Y īn Hé Yáng: Tatakai

The Castle of Spells

ADA LEE • AGE 6

WRITTEN IN A WRITE AWAY WORKSHOP

Aleia was a queen. She needed to get to the castle of spells. Aleia had an enemy. Her enemy was Elaine. Aleia tried to get through the forest that led to the castle of spells. She used her skills to spray pollen from flowers at bugs. She also chopped vines that were in the way. A vine sprang at her and pushed her back to her own castle. Aleia thought about powers and the vine. Then she got an idea! She had to team up with Elaine. Only Elaine could get through those pushy vines. Aleia took a deep breath and headed to Elaine's castle. She talked to Elaine and Elaine said "OK."

Aleia showed Elaine how to get to the forest. They both chopped vines and sprayed insects. Then came the pushy vine. "Now!" shouted Aleia. Elaine shot a ball of light at the vine. The vine melted to ashes. "Thank you, you did a great job Elaine!" shouted Aleia. To show her thanks, Aleia gave Elaine a power-up cookie. "Thank you Aleia," said Elaine. They went on their way, spraying insects, chopping vines, and melting pushy vines.

They came to a clearing. A dragon came out. This was the guard! He growled, "Nobody enters this castle." "We do!" shouted Elaine. She ate the power-up cookie. Immediately, Elaine got an idea. She whispered her plan into Aleia's ear. This was Elaine's plan: Elaine would distract the dragon while Aleia snuck up behind the dragon and used her karate skills to hit the dragon as many times as possible.

They would reverse this when the dragon turned around. However, the dragon had a face on the other side of his head. They only figured this out when they tried their plan.

When they found this out, Aleia screamed. "Aaaggghhh!" shouted Aleia.

Elaine rushed over. "What!?" she asked. Elaine looked up. "Oh," she thought. New plan. "Ummmm," they thought. Suddenly, a black cat walked by. It was carrying a ring in its mouth. "Oh!" said Aleia. Aleia called the cat. The cat came to Aleia. Aleia softly took the ring and pointed it toward the dragon's heart. It blasted him in the heart. The dragon fell back. Aleia and Elaine ran past him. They reached the castle of spells. "Hooray!" they shouted. "Thank you. You're not as bad as I thought," said Aleia. "Neither are you," replied Elaine. "Thank you," they said together. "Wow."

Jack and the Beanstalk Reimagined

ARAV MCINTYRE • AGE 12

WRITTEN IN A WRITE AWAY WORKSHOP

Boom! Thunder ripples across New York City. Jack looks up at the rain cascading from the heavens and frowns. What a day for soccer, he thinks. He trudges toward the subway station, keeping his head down. “Hey kid! Catch this!” a scratchy voice shouts. Jack whips his head up just in time as a pea-shaped object clunks off his head. Jack’s eyes look around furiously before landing on the object. It is a brown bean, no bigger than a fingernail. Jack studies the bean, then picks it up and puts it in his pocket. Why did I do that? Jack thinks. He shakes his head and walks into the subway. The next morning, Jack wakes up bright and early and walks into his kitchen to make his breakfast. On the counter, he discovers the bean. Jack stuffs the bean in his pocket and trudges into the street. He finds a small crack with dirt on the asphalt and places the seed into it. Jack stares into the crack, then rushes back inside. “I have to get ready for school,” he mutters to himself. Ring! The school bell pierces the air. Jack and his friends jump up and run out the door, slinging their bags over their shoulders.

BASED ON: Snow White & the Seven Dwarves

CAROLINA MININO • AGE 11

WRITTEN IN A WRITE AWAY WORKSHOP

Once upon a time in a land far away—very far away—lived a young girl with her jealous aunt. This girl’s name was ______ and she had no parents, just her aunt, who’s name was Beatrix. ______ lived in a town where the main thing, the main purpose, the main reason of being, of living—was art. The walls of the church in the town were graffitied with beautiful scenes and angels; the town plaza had sculptures of enormous size and breathtaking beauty. All the shops were decorated with pictures of what it sold; the bakery was a splash of rainbow cakes and muffins, the clothes store had a painting of a young woman wearing the latest fashion on its wall and so on. Even some of the darkest and most gloomy alleyways where no one walked were splattered with encouraging words and phrases. It just so happened that ______, as well as loving art, was a skilled artist. She had never taken classes, but she was the best painter in the entire town and people were constantly asking her to paint things on their houses and stores. Unfortunately, this made Beatrix horribly jealous, for she had always wished to be a skilled artist, but no matter how hard she tried and how many art classes she took, her drawing always looked terrible. Beatrix had even bought a magic mirror in the hopes it could spy on great artists and tell her their secrets, but even that failed. The mirror had scolded Beatrix until her head hurt about

not being such a nosy, wannabe, know-it-all which Beatrix had found extremely rude so in a desperate effort she put it away in a spare closet and forgot about it. So naturally, when Beatrix had found out about ______ talent, she tried to keep ______ hidden and even claimed her niece's drawings to be her own. But the truth had gotten out and so had word of ______ skill. Now, everyone in the town was angry with Beatrix. They didn’t like her because she mistreated ______, ignoring her and spreading tall tales about ______ stealing other peoples art, so the townspeople accused her of being jealous. This was all true; Beatrix was jealous of ______, but hearing it from the rest of the villagers made Beatrix’s blood boil with anger and her hate towards ______ intensified. It was a vicious circle. The more Beatrix despised ______, the more the townspeople loved her and pitied her and turned their anger on Beatrix; the more Beatrix was scolded and hated, the more Beatrix loathed ______, until one day, Beatrix had enough.

It was a chilly autumn afternoon and _______ had gone out to play in the town garden that was (to no one’s surprise) speckled with stunning statues. ______ had hung her scarf around a sculpture's neck and was talking to it as if it was alive when a rustling in the trees cut ______ short. “Who’s there?” Called ______ warily.

It so happened that there was a vast and deep forest at the edge of the town - a forest everyone called the Haunted Forest, and it just happened that the town garden had the misfortune of being placed right next to the spooky woods. The rustling had come from behind a tree at the edge of the forest and like every child in her town, ______ had heard

stories of what lived in these woods. But unlike all the rest of the children, ______ was very brave. And just like every person must have, ______ had an achilles heel: ______ was petrified of the colors black and grey. It was really a silly thing to be afraid of, but ______ had grown up with so much color, (of course since she lived in a town where art was more important than food or water) that bleak colors scared her. So when an old woman with a painted grey face, a great big grey shawl with black edges over a turtleneck, and holding a black and grey cane (the rest of her was obscured by her enormous shawl) came ambling out of the forest it was all ______ could do to flee screaming into the Haunted Forest until she had disappeared completely. Suddenly the “old woman” that had really been Beatrix straightened up and gave a satisfied cackle. Surely, a weak girl of nine could never survive in the haunted woods, thought Beatrix gleefully referring to ______.

When she got home Beatrix had spring spirits. She was finally thinking about something else and not about good versus bad art that she had some headspace to remember the magic mirror. She hummed happily . . .

Yīn Hé Yáng: Tatakai

XAVIER MITCHELL-FRANCIS • 9TH GRADE

WRITTEN DURING A YOUNG WRITERS PUBLISH PROJECT AT ACADEMY FOR YOUNG WRITERS

The System. A nigh-omnipotent being that came to Earth during an event now known as “The Neolithic Awakening.” During this event, the system bestowed abilities on the planet’s inhabitants that you and me would call game-like; levels, to measure and grow power, stats to focus that power, skills with which to use that power, an inventory used to store items that usually couldn’t be carried, even an online shop in which magical items could be bought and sold. Over time, civilization would build itself around the system. But two families quickly rose in power; political and martial. One family focused on gaining power, and keeping an iron grip on it. The other focused on spreading its teachings and money to help others who may have been less fortunate than themselves. With these two conflicting ideals it’s obvious that they would end in conflicts, which they have. So many in fact that they have garnered the nicknames Yin and Yang. One being unable to exist without the other, yet still in constant conflict with each other. But it seems that this conflict will be solved much sooner than anyone expects. Watch with me as “The Yin Yang War” comes to an end.