The Book (Lucy S., Grade 5

Quirrell's hand and face and then stares at his hands, but all of my focus in that moment had been on trying to save myself. It wasn’t until at home that night that I stared at them in shock. Naturally I never told my dad about what happened, and that night, when I was practicing, I conjured up a candy bar, an egg, and a stick of gum just as my dad walked in. I could see the wheels in his head turning. He sent me to do all of his dirty work, like washing the dishes and taking out the trash and getting food with my powers and also a little bit of stealing .

. One day in an orphanage when my dad was in jail, I got a letter that sent me to a place in Sacramento where there was a launch pad and a trampoline. My first instinct was to go back to that orphanage and pretend that I was a normal girl whose father was a well known criminal. But the guy in the Uber had already driven away, so I jumped. And here I am in a hallway of a mansion in the middle of space. That's my story. There are plenty of others, like Jasons. He was on a train or something. Either way, here I am in this mansion with my crush, and I'm a criminal, and my dad is in jail.

The Book By Lucy S., Grade 5

1: Jo

When Jo woke up in the morning, she decided she was tired of living at home with her parents shouting at her all the time. She was pushed over the edge. It was time for her to set off on her own.

This wasn’t a decision she came to by herself. She was 30. All of her older siblings left the house directly after college. But Jo was... different. Unlike her siblings, she didn’t get good grades and hadn’t saved enough money to buy a decent house, instead buying useless junk for her family’s home. Her parents were not pleased with this behavior. They wanted her to move out. For good.

Her family had been pressuring her for months, and she finally gave in. Jo looked online for affordable houses and finally found a dingy-looking apartment nearby. It wasn’t nice, but it was cheap. She announced to her parents that she was moving out. “Finally-you found a new home!” her mom said. “I can’t tell you how excited we are for you!” added her father. They discussed the move for hours and finally agreed that Jo could take all the stuff she’d bought while living there, plus the books her parents had bought her over the years. They weren’t exactly happy with the place she chose, but it was the only option. Jo went to her room and started packing her bags. This meant she dug up her suitcases and started chucking stuff into them. All of it didn’t fit at first, but then she sat on the suitcases and zipped them up. Jo talked to the landlord of the apartment, and he quickly agreed to rent it to her. Really quickly, in fact. Jo should have been curious, but she was too happy that she could stay at the apartment.