Roald Dahl Project - Stories and Letters by Colegio Palermo Chico

Dear Readers, We are a group of 12-year-olds from Argentina, who attend a school called Colegio Palermo Chico. There, we study Spanish - our native tongue â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in the morning, and English in the afternoon. The Roald Dahl Project was born a couple of months ago when Kangaroo Boy, a story written by Lina, from Year 5 at SMMA, reached our hands. She had been asked to write a story in the style of Roald Dahl and we simply loved it! Roald Dahl is one of our favourite British authors! We found Kangaroo Boy so inspiring that the idea of writing our own stories and sharing them with Lina and perhaps her classmates at St Mary Magdalene Academy came to us. We learnt Mr Spence wrote about our project in a newsletter some time ago! Well, here are our stories along with some short letters. We do hope you all enjoy them! We hope to hear from you soon! If you feel like writing, you can email us at secretaria.primaria.ingles@colegiopalermochico.edu.ar Best , 7th form students Colegio Palermo Chico

THE BIRTHDAY WISH Muza was a black boy who had been born in Africa, Kenya. When he was six months old, he was abandoned and taken to an orphanage. One day, a very rich and powerful basketball player, adopted Muza. He lived in a very huge house, a mansion. He also had a dog called Rocky. When he arrived home for the first time, he was very shy, but happy because it was a new beginning for him. However, he felt a little lonely because he missed his friends from the orphan. The following day was the first day at school. Muza felt anxious and a little bit nervous. When he entered the class, everybody started making fun of him because of the colour of his skin. He was so sad! Two weeks later, it was the 25th of November, his birthday. Before going to sleep, he wished he could have a friend to play and talk with. The next morning, when he woke up, he went to have breakfast. When he was about to sit down, someone said his name. When he turned around and saw Rocky, a little brownish puppy, he knew his wish had come true. He realized Rocky wasn't a normal dog, he was special, because he could talk. Muza was sure Rocky would be his friend until the end. The bullying at school went on until Pet Day arrived. Pet Day, as the name says it is the day when you take your Pet to school. So Muza took Rocky to school. When they arrived, everyone started laughing at them but Rocky suddenly shouted:” STOP!”. Everyone stared at him in surprise. From that day onwards, Muza has been the most popular boy at school. After that day he felt he was part of the class! Authors: Olivia María Clara Victoria Serra Lucas

Dear Lina, We are writing to you because we wanted to thank you for your story and e-mail. We loved the idea of your kangaroo boy. We enjoyed your story a lot. We also enjoyed discussing Roald Dahl s´style in your story because you included many of his writing features like humor, details, exaggeration and fantasy. We live in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and we go to a school called Palermo Chico. We are in seventh form. Here we have a lot of interesting customs: For example, we like eating dulce de leche that is like nutella but with a light brown colour. It´s very good! If you ever come here, you must try it. We are also used to drinking mate and dancing tango. Here, at school girls usually play hockey and boys rugby and soccer. On Saturdays girls often go shopping and boys play play station. On Sundays people like going to the Monumental or to the Bombonera, the most important soccer stadiums. We loved writing our story and also the idea of sharing this project with people from another country, because it is a wonderful experience. We’ll be waiting for your feedback. Love, Olivia, Victoria, Lucas, Maqui

THE BUMP St. Patrick school had a special student called Sophie. Although Sophie looked like an ordinary girl, she wasn’t ordinary at all. She couldn’t control her bad-temper. When she got angry, she wanted to destroy all the things that were around her. The last boyfriend she had, had suffered her bad-temper too.One day, when Sophie was cooking a cake she got angry because the cake got overcooked. She was so angry she smashed it on her boyfriend’s face. Poor boy now he is still in hospital with a black eye. On her way to school one day, Sophie was walking when another girl caught her attention. She was a blue eyed, good looking girl, with blond curly hair. Her name was Lisa. Suddenly, Sophie got distracted by a huge, colorful commercial and BOOM! they bumped into each other. Later on when Sophie got to school she felt strange. During break time someone punched her arm on purpose but Sophie didn’t react aggressively. In fact, she smiled back. In Stanford school Lisa was working on an art project when her friend Julie accidentally spoilt her project by pushing her hand while she was painting. When that happened she got furious and started punching Julie. It was very strange for her to get that angry. She was a really peaceful girl. So, next time you are walking on a sidewalk you might want to try and avoid everyone in your way. Who knows what might happen if you don’t? Josefina Agustina Wenceslao Cameron

Hi Lina! Thank you for your e-mail and your story. We enjoyed it very much. We think your story was very interesting and very funny. We are using it for a project called “Roald Dahl Project”. In your story we saw a lot of writing devices that Roald Dahl uses, like magic, exaggeration, and the presence of animals. We’ve loved working on this project with your story. Our life in Buenos Aires seems to be very different from yours in London. For example, in your country they drink tea and here we drink mate. Buenos Aires is a beautiful city with a lot of places to visit. However, it can be crowded and it is very noisy too. Girls here love going shopping and meeting with their friends but boys like playing playstation and playing football. We have already visited London and we think it is a wonderful city; you are very lucky to live there. We enjoyed writing our story and we loved the idea of sharing it with English kids. We are looking forward to getting your feedback.

Love, Josefina Agustina Wenceslao Cameron

INVISIBLE? There I was in the class. It was another awful day of my awful existence. I was standing in the middle of the class giving my presentation. As always, my classmates didn’t see me. I was invisible for them. I felt I didn’t exist, really. I had to do something. That day after school, I ran into the magic forest Word has it is called like that because there lives a magic fairy that has a potion for every single problem. I was planning to ask her if she had a potion for invisible boys. When I arrived at the forest I looked for the fairy ´s house. When I finally found it I knocked the door. The fairy gave me a warmth welcome and asked about my problem. I told her how I felt and she gave me a strange green potion. “ Are you sure you want to drink it? It is a very strong potion”, she said. . “If the world will see me, yes”, I answered without much thinking. I was really happy. I ran to my house singing: “La-la-la my friends will see me! Yes, yes, yes!” When I arrived home, the first thing I did was drink the potion, obviously. It didn’t make any effect until the next morning. I woke up early that morning, as always. I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, washed my hair and as always, I looked at myself in the mirror. But when I did… Oh my Gosh. ``Are these horns? Is that really a bunny tail? Oh no! Please tell me these are not lion paws!´´ I was terrified but I had to go to school! If only I had told my mother. But I hadn’t, so I had to go to school. Although it was extremely hot outside, I went to school with a winter hat, very big trousers (my brother’s) and gloves. The fairy had clearly given me the wrong potion! When I arrived at school, I noticed my classmates were staring at me. Their look was not a good one, but but now they were looking at me and that was a miracle. I asked them what

was wrong and they started laughing. My teacher entered to the class and asked me to take the hat and the gloves off. I had no choice. And the bullying began. “Look at the silly bunny tail!” “Hahaha!” “You look so weird!” “And ugly!” After school I ran into the magic forest and I looked for the fairy´s house again. When I explained her what had happened she said: “I warned you that the potion was strong. Anyway, it worked! Haven’t your classmates seen you?” Yes, they have, but.… I didn’t know that I would look so weird!” “All right then”, she said, “I’ll fix this” Now the fairy looked for the right potion inside all her boxes and when she found it she gave it to me. I said goodbye and went back home. When I arrived, I drunk the potion and l looked myself again! I was so relieved! The following day, when I went to school, I thought that I would be invisible again…but guess what! I was wrong! Now I had a lot of fun with my new friends. They all wanted to know what had happened to me. I was so popular now! It felt good! By: Delfi, Carmen, Delfín, Teo

Dear Lina, To begin with, thank you for your story. It was very good and very useful for us. We loved it. Although at the beginning there were some things that struck us, then we understood that they were parts of the exaggeration Roald Dahl uses in his stories. It was a very effective story; you were able to mix fantasy with real life. Good job! Let us tell you a little bit about us. We enjoy our life here in Buenos Aires but we have to admit that life in London might be more secure. Nowadays, life here can be rather insecure. For us it is common to spend lot of time with our friends and family. For example, to get together in the club or in a shopping mall. Also, we really enjoy music like tango. Buenos Aires is a big city with lots of people, too. We would love to visit London one day, that would be great! We are now working on a project on Roald Dahl. We really enjoy it and we would love to share our story with you. The idea of sharing this with English kids is awesome because itÂ´s very good for our learning. We would really like you to give us your feedback because it would be really useful for us to know what you think of our story. Best wishes, DelfĂn, Delfina, Carmen, Teo.

Unicorn Boy Hi! My name is Tom. I don’t like myself at all. I wish I could be a unicorn because that’s what Sally likes. I’m short and thin. I like studying and I wear glasses. As a result, I don’t have any friends. I’m head over heels in love with a girl love Sally. She is tall, thin and has blonde hair and green eyes. Besides, she is the most beautiful girl in the school. She knows me but i’m invisible for her. I know she likes unicorns, that’s all I know. One afternoon, when I came back from school I started studying. Suddenly my mother came and asked me to help her to collect my brother’s old stuff. My brother is ten years older than me and he left the house 5 months ago, to study something in an Argentinian’s university. He didn’t want to tell us what was he going to study. Anyway, I was collecting his stuff when something fell off from a box. I bent to reach the object. It was a little box with a lot of dust. Inside the box there was a sheet of paper and a pen. I remember the pen looked a little bit strange, oldish and old fashioned. In the sheet of paper It read: “ Write one wish you would like to come true” I thought it was a joke. However, I wrote:” I wish I could be a unicorn” because like that Sally would love me. Nothing happened, so I went to bed. Next morning, when I woke up, I felt strange, but I didn’t mind. When I went to brush my teeth I looked at the mirror and… “ Oh my gosh!!” “That’s a unicorn horn”. Yes, it was true, a horn, was coming out of my forehead! And suddenly a unicorn tail came out of my bottom. I was struck by panic. Suddenly, my mom called me to go to school. I told her I was feeling bad, so she went to work. I went to my brother’s room and I looked for that magic sheet of paper. When I found it and I tried to erase my words, but it was impossible, every time I tried to erase it, the letters would appear again. Days passed and I had to go to school, so I put on a big hat to hide my horn and big trousers to hide the tail. The children at school called me a lot of names like “unicorn boy” and “big trousers. I asked Sally if she loved me this way and she laughed at me and told me I was a freak. She also said I better the other way. When I came home in the afternoon and I went to my bedroom I saw my brother that had came to Cánada to visit us, with an angry face. I asked him what was happening and he told me that someone had stolen him one sheet of paper and a pen. When I took off my hat and the trousers he realized it had been me. He told me that he had been to a strange 12

university to learn how to be a wizard. He took out of his pocket a magic wand. He said strange words like “Alakazam” and something like that and my horn and my tail were gone! Unbelievable! My own brother was a wizard! When I went to school, Sally got close to me and told me I was better like this and that I had to accept myself. She asked me if I wanted to be her friend and I accepted. From that day onwards Sally has been my BFF. I will tell you a secret, though. I will soon asked her if she wants to be my girlfriend. Cristobal Azul Sofia y Diógenes

Hi Lina!! Thank you for sending us your story. It was awesome. We think your story shows many of the features in Roald Dahl's style. It is an effective story because it is catching and amusing. It was useful for our own story. We really enjoyed working in groups, and putting our ideas together. In our own story, we tried to use some of the features that Roald Dahl used in his stories. We included humour, exaggerated characters and fantasy. We wrote our stories as part of a school project. Buenos Aires is a big and noisy city. We like our city and we think it's very lively and it has a lot of green spaces. One of the best and most typical things we have is mate and meat. We get together with our friends and drink mate and we have a lot of fun. Meat is a must here because we have the best meat in the world. Life here in Buenos Aires is peaceful and fun. We have also got a great weather because it's never too hot or too cold and it doesn't usually rain. We would love to visit London, it seems to be an interesting city because you have so many different cultures living together. Well, our story is about a boy whose life changes completely when he accepts himself. We enjoyed this project a lot because we had a lot of fun and we think we worked very well as a team. We love the idea of sharing this with you and your friends as it's a brand new experience for us. We have never done something like this before. We would love to have your feedback. We have to stop writing now because we have to go to break. Love, Cristobal

Azul Sofia Di贸genes

NEVER GROWING LION I was five year old when Rocky came to my life. Rocky is my lion pet, he is my only friend in the whole word. My parents bought it so I wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be alone when they weren't around. My father travelled a lot and my mother worked very hard too; she went to work in the morning and arrived home at night. Rocky and I are like brothers, we have a lot of fun and we like playing football together. When Rocky started growing up I was afraid he would grow too much and I would have to send him to the ZOO. I didn't want that, so I talked with my parents, but not too much because they didn't seem to have time. So one day, I decided to create my own potion to prevent Rocky from growing. It took me a lot of time to learn about magic. I made lots of potions but none of them worked. I found it impossible to get what I wanted and I thought it was stupid to keep on trying. However, I kept on trying, but the ingredients were either disgusting or difficult to find. They were: blond female hair (human), nail of a foot of an old woman, a shark tooth, ashes of a volcano, and finally a fish eye. The blond female hair was the easiest to get because my mother's hair is blond. The nail of a foot of an old woman was the most disgusting: I got it for my grandma. The shark tooth wasn't that difficult to get, it was just expensive. The ashes of a volcano eruption were really difficult to get, but I could find them in a junk shop, after hours of searching. The eye of a fish was the most boring one because it took me a lot of time to fish one and take its eye off. Luckily, my potion worked and guess what? My lion is still with me 20 years later! BY: MATiAS, ANGELES, CAMILA AND FRANCISCO

Hi Lina! Thank you for the story. We enjoyed it a lot and it made us laugh. We used it for a school project about Roald Dahl and it helped us to discuss his writing features. We think you used most of them: humor, magic and exaggeration. For us your story was very effective because it was similar to Roald Dahl's stories. Living here in Argentina isn't as different as living in London. Buenos Aires is also a noisy city, full of people. we love drinking mate with friends and we also like “milanesas” and “empanadas” . Here we usually go to theatres. Girls also go to the shopping mall and boys love going to football stadiums. Food here is great: our meat is one of the best ones in the world. We would love visiting London because there are great buildings and it is a very interesting city because of your culture and history. We wrote a story like yours. We hope you like it! We enjoyed doing this project a lot. We love the idea of sharing IT with you. Tell us what you think about our story. We want your feedback! We would love you to come to Argentina and visit us in our school, it is very big. If you can COme, we can show you how we work here. XOXOXO, Mati, Angie, Cami and Fran. The Magic Bag 3000 There was a strange and spooky town in the middle of nowhere, that had a very suspicious path. Jake Question, a very curious boy that wanted to know everything about everything, set on a journey to find out what mysteries the mysterious path had. When he got to the path he immediately found out that there was nothing except for a suspicious cow with a bag on its back. Suddenly, a gigantic flash of lightning appeared across the sky, and the cow was suddenly next to him! The cow gave him the magic bag and told him to promise to protect it. The next day, Jake, woke up thinking everything had been a nightmare, but it hadn’t. Next to his bed there was, on a chair, the bag. When he was going to school, he wished to have a jetpack to get to school quicker because he was late. All of a sudden, he felt his feet weren’t touching the floor anymore! His bag was literally flying! His bag wasn’t a bag any 16

more, it was a jetpack! He couldn’t believe what was happening! He was FLYING!!!!!!!! It was his most precious experience! That day had been a very very memorable day for Jake. But unluckily, his friends found out about the bag and wanted it too! So one day, they started fighting for it. While they were fighting, a flash of lightning appeared across the sky. Suddenly, the cow was next to Jake. “You, you promised me you would protect the bag! Now I’ll go away with the bag and you will never see me again!” said the angry cow and disappeared. The next day, Jake woke up and he didn’t have a clue of what had happened the day before. But guess what! the bag was not there any longer! And neither was the cow! More, Juani, Eze and Viole.

Hi Lina, Thanks for your e-mail and your story. We are students at Colegio Palermo Chico school and for this project we have worked in groups. We are 12 years old. Your story was great. We loved the main character. You have a great imagination and we love that. In our opinion the first part was a little bit shocking, though, the description of jackaroo was a bit too strong We really enjoyed working on this project and sharing our ideas and stories with you. We also loved discussing Roald Dahl’s style. Buenos Aires, our city, is a very lively place. We are used to eating certain things that are typical in our country such as: empanadas, mate, dulce de leche, barbecue, and many other things. We recommend you to try them. You could also go to some other places that are beautiful, for example: Iguazú Falls, or Bariloche. We hope you enjoy our story as much as we enjoyed yours. You are a great writer so never stop writing. We will be waiting for your feedback, Hugs, More, Juani, Eze and Viole

The Invisible Boy BOOM! Someone slammed the door; I heard my mother screaming, “Leave, get out of this house right now!” The next thing I heard was my father with a bag coming towards the door. I heard my mother crying all night. I didn't know what to do, I felt useless. The next morning mom woke me up quickly, made breakfast and sent me to school. I arrived at school feeling I had been run over by a lorry. Tommy, my best and only friend, was smiling from ear to ear as usual. He is my only friend because at school I feel invisible, like nobody sees me. I told Tommy everything that had happened the day before. He was shocked. While I was leaving, the prefect stopped me and told me, “Your mother called and said that from now onwards every day after school you have to go to your uncle’s place.” This

was a nightmare! My uncle’s face reminded me of an evil clown and his eyes were like two endless dark holes. I arrived at my uncle's house or as he wants me to call him, “Mr. Wreck.” When I came in he was waiting for me with a sneer. The afternoon was all the same, we had ugly tea, with ugly cookies, and then he brought some ugly muffins with the ugliest chocolate chips in the whole word. We argued about my haircut; he said I looked like a porcupine and I said I looked like a lion, for two long hours. Do you understand how mean and annoying he was? He didn’t let me drink or eat anything until I had done all my homework and cleaned all the house; he even made me massage his feet! And the worst thing ever is that I would have to go single afternoon because my mom was never at home and dad lived in another house. That day I went back home, went into my room, looked at myself in the mirror and saw nothing. I couldn’t believe it! I shook my body, appeared for a second and then disappeared again. I tried making all kind of movements but nothing happened, until I snapped my fingers and appeared again. I was very happy I had powers! And I could control them! The next morning I told Tommy to meet me at school fifteen minutes earlier. He had to help me create a marvelous plan to take revenge on Mr. Wreck, but first I had to tell him all about my powers. At first he didn't believe me but then when I showed him, he did. We talked, discussed, and came up with the perfect plan with my powers. I went to Mr. Wreck’s house as usual but this time it would be different. When he was looking for a broomstick for me to clean with, I threw something to the floor and then acted naturally. “Did you hear anything?” he asked me. “No, why?” I said, “Are you scared?” “No never!” he said in a shaky voice. Everything was going perfect, one more thing and he would be on the other side of the planet. He went to his bedroom; I turned myself invisible and followed him. While he was looking for some cream to massages his feet, I started moving things around. He looked as if he had seen a ghost. “Aaaaaggh,” he screamed like a baby calling for his mother. After that day nobody ever saw him again. Rumour has it that he didn’t even take a suitcase; he just left running like a lunatic. Jazmín, Guillermina and Sara.

Be Careful What You Wish For! “I want this, I hate that, I want everything for me! ” It was just a bad day for Willy Wantie, who was just a spoiled boy, who was just a greedy boy, who just wanted everything. Although he treated people the worst way they could be treated, he was a super intelligent boy who loved school. Next to him lived in a very small house, a very small woman, who came from China with an American accent and Indian clothes. But the worst thing was to try to understand her strange language. It was a mix of Chinese, Japanese, Indian and others. She was just like a witch. While Willy was going back home from school, he started complaining, over and over again. It wasn't an unusual thing: it was so common to hear him shout and fuss. The horrible witch was sick and tired of him. So she invited him to her small and cold house to play a trick on him. It was a black dirty house full of strange things. There he felt scared because of the strange stuff that filled the room. It gave him a frightening feeling. While he was looking around the house, the witch gave him a drink which gave him everything he wanted every time he complained. He thought it was a normal lemonade ,so as he was thirsty, he drank it. Time passed and he started feeling dizzy and suddenly saw stars , unicorns of many colours and fairies. He was getting crazy for a moment. He was so confused he went back home. The next day he woke up in his bed. He had forgotten everything. He felt as every ordinary day. And as the morning started, he started complaining. “Mum,” he yelled. “I want waffles, pizza, lollipops,chocolate and orange juice.” “I'm not an octopus to do everything!” Mum said “I wish you were an octopus,” Willy replied. 21

And PUFF! Six arms grew out of his mother´s body and right then he had his breakfast served. He couldn't believe his eyes, he had an eight-handed mother! Off he went to school where all his classmates were arguing, so all of a sudden, he screamed, “I wish you were all pigs who danced to salsa. That way nobody would bother me.” And OINK! The music started playing and the pigs (including the teacher) were dancing to salsa. At the beginning it was fun but some time later he noticed he had no one to talk to. So as no one could teach him anything, he went back home. There he looked for his mom. He couldn't find his eight-handed mother. So he remembered she could be in the basement. In the basement there was a flood and suddenly he saw an orange octopus. His mother had turned into an octopus and he could do nothing! He was going upstairs when he saw the witch sitting in the sofa. Suddenly, he remembered everything. “Ahhh!” he yelled. “I didn't know you were coming here!” “Do you like your new power?” she said in a spooky voice. “No, no, no! I can't believe you gave me this horrible power. I hate it! Please,give me my life back. I've already lost my mother, my classmates and my teacher and now that I have this power it is very boring to have everything I want.” “You first have to wish for it,” the woman said. Finally he wished for everything to came back to normal and as soon as he said it the sky turned black and BOOM!! He was in his bed as every day ready to go to school. As the morning started he didn't complain. He had learned the lesson: it's no good to be greedy and fussy. We should value what we have. Cayetana, Violeta, Enrique and Juan

Dear Lina , Hola! That means “hello” in Spanish. How are you? Thank you for writing a letter to us.There are four children in our group, and we go to Palermo Chico School. We've read your story; we liked it so much we would like to give you some feedback on it. It was an inspiring story which helped us writing ours. Your beautiful text had lots of Roald Dahl's features. For example, you invented words like the boy's name, Jackaroo. Also you exaggerated and used humour. Analyzing this allowed us work on something called the Roald Dahl project, which consisted in working on some of this writer’s texts and then writing our stories. We hope you like them! You told us about your beautiful city, London, so we want to tell you about Argentina. Our mother tongue is Spanish, so you might find some little mistakes in our texts. Argentinian people love to eat asado, which is grilled meat. A traditional drink here in mate -boiled water with some herbs. At school our religion is Catholicism. Buenos Aires is a great city, though it’s quite noisy. We go to school during the week and at the weekends we often go to the countryside. Do you know about any Argentinian people? Lionel Messi, for example? Some of us have visited London and we think it is wonderful city. What is it that you like most about your city? We liked working on this project very much and loved the idea of sharing it with English kids, because it helped us learn about other cultures. We hope you like working on this project too. We’ll be waiting for your feedback! Best wishes, Cayetana, Violeta, Juan and Enrique

The Super-Amazing-Galactic-Glue ‘Zack, Emily! Wake up or you'll be late for school‘ Their mother squeaked. Zack jumped out of his bed and told Emily through his mind, ‘Emily wake up! we‘ll be late!‘ When they arrived at school they saw a boy that was looking at them in an angry way. This boy was as tall as a giraffe, he had gigantic red eyes, he was as thin as a skeleton and he had such a terrifying look that he seemed to have a deadly gaze. ‘Zack, he is looking at us in a very weird way,‘ Emily told Zack through her mind. ‘I think he looks cool,‘ Zack answered. Zack approached him and started talking to him. ‘You must be the new kid, right?´ Zack said. ‘Yes, got a problem?‘ said James. ‘Children sit down,‘ said Lili, the teacher. For Lili‘s age she seemed to be an ancient relic. She was tall and plump. She hated all children, but for whatever reason all children adored her. Except Zack and Emily. They didn't seem to be affected by the teacher´s odd charming spell. At lunchtime, Zack and James were sitting together and chatting. Emily was walking past then when suddenly she dropped a glass of water on James’ head. James went mad and started yelling at her. Zack defended his sister by slapping James with a slice of pizza. The following day James pinched and kicked the twins because of what had happened they day before. Zack and Emily were very confused because they thought they were friends! The same thing happened for five days in a row, so the twins were very angry and they decided to take revenge. So they made up a perfect plan, a plan that could not fail. The brightest plan. The next day they would put their plan to work. The plan was like this: they would spread some butter on the school floor for James to slide across the hall. Then as he was

sliding, they would throw some Super - Amazing - Galactic - Glue all over his body. After all this, they would pour on him a ton of feathers they had got from their pillows. When the plan was carried out, it worked! Zack and Emily´s master plan worked amazingly! Above all the kids in his class laughed at him the whole day and they also called him “chicken” for the rest of primary school. Even Lilly, the teacher, laughed her head off until she almost died, although she was in a bad mood as she always was. ‘We did it!‘ said both Zack and Emily with their brainy brains. James never, ever dared to bother children any more. Valen, Rochi, Matias, Mateo Dear Lina, Hi! First of all, thank you for both your story and your email. We have finished writing our story and we are very impatient to share it with you and your friends. On the other hand, we have read your story and we think it is very funny! We discovered that you used many characteristics that Roald Dahl also used, so your story helped us a lot and we enjoyed very much. We also liked learning about Roald Dahl´s style, just like you, right? We like him because he is our favorite British author. Our life in Argentina is very different from yours. Our customs are also very different; for example on Saturdays we have asados with all our friends and family. Asado is a kind of barbecue. Another famous food is empanada. They are meat or ham and cheese covered with dough. Our traditional drink is mate, that is hot water with special herbs. The most famous types of dances are tango and folklore. We live in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. It´s a beautiful city with lots of places to visit, like the Obelisco and Puerto Madero.

Now we'll tell you about our story. It is about a pair of twins that have telepathy. They meet a boy, called James, that starts bullying them because of a misunderstanding, so they think of a plan to take revenge. OK, that's all for now. We hope you write back! Best wishes, Rochi, Valen, Matias and Mateo

Five years ago, a boy called Timmy had a terrible, horrible and very bad life. He was ten years old and went to school like any ordinary boy with the exception that he had a secret but not a little one, a very big one. His father loved him a lot and wanted him to be happy and his mother had died some years before. Timmy worked in a candy shop to earn money to buy a new bike. The owner of the candy shop was a sweet and very nice woman called Annie that loved Timmy. At school, the person he hated the most was his teacher Martha, that horrible dinosaur face (as she called her) who pinched and mocked the children. One day, when Timmy arrived from school his dad looked strange, so Timmy asked him what was happening. His father told him that he had a new girlfriend that was his teacher, Martha!! At first, Timmy said nothing and then he told him that he was very happy for him but he really wasn’t at all, it was one of the worst days in his life. A month passed by, and Martha went to live to Timmy’s house with her two nine-yearold cruel twins. Her sons broke everything in the house, especially Timmy’s toys and stuff. Timmy’s secret was that he wasn’t a normal boy, he had superpowers!! And he could do many things with them but he didn’t like using them. The only person that knew about them was his father. Some days later, he was at the candy shop and Martha told the twins to stay there because she had to go shopping. Timmy reluctantly stayed with them. Suddenly, they

started breaking everything and Timmy didn’t know how to stop them! Annie arrived and saw Timmy picking some candies up, so she thought that he had made that mess! She was very disappointed and told Timmy about it. Timmy decided that this was the moment in years to use his powers, though he was a bit scared. With his mental powers, he fixed every single jar, but the candies weren’t there anymore; the evil twins had eaten them all. When he arrived home in tears, he told his dad about everything that had happened and that he really hated Martha. His dad told him he really didn’t love Martha that much as he thought he did before, and that he noticed she was very cruel and mean. In fact, he had thought about breaking up, and what she and her sons did was the last straw. Timmy hugged his father and asked him if he could talk with Annie and explain her everything, so he accepted. That same day, they went to the candy shop and when Annie and Timmy’s dad saw each other for first time, they fell in love instantly. The problem of the candy shop was solved and Annie and Timmy’s father got married some months later. Timmy was thrilled, and the family lived happily ever after. Giovanna, Juan Cruz, Francisco and Josefina

Dear Lina, Thank you for writing to us. We really liked your story! We think it follows Roald Dahl’s style because you used supernatural things and exaggeration. You know what? At school, we learnt certain things about Roald Dahl and his style, too. We worked on some of Roald Dahl’s characters, and we read many of his stories, like The Magic Finger or Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. Finally, in groups, we wrote some stories for you and your friends. Hope you like them! Do you want to know about us? We are from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Some of our classmates have visited London and they loved it. In our country we have some strict laws too, but we can write on money, although it isn’t very nice. We eat barbecue and play football. Our flag is light-blue and white with a sun in the middle. Do you know anything about Argentina? Have any of your classmate been here? We have many beautiful places like the Iguazú Falls in Misiones or the Perito Moreno Glaciar. Let us tell you about our story. It’s about a boy whose father marries his terrible teacher. We hope you enjoy it! We liked the idea of sharing this with English children! We would love to hear your opinion about our stories. Looking forward to your reply. Love, Josefina, Giovanna, Juan Cruz and Francisco

The Secret Association Ella was extremely poor. She hated her life. She was short and thin. She had dark hair, honey-coloured eyes, and a thousand freckles. Two pigtails. She looked like a sweet candy. She wasn't sociable. At her state school, although she was a hater of gym, she was marvelous at artistic gymnastics, because she was very flexible. One day, in gymnastics class, she noticed she was elastic. ZAS!! Her arm was as long as a snake. Her teacher noticed that Ella was a different kind of child. Everybody called ‘‘ELLAstic girl’’ but she didn't like it. She hated people when they called her names. Her teacher was strict, mean and cruel. So she said to Ella, “What has happened to you this class, little girl?” “Nothing, I was just trying to do our exercises,” Ella answered fearfully. “Well, you’re doing them the wrong way, so you have to do 20 crunches more. NOW or I will punish you!” the teacher barked. The teacher stared at Ella with pleasure while she was suffering. She thought, “Mm, this girl will be perfect for my association of supernatural children. I will take her with the others to drain their powers so I can control the country." Do you know what happened to Ella? Well, that afternoon she saw two giant men, as tall as the Everest that were wearing black clothes. They took Ella as fast as they could. But where? She didn’t know and she didn’t ask. When Ella arrived at the mysterious place, she saw that there were children with different powers. One of them was running as fast as a cheetah, he was practising on a treadmill. Another was throwing fire. A girl turned invisible, over and over again. Incredible! Ella couldn't believe her eyes. It was as huge as a palace, in the center there was like a small town. She could see a light coming out of a glass room. It was a bad place and uncomfortable.

Suddenly a woman who was wearing a red mask appeared. Ella didn't recognize her, she seemed to be the boss. The woman told the guards to keep a close eye on her. Ella asked the woman when she would see her mom but as the woman was talking with the guards, they didn't listen to Ella's words and continued talking. Ella looked at the mysterious woman for some seconds and realized she was her artistic gym teacher! She knew she had to leave that place at once. But how? At lunchtime Ella told all the children about what she had heard and what the plan was like. Ella talked to a boy called Carl and decided to cook some cake that would make anyone who ate it fall asleep! At night Ella went with a group of children to leave the cake in the middle of the hall where the guards were patrolling. The hungry guards ate the cake in exactly two minutes! All the children managed to escape but Ella didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t reach the door because she wanted to be the last one and make sure that no one was left behind. She decided to lock the evil woman and the guards in the hall, since they were all sleeping like babies! After that, she called the police. Finally, when the police arrived, they arrested the woman and the guards.The chief police officer was so grateful that they decided to give a gift to Ella. As a reward, they gave her permission to replace that assosiation for a club where supernatural and ordinary children could have fun together and play with each other. Later, she said goodbye to Carl and they promised to meet when the club opened. When Ella got home, she hugged her mother. Mom was very happy because she had seen her daughter again! She told Mom all about the secret association. Mom listened carefully but she couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe her ears. Of course, Ella's mother didn't want her daughter to take artistic gym classes again! THE END Facundo Greta JuliĂĄn Micaela

Dear Lina, Hello! How are you? Our group wants to thank you for your letter and your story. Our favorite part of Kangaroo Boy was when the nurse said, “You have a horrible baby! You disgust me!” Also, we liked the moral. It’s true you have to be yourself! At school we worked on a Roald Dahl project that consisted in inventing a story with Roald Dahl's characteristics; we loved this project. What we enjoy most about Roald Dahl’s style is exaggeration. We liked the fact that in your story you included humour, exaggeration and detailed description. We understood it very well; it was very clear and easy-reading. Well, let us tell you about us. We are 12 years old and we live in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Our city is very noisy, like yours. Here it’s not so cold like in England. Have you ever heard about tango? Well, it’s our typical music style. Our typical food is “asado,” it’s kind of meat with sauce. It’s delicious! Do you know about our typical drink? It’s “mate”, which is like hot water with herbs. A sport we do here is polo. Do you know something about it? It’s a sport that consists in riding a horse and with a stick you have to hit a ball to score a goal. Do you know what our flag is like?

One day we would really like to visit London! Finally, we’d like to tell you that our story is about a girl with superpowers, hope you like it! We enjoyed sharing this story with you because it’s a new experience for us. We would like you to give us some feedback on it, if you don’t mind. Best wishes, Facundo, Greta, Micaela and Julian

A Second Chance This story is about an abandoned baby called Eyebrush who had only one eye. When Eyebrush was born, doctors didn't know what had happened to him. His parents didn't like him because of his problem. So they left him all by himself in the street. He was placed inside a wooden box covered up with a blanket. His eye was hidden behind a mask. And outside the box it read, "Here is the most beautiful and ugliest baby in the world." It was dark and a kind lady named Sweety saw it. She couldn't help opening it. She picked up the box. When she got home and saw that the baby had only one eye she screamed. But after all she thought that a one-eyed baby was better than no baby at all. Six years later, Sweety married a man named Poch. Eyebrushâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foster parents realized that their child had a power: the gift of good luck and intelligence.What we didn't mention is that he had an evil and and jealous brother. He was called Rudy, and he wasn't good at school. Sweety and Poch always compared him to Eyebrush. That's why he hated his brother. Rudy always told his parents that he was the normal one. And that they had to pay more attention to him. The two siblings' relationship was complicated. Poch and Sweety always wanted their children to be friendly to each other. But Rudy hid Eyebrush's things and every time he was studying, he played very loud music. Once before Eyebrush's birthday, something unforgettable happened.When he was sleeping, Rudy cut Eyebrush's hair. Eyebrush was cross, and for a long time he didn't even talk to his brother. One day, Rudy and his family went to see a swimming competition at school.They were sitting at the first row. A man shot a gun, it was the sign for the competition to start. Rudy was caught by surprise, and jumped into the pool out of fear. Unfortunately he didn't know how to swim! Without thinking it twice, Eyebrush jumped into the swimming pool and saved his brother: he helped Rudy out!

That day, they started from scratch. They became really close, and spent most of their time together. They even shared their problems and fears. By Malena and Juana

Dear Lina, Thank you for sending us your story. It was amazing, we loved it! We liked the way you write and the way you described your characters. We enjoyed it a lot. We decided to start our Roald Dahl Project , and wrote a story â&#x20AC;&#x153;imitatingâ&#x20AC;? his writing style. We were asked to include exaggeration, mean adults, bright children and comparisons as Roald Dahl did. We are glad you used those features too! We will tell you something about us. We live in Buenos Aires, Argentina.Our mother tongue is Spanish and at school we learn English. Buenos Aires is a big city with a beautiful coast. Something typical about Argentina is the mate: it is a hot drink. Other typical foods are the delicious meat, dulce de leche (it is like caramel milk) and empanadas. Most of us have visited London and we were amazed by its beauty. As regards the story we had to write, it was quite difficult for us because it was group work and it was tough to decide what conflict our tale had. So we ended up writing two different stories, ha! We would like you to send us some feedback and to tell us something more about you as well.Why do you like being creative? Would you like to live where your dad was born? We really liked sharing this project with you, and we hope you write back to us. Best, Juana, Malen, Juan Bautista and Juan Igna