marchfighters; oh kids, there are the bad guys.

So we have to get out.” We swiftly swam to the nearby opening and swam out (though we did not have a choice) and followed Mr. Tusks to the opening in the hill and dove right in.

“Wow, the big Tusks led us to a dead end.” Ken snickered and plopped down on a rock and said, “And this is where I die.”

I looked away and noticed a carve in the rock Ken was sitting on. “Looks like you found the door, Ms. Mearl,” Mr. Tusks exclaimed. I swam up close to the rock Ken was sitting on and pressed my palm on the carve and . . . Click, click. There was a grand door with vines and flowers covering it head to toe. It was like it was wearing a big dress.

“Well, hurry up, Mearl. I want to go inside,” Ken demanded for the fourth time.

“No,” I said, letting it all slip out.

“No?” Ken stumbled away.

Chapter 3 “Wait, why not?” Ben asked. I felt weird inside. My head was pounding with loud voices screaming, “Fight, fight.” I could not tell who said it, but it didn’t matter. The Marchfighters were on the go.

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“I’m going back to the house and I’m fighting.” This time I said it. And I snapped my fingers and got a huge bag filled top to bottom with weapons.

“No. Wait, actually, fine, you can go and fight with the Marchfighters and I’ll go and keep myself safe. So who wants to go with Mearl?” Mr. Tusks asked. Carel swam to my side, then Ben, then Ken. “OK, then this is my goodbye.” Mr Tusks glittered away. I ran to the bag I got from my room in my house. And yes, that is my superpower.

“Sooo, you guys want to go fight?” Ben closed his eyes as he said it. I thought he was trying to think but he then said, “OK, they are at the back of the house, so we should split up. Carel and Ken, you guys go on the left side of the house. Mearl and I will take the right side.”

We gathered all of our weapons. I had a bronze sword.

I put my curly gold hair into an updo and began the hunt.

Me and Ben found them and I didn’t hesitate. I slashed my sword at them but they were quicker. I got cut on my face right under my eye. I thought to myself, This is where I die.

The End.

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Hanako McDonald & Ysela Ponce-Raya Age 9 (Hanako) & 8 (Ysela) Ann Arbor Open (Hanako) & Angell Elementary (Ysela) Ann Arbor After-school Tutoring

The Moon Lady

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here was a baby born from a witch. She had a birthmark on her forehead. It was shaped like a moon.

Every year, the butler with the soldiers would take a baby and put it by a tree in the forest. They said it was good luck, but it was not. They were insane. They said if they didn’t do this, a witch would come from the forest and attack this village to nothing but fire everywhere. Crashed buildings, too. They took the baby with the birthmark because it was a *new* year. The witch screamed and said on the roof, “I’ll tear your eyeballs off! You shall not touch my baby. She is precious like a bleeding rose.”

The special-trained soldiers finally took the witch, and the witch was crying all over the roof. The soldiers took her to the forest where the tree was. The butler said, “Usually there are three trees. I guess I’m seeing things wrong.” There were four trees. “I guess I’m dreaming, all right.” The soldiers left with the butler. He was training a little boy to be a soldier. The boy kept looking back, wondering.

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Josiah Atkinson Age 12 Slauson Middle Ann Arbor After-school Tutoring

Drip

W

alking down the park path covered with orange and red leaves, the trees sang their quiet song of the brisk autumn air. Up and down tree trunks, the squirrels played, chatting and leaping from branch to branch. Then, slowly, the leaves turned gray and the squirrels stopped chirping. The trees turned black and instead of the peaceful song, they moaned a desperate wail.

A tall, pitch-black figure appeared in front of me, wisps of black steam rising from his shoulders and his hair. His eyes were the only thing on his face. They glowed a sickly yellow.

Running in the opposite direction, I called for help.

Exiting the park I saw a man in a business suit calling for his help. He turned around, but instead of a man, there was some smoke with eyes. It started to rain oil, so much that it started to flood. Then, I opened my eyes. I was in bed. Safe. I felt a drip on my arm, so I looked up.

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Kayla Young Age 10 King Elementary Ann Arbor After-school Tutoring

The Boy with the Rocket Ship

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nce upon a time, there was a small town on the outskirts of Nebraska. In that town, there was a boy who liked to play outside and eat ice cream. One day, he had a great idea to build a rocket ship that would go into space and make it snow ice cream.

His rocket ship worked! The rocket ship made it all the way to space and began making it snow ice cream!

But then, it started to stop and came crashing down and collapsed on land.

One day, a rancher was herding his cows and saw the strange machine. He walked over to it and . . . it grew legs!

It started walking . . . ALL over the small town. The legs were so long that it walked over buildings! After walking a few blocks, it started spraying chocolate ice cream all over the place! The town was a mess! There was a rocket ship that grew legs and sprayed ice cream all over the place!

Then the mayor made an announcement.

“Ladies and gentlemen, get your spoons and sleds!

We’re going to eat our way out of this mess!”

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Then, all of the people got spoons out of their houses and started eating all the ice cream. A lot of people got serious brain freeze that lasted for hours. After hours of brain freezes and sled rides, the town was finally cleaned!

But then, the boy was really sorry for his behavior. He was sorry for the rocket ship, the ice cream mess, the chocolate, and getting the mayor into this mess!

Finally the boy climbed up the rocket ship and turned it off. He never did it again.

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Mira Mahmoud Age 10 Michigan Islamic Academy Ann Arbor After-school Tutoring

The Missing Girl

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t was a dark, stormy night when a girl went outside and saw a lady standing in front of her. The lady told her to run away from here and never return. The girl felt really scared, so she went back to the house and packed up her clothes and ran away.

The next morning, she ran to a hotel. A few hours later, she found the same lady she saw the last night. The lady said again to run away and never return or else something bad was going to happen. So the girl ran away and never returned. A few years later, her mom saw her shoes in front of her door, and never heard of the girl again.

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Ofelia Ziegler Age 12 Forsythe Middle Ann Arbor After-school Tutoring

Parents. M.I.A.

J

udy woke up, tired from doing homework all night.

The day was the same as usual: get up, get dressed, go downstairs, eat breakfast. But this is where the similarities ended. Judy went to call her parents, but the only response was a thud from upstairs. Judy rushed up to make sure her parents were OK. When she got up there, they obviously weren’t. The thing is, they weren’t even there! Instead, on their bed were two blocks of cheese!

Judy had no idea what to do. She ran outside, shouting for help. No one came. She knocked loudly on her neighbor’s door. “Help, help!” she yelled. There was no response, so she took out her phone and called the police. The line was dead. So, she decided to go to town to find help.

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Yara Mahmoud Age 8 Michigan Islamic Academy Ann Arbor After-school Tutoring

The Three Funny-Looking Kittens

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he funny-looking kittens’ names were Fart, Lart, and Bark. They had a very small house because they were newborn, but they were funny-looking kittens. They were really fluffy. Their house was very small because they were broke and didn’t have money—they probably only had twenty dollars each. All together, that’s only sixty dollars.

That is not a lot, but a lot for them because they were tiny. They were funny looking because their fur stuck out. Fart’s fur color was white, Lart’s fur color was gray, and Bark’s fur color was black. They were still cute. They liked playing hide-and-seek. It was a hard game because they were so tiny, they fit into tiny places. Their mom and dad lived next door because the kittens’ house was so tiny.

The mom and dad had a big house. The house was funny looking, and the kittens’ house was funny looking, too.

They had friends, but some of them passed away, some of them left the neighborhood, and some are still in the neighborhood. The kittens loved their friends; they were BFFs. Their friends (BFFs) were funny and also funny looking. Their mom and dad lived with the three other kittens’ mom and dad.

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Ysela Ponce-Raya Age 8 Angell Elementary Ann Arbor After-school Tutoring

Witch’s Ball

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nce upon a time, there was a girl. She was very happy.

She lived in Witches Town with her grandmother, who was also a witch. Her mother was also a witch and very good at magic. The girl was beautiful on the inside and outside. Her name was Stacy and she’s still learning how to do magic. She’s also really nice and has two sisters, Emily and Ella.

One day at witch school, everybody was making fun of Stacy. This magical voice came. Everybody screamed and thought Stacy was the voice. She wasn’t. The voice said, “Stop it right now! You don’t want to know what happens!”

Everybody listened. Stacy wondered who it was. That night when she came home, she used her magic to see who it was but she couldn’t. She discovered a cave the next day when she was walking at the park. She heard the same voice. It said, “Hello again!”

Stacy said, “Hello. Where did you come from?”

“I can’t tell you that, but you can find out by going to an enchanted forest but not using your magic,” said the voice.

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Stacy went home and packed up for her journey. The next day, she set off. She was walking and on her doorstep she found a map. It was the enchanted forest map so she took it. She found her first clue: Go over the waterfall five feet ahead. You will find the enchanted forest with riddles.

She looked at the map and got to the waterfall where she found a troll who had lots of riddles. She solved them all in a snap! She was so good at riddles. The troll gave Stacy her second clue. It said go twenty-five miles ahead. He gave her a wagon. “It’s by the bushes! Don’t forget.” She then found the third clue. It took awhile but it was worth it. Stacy found two clues. One said “3” and the other said “4.” She figured it out! The third one said, “You’re almost there!” Open the fourth clue when you get there. Quick as a flash, she was there: ten miles away. The fourth clue said, “The fifth clue’s here.” She found it and it said, “Put on these shoes.”

So, she put them on, and then said, “Magic shoes, magic shoes, take me to the fifth clue.” She shouted out loud and it appeared and it said, “Look up.”

She did and she found the castle. She walked in and there was a main hall, and on the walls it said: “Stacy, Ella, and Emily.” So she got her magic in her wand and made her sisters appear. Ella and Emily and a puppy, too.

A magic puppy that said, “Come here, witches.” They followed him to a hallway where there was a magic crystal ball, glowing brightly orange and tan.

Stacy touched it and the voice said, “Hello, again.”

Stacy said, “Wow.” The sisters touched it and their grandpa’s voice said, “Hello.” He had died two years before. It was his voice all along. They hugged with joy and pleased for happiness.

And they lived happily ever after.

The End.

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Lakota Redick Age 14 Pioneer High Ann Arbor After-school Tutoring

The Houndour Event

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he Houndour Event was a once-in-a-lifetime event.

The sky lit up as the Houndourite hurtled toward the Earth. It landed with a crash. Blue sparkles shot from where it had landed. The grass was illuminated by the eerie glow. The skull that was usually on top of the Houndour’s head had a strange look to it. Two sharp horns sprouted from the skull, looking menacing. It took a step forward toward me and my brother. We had been waiting hours for this to happen. Suddenly, it started: a Mario theme started playing as the darkness engulfed us. When the sky lit up again, the ground had changed. Now, the islands had floated up into a parkour course.

“Charizard, I choose you!” I shouted. Charizard emerged from his Pokéball. My brother sat on the other side of this course. I started to climb onto Charizard.

Charizard’s warm scales were soothing as we flew across to the other island. Soon, we had landed. I climbed off Charizard, ready for battle. The ground rumbled as a giant Diglett emerged. A timer started ticking in the distance.

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“Charizard, use Flamethrower!” I shouted. Charizard obeyed, shooting fire from his mouth. The guardian was down but the timer still ticked: one hundred seconds left. I climbed back onto Charizard, and we flew across swiftly to the next island. The Houndour was waiting. The timer now had sixty seconds. “Charizard, use Flare Blitz.” I shouted, but it was too late. The screen read 55%. “Lunala, I choose you,” I shouted.

Lunala’s soft glow seemed brighter than ever. My sister was already flying with her Charizard. I hopped on and started flying to island one. The Diglett had appeared but I chose to fly around it. The Houndour was waiting for me. “Lunala, use Hyper Beam.” The ray illuminated the sky. Houndour emerged dazed, his red eyes glowing. The screen went black, then text appeared saying 23%.

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Xavier SanchezMiranda Age 9 Dicken Elementary Ann Arbor After-school Tutoring

Minecraft Mining

O

ne day, I was traveling along the old clay brick road and found a cave. “Woohoo!” I exclaimed. “I’m going to find me some diamonds!” I tried to find diamonds, but the mobs kept trying to kill me like creepers, skeletons, and zombies. I shot arrows at them. I also found a ravine and found so much ore! I crafted a sword and killed mobs in a bad way. I killed 96% of them. They got wrecked by me and got shot by me. And then I found diamonds and also found a lot of redstone. That was my mining trip, hope you liked it!

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Andy Han Age 10 Logan Elementary Ann Arbor After-school Tutoring

A Lot of Beans

nce upon a time a kid named Bobby Xavier Doby OGono Bebop Kimkom Naynok Knock Knock Goby

Goni Dobi was very gassy because he ate a lot of beans.

And every day he would take his horse and go downtown to eat beans.

He would mix ketchup, mustard, and ranch and—Ah!— how nasty that would be.

He would come out happily.

He would go home and sleep ’til 7pm.

When he would arrive, he would eat and come out happily, and sometimes when he came too late and it was closed, he would rage.

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Éloïse Cras Age 12 Clague Middle 826michigan Online Learning Lab

An Awesome Invention NAME: Molecular Detection of Viruses and Bacteria (MDOVB)

T

his machine can detect the viruses and bacteria particles in the air. To keep people safe, the machine scans the air for viruses and bacteria. It will have a tracking device to inform the rest of the population where the virus is so they can plan on not going there. This extension will be put on other apps and will aid in making less people catch this disease. When added onto devices it can change traffic or bus routes detouring them to keep people away from the area. The MDOVB would be a new robot that would take to the streets to patrol them and scan each area. The city transportation would all use the same app or device with the extension and, as soon as a new virus was located, they would receive a notification and the route would already be recalculated and changed. If there were people in a contaminated location they would be advised to self-quarantine and let the people around them know.

This would slow down or stop the spread of viruses to keep the population safe. For the hospitals and doctors,

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this would be beneficial so they have breathing room and not tons of people coming in at once to be treated. This would hold back pandemics and epidemics in the future.

This machine would be built using engineering, biological science, molecular science, and epidemiology. The engineering would be for the construction of the robot.

The biological science would be for how it will impact the world and virus, the molecular science would be for the way the robot would find and track the viruses, and the epidemiology would be for the spread of the virus and how the robot should respond to each kind of virus.

Along with this invention we would use the same ideas to create drones to fly over places and look from a wider range. These drones and robots would have to be fairly big because the technology in them would be very detailed and would have many different parts. Along with the tracking and scanning part, the machine would have a first response kit. If the virus is deadly the machine would be able to spray that area with drugs, killing the virus.

The drone and robot would have to be refilled with the medicine or drugs every day. Another part of this would be UV lights. When detected the area where the virus is would be emptied, and the specialized robots would come to shine the lights and kill the virus. This would work because the light would disrupt the process of the cell and potentially decontaminate the area. During the 2020 pandemic this would have been really necessary. It could have slowed down the pandemic and kept a lot of people from dying. This would also have kept the hospital staff from overworking and having to direct all attention to the ICU. So, the MDOVB is a machine used to detect viruses and eliminate them to keep any pandemic or epidemic at bay. In conclusion this device would have been very needed in the past and still helpful in our present and future.

The End!

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Aaron Logwood Age 10 Ypsilanti International Elementary Ypsilanti After-school Tutoring

The Best vs. The Greatest: If Two Intergalactic Fighters Met

I

t was like any other day for Pooperman. He was in his twenty-five-cent mansion until his manager, Mr. Foo, the man who got pitied by Mr. T, told him that he was no longer the best monster fighter in the beluga whale size/ weight division. Pooperman was shocked. He said, “Who took my shovel—was it Patt, your mom, Fatcat? Who was it?!”

“Just come to the base,” Mr. Foo said. So Pooperman went to the base as fast as he could.

Finally, he got to the base and his manager, Mr. Foo, told him, “Pooperman, if you want to win this fight, you’re going to have to train.” So Pooperman trained like he never trained before.

And for some reason, montage music. And practicing “your mommy” jokes.

He got super buff from all the steroids. I mean . . . all the hard work.

And finally, the press conference.

Pooperman was shocked because all his friends from his old fighting camp were there. There was the Hair Lady, Big Hairy Man, Michael Jackson, and Shrek the Third.

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Pooperman walked into the arena and he was very, very excited, mostly from his Spotify playlist, and his Spotify playlist was full of nursery rhymes. Then he opened up the curtains and saw his future opponent. He had three visible teeth, which were all as yellow as caution tape. He was as bald as an egg and from the waist up he was as buff as the Hulk. But waist down, he had chicken legs and could barely stay standing. He had a gold chain that said “Old Dude,” and a voice that sounded like a pirate drowning underwater.

And now, the press conference.

Shrek the Third, one of Pooperman’s opponents, was up first. The first question was, “What do you think will happen in the fight?”

“I’m going to lock him up in a room with a donkey.”

The next question was, “What’s your plan going into this fight?”

“I’m going to tie him to a chair and sing to him,” Shrek the Third said.

The last question was, “What are you going to do after the fight?”

“I’m going to take Fiona and the kids to Disney World,” Shrek said.

And now it’s Pooperman’s turn. “What do you think will happen in the fight?”

“I will flush him in two minutes,” said Pooperman.

The next question was, “What is your plan going into the fight?”

“To flush him.”

“And finally, what are you going to do after the fight?”

“I will flush him even more.”

Now, the fight.

But first . . . two days before the fight, Shrek the Third’s legs went super wobbly from all of the steroids. Now he has noodle legs.

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And back to the fight.

Both fighters walked into the ring on the same side.

And both fighters were looking at each other with an uncomfortable amount of eye contact and pure silence. It was so silent that you could hear Shrek the Third reciting the song he will sing upon his victory.

The ringmaster said, “Ladies and gentlemen from around the world, you are about to watch the number two fighter of the century. I would like to thank the referee of the night, Bookisha, the sister of the Boogeyman, and our sponsor of the day: Yo Mama USA.” And now . . . the fight.

“Standing in the red corner, standing as poopy as ever, with a record of sixty-two wins, forty-eight losses, and nine hundred draws, he is the current hot breath boxing champion: Pooperman.

In the blue corner, accompanied by donkey, and weighing at 413,958,958 tons with a record of 414 wins, seventeen losses, and twelve draws, the challenger: Shrek the Third.”

And now, they’re off. Shrek the Third yelled, “GET OUT OF MY SWAMP,” and farted. It smelled like if you were stuck in a room with one thousand jugs of spoiled milk, but it did nothing to Pooperman. And Pooperman had a sinister smile on his face. Pooperman turned into a flat poop and slithered like a snake with a sinister smile on his face. Then, out of nowhere, he jumped on Shrek the Third and he shook Shrek the Third around until Shrek sat down and Pooperman went flying up eighteen million feet and then went splat on the ground. And Shrek the Third kept jumping on Pooperman. It felt like a planet falling on a spider. He did it three million times in milliseconds. Then for the next fifteen eons he was beating Pooperman like how Marvel beats DC at the box office.

Then, Shrek the Third went for his ultimate move, but

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then his legs failed him. Pooperman pinned Shrek and in one . . . two . . . three . . . Pooperman is still champion.

The Ultimate Noob!!!

I

t is I . . . haha . . . The Ultimate Noooooooob! I hail from the most noobless planet Noobville, where everyone does a terrible job at everything. Except I am The Ultimate Noob!!

Haha, now about Noobville—where the kids are stinky and the parents are even more stinky. Just imagine being trapped in a room full of a million jugs of spoiled milk. Everything is polluted—the air, ocean, and sky are so polluted that not even Oscar the Grouch would want to live there.

Now you might be wondering, young mortal, who am I? Haha!!! Well, first, I smell the best. I’m the Noob above all noobs!!! And of course, my powers. I’m indestructible and if I get hurt I can repair myself in milliseconds. My strategy is to make them so angry that they lose concentration. And I do that by singing exactly like Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks. I’m shredded, I’m so shredded that I intimidated The Hulk. I also have spiky hair that can cut vibranium like butter. I have legs strong enough to play soccer with planets. I’m eighteen trillion acres tall. Pooperman once sold me a tuxedo out of poop. My weakness is being called by my real name: Noodbert Noob.

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Oh, hi!

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IN-SCHOOL PROJECTS

in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects i in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects i in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects i in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects i in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects i in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects i in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects i in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects i in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects i in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects i in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects i in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects i in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects i in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects i in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects i in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects i in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects in-school projects i

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Kaiya Ingram Ms. Jenna’s Fourth- & Fifth-grade Blue Herons The Boggs School, Detroit Boggs Poets

Blue Spirit

I

n the colorful reefs it crawls through the smooth shining rocks, swerving through the coral. A spirit of water lives in its beautifulness as it’s able to control the blueness full of life. Coming from the top of a sparkling cliff where it got its beauty and power, it jumped off, splashing into the colorful ocean. It cuddles itself in a sandy spot, curling itself into a ball, slowly closing its eyes, and drifting into another world.

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Evelyn Wybenga Ms. Jenna Fourth- & Fifth-grade Blue Herons The Boggs School, Detroit Boggs Poets

Mountain Creature

he waterfall crashed into the river shattering T It into a million pieces, like glass and

Flowing back into the main direction of The stream, over and over again as The coyote howled, the mountain Stood still as it had for so long, wishing It could break free of its shell.

Inside the mountain was a creature big and soft, listening To the river’s loud music with intent. The music Unraveled, unfolding like a blanket warming The mountain.

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Sienna West Ms. Jenna Fourth- & Fifth-grade Blue Herons The Boggs School, Detroit Boggs Poets

Ode to Scented Crayons

scented crayons, you smell so good O How many times I have wanted to eat you

Despite your tasteless taste.

O scented crayon, you fill my nose with a sweet Scent that even scented markers can’t replace, O scented crayon, how I love the snapping Sound you make as I drop you on the floor And the way you snap right in half.

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Tyre McLemore Age 13 Honey Creek Community School

I See

see snow all around Ifalling on the ground, trees

with no leaves, seeds with no seeds. Animals asleep and making peace and harmony playing in the snow.

It’s really cold.

Christmas is almost here, let’s “yay” for cheer and Happy New Year.

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Makenzie Reed Age 7 Ms. Todd’s Second-grade Class Erickson Elementary, Ypsilanti Fall 2019 Erickson Writers Club

My name is Makenzie. I’m seven years old. I live in George Place with trees all around. I am in second grade. My favorite book is Descendants 3. I like to write about my mom. I get my ideas from my head.

A Story about Makenzie and Makayla the Cup Chapter One

O

nce upon a time, there was a cup. Makenzie was thirsty. She wanted something to drink, but her mom said, “You are on punishment.” She was on punishment because she smacked her brother. She was mad. He was laughing at me, she thought in her head. His voice sounded like a baby maraca. When she was thirsty her mouth was dry. Dry like the floor. Dry like your hands when the cold air blows on them.

Chapter Two This is Makenzie’s cup. Its age is nineteen. Its name is Makayla. It lives in the refrigerator. The important thing about Makenzie’s cup is that it likes being dirty.

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Chapter Three Makayla loves to help people. How does she help people? She fills herself with water and jumps to whoever she knows is thirsty, and she pushes her arms and legs inside the cup. The reason why she does that is because she does not want the person to see her arms and legs.

Makenzie’s mom says, “You aren’t on punishment anymore because you’ve been in your room for so long.”

Now her brother is asleep, so she pranks her brother by getting whipped cream and putting it on a plate and smashing the plate of whipped cream on his face. Now her brother wakes up. He is mad.

Chapter Four Now, since it is almost time to go to bed, Makenzie has to wash her dishes. Now there’s a conflict. Makayla does not want to be cleaned because she is afraid of going under water, but she lets Makenzie clean her because she is her friend.

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Lamar Proffit Age 8 Ms. Todd’s Second-grade Class Erickson Elementary, Ypsilanti Fall 2019 Erickson Writers Club

My name is Lamar and I’m eight. And I like ice cream.

Strawberry. And I like to speak in English. And I like pizza.

I like mac and cheese. Popcorn too. And watching movies.

And playing games like Fortnite. Sloppy (he’s in my story) likes pizza and ice cream too. I wish vampires were real so they could read my story. I wish to be a girl.

Sloppy Turns Christmas Real

W

e were carving the pumpkins, but my mom said we couldn’t because it was dark. I was sad because I like carving pumpkins. And then we were going to fall asleep and tomorrow we could do the tree and decorate it. We usually do pumpkins and the tree at the same time, but it got dark super fast because it was late. My pumpkin can talk, it sounds like a person. Its name is Vloru. Vloru has a helmet that can help people with laser eyes that beat up bad guys. Vloru, she is pretty. She likes to dance. She likes butterflies. She is a pumpkin that wears a dress. I also have laser and invisible powers. Sloppy can decorate a Christmas tree with his powers.

Sloppy is a puppet. When it’s Halloween he can help us with the Halloween decorations and the tree. Sloppy turned everything real—Christmas, Halloween. When it was time to go to sleep, Sloppy snuck out. And he made the Christmas tree. He decorated it, and then he went back to bed.

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Lujain Atiefa Age 7 Ms. Todd’s Second-grade Class Erickson Elementary, Ypsilanti Fall 2019 Erickson Writers Club

My name is Lulu. I’m in second grade, seven years old, and I live in Ypsilanti. I like to write because I can write a lot of books and it’s fun. My favorite books are the Didi Dodo books. My teacher inspires me with ideas. My favorite thing about writing club is writing.

Emma the Happy Sad Airplane

E

mma was really happy. Really, really, really happy.

And when she was happy she felt like something was tickling her. And she was laughing a lot. And then she arrived at her destination. She was yelling because she was so happy. And then she said, “Hallelujah!”

Emma was an airplane. She wanted people to ride her and at the beginning they sang. She woke up from her bed and she went outside and saw her friends and went to them. And then they said, “It’s our other friend’s birthday.”

Emma and her friend celebrated their friend’s birthday. And then Emma saw a problem. She told her friends.

And the problem was there were people gathering up for her. And then she went really fast. Then everyone was cheering for Emma. Her friends were saying, “Wow, chill out.” She said, “No, no, never. I am so happy.” She turned on a song and everybody was yelling.

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A Talking Dinosaur that Never Wants to Get off a Mountain

A

talking dinosaur that never wants to get off a mountain. He’s a lost dinosaur, and he’s only seven years old. He has spikes that are really spikey. How he got lost is because there was a big, giant dinosaur, AHHHH! That was big. And when that happened was when he was only one year old and then he forgot. Boom. This is a sad story, make sure to not read this story. There was a lost dinosaur that didn’t have a home. He took ten minutes to find a home. It was a mountain, and when he climbed up the mountain he saw these teddies that looked like dinosaurs. He was looking everywhere, but he got tired. He looked behind the rock—ahhhh! And he was really happy because he thought they were his parents but they were not. He was just so happy that he kept talking and they were talking to him and they were answering his questions but those people who were talking were his mom and dad and sister and brother, they were behind the big rock, and it was his real mom and dad and brother and sister. He felt just so happy he couldn’t stop. And then he found them.

The End. That was a sad story because he was by himself, and it was a happy story because they found each other!!! Thank you for reading my story—bye!!! (And they lived happily ever after.)

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Raneem Saleh Age 7 Ms. Todd’s Second-grade Class Erickson Elementary, Ypsilanti 2019 Erickson Writers Club

My name is Raneem. I am eight years old and I am in second grade and my favorite book is The Cat in the Hat.

GiGi the Unicorn

G

iGi the unicorn lived in a castle. She found a bee in the castle and she was going to the basement, but her basement in her castle was flooding so she ran! When she was running, she stopped because she found a gem, and it was lighting up and it was sparkly. It was pink. Her dad and mom were looking for GiGi the unicorn and her mom and dad were worried. The gem made her a princess and she had magic powers. Her dress was lighting up and her crown had gems in it, and the gem made her a different wand and it was a magic wand. Her mom and dad had no choice, they went to the woods and her mom and dad found a blue gem and her mom and dad changed into a king and queen, and the queen had a beautiful dress.

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Zerrick Lindsey Age 7 Ms. Todd’s Second-grade Class Erickson Elementary, Ypsilanti Fall 2019 Erickson Writers Club

My name is Zee, and I am eight years old. I live in Hamilton Crossing in Ypsilanti. I like to play new games on my phone. I like to decorate my folder in the Writers Club. I get my ideas from my brain.

The Water, the Soap, and the Tub

I

want to talk about a talking tub. Where does it live? In the bathroom. And how old is my tub? Six years old.

When the water comes into the tub, it doesn’t like to play with the soap. One day there was a tub and water, and both of them didn’t like the soap. So the tub took the water as a friend. So the soap started being a bully, and his voice was loud and scary and deep like a cyclops’s and a bandit’s voice, like a giant cyclops wearing a black suit and holding a pokey, sharp, spikey cyclops’s bat. He had one eye and a black mask.

“I am not going to be friends with you anymore,” said the soap to the water. The soap was way higher than the water and tub.

“Never, ever go down there again,” the soap said to himself.

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LaVeah Dawson Age 7 Ms. Priest’s First- and Second-grade Class Erickson Elementary, Ypsilanti Fall 2019 Erickson Writers Club

My name is LaVeah. I am seven. I live on Michigan Avenue. I like fighting video games. I like to eat ice cream: vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. Yum. I like to play on swings. I want to be a cook when I grow up. I make mac and cheese and noodles. I like to bake cookies and I like to build snowballs in winter. And I like shopping to get groceries from Kroger.

Spring Is the Best

I

love spring because I like to smell the flowers and make a leaf pile so I can jump in the leaves. But I could not jump in the leaf pile because my brother kicked it. I said, “Hey! Why did you do that, brother? I wanted to play. You got to ask to play with me.”

“OK,” said my brother. “Now you can play. I will never, ever, ever do it again.”

“Yay!” I woke up and I got ready for school. I saw a butterfly. I live in a treehouse. I can describe my treehouse by saying it looks brown and my treehouse is green too and my house has a lot of branches and my treehouse has knots.

My Mavie was a squirrel. She was a little squirrel in the treehouse. My Mavie ate a nut and she ate a flower. The big

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nut dropped on her head, it cracked on her head. Her ears went down on her head. The squirrel said, “Ouch!” and the squirrel said, “Ha ha ha.” I took Mavie to school with me. I took her outside. I played with her on the slide. I took her to eat in the lunchroom. We ate the salad and the black beans and tacos and we went back to the classroom.

We went and played on the tablet. She likes to play games.

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Bentley Williamson Age 7 Ms. Priest’s First- and Second-grade Class Erickson Elementary, Ypsilanti Fall 2019 Erickson Writers Club

I’m Bentley. I’m seven years old. Mo Willems is my favorite author.

The Apple Orchard Chapter One: We Went to an Apple Orchard

A

long time ago, I went to an apple orchard. First, we bought donuts and popcorn and two pieces of candy too. We had to move everywhere because bees were bothering us.

Chapter Two: The Bees There was a bouncy house and a mountain slide. We got to ride a firetruck. We went to go to the bouncy house, but the bee was following us and we did not even notice.

Then the bee stung my sister, Skylar. Then she was crying.

She was only four and a half. We tried to scare the bees away and it worked.

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Chapter Three: Then We Went Home We took a car home. We have games at my house: Donkey Kong, Pacman, and Sonic. Then we went outside to play and there were more bees bothering us. Then we stayed inside the house for a long, long time. The bees scared Skylar, but she felt better.

Dead God

D

ead God is a monster. He is big and unstoppable too.

He kills people with lightning and fireballs. He lives in the ocean. He also turns into two dead gods. He can be an army. He’s red, and his thunder turns green when he is mad. He can go on land, too.

The Thunderstorm

O

ne night long ago there was a thunderstorm. We lost power, but we got our power back.

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Olivia Koch Age 6 Ms. Priest’s First- and Second-grade Class Erickson Elementary, Ypsilanti Fall 2019 Erickson Writers Club

My name is Olivia Koch. I am six years old. I live on Creekway Drive. I like to jump in bounce houses. I just like Writers Club.

A Bird and Supergirl and Olivia Koch

I

am doing my morning work. We had fun and we still have fun. I drive home on Creekway Drive. Then I walk into my home and then I go to bed. It’s morning and I wake up and then I watch TV and I watch Power Rangers Mini Force. Then I ask Daddy for breakfast and for milk and pancakes. When I was eating breakfast, I found a bird on my house. Then I went outside and I said, “Shoo, bird, shoo.” Then I went back into my house. Then I wanted the bird to stay. Then it was lost in the forest. Then it broke its wing. Then it couldn’t fly, it broke its leg too, it was hurt, it was scared. I went to find the bird, it was really scared, it was still in the forest. I found the bird, and the bird was not OK. The bird said, “Help me.” I felt sad that it was hurt. My heart felt sad for the bird. Then I looked at the bird’s wing. It was kind of bleeding. I said to the bird, “It’s OK, I will get you to my house.” I forgot, I do not know where my house is. I needed help, who would help me? I knew: Supergirl, she would help me! I needed to call her.

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I will call her, I can, I can, I can do it. I can’t wait! Because she’s the best.

“Supergirl! Help me, help me, please. I’ll do anything!”

Yes, Supergirl helps Olivia. “I’ll do anything for you, too!”

Supergirl picks up me and the bird.

The End.

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Reth Gilipser Age 7 Ms. Kadian’s Second-grade Class Erickson Elementary, Ypsilanti 2019 Erickson Writers Club

My name is Reth. My toys are red. I like to ride my bike.

My favorite game is hide and seek. I like to go to the park.

Reth and PJ: The Return of Evil PJ

S

uper Reth was born in the streets. Then somebody came and took a kid’s money. Reth was walking down the street when he saw someone being mean and they were fighting and PJ was steel. Super Reth used fire from his eyes. It felt really warm like pillows. Then they got tired and built the ship together. The End. After he grew up, he actually just got a job. He worked at a food place, it’s a pizza place, and it’s Little Caesars. It’s a favorite place for people to eat. It was very hard in the night, so he had to work the night shift and he worked all night. And then he never stopped until he got really rich from working all night. He made a lot of money. He kept on working so long the light turned off and there was a power outage. He ate the pizza while it was coldish.

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Taylor Lang Age 7 Ms. Kadian’s Second-grade Class Erickson Elementary, Ypsilanti 2019 Erickson Writers Club

My name is Taylor. I live in North America in the trailer park and there are a lot of things there. I will tell you what there is there—there’s a park, a pool, and an office, and a forest with long trees and frogs. The forest looks scary. I like watching the frogs jump. I love to pick up leaves. I am seven years old, and I’m glad I’m in this book.

In My Room

I

’m in the room eating my snack, it is so, so good. It tastes like fruit snacks, squishy, colorful, and it is juicy, really juicy. And it tastes like watermelon, and it’s like glue.

I love breakfast. I eat waffles and I put syrup on it and it tastes so good! I’m eating in the room with my mom.

Breakfast, it is so good I almost bite my tongue off, but I don’t. I went to the waterpark and then I went to go on a fun slide. It was so fun. Me and my brother ran to the waterfall after we ate a hamburger and I put ketchup and mustard on it, and we ate some candy and my stomach hurt. My stomach.

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La’Zaviun Self Age 16 Mr. Azzaro’s Photo 1 Class Ypsilanti Community High, Ypsilanti YABP 2019–20

La’Zaviun Self ’s family is from Mississippi, but La’Zaviun is from Ypsilanti, Michigan. His favorite song is “Poetic Justice” by Quando Rondo. His favorite color is blue. His favorite movie is called Superfly (2018). He plays three sports: wrestling, swimming, and track. He broke his arm in fourth grade falling off the monkey bars and seeing the X-rays got him interested in radiology.

On The Dark Journey

S

o, when I go to college, I want to be a radiologist. But, in order to get where I want in life, I have to face hard times and go through bumpy roads. So, my first picture symbolizes the hard times, like the stress of school, distractions, and confusion. My second picture is like the doors I have to pass to get where I want to be in life. So, to get where I want to be, I have to overcome my problems and strive for success by being my best me. Picture three will be of me being where I want to be in life, which is me being a successful radiologist. I want to be the best at what I do. I’m not there yet, but I know I will be one day.

So, in my story, I used two of the same pictures with different exposures. It’s like two different emotions, but in the same picture. The darker exposure is like bad

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emotions or bad experiences, and the lighter exposure is like a good emotion.

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Wendy Canjura Age 16 Ms. Sirman’s English 11 & 12 Class Ypsilanti Community High, Ypsilanti YABP 2019–20

Wendy Canjura was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but her parents are from El Salvador. She spent all her childhood in El Salvador, so now she considers herself Salvadorian.

She moved from El Salvador to the U.S. when she was thirteen years old, and she left her parents. Now she is sixteen years old and she lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan. She likes to play soccer. She wants the person reading her story to understand how hard life is without parents. Once, when Wendy was a child, her grandparents sent her sister and her to the paddock to give the cows some food. She remembers how her sister was wearing a red shirt, and the cows started following her around the paddock.

On Happy Moments

I

n the picture with no people there is the street with lights, cars, and in the background are department stores and a rainbow. When I took that picture, I heard the cars’ sounds and the rain’s sound.

Here is the picture with people. In this picture is my dad in the river celebrating his birthday with all the family.

He is holding a dog, and in front of my dad and the dog is a piñata, and in the background are my cousins with my mom’s friends.

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In this picture I hear laughter, the river sound, and the dogs barking. It smells good because my mom and aunts are cooking for everybody. They are cooking beef soup, and they are preparing the meat for roasting.

The Hard Travel Alone

I

f I could change something from my past, I would change when I went to California with my aunt. I like California, but I don’t like living with that aunt. But if I had not experienced that, I think I would continue to live with people who don’t even love me, with family who speak badly about the rest of the family—especially my dad. That’s why I decided to move from that state, to not be with her because she talks about my dad and my family and I don’t like that. I don’t like them talking badly about my family, especially my parents or siblings. If that had not happened, I would not have known the type of person I was living with. I imagine my parents and siblings. If I were here with them, I would be the same girl as before. I would be very happy because my parents would be with me. Living with my parents again would be beautiful.

I decided to call my brother to see if he could buy me a ticket to go to Michigan, where I was born. He said, “Why do you want to go to Michigan?” I explained why and he said, “Yes, just call Mom and Dad to see what they say.”

They said yes and I explained to them how I was feeling at that moment. At that time I felt like a person who was not worth it. The next day my brother called me and he said that on April 2 I was going to travel to Michigan. I was happy because I was finally leaving that house.

When I told my aunt that on April 2 I had a flight, I saw her expression on her face saying Why are you leaving? and she acted like it was really important to her.

That April 2, I woke up at 5 am and I started getting ready.

Then I went to my aunt’s room and I knocked on the door and she just said, “Who is it?”

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I said, “It’s Wendy.”

And she said, “Why are you awake right now?”

I answered, “Today I have to go to the airport.”

She said, “Oh, today is April 2.”

I said, “Yes.” And she said, “I had forgotten.” Then she woke up her husband.

At 6am we went to the airport. I was nervous because I was flying alone. When I was through immigration, a lady from immigration asked me if I was traveling alone and I said yes. That girl told me, “Good luck with your travel!” I said “Thanks,” then I went to the waiting area.

I was sitting alone and everyone was staring at me. I was so nervous because I felt that all eyes were looking at me.

A girl spoke on the intercom and said, “Welcome to Texas, have a nice day.” Then another flight attendant opened the door of the plane and everyone started to take out their bags and get out of the plane.

The girl who was next to me asked me, “This is your destination or are you going to another state?”

I said, “I’m going to Michigan, my next flight is in four hours.”

I asked her if she was going to another state and she said, “No, this is my destination.”

I said, “Oh, have a nice day. I have to go to my next flight.”

She said, “You too, have a nice day.”

I got up from my seat and left the plane because I had to go to the next waiting area to go to Michigan. I waited four hours in that waiting area. I didn’t know what to do to make those four hours go by quickly, so I put my headphones in. I was listening to Salvadorian music because when I heard the cumbias or bachata it made me feel happy or something like that. I went to Starbucks to buy a coffee because I was falling asleep.

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After an hour I was already on the plane and I had to sit at the window. I was scared because when I landed at the Michigan airport I didn’t know what to do. I felt lost in the airport because the people who were supposed to pick me up were not there. I was scared and nervous because I was thinking that nobody was going to pick me up. A police officer had to help me to find the family who was going to pick me up because they were outside, and I think they were lost or confused with the waiting area.

Then I went to the house where I was going to live. I was tired so I went to sleep, and that’s where I started a new life in Michigan.

Drawing Artist Statement

W

hen I was ten years old, I started practicing drawing.

I practiced how to draw because my parents and siblings knew how to draw, and when I saw them draw, I felt like I was the only one who didn’t know how to draw.

I was feeling weird at that time. In that year, I started drawing like flowers and dibujos de caricaturas. I remember my first drawing was terrible, but I still remember because that drawing was my parents and siblings with me. I remember that in the background was an airplane because one of my dreams is that my parents and siblings come to the US with me in an airplane. My parents gave me tips to make my drawings better, and I’m practicing the tips that they gave me to make my drawings work better because I want to be a designer.

Drawing makes me relax. Even when I don’t have the time that I need to finish the drawing, when I am bored, I draw anything that comes to my mind. I like to draw anything because I feel that, if you like to draw, you don’t have to worry about the subject itself. When you draw something different, for example, if you usually draw

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flowers but then try drawing, like, a landscape, you feel different because you are trying new stuff and that is very good because you are exploring new things.

Drawing for me is like an emotional thing because it makes me relax and makes me feel good and not bored.

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Krasne Taylor, II Age: 17 Mr. Azzaro’s Photo 1 Class Ypsilanti Community High, Ypsilanti YABP 2019–20

Krasne Vannes Taylor, II is eighteen years old. He used to live thirty-eight minutes from Detroit. He now lives in Ypsilanti as a Langerhans cell histiocytosis X survivor. He loves writing poetry and lyrics and playing games, not just PlayStation, but card games with the best, most wonderful, caring, awesome, special mom ever. He has a love for spending time with outside and inside family. He used to love exchanging gifts with his Detroit fam, but he is too old for that now. He wants to travel like the birds and the bees and see things, like a hodophile. He asks why. He asks where. He asks when. He asks what. He asks who. He says you can’t ask me these questions. You just have to see. He is just one of 28.8 million people who have hearing aids and are hard of hearing. He is me, one of a kind, a loving person, whose name means beautiful. He is a younger brother of one older brother. His focus is doing something he loves. He knows he will be a custodian.

On Mourning/Morning

he Mourning of T My Black, Tall, old Predecessor,

Lying in bed to rest Some people know, some people care,

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Do I want him in hell or heaven Not There No Where Sometimes Here Sometimes There The urn has been put to rest . . .

Still Confused, Still Flummoxed Wondering . . .

Is he in god’s hands, or In anguish with the devil, We Sing We Pray We Laugh Lonely ashes sown on top of his mother’s grave Dead predecessor, The Morning of . . .

Rest in peace KVT Senior.

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Britney Leedy Age 17 Mr. Azzaro’s Photo 1 Class Ypsilanti Community High, Ypsilanti YABP 2019–2020

Britney Leedy is seventeen years old and she lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan. She attends Ypsilanti STEMM Middle College and Washtenaw Community College. She is very dedicated to robotics and photography. She also likes to draw and read, as well. Many people can’t really see this because it’s not visible on her appearance. She is deaf. She was born deaf by the genes from her mom who is deaf too. She admires her mom, because she understands what it is like to be deaf. Britney had a tough childhood due to personal struggles at home and dealing with bullies. She had people choosing what’s best for her, and every decision they made wasn’t good. Britney now is in high school/early college and she’s proving to everyone that she can do everything in her way and be successful.

On Breathless

S

itting on the grass, feeling cold but slightly warm, my eyes are squinting because of the sun. The sound is silent, hearing the wind blow. In my head, the thoughts are loud, or perhaps my anxiety makes me think my thoughts are loud. There are people surrounding me. I’m on a public campus at Washtenaw Community College.

Many people are walking by me. They must think I’m just chilling, but really, I am having an anxiety attack. I calm

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down. My breathing is slowing down, and I feel my heart beating normally. * The process of making this series of photographs was simple. We filled a clear, plastic tub with slightly warm water. We sat it on the edges of two desks and had a photographer under the tub taking photos of three people who dunked their heads under the water. It was to show the truth behind our panic attacks: we feel like we can’t breathe, so we feel like we are underwater gasping for air.

I suffer from anxiety and depression; it’s not easy to deal with them or cure it with medications. Every time I have a panic attack, it can be mini, moderate, or severe. It all depends on my situation.

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Khaleb Rubanguka Age 18 Ms. Sirman’s English 11 & 12 Class Ypsilanti Community High, Ypsilanti YABP 2019–20

Khaleb Rubanguka lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He writes for 826michigan, likes to play sports (soccer and basketball), and plays video games. He is sometimes interested in music and watching movies. He used to play goalkeeper for the Ypsilanti High varsity soccer team. He speaks five languages: Kinyarwanda, Swahili, Kifulelu, English, and some French. When he’s bored, he likes to read and write. Writing is the way he expresses his feelings.

He comes from Rwanda, and he is the fourth of his siblings.

On Family Reunion

I

f only I could change my past. If only I could be raised and live with my cousins, my granny, my aunties, and uncles. Where in the morning I would be woken by those lovely bird songs. Where you have to go eat after hard work.

If only my grandfather could ask me to give him a back massage and my grandmother could ask for a foot massage. If only I could go fetch wood with my cousins and brothers. If only we could go fishing.

I would like to be on a family soccer team that only consists of my family members. I would like to harvest from that farm for six hours. I would like to do those dance moves with my uncles. But it’s only if.

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Second Chance

S

ince I was little, many people have called me a refugee, and I have always wanted to be a normal kid like the others. They called me a Congolaise, but I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to look different from the other students and kids. Many people were asking me, “Why did you leave your country?” and other questions.

I started to ask myself, You’re not gonna be like the others, you’re a refugee; then if you had the chance to live life again, where would you start your journey?

I would like to start my journey in my parents’ homeland because I have never been there since they migrated.

When I was young I never had a chance to visit my grandparents, but they visited me. I have been called a refugee my entire time. I want that place that’s called home where I’m going to be completely free. That place would have been Congo. I have been told that they have big lands, wealth, cattle.

It’s like a mystery. I have met good friends in my lifetime journey, I have made some stories, but there is one missing in my book: “Travel to Homeland.” That is the story I’m missing in my life journey, where all the people are talking about how to be home is wonderful, peaceful, no worries.

Now I’m wondering after all my experience in my time, if all the things I went through were a dream, what would I do? If all of my life were a dream in my wonderland, how would I feel? Would I wake up and cry? Would those tears be happiness or sadness? Would I really be happy or sad about it? It’s still a mystery to me.

And now here I am. I’m grateful for what I have, what I have been taught, and I’m waiting on my future.

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Kamiya Wilson Age 15 Mr. Azzaro’s Photo 1 Class Ypsilanti Community High, Ypsilanti YABP 2019–20

Kamiya Wilson lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan and goes to school at Ypsilanti Community High School. She enjoys drawing, listening to music, and playing catch with her big brother. Many people mistake her for being mean and bratty, but she’s actually very nice and sweet. She’s very quiet, mostly because of her social anxiety, and that’s mostly why she doesn’t speak much with new people, or even anyone ever, but she’s getting better at her people skills.

On Assumptions/Deceptions

T

hrough this process I was pretty nervous and was a little skeptical. I’ve never put my feelings out through pictures so it was pretty nerve-wracking, but it was a relief, like a weight lifted off my shoulders. My dad and grandma have definitely influenced my art. They’ve always told me to open up and show my inner me or sparkle. They’ve got me out of some pretty dark places. There was a time in my life when I was really down and in my thoughts, just re-thinking my existence on Earth and no one knew or even seen me. Like, they seen me, but not the me me.

All they would see was a regular school girl who seemed mean and bratty but deep down was feeling empty inside and needed help. I was self-harming during those dark

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moments and times, feeling hopeless and alone. I’m actually a nice and goofy person, but sometimes too nice to people who don’t deserve it. I want people to know that those dark and negative thoughts don’t last forever and that no matter what’s going through your mind during those hard times, you’re not alone. Never forget how blessed you are every day.

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Abiar Alshikh Age 17 Ms. Sirman’s English 11 & 12 Class Ypsilanti Community High, Ypsilanti YABP 2019–2020

Abiar is seventeen years old. She is from Saudi Arabia. She lives in Ypsilanti and she doesn’t like anything in her city.

She would rather live in D.C. where her family is, where there are more Saudis, where the Saudi embassy is. She has many goals, and she will mention one of them: she wants to be an orthodontist. She really wants to be in the United States after her graduation so she can study pre-dentistry in the United States. A funny thing from Abiar’s childhood was when she accidentally touched a lamp in her house.

She took it and she put it on her neck and she burned herself. She thought it was fun, but it was not. It was hot. “‫ضرألا يف هللا كراب“ ىلع‬

I

n this picture I’m standing in front of the White House holding the Saudi Arabian flag and singing the anthem of my country because it was the national day and there was a challenge to do it. That’s why I stood in front of the White House holding my country’s flag.

It was September 23, the weather was in the fall, it wasn’t that cold or that hot.

In the beginning I was afraid to do it. My parents were proud of me because no one else could do it.

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‫رايبأ ملح‬

I

want to be a good soccer player instead of sitting around doing nothing. I want to open a Saudi soccer club for girls back home and choose the best women to play soccer and to be the leader or the boss of the team. My life after this will be easier because I will make more money and I will be able to travel more. Fifty players will be on the team, but eleven players will be playing on the field. I will design the uniform and it will be two colors—white and blue—in support of other teams with white and blue like my favorite team, Al Hilal.

I want to open a soccer club for girls with a Saudi flag—put a Saudi theme in the Saudi soccer club. Jerseys will be different designs. One of the jerseys will be half white, half blue with a horizontal line in the back, vertical line on the front. I want to win the World Cup for Saudis.

I want to open a soccer club for women where they don’t have to wear the hijab (scarf). They don’t have to wear that while they play soccer. I want to win the World Cup for the Women’s Soccer Club, feel proud, and take a good picture of the team.

Being a good soccer player is important to me. It stops me from sitting and doing nothing at home. In the future, I would like to introduce a girls soccer club in Saudi Arabia. I would decorate our stadium with Saudi flags and continue the Saudi theme.

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Aaliyah Roberts Age 17 Mr. Azzaro’s Photo 1 Class Ypsilanti Community High, Ypsilanti YABP 2019–20

Aaliyah lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan. She loves to read, eat, work, design, and model. She is a seventeen-year-old born on March 9. She has four siblings total: one sister and three brothers. She always wanted an older brother, and she recently just met him and they are now inseparable. Her art work defines who she is as a person versus what she went through. She wants people to know her story but not every detail. When she was younger she told her mom she wanted to play football and her mom looked at her like she was very weird. Her parents tried to talk her out of it but they couldn’t. Aaliyah was determined. Her mom called and told the whole family that her baby wanted to play football, and her whole family thought she was crazy, but they supported her in the end. The first game she was tackled, her mom literally ran onto the field saying, “My baby, my baby,” even though she was OK. Define her attitude? Her attitude defines her. She is very blunt and straightforward. Also very goofy. She looks up to failure, and discouragement is her motivation to do better. She loves to bake, cook, and play all sports, and she is very open to learning new things.

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On Played Out—Like Mardi Gras—Like True Colors

Y

ou know how they say don’t judge a book by its cover?

Yeah, well, don’t judge a person by their appearance.

When all you have is negativity, what do you hope for?

Something positive to come, right? Well, if you feed negativity out into the world, what goes around comes around. You feed positivity into the world, you will get it back. I tend to have this uplifting spirit that everyone loves and wants to be around. Someone once told me, “The independent is the broken.” I didn’t know what they meant by that until now. HELP. The independent needs help. We don’t like to ask and we don’t like to tell. We ask people if they are OK and do they want to talk about it. We give advice. We help where needed. We do for ourselves.

WE NEED HELP. We’re trapped in a world where we are already labeled and you’re not going to be what you truly want to be. Or is that what they say? We want to escape and get away from others’ reality and make our own. Just how this story is everywhere, so is my L I F E .

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Zainab Hashimi Age 7 Ms. Todd’s Second-grade Class Erickson Elementary, Ypsilanti Winter 2020 Erickson Writers Club

The Mermaid Tail

S

he is under the ocean. She can see another mermaid.

She can hear birds singing. She can smell perfume. She can taste cupcakes. She can feel her soft pillow.

The mermaid takes the unicorn’s favorite mermaid tail, and the unicorn likes the color of the mermaid tail. The colors are pink and blue and purple.

The mermaid hides the tail under the couch, and then, two hours later, the mermaid hides the tail under the couch again, and then, two minutes later, the unicorn finds the tail because she looks under the couch. Then her sister says she is sorry that she hid the tail.

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E’Maree Price Age 7 Ms. Kadian’s Second-grade Class Erickson Elementary, Ypsilanti Winter 2020 Erickson Writers Club

Kawel’s Medicine

K

awel Jr. is an eighty-year-old vampire. She is real. She sucks blood and eats bats. She is only afraid of evil vampires. All night, she lives in the forest. She can see her food and trees. She can hear evil vampires. She can smell blood.

She is feeling ready to eat, and she can almost taste the people on the mountain.

Her family is sick and she has to take care of them, but she wants to go out to eat at a vampire restaurant. She goes in her room to get vampire medicine. She gets blood from someone in the forest and puts it in a bottle (she bit their neck). She puts it in a bowl and gets different things and mixes it up. She puts in leaves and bones. She puts it in a bottle and gives it to her family. Then, they feel better.

So, she got to go out to eat and she saw her brother at the restaurant.

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Nerrance Conner Age 8 Ms. Kadian’s Second-grade Class Erickson Elementary, Ypsilanti Winter 2020 Erickson Writers Club

Luka

L

uka sees normal. He sees colors that come from his brain—these weird colors tell him what he is looking at! He hears anything and everything! He has super hearing and vision!

He got bit by a radioactive wolf. Now, when the moon is full, he turns into a full-fledged werewolf.

He has three desires: true love, a home for his wife and children, and friends.

He lives in Remote Village, but he gets a message from the kingdom, so he and his dad go to the kingdom to keep them safe.

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Jadah Webb Age 7 Ms. Kadian’s Second-grade Class Erickson Elementary, Ypsilanti Winter 2020 Erickson Writers Club

Aubrey in LA

A

ubrey is a one-year-old. She is afraid of vampires, but she’s secretly a supergirl. She is pink. It is noisy.

Everything is moving fast and it is funny. She wants a blanket but she can’t get it and she has to make money.

Her sister has a blanket, and she has some money. They shared the blanket and went to LA, and they were good.

She can see the pool. She can see the person. She can hear birds and wolves. She can smell ice cream. She can feel bats. She can taste her own feet.

She is not good, but she is good in school. When she is not in school, she is bad.

She is in LA. She’s really good at baseball, soccer, and tennis.

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Robert Hall III Age 9 Ms. Laird’s Third-grade Class UPSM Elementary, Detroit Lunch Poems Virtual Poetry Club

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

ippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia H is the fear of long words.

Some Latin person made it up.

It’s a real phobia.

They made the word to scare people who have Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.

They wanna watch the world burn to crisps and ashes.

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Ashton Johnson Age 8 Ms. Laird’s Third-grade Class UPSM Elementary, Detroit Lunch Poems Virtual Poetry Club

I Wonder

ometimes I sit and wonder Sabout the things I don’t know

like why do pineapples grow why did dinosaurs rule the earth where did snow come from I just like to say I wonder about the things I don’t know

The ice is falling the clouds or snow for the things I know the trees are windy the trees are down well there has to be a meaning of snow

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JaKayla Myler Age 8 Ms. Laird’s Third-grade Class UPSM Elementary, Detroit Lunch Poems Virtual Poetry Club

My Talents Come Naturally: A Collection of Poems My Talents Come Naturally

oses are red, violets are blue R Those are the colors on a paintbrush, too!

I could draw you, or I can paint me A portrait of the sky, flowers, and a tree.

My brush strokes are light and they are swift My talents come naturally as an artistic gift.

They Are Life

oses are red, violets are blue R Those are the flowers I’m writing about, too

Flowers outside, flowers inside Wherever they are, they belong in The weather like you Flowers could be red, blue, or the color of you They are plants, they are life, they are me, they are you.

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A Virus So Scary

C

OVID-19, a virus so scary The way it affects people may vary It hit the country so swift like a meteor People were nervous and didn’t know if they should stay home or Live their life like they normally did Even schools were no longer safe for kids To fight the virus we must do three things Wear a mask, practice social distancing, and keep our hands clean.

The Light to The Night

he night is dark T The light for it is a rock

A big rock in the sky, maybe it can fly?

I don’t like the dark, it’s scary There could be a guy behind me The day is light, the dark for it is clouds I like the light, it’s so bright Space is darkness with light Guiding to the stars Stars are the light to the night The sun is a big star, it burns, don’t stare or it will Turn you blind so you won’t find anything.

They Say It’s Blue

ain is from above R It comes down and down

It helps plants survive But you can hear the sound Drip drop

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It’s not a solid, it’s a liquid if you didn’t know No color but they say it’s blue I guess you think that, too It might be pink, it might be red It might be the color of your head

It’s Tasty

rice FSoried good and nice

It’s tasty Almost like from a bakery Maybe you like it Or maybe not It’s your belly, it’s your tummy

But Do You?

oses are red R Violets are blue

I think of something Do you do it, too?

I think of food like donuts and things blue blueberries muffins and, um, do you?

Oh right, red, too like pizza, candy, but do you?

I think you would, too Food is in your tummy Like eating jelly . . .

Oooh.

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A Whole Other World

n iPad is a whole other world you could know A There are things there but maybe not snow But maybe in games You don’t know There are apps, games, fun things too Just follow me and I’ll show you Look, YouTube, Netflix, and oh I forgot something to show you though Before that, you see you need a password like a key just tap it in then follow my lead

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Cameron Johnson Age 9 Ms. Laird’s Third-grade Class UPSM Elementary, Detroit Lunch Poems Virtual Poetry Club

When I Look at Birds

hen I look at birds I feel happy, W when I look at birds I think about first grade,

that is when I learned about different kinds of birds and the music they made.

Robins, sparrows, cardinals and many more, those are just a few birds you’ll find outside our door.

They come in many colors, red, brown, pink, and blue, when I look at birds I feel happy and you can too!

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Reginald Anderson Age 9 Ms. Laird’s Third-grade Class UPSM Elementary, Detroit Lunch Poems Virtual Poetry Club

My Closet

woke up ILooked in my closet

There I saw it Red, white, and blue shoes A blue shirt I’m about to be so cool Got to find some shorts to match Let me go back In the closet to see If my black shorts still fit me It’s my lucky day My closet has made me happy It’s time to go play

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Sydney Wade Age 9 Amy Laird’s Third-grade Class UPSM Elementary, Detroit Lunch Poems Virtual Poetry Club

From the Sky

I

was playing in the yard but things were falling from the sky, but it was not rain. In my head I thought about what it could be. Then I figured out what it was: they were oak tree sheddings! So I picked some up and put them in a baggie and went inside. I studied them and here’s what I wrote: they were covering the ground like a blanket.

They’re brown. They are like leaves, and they feel weird.

I took my piece to my mom and she read it and said that it was good. From that day on, every time I saw oak tree sheddings, I would add them to my collection.

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Samuel Hoffman Age 9 Ms. Laird’s Third-grade Class UPSM Elementary, Detroit Lunch Poems Virtual Poetry Club

Drawer

tensil drawer in kitchen— U whisk, measuring cup, fork, scale.

The whisk blends pancake batter.

The measuring cup tells me how much batter I have.

The fork helps me eat the pancakes.

I use the scale to weigh my ingredients.

This book would not have been possible without the tremendous support and generosity of the following individuals and groups.

OMNIBUS 12 Editorial Interns Kate Walsh

Noelle Sciarini

OMNIBUS 12 Copyeditors

Robyn Charles, Caretaker of Essential, Onerous Details Ariel Kaplowitz Hahn Alexis Nowicki Aaron Stone Noelle Sciarini Kate Walsh

OMNIBUS 12 Designer Amy Sumerton

826michigan Staff Emeritus Christina Chang Sheena Crenshaw David Hutcheson JosĂŠ Rivas Katelyn Rivas

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Kati Shanks Amy Sumerton Michael Swisher Ken Zhart

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2019–20 Interns Ellie Allon JoAnna Barbaro Meaghan Blankenship Catalina Bode Ariel Everitt Olivia Grantham Savannah Johnson Em Liker Daniela Mancilla

Lauren Morrow Nick Russon Tierra Shannon Alexandra Smereka Ally Stapleton Tanuja Tase Kit Tetmeyer Emma Theiss Sarah Thong

826michigan Board of Directors Matt VanWasshnova

President Lara Zielin

Vice President Will Longsworth

Treasurer Danielle North

Secretary

Sean Emery Emily Ford Jennifer Howard Adrian Ohmer Kana Osaki-Greenawalt Lacie Sandstrom

2019–20 Teacher Partners Detroit Field Trips Richard Berry Mike Cruz Adelia Davis Maritza Garibay Timmerie Lazarski Jennifer Matthews Sherry Morton Kaylin Stewart Rachel Williams

Washtenaw County Field Trips Jenny Cherry Maria DeRosia Kayla Dillon LaKeisha Drummer Sarah Flott Lavonda Jackson Terria Jones Sam Kadian

Aryn Koch Kelsey Lafferty Kassidy Lutz Ellen McGee Donna McWilliams Vanessa Neil Dana Oginsky Geri Ott Jenny Page Tabia Patton Tiffany Powell Kelli Rittenberry Quanisha Shawanibin Nicole Smitka Sandy Todd Kayla VanEgmond Shevaughn Watson Jim Weindorf Christine Woodson Erin Wright

Detroit In-school Projects Thedoshia Gulley Robin Howard Amy Laird Karyn Lewis Jenna Sabolboro-Taylor Washtenaw County In-school Projects Nick Azzaro Chip Bennett Ashley Chrzaszcz Wendy Hubbard Sam Kadian Vickey Priest Liz Sirman Sandy Todd

COMMUNITY PARTNERS Ann Arbor Public Schools, especially: Dr. Jeanice Swift, Superintendent Matt Hilton, Principal, Mitchell Elementary Michael Johnson, Principal, Carpenter Elementary Nancy Shore, Strategic Partnership and Volunteer Coordinator Erica Hatt, Elementary Curriculum Coordinator for ELA & Social Studies Tova Lentz, Literacy Coordinator at Carpenter Elementary Wendy Rothman, International Baccalaureate PYP Facilitator Jeff Austin, Director of the Skyline Writer Center

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Detroit Public Schools Community District, especially: Dr. Nikolai P. Vitti, Superintendent Alycia Meriweather, Deputy Superintendent TaneĂĄ L. Menifee, Volunteer Centralization/Alumni, Office of Family and Community Engagement Kimberly Phillips Solomon, Executive Director of Gifted and Talented Programs David Bailey, Principal of Bates Academy Philip VanHooks, Principal of Mason Academy Toria Ward-Gilkey, Program Associate, Department of Development and Partnerships Adam Kind, Project Manager, Partnerships Office University Prep Science & Math Elementary School, especially:

Danielle Jackson, Interim CEO, Uprep Schools Shena Hill Scott, School Director

James and Grace Lee Boggs School, especially:

Julia Putnam, Principal Amanda Rosman & Marisol Teachworth, Directors Che-Lin Aldridge, Office Admin

Ypsilanti Community Schools, especially: Alena Zachery-Ross, Superintendent Dr. Carlos Lopez, Assistant Superintendent Greg Anglin, Principal, Holmes Elementary Yilliam Cordero-Bishop, Secretary, Estabrook Learning Community Cory Gildersleeve, Principal, Ypsilanti Community High Leslie Greenhill, Secretary, Erickson Elementary Ryan Johnson, Principal, Estabrook Learning Community Kelly Mickel, Principal, Erickson Elementary Dasha Peppard, College Adviser, Michigan College Advising Corps, Ypsilanti Community High Taryn Reid, Communications and Marketing Coordinator Lindsey Segrist, Principal, Perry Early Learning Center Cassandra Sheriff, Principal, Ypsilanti International Elementary

Washtenaw Intermediate School District, especially: Melissa Brooks-Yip, Coordinator of Instruction Dr. Jennifer Banks, Math & Science Coordinator, Achievement Initiatives Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living, especially:

Will Purves, Director of Planning & Program Development

Brilliant Detroit, especially:

Cindy Eggleton, Co-Founder & CEO Ebonie Guyton, Director of Programming and Evaluation Esmeralda Torres and the teams & families at ChadseyCondon Darnetta Banks, Nakia Wallace, and the teams and families at Fitzgerald

Detroit Experience Factory, especially: Rieanna Stewart, Operations Director Chloe Seymour, Programs Director The wonderful DXF tour guide team members Third Man Records, especially: Roe Peterhans

Lafayette American, especially:

Amy Abbott

Public Allies, especially:

Najah Woods Jerrard Wheeler

Ann Arbor District Library, especially:

Elizabeth Pearce

Detroit Public Library, especially:

Chinyere Olumba

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Ypsilanti District Library, especially:

Joy Cichewicz Mary Garboden Jodi Krahnke

Pat Mitchell Kelly Scott Lisa Hoenig

Eastern Michigan University, especially: Office of Campus and Community Writing Dr. Ann Blakeslee Dr. Cathy Fleischer Mona Beydoun Geneva Korytkowski All YpsiWrites writers, supporters, & volunteers Engage @EMU Decky Alexander College of Education Dr. Imandeep Grewal Dr. Jackie LaRose Dr. Joe Bishop Department of English Language & Literature Laura George Christine Hume

Henry Ford Community College, especially: Honors College Peter Kim

University of Michigan, especially: Community Engaged Research, DCERP Program Ray Wang Department of English Language and Literature Lisa Makman Department of Sociology, Project Community Rebecca Christensen Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning Sara Saylor Amanda Healy Danyelle Reynolds

Helen Zell Writers Program Ashley Bates Ross School of Business Leseliey Welch School of Education Chauncey Monte-Sano Thomas Drake Stamps Gallery, part of the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan Jennifer Junkermeier-Khan Srimoyee Mitra Noura Ballout The Michigan Daily Maggie Mihaylova Marisa Wright Emily Stillman Reece Meyhoefer University of Michigan Museum of Art Grace VanderVliet Jessica Vu University of Michigan Museum of Zoology Susanna Campbell Lisa Walsh

Wayne State University, especially: The Writing Center Dr. Jule Thomas Community Writing Committee Dr. Thomas Trimble The Honors College Beth Fowler College of Education Dr. Roland Coloma Ahlam Moughania

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COMMUNITY SUPPORTERS We are deeply grateful for each and every person, family, business, and organization who makes our writing programs possible! Among so many others, this amazing community includes:

Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan DeRoy Testamentary Foundation Domino’s Pizza, Jeannette Sharp Dresner Foundation DTE Energy Foundation Flagstar Foundation Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation Emily and Henry Ford III Cynthia and Edsel Ford II Mara and Yousif Ghafari Gannett Foundation General Motors Foundation Google Ann Arbor The Hawkins Project Hudson-Webber Foundation International Paper Kojaian Properties James A. and Faith Knight Foundation The Kresge Foundation

Literati Bookstore Marshall Mathers Foundation Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation Peck Foundation Pitney Bowes Foundation Rotary Club of Ann Arbor State Farm Insurance Strategic Staffing Solutions Towsley Foundation United Way for Southeast Michigan United Way of Washtenaw County University of Michigan Warby Parker Winters Group Richard C. and Barbara C. Van Dusen Family Fund

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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-on-one 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: laughter-filled events in which families come together to participate in an evening of engaging writing activities and community connection.

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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!

our VOLUNTEERS! A Chimene Abrahams, Zaher Abunada, Emma Adams, Samantha Adams, Victoria Alden, Iman Ali, Sejjad Alkhalby, Ellie Allion, Natalie

Allon, Dante Anderson, Gwenyth Andrusiak, Christopher Ankney, Tom Arata, Vaqaas Aslam, Michelle Azar

B Patrick Backlas, Marlena Baker, Trent Balogh, Joanna Barbero, Alyson Barr, Lakendra Baskin, Arjun Batra, Merve Bayram Sahin, Allison Beach, Ryan Beatty, Abbi Beghidja, Abdallah Beghidja, Tony Bell, Matthew Bellas, Shelby Bennett, Martha Berg, Carolyn Berge, Emily Bergstrom, Shivani Bhargava, Darlene Bidwell, Elizabeth Bihary, James Bishop, Travis

Blake, Meaghan Blakenship, Freida Blostein, Catalina Bode, Dakota Bohn, Nicole Borkosh, Meg Bosse, Annette Bowman, Seth Boyer, Jolene Bragg, Alyssa Braun, Jolene Bragg, Brianna Brazell, Katelynn Brennan, Grace Brigdon, Allyson Brown, Suzanne Browne Plummer, Kayla Broyles, Elyse Buffenbarger, Rachel Bullen, Maura Burns, Joshua Burns, Carley Burton

C Madison Caldwell, Calista Campbell, Tara Capezzuto, Suzan Caplan, Thomas Caprara, Grace Carleton, Courtney Casey, Rachel Cawkwell, Sanjna Chalasani, Christina Chang, Al Charles, Robyn Charles, Jack Cheng, Melissa Chow, Ji Men Jenny

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Choy, Nicholas Christoforou, Jordan Chung, Allison Ciak, Benjamin Clarke, Aariana Clinkscale, Rayna Close, Danielle Colburn, Lexus Collins, Marissa Conlon, Makala Conner, Sarah Cornsweet, Chloe Cousino, Morgan Crigger, Kaitlyn Cross

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D Aniket Dagar, Jessica Dailey, Teanne Davis, Lauren Deland, Dylan Deschaine, Joe Dib, Ledia Dittberner,

Antonio Divetta, Halee Dorn, Lindsey Dowswell, Kevin Du, Ann Duong, Elisabeth Dymm

E Michael Ehmann, Morgan Elder, Hanin Elhagehassan, Fatima Elreda, Yasminah Elsayed, Christopher Engers,

Justin Ernst, Gamze Evcimen, Ariel Everitt, Josi Ezinga

Alison Field, Cammie Finch, Carsten Finholt, Noah Fisher, Alexandra Flicker, Judith Flood-Edwards, Allegra

Rob Germeorth, Elena Ghezzi, Farheen Gill, Anthony Gillum, Patricia Gold, Zachary Goldston, Janet Goldwasser, Leah Gowatch, D’Real Graham,

F

Fonda-Bonardi, Leah Fossum, Beth Fowler, Leia Frankel, Joel Funston

G

Josephine Graham, Olivia Grantham, Khariane Gray, Lauren Greenspan, Emma Greydanus, Jenny Gurung, Sreya Gutta

H

Nina Hale, Dagmar Hall, Shelby Hall, Alex Kate Halvey Lydia Hanna, David Hargitt, Ashley Harmala, Jessica Harris, Nicholas Hart, Kimberly Hawkins, Amanda

Helppie, Victoria Helrigel, Jeffrey Henebury, Marie High, Alexandra Hovinen, Jessi Howard, Lucy Huber, Michael Hutchinson, Quinn Hutchinson

I

Maria Ibarra, Anna Ilivicky,

J

Alyssa Jacobsen, Sarah Jang, Marie Jaster, Skylar Johnson, Savannah Johnson, Mark Jones, Hannah Jones,

Kateryna Karpoff, Ashkan Kazemi, Dinaz Kazi, Keith Kellman, Annah Kendall, Fatima Khan, Lynn Kim, Joyce Kim, Annabel Kim,

Abigail Ingber, Milayna Iott

Genevieve Jones, Briayna Jordan, Cheyanne Jorgensen, Mikayla Joy, Daniel Joyaux, Nasser Junedi

K

Lauren Kimmel, Keiko Kishida, Alissa Kline, Christopher Kokoczka, Simon Kuang

Alana Labelle-hahn, Angelina Laboy, Cecilia Latiolais, Elizabeth Lawrence, Austin Lay, Elizabeth Le, Lydia Lee, Kathryn Leinbach, Austin

L

Leiphart, Rusi Li, Ruth Li, Ruohao Li, Emma Liker, Leon Linderman, Carolynn Lofton, Ania Lukasinski, Micaela Lumpkins

M

Kelsey Madary, Hassaan Majeed, Diego Maldonado, Nishitha Malugari, Daniela Mancilla, Beverly Manko, Natalie Marion, Julia Martins, Joshua Martins-Caulfield, Rachel Matuszewski,

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Connor Mccann, Tammy Mcdaniel, Keith Allen Melong, Safiya Merchant, Jacob Merino, Matthew Merlino, Kristal Michalbrasseur, Evan Miller, Alivia Miller, Kelsey Miller, Zena

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Moaikel, Eman Mohammed Azizi, Joseph Montgomery, Kimberly Montone, Isaac Mooney, Charlotte Moore, Mackenzie Moore, Sarah

Lauren Nelson, Nasrin Nesha, Dan Newman, Matthew Nguyen, Morgan

John O’Connell, Billie Ochberg, Lydia Oexler, Hoon Oh, Maribel Okiye,

Jessica Pace, Carly Padgett, Brianna Padilla, Holly Painter, Hannah Palmer, Kelly Palmer, Mary Pappalardo, Rini Parekh, Esther Park, Romir Patel, Pragathi Pathanjeli, Jessica Paxson, John Pecora, JaVaughn Perkins, Lara

Antonio Quillen

Morais, Susan MorrelSamuels, Rachel Morrison, Lauren Morrow, Hui Murray, Orest Mykolenko, Nicolas Mynarcik

N

Nicol, Kalli Nowitzke, Kelsey Nowosad

O

Sophia Orbach, Ariana Orozco, Afua Osei-Bonsu, Jim Ottaviani

P

Piekacz, Brandan Pierce, Andrew Pineda, Erin Pineda, Jake Pitcher, Rohitha Polasani, Ezekiel Polken, Jonah Pollens-dempsey, Sara Poradish, Constance Powers, Nathaniel Preston, Sarah Price, Julia Pyne

Q

Cashawnna Ramsey, Meghana Ranabothu, Faith Randolph, Amy Ransom, Brooke Ratliff, Mark Ricciardi, Joseph Rigotti,

Serene Saldana, Christine Samida, Sowmya Satagopan, Gina Savastano, Steven Schaar, Miranda Schaffer, Justin Schell, Holli Schlukebir, Kimberly Schmidt, Ben Schneedecker, Jacob Schneyer, Noelle Sciarini, Carolyn Scorpio, Dylan Sebagh, Ezra Seegull, Avram Segaloff, Annelise Senkowski, Johnnie Session Iii, Katherine Shafer, Kelly Shaffer, Tierra Shannon, Joshua Sharp, Ryan Shaw, Zaynah Siddique, Kailyn Simmons, Emily Simroth,

Tanuja Tase, Rebecca Tauber, Jeff Tenza, Caitlyn Tetmeyer, Emma Theiss, Kennede’ Thomas, Sarah Thong,

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R

Emma Rodseth, Devin Rocco, Jordyn Roelofs, Makenzie Romo, Ryan Rosario, Emily Rose, Lauren Rudewicz, Nicholas Russon

S

Omesh Singh, Hannah Sitto, Jessica Skeens, Alexandra Smereka, Claire Smith, Rebecca Smith, Nina Smith, Nicole Smith, Calista Smith, David Smith, Kyle Smith, Atticus Solomon, Alexandrea Somers, Tarit Soonthornsawad, Kelly Souza, Elijah Sparkman, Cassandra Spohr, Allyson Stapleton, Raeanne Stevens, Skylar Stevens, Brooke Stewart, Makayla Stewart, Hailey Surbrook, Austin Suttie

T

Kaylyn Toale, Alyssa Tocco, Kelly Torpey, Jennifer Traig, Jeane Tsan, Joshua Tunison, Rebecca Turtill-McMacken

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April Van Buren, Stacy VanWasshnova, Sara

Kate Walsh, Rapheal Watson, Maddie Wein, Lauren Weinberg, Michael Wenderski, Pete Westhead, Rodney White, Patricia White, Jennifer Whitney,

Allison Young

Annie Zhou, Amory Zhoukourvo, Haroune Ziad,

V

Vanzanten, Geoffrey Varga, Cat Vo

W

Joanna Wickliffe, Jesse Wilcox, Morgan Williams, Taylor Williams, Sarah Willis, Samantha Wingle, Natalie Wlotkowski, Kelly Wolfer, Spencer Wong

Y Z

Soraya Zrikem, Eric Zughaib

PROGRAM descriptions VIRTUAL PROGRAMS 826michigan underwent a dramatic and swift transformation in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Almost overnight, we paused all of our programs, vacated our beloved spaces, and leaned into our community, courage, and creativity to develop a brand new spectrum of virtual programs. These programs were collaboratively constructed with feedback from our students, families, teachers, volunteers, and the 826 National network. We aimed to provide opportunities for creativity, agency, and reflection through both real-time and any-time writing workshops and projects. We reimagined our tutoring homework help program to be a virtual study hall, pairing tutors and students to tackle the same kinds of work in a very different setting. We also discovered, to our delight, we are still able to capture a great deal of the magic of a third-space even in our virtual spaces. Here are the programs we launched our Online Learning Lab with in Spring 2020:

Dr. Blotch’s Writing Challenge

Dr. Blotch is at it again! Unable to make it to the library before it closed, Dr. Blotch is now socially isolated in their mansion in Antarctica with nothing to do. Now they're demanding new and creative stories from us! Early each week, for ten weeks in the spring, Dr. Blotch released a new writing challenge on our social media for everyone to write! On Fridays, we shared another video with Dr. Blotch's careful review of submissions.

Lunch Poems

Through this workshop over the spring and summer, students had the opportunity to engage with 826michigan staff and volunteers around the delicious

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sounds and smells and tastes of poetry. The Lunch Poem project was inspired by poet Frank O’Hara’s series of everyday poems that can be composed (and celebrated!) on a lunch break. Each session begins with students reading a model poetry text, followed by conversation and an exercise in different poetic techniques (repetition, metaphor, and listing, for example). The project concludes with an opportunity for students to share their work aloud, with the option of a class publication.

What is a lunch poem? Is a lunch poem less substantial than a dinner poem? The ideal dinner poem is heavy and leaves you craving nothing but a long sleep, whereas the lunch poem has a lightness & frivolity to it. It’s a short break that’s precious in its shortness. It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s delightful. It’s great with friends! It’s more about getting together than the eating of the poem itself. It isn’t a pain to prepare; it isn’t steak. It’s low stakes, but it does wonders for your afternoon!

Wee-bots Goes Virtual

We relaunched our beloved Wee-bots workshop for young writers (wee-bots) in the virtual sphere! All ability levels were invited to these fun, informal sessions where we played around with writing—from the physical act of actually writing to the creative ideas involved! Our superstar facilitator Claire starts every session with a new book that the group reads together. Then the students (and volunteers!) work on some writing that engages some aspect of the story.

Virtual Schoolwork Support

This spring we reimagined our After-school Tutoring program as Virtual Schoolwork Support, a part of our new Online Learning Lab, so that we could provide this program to students safely and remotely. This virtual

program paired students with two tutors in Zoom breakout rooms for support on a school or writing assignment.

Just like our regular program, this virtual learning space is designed to support students with schoolwork or writing projects that they are currently working on—826michigan tutors do not provide curriculum or materials for students. Our tutors DO provide a lot of enthusiasm, encouragement, coaching, respect, and collaboration as students navigate their projects.

WORKSHOPS We offer a range of free creative writing workshops designed to foster creativity, strengthen writing skills, and provide students with a forum for executing projects they might not otherwise have the support to undertake.

Workshops range from the playful to the practical, and all are taught by writers, artists, educators, and professionals in our community.

Drop-in Writing for Wee-bots

Drop-in Writing for Wee-bots is an opportunity for young writers to come together and work on fun, informal writing activities. Each session is unique and stand-alone. Staff and volunteers read books, discuss different aspects of narrative, and lead writing exercises.

At Drop-in Writing for Wee-bots, we experiment with writing prompts, get constructive feedback on poems, learn new techniques, discuss creative writing with other students, and have plenty of opportunities for students to publish, record, and perform their work! This year, we offered weekly sessions at our writing lab on Liberty Street in Ann Arbor and at the Detroit Public Library, Redford branch.

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The Write Stuff: Where Creativity and Accessibility Meet, A Workshop in Partnership with Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living

The Write Stuff workshop is a partnership between 826michigan and the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living. The goal of these writing sessions is to highlight and support projects created by writers with disabilities.

The Write Stuff is open to writers ages 14-26 of all levels, from those who are new to writing, to those looking to expand their craft. Writers engage in both individual and group projects, such as writing haikus, imaginary advertisements and reviews, and song lyrics, and they have the chance to workshop individual pieces of writing with a supportive community of writers and listeners.

Black Writers Matter

Black Writers Matter is a workshop series that focuses on writing and discussion about topics such as political writing, race relations, identity, and self-care expressed through the genres of creative nonfiction, flash fiction, and poetry. The Black Writers Matter series kicked off with a writing and community project on MLK Jr. Day, and continued by encouraging participants to work on and share their original pieces. This workshop concluded with a reading and open mic event for writers to share their work.

Valentine and Love Letter Drop-in Writing

This drop-in workshop centered around helping writers of all ages find the words to share with someone special around Valentine’s day. Writers and romantics gather together to write Love Letters and create Valentines for the special people in their lives such as friends, parents, and children.

Sleuth Stories: Mystery Writing with 826michigan

The Sleuth Stories workshop looks at what other mystery writers do to keep readers guessing. Then participants turn to writing their own stories, solving a strange mystery about a secret portal in the library. Throughout the workshop writers collected evidence and interrogated very suspicious volunteer suspects. By piecing together the motives of these characters, our writers were able to present their conclusions before a crowd and solve the case of the Ypsilanti District Library portal once and for all!

Youth Poetry Workshop: Poets Break the Rules

Young writers in early and late elementary and middle school and up are invited to join the Poets Break the Rules Workshop to cut up, make up, and shake up poetry as we know it.

Participants come together for a celebration of words and sounds and all the rumpled and raucous ways they can fit together. Do poems rhyme? Sometimes! Are poems made out of words in lines on a page? Only if we want them to! Can anyone write a poem? Yes!

Words on Our Streets

826michigan, Detroit Experience Factory and Brilliant Detroit worked in partnership to present a two-week summer workshop series for sixty second- and thirdgrade writers. These writers learned and wrote about the city of Detroit. Writers participated in guided professional tours from Detroit Experience Factory to engage in critical reflection and writing instruction, led by 826michigan.

Writers then collaborated to create new tours guided by their own perspectives and experiences as citizens of the city. At the end of the two-week program, writers’ work was featured in an 826michigan publication. Student tour content was shared with Detroit Experience Factory so

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future visitors to Detroit could have the opportunity to see the city through the lens of young people who live here.

IN-SCHOOL PROJECTS Every single day of the week, our staff and volunteers are working in area classrooms in Ypsilanti, Detroit, and Ann Arbor, supporting the writing teachers are doing with their students. Every in-school project is developed in collaboration with our partner teachers in order to best supplement the writing curriculum. These projects can be led by the teachers with volunteers providing additional support or led by our staff and volunteers (or a combination of these!). Most in-school projects result in a final product, most often a publication.

Washtenaw County Erickson & Estabrook Writers Club

In this program, we created a supportive community of writers, where students were placed in small groups and worked with the same volunteer each week as they wrote and reflected on their process as writers. Volunteers collaborated with students as they drafted, edited, and published their own stories and poems, and participating students were encouraged to write about whatever was important to them.

Family Writing Laboratories

826michigan’s Family Writing Labs are special evening events that provide different ways for the whole family to write and create stories together. Families and volunteers first enjoyed a pizza dinner together and then

collaborated through a series of creative writing stations, from puppet-making and script-writing to creating the menu for our very own restaurants. At the end of the event, families published their writing in a book, read their stories in an open mic, and took home a book! This year, we partnered with many community organizations to present these events including the Ypsilanti District Library. Some of our family writing laboratories had special features for March is Reading Month, National Poetry Month, and Earth Day.

Young Authors Book Project: Where We’re Coming From, Where We’re Going

Where We’re Coming From, Where We’re Going was an exploration of personal narrative, identity, geography, environment, and belonging as we unpacked the ever-changing idea of the “American Dream.” The Ypsilanti Community High School students (grades 9–12) from Liz Sirman’s English Language Learners (ELL) class and Nick Azzaro’s photography class connected with each other and with community volunteers to critically and playfully explore their immediate surroundings in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and their relation to a larger national and international context. In examining how the “American Dream” has transformed over time, students looked—through photography, poetry, and local historical maps, locations, and texts—at moments in history when things shifted toward our current context.

Detroit Boggs Poets

Fourth- and fifth-grade students at the Boggs Academy in Detroit participated in a four-session poetry workshop, using the form to explore various points of view, from the gentle side of monsters (Godzilla received a particular

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focus) to imagining the world of inanimate objects, and more. These writers’ work culminated in a chapbook, Flying High, which also features the students’ original illustrations.

How to Survive Anything

Third- and fourth-grade students at Bates Academy in Detroit participated in two sessions of a how-to writing workshop before the program was unfortunately cut short due to the pandemic. Students practiced instructional writing in small groups through which they brainstormed and collaboratively wrote survival guides for fantastical scenarios. Students used transitional words when writing instructional texts for a wide range of scenarios including how to survive being chased down by a monster you created, how to survive a shipwreck, a spooky forest, a robot invasion, and of course, a tiny unicorn and lions.

FIELD TRIPS Most Wednesday and Friday mornings during the school year, classrooms visit 826michigan’s writing labs in downtown Ann Arbor and Detroit’s Eastern Market for action-packed two-hour experiences filled with surprises and focused on building students’ confidence in their writing. We offer many field-trip options: from PJ Day, in which first-graders must band together to write the best bedtime story ever and soothe our cranky publisher Dr. Blotch to sleep, to our classic Storytelling and Bookmaking workshop, where second- and thirdgrade students write and illustrate their own books in one morning.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Here’s how we created totally original adventure stories with twenty-seven endings in just two hours! Students wrote an adventure story together in the second-person point of view to help the readers truly immerse themselves in the story. But, when the protagonist had to make a decision, the students split in half to continue writing the story down two separate paths. Each group then split again at the next crossroads. Each writer had the chance to compose an ending to the adventure tale, which was bound into a book.

How to Survive Anything

Community organizations like the University of Michigan Museum of Art and the Ann Arbor District Library have wondrous materials in their collections for people to explore. During this field trip, our students helped these organizations by writing survival guides for them. What, what, you say—I know how to survive a museum and a library! But, we say, have you ever imagined yourself transported inside one of the pieces of art? Have you jumped back in time into an archival photograph of Washtenaw County in the library’s collection? Our students used their imagination to write how-to survival guides that entertain and engage library and museum-goers to see these important collections in a new way, and then wrote their own versions of the guide, drawing prior knowledge and their own interests into the instructions (how to play soccer, how to babysit, how to get out of a volcano).

PJ Day

Dr. Blotch travels often for business and research and usually ends up exhausted—and cranky—on the other side of the world! We were lucky enough to have several classes of writers visiting this year just in time to help us

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compose riveting bedtime stories to lull Dr. Blotch to sleep. Whew! And zzZZZzzzZZZzzz!

Retelling Fairy Tales through Mad-Libs

After reading Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems together, Dr. Blotch realized the brilliant power of changing the old Goldilocks story and wanted to capitalize on it. Dr. Blotch wanted the students and staff to draft new versions of Goldilocks using Blotch’s brand new Mad Lib Technology. Students worked in small groups with a volunteer facilitator to pre-plan their writing and then filled in a mad-libbed version of Goldilocks and the Three (plural noun) to submit to Dr. Blotch. Once completed with the Mad Lib portion, students wrote their own endings to their story.

Strange Mysteries!

The famous, mysterious, fantastically successful Dr. Blotch family has a long list of enemies, frenemies, and suspicious acquaintances over their years in business.

So, when something suspicious happened—a missing prized possession, for example—Dr. Blotch knew who to call: a visiting class of detectives who helped us solve the mystery through a careful investigation and persuasive writing.

Storytelling & Bookmaking

Despite constant reminders from Dr. Blotch, the 826michigan staff tends to forget their standing deadline for writing and submitting original stories for publication with Blotch Books. But with the help of visiting classrooms, we worked in large and small groups of writers to brainstorm original characters and settings and then compose and send a wealth of imaginative stories to our editor.

Writing Like a Scientist

Dr. Blotch is a busy scientist, one who doesn’t always have time to back up claims with evidence. In other words, Dr. Blotch needed some help! We called on classrooms of scientists and our partners at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology to observe Michigan animals and describe the traits that help them to succeed here in our state. Scientists reported their findings to Dr. Blotch in a variety of ways—from fiction to song to scientific presentation.

Zine Making

Students started this field trip by thinking about what they’d like to see change in their worlds, and how the power of writing could help them to make that change.

The focus of the program was on zines, a non-commercial, nonprofessional, small-circulation magazine that students could create and publish in one day. Students looked through examples of zines and pulled together ideas for what could go on their own page. Then we discussed who the audience for our zine would be, and how that affected how we communicated our message.

Lyric Writing: Song Shop

Musicians from Third Man Records shared insight into their strategies and process for songwriting and students had the chance to try these methods along with support by the musicians. The class created melodies and wrote to generate a storyline for the chorus that tied in verses following from that.

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AFTER-SCHOOL TUTORING / SCHOOLWORK SUPPORT We organize trained volunteer tutors to work with students one-on-one with their homework after school.

Tutoring is available for all subjects, for students ages 8-18. We offer free tutoring 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. We also now offer this program virtually, Schoolwork Support as part of our new Online Learning Lab. We give time to daily writing exercises; some of our beloved prompts include blackout poetry and collaborative exquisite corpse drawings used to create the characters in our stories.

826michigan Data Highlights from 2019–20 The OMNIBUS provides multiple lenses into 826michigan’s work over the year, centering the most important: the writing our students created. We also include descriptions of all our programs, note every volunteer, teacher, and group we’ve partnered with, and hear from our editor Dr. Blotch.

Here is yet another way to look at our year; through some quantitative and qualitative data highlights.

826michigan’s year in (a few) numbers: * * * *

1,481 program experiences for 1,383 unique students 1,255.43 program hours 317 individual volunteers 3,213.98 hours volunteered with directly with students in programs

* The creation of 9 books, 4 original songs, 1 forthcoming record, 10 videos, plus 35 field trip publications, with over 1,450 students published * Participation from students who attend 83 different schools * Partnership with 47 teachers from 21 schools *

40 online programming sessions during Spring 2020

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Some special highlights!

We worked with over 290 in-school students in Ypsilanti with our Writers Club, College Essay Workshop, Family Writing Laboratories, and Young Authors Book Project combined!

4 Partnership Field Trips in Detroit with Third Man Records, Lafayette American, Western High School, and Detroit School of the Arts, with original songs written and recorded by 35 high school students!

60 students participated in the first Words On Our Streets program writing tours of Detroit during the summer 2019 season in partnership with 826michigan, Brilliant Detroit, Detroit Experience Factory, and the Skillman Foundation!

Every third grade classroom in Ypsilanti (12 classes) visited both 826michigan & University of Michigan Museum of Art for a partnership program!

A Notable Teacher Quote!

“

Academically, writing is such an important skill for second graders to develop. Not only does 826 encourage writing development as a fundamental skill, they also encourage students to be creative and innovative while they write.

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Creativity in many ways is natural and inherent for students to have and 826 helps them tap into their creativity while they write.

”

­—826michigan Partner Teacher

Collaborative Writing from the OMNIBUS 11 Release Party At the release party for the OMNIBUS 11,

everyone in attendance was given a mission to prove to Dr. Blotch that writing is about connection and community.

Dr. Blotch wanted to cancel all 826michigan programs to make our writing more efficient. He didn’t want any more conversation, sharing, laughter, or collaboration. The families, students, teachers, volunteers, and staff in attendance were able to work together to prove to Dr. Blotch that a community is essential for our writers, for all of us, and that 826michigan programs needed to keep happening.

We did this many different ways, including writing the beginning of this collaborative story together, right there at the release party!

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Disco Taco Saves the Cloud Forest Written by the Community at the OMNIBUS 11 Release Party

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nce upon a time, in a rainbow cloud forest on Mars, in the time of the Soviet Spoonion, there was a disco taco who liked to wear a hair band (who was ready for retirement), and who had a pet spoon from the Soviet Spoonion!

“I am so done with work!” said the hair band. “I’m ready to move to Florida!”

Disco Taco, who was a disco ball covered in tacos, noticed that the clouds beneath them were coming apart.

A nearby cake was shaking the cloud cover.

Spoon, Taco’s pet, was ready to help. Disco Taco poured some magical potion into Spoon, which seemed like a reasonable thing to try. However, you’ll never guess what happened next:

What DOES happen next? You get to decide—yes, YOU, dear reader; you are now the writer. Write the rest of the story here:

If you need more room, flip to page 278 for our patent-pending BO(Note)OK: a notebook within a book.

826michigan Core Writing Values: What Writing Can Do W R I T I N G

I S

A way to figure things out by ourselves A way to help us connect to our world A way to help us learn who we are and who we will become A way for us to use our power to make changes and build a better world

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W H A T W H E N W E

W E D O W R I T E

We create a safe place to be ourselves and try new things We support the ways that writers work (like thinking, sketching, and talking) 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 We work with a group of writers who help and support one another

The 826 Stand 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 stand for our students.

We stand for our students’ right to express their opinions—freely, creatively, and safely—and to provide them the space to do that, free of judgment and full of support.

We stand for our students’ right to tell their stories, share their experiences, and seek out information and answers.

We stand for connecting our students to caring adults—volunteers eager to listen as students search for answers and discover themselves.

Through our work and our actions, we must continuously support the development of our students’ voices and stories, and also celebrate those voices and stories.

We stand for building diverse and inclusive environments for our students, our volunteers, and our staff.

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 toward being a more inclusive and supportive organization.

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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.

The name of this anthology

the 826michigan OMNIBUS

came seemingly out of nowhere. We created a book and it was always called the OMNIBUS to us. There was no other way to it; nobody raised a hand in objection. This is what it was to be called.

But, as time wore on, we couldn’t help but wonder: why does the OMNIBUS always spell itself in capital letters? What does it mean to imply? Is it an acronym? Is it trying to cast a sinister shadow over us with the sheer, admittedly terrifying size of its letters? Is it imposing something on us? And what happened to the ivory-billed woodpecker, anyway?

Thus, in a concerted effort to justify our actions (none of which we are responsible for), and determined to crack this riddle brought upon us by ourselves, we once again this year slaved for a few beastly minutes until we had, we thought, a pretty decent all-new list of the possible acronyms for “OMNIBUS.” We present the list here for you, friends (including space for you to submit your own possibilities!): Offer Meat Nuggets In Blossoms Under Sunshine

Off My Nights In Bussing Under Snakes

Outstanding!

My Nerdiness Is Becoming Unequivocally Scintillating!

Oh My! Now I’m Boring Us Sadly

Oh My! Need Idealism, Benevolence, Unanimity, Solidarity!

Ordinary Madness Notwithstanding, I’m Becoming Unusually Starlike!

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Oh Mother!

Now I Bring Unusual Stories Once More New Inspiration Bursts Upon the Scene

O M N I B U S

Write your own!

O M N I B U S

nce ore ew nspiration ursts pon the cene

TOP 12 LISTS for this, the 826michigan OMNIBUS 12!

Featuring YOU and a stellar example by our dear friends, the Wee-bots.

Top 12 Requirements for a Friend

An example written by 826michigan Wee-bots Students (who really went above and beyond and made their Top 12 a list of twenty, because when you know the rules to writing, you can break them).

1. Laughs at your jokes 2. Gives you presents 3. Very smart 4. They work at the hospital 5. Very strong, protect you from bullies 6. Caring 7. They are funny 8. Like the same things 9. Appreciates you 10. Thoughtful 11. Sharing toys 12. Loving 13. Helping people and caring for people 14. Sharing with others 15. Be nice to everybody 16. Someone you have fun with 17. Laughing with you, and not at you 18. Someone who’s honest 19. Not a bully 20. Being gentle

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Top 12 Pizza Toppings 1.

2.

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Top 12 Ice Cream Flavors 1.

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Top 12 Coolest Toys 1.

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Top 12 Slimes 1.

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Top 12 Board Games 1.

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Top 12 Requirements for a Friend 1.

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Top 12 Things to Eat on a Cold Night 1.

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Top 12 After-school Tutoring Snacks 1.

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Top 12 Kinds of Parties 1.

2.

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Top 12 Kinds of Exercise 1.

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Top 12 Musicians 1.

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Top 12 Video Games 1.

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WRITE IN THIS BOOK! WRITE ALL OVER IT, if you want to, but especially WRITE ON THE PRIOR SEVEN PAGES AND THE UPCOMING TEN PAGES.

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Fairy Tale Mad Lib Field Trip Template

O

nce upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks. One day, she was walking through

the woods and she saw a house that belonged to three ____________. She went in the house and saw three _____________ on the kitchen table. She tried the first one, but it was too _____________. The second one was too ____________. She tried the last one and it was just right. So she ate it all up! Then, she saw three ___________. She tried using the first one, but it was too _____________. She tried the second one, but it was too ____________. She used the last one and it was just right. But she used it so much that it broke! Then, she went into the bedroom and saw three __________. She laid on the first one, but it was too ______________. Then, she tried the second one but it was too _____________. She laid down in the last one and it was just right. She fell into a very deep sleep. The three ____________ came home and saw someone had used all of their stuff! They went into the bedroom and saw Goldilocks asleep. Then . . .

Dear Drs. Blotch, This has been a really tough year. What creative ways have you cultivated joy (beyond cultivating your mold collections) these past months?

Thank you, —Seeking Inspiration in 2020 Dear Seeking Inspiration, It may be difficult for most people to engage in my joyous activity but I will describe it to you irregardless. I have begun reading books backward. This is a much more challenging and stimulating way to digest literature. How do I do this you may ask . . . isn't it obvious? I start at the back of a book, read the last word, then continue to read the previous word until I reach the beginning of the book.

Authors sometimes will try to insert strange messages into their books this way, but I have outsmarted them yet again.

Perhaps you too can find joy this way.

Blotch Dr. ,concentration and joy With * OMNI.XII * OMNI.XII * OMNI.XII *

Greetings, Seeking, After receiving weather reports from the young writers this May, I went for a ramble on the local ice sheet here in Antarctica and came upon a rather outrageously bearded climate scientist installing weather trackers. I kept my

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distance, but, noting the sorry jumble of ropes attached to each one, I extended a courteous, “What the dickens do you call that mess??” To which he replied, “If you can’t tie knots, tie lots.” Given the state of his knots, I assume it was not a metaphor.

But then, it might have been.

Carry on, Dr. X. Blotch (they/them) * OMNI.XII * OMNI.XII * OMNI.XII *

To whom it may concern— Even as someone who despises being around most people (especially children), I do admit that this year has been rather trying so far. But! The Blotches never, ever, EVER let anything dampen our spirits—the damp is solely for our innovative mold greenhouses. Stiff upper lip, stiff lower lip, stiff entire body—and since our entire body is rigid, that allows our minds to move freely, like a butterfly or a mosquito. Letting my mind cartwheel around means I can think and feel anything, knowing that I can stay there or cartwheel away when I'm ready to do so (also, it's a little known fact that the most efficient form of travel is cartwheeling).

If embracing your mental gymnast doesn't work, here is another suggestion: since you have had the distinct pleasure of being introduced to the Blotch family, it is your duty to not disappoint us. So, make your body as rigid as possible (think cement) and remember damp is for mold and not spirits!

Tepid regards— Dr. Lisanthia Blotch

Hello.

I appreciate your desire to better know what has brought me . . . joy (ugh) . . . these past few months.

Recently, it came to my attention that there are no ice cream shops in Antartica, so I've taken it upon myself to open the first. Unlike the disgusting ice cream shops where you probably live that sell such horrific flavors as “Rocky Road,” “Mint Chocolate Chip," and “Superman,” the Blotch shop will sell flavors such as “Hot Sauce,” “Liver and Onions,” and “Salami.” We'll have a toppings station filled with mustard, dandelion leaves, and freezer burn.

Oh, I cannot wait for business to open, though I fear I'll eat so much ice cream I'll get a tummy ache. That's the price of going into the ice cream biz, I suppose.

Ado, and visit soon— Dr. O. Blotch (she/her) * OMNI.XII * OMNI.XII * OMNI.XII *

This just in from Dr. Blotch: It's important for me to consider that while I am confined to my mostly abandoned mansion in Antarctica for the time being, that doesn't mean I can't create. I create every day. Yesterday I created a new way to sort my collection of moon cat hairs: by smell. I created a new song to sing while I harvest slime from my Arctic toads. It begins "Slime time is the prime time for rhyme time" and it has 86 verses, only four of which are high-pitched screaming. Creating things from your heart and brain and hidden cupboard of rusty old medical tools is so important. Even right now I'm creating a way to get out of having to keep talking to you.

I think I'm going to say I have to take a bath even though I haven't bathed since social distancing began. Why bother?

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Dearest Inspiration Seeker!

This Blotch, at least, has of late shifted all of his energies away from the massive and groundbreaking scientific paper Profitable MegaGrains: The Pilfering and Forming into Pills of Human Sustenance (volume forty-seven of my ongoing series The Complete Exploitments of Dr. Demetrius Mortimer Blotch) in order to revel in the age-old wisdom of CooFooNeighLiftth (Cooking Food for Neighbors and Leaving It, Frozen, at the Threshold of Their Homes).

After a long day of alternately reading/crying/singing in my laboratory until the books' pages are soggy, my throat hoarse, and every last salt tablet dissolved and sobbed or sweated out again, I have found joy and solace in crafting everything from Broccoli Carbone to Pompelmo Panna Cotta to satisfy my neighbors (as well as any stranger who passes with a hunger or presentiment of hunger in their belly or their heart).

Thusly I announce Your Inspiration Found: concoct deliciousness, deploy savor, accomplish plenitude!

Voluminously, Dr. D.M. Blotch * OMNI.XII * OMNI.XII * OMNI.XII *

Dear Seeking, This time is very curious—I typically live my life avoiding people as much as possible. I much prefer moon cats, mealworms, and mold spores for company but there’s only so much commanding I can do with mold. I try to bark orders but it rarely responds—occasionally the slightest blip of recognition but then nothing. The worms are similar, so occupied with their writhing around, and have you ever tried to order moon cats around? Well, let me tell you—it’s

a lot like herding mold! I spent a lot of time barking at the walls, at my book collection, at my meticulously buffed cement floors, and hearing my brilliant ideas bounce back at me. Truth be told, I did miss giving commands to my lowly employees and listening to them squirm as they tried to do my bidding and fail. Ah, the sweet sounds of failure—what I would do to hear them again! So I ended up pretending quite a lot—do you know what that means?

It means using one’s noggin to imagine a world different than the one we currently occupy. I used my many publications as a starting point and read them over and over again, including OMNIBI I-XI, and I pretended to be offering my editing advice to the writers and made incredible suggestions for new plot twists and snazzy sequels. I actually came up with so many new books that I have a mountain of work ahead of me now, drafting proposals for them all, which is why I am so busy and would like you to go away.

I would encourage anyone else to do the same as I have done—I doubt you’d ever be able to come up with as many fascinating ideas as I have but you could pretend to be brilliant like me and see how far you get!

Get to work!

Dr T. G. Blotch

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826michigan in collaboration with adult volunteers in their communities. Our writing and tutoring programs uphold a culture of creativity and imagination while supporting 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 every student, especially those whose voices have been historically marginalized, deserves to write their truths and to be heard. We build our creative writing and literacy programs to be actively anti-racist and trauma-informed, and we focus on creating humanizing settings for young people to explore the power of their voices. Our vision is to create a third space that radically heals and uplifts Black youth and students of color. Support from our community allows students in Ypsilanti, Detroit, and Ann Arbor to receive critical literacy support free of charge. For more information about our programs, please visit 826michigan.org.

The OMNIBUS is 826michigan’s annual anthology of excellent student writing across all programs.

This publication showcases the breadth of 826michigan’s programs and the creativity and brilliance of 826michigan students. You will also unexpected acronyms, the names of many of the hundreds of people who make this work possible, and a description of every 826michigan program

Thank you, reader, for picking up this copy of the OMNIBUS 12!

We hope you will be surprised, delighted, and transformed by what you find inside.

There is no way young people, such sticky and petulant beings, could produce works as intriguing, enlivening, and enlightening as those contained within these pages, I said to myself while reading this tome,

footage of these young people deep in the writing process that would have these brilliant writings, not robots as I had assumed. If you too would like to experience the awe and bewilderment of witnessing manifest genius, I invite you to explore this book. —Dr. Blotch, Editor in Chief, 826michigan