Cambia 2022

CAMBIA WRITERS IN THE SCHOOLS 2022

CAMBIA WRITERS IN THE SCHOOLS 2022

CAMBIA cambium \kam-bē-əm\ noun plural cambia, \-bē-ə\ The live, actively growing, layer of a tree. The cambium is one cell thick. It repeatedly divides itself to form new wood and causes the tree to grow and expand.

This is a Log Cabin Book, an imprint of THE CABIN 801 South Capitol Boulevard, Boise, Idaho 83702 (208) 331-8000 thecabinidaho.org (c) 2022 The Cabin All rights reserved.

Book design by Jocelyn Robertson Printed and bound in the USA in an edition of 100 copies.

WRITERS IN THE SCHOOLS RESIDENCIES ARE MADE POSSIBLE BY GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM: Idaho Commission on the Arts National Endowment for the Arts Harvest Foundation Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation First Interstate Bank J. R. Simplot Foundation Idaho Power Bank of Idaho Boise Cascade ArTPack

WE EXTEND SINCERE THANKS TO THE FACULTY AND ADMINISTRATION OF: Jeferson Elementary School Riverside Elementary School Ustick Elementary School Valley View Elementary School White Pine Elementary School Adams Elementary School Grace Jordan Elementary School Sage International School of Boise Garield Elementary School Morley Nelson Elementary School Whitney Elementary School Whittier Elementary School Rose Hill Montessori School Cardinal Academy Frank Church High School Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

CONTENTS Introduction • 1 JEFFERSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL • 3 RIVERSIDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL • 9 USTICK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL • 15 VALLEY VIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL • 31 WHITE PINE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL • 43 ADAMS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL • 49 GRACE JORDAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL • 57 SAGE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BOISE • 83 GARFIELD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL • 89 MORLEY NELSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL • 107 WHITNEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL • 111 WHITTIER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL • 119 ROSE HILL MONTESSORI SCHOOL • 125 CARDINAL ACADEMY • 131 FRANK CHURCH HIGH SCHOOL • 137 SOUTHWEST IDAHO JUVENILE DETENTION CENTER • 143 Teaching-Writer Biographies • 153 About The Cabin • 157 Index • 159

INTRODUCTION Find wonder here. Find singing. Find voices celebrating.

Welcome, reader. You hold the latest version of Cambia, the anthology of student creative writing from The Cabin’s Writers in the Schools. Ater the pandemic forced a year break, Cambia returns illed with the imaginative creations of young artists from schools throughout the Treasure Valley. Yes, I did say artists, because that is what The Cabin does: we teach student writers they can be more than just student writers, that their imaginations—their words—can create alternate worlds, alternate versions of themselves, even.

It has been my privilege to be a teaching-writer for The Cabin for over two decades, serving this year at Frank Church High School and Ustick Elementary. Each year I have had the pleasure of leading students through the worlds of poems, stories, and memoirs, exposing them to the power of language, to the love of reading and writing. I teach them that words are more than just vessels for meaning, but also are building blocks with which they can construct new realities. They can build experiences for you, the invisible audience, to have. They can express and share their own unique way of experiencing the world. When thinking like an artist, each word learned is a new color on their artist’s palette, and each color has hues—if you allow me to continue the colors metaphor—that can provide a deeper actualization of the reality of their own design.

Harnessing language is harnessing power. Over my years of service I have oten noticed students generally dislike poetry. Not because poetry is bad, but because to them, and to many of their teachers, poetry is mysterious, confusing, even of putting. They don’t “get it.” I have enjoyed watching students’ eyes widen, their faces brightening with understanding, as we navigate the world of a poem together, and with that the joy of 1

watching them write their own poems with a new understanding of how to use their words to create—people, places!—from the depths of their imaginations; and further, through their words they can empower themselves. We learn together to consider and use words diferently: as tools, not only for self-discovery, but also to create and hone their own unique voice. Their words can empower them.

The last couple of years have been rough on all of us, but especially the young artists who ill these pages. In their words you will ind resilience, vitality, and possibility, along with alien worlds, talking animals, lowers, rhymes, rainbows, and the many faces of the moon. You will ind joy and sorrow, life and death. You will ind wonder. You will ind hope.

– Daniel Stewart, Teaching-Writer

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JEFFERSON ELEMENTARY Teaching-Writer Chris Mathers Jackson

I AM

Brandi Jeferson Elementary School I am as nice as a newborn kitten.

I am friendly as a butterly.

I am as beautiful as a dragon!

I follow rules like a good friend.

GEORGIE Rosie Jeferson Elementary School When I need help Georgie’s always right next to me, in my yellow and purple room with my oak colored lot. She once said, “If you just try, you can accomplish anything.” And every morning, she gives me a warming smile and I know that every day, she loves me and I love her and I’ll never, ever let go of her.

Another time we were waiting for the yellow bus to come, and we were very, very bored. So, I told her a joke and she chuckled, then hugged me. When we got on the bus, we sat alone.

We usually sat next to our best friends but they were gone, so she walked me to my line, then said, “Go say hi to your other friends,” smiled then let.

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SOL’S JOURNEY Jesse Jeferson Elementary School My name is Sol. I’m from Germany. In Germany I had a lot of friends and I knew a lot of people. I also had a big house. It had a brown roof and it was white and blue colored. In Germany, it did not have a lot of trees. Mostly it was miles and miles of land.

It was fun but I had to leave Germany for good.

I let Germany because of religious persecution and the Nazis.

When the Nazis came to my house they broke into my house. I was so scared and nervous because I didn’t want to be killed. So we went through the back door and to our car, then to a steam boat. It was scary because on the boat people were sick and poor.

Also it was cold and when I was looking around I saw someone get sea sick. It was gross. Also I was wearing brown pants and brown coat, with black shoes. It was very dark and my family and I were squished against a wall. “I hope I can get of this boat soon!” I said to my mom.

Next we inally arrive at Ellis Island. We went through the check up but my brother was sick. I was super sad. Every day I checked on my brother. On my birthday my brother was not sick. I was so happy! We celebrated my birthday I got no presents but it was ok.

Then we went on a train to Boise, Idaho. My mom and dad got jobs. Two years later my brother got a job in the military.

That is who I am.

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THE DAY YOU BEGIN Cora Jeferson Elementary School There will be times when you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you.

Maybe it is your hairstyle, or your clothes, or maybe you got new shoes and nobody likes them.

There will be times when you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you until the day you begin to share your stories.

You could share a story.

You might have been to a state, maybe Pennsylvania or Chicago.

You might like a book someone might be interested in.

ALI’S JOURNEY Bashir Jeferson Elementary School My brother said “run!” when the Kenyan army was attacking the refugee camp, but the plane was ready. I ran as fast as I could to get on the plane. The plane was leaving. I jumped on the plane. I was safe from the Kenyan army.

We got kicked out of our country because of war. We were sent to a refugee camp. We had no fresh water. We were sent to Angie Island. The boat was so crowded. They gave us nuts, but I wanted my traditional food. Then I was seasick.

Then I went to Boise. I was so excited. When we came to America, we had the best life ever. Five years later I got a job at Jeferson Elementary as a teacher.

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RIVERSIDE ELEMENTARY Teaching-Writer Sharon Hanson

SALMON ON THE FORTUNE AND GLORY RIVER (LUNE) Victoria Riverside Elementary School Waving golden tails, Glistening with your red scales, Relecting on water.

THE HARP Lucy Riverside Elementary School The orphans were getting settled in their cabins when the headmaster said, “Time for the irst campire of the annual orphanage camping trip.”

Cooper and his cabinmates inished getting settled and then walked to the campire area. Ater everyone was seated around the campire the headmaster told them the legend about a magical harp. “There is only one person who can play the harp, and if that person plays it, they will be the king or queen of music.”

That night Cooper could not stop thinking about the harp. He wanted to learn more about it. He decided to ind the harp.

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THE BIRD Chaewon Riverside Elementary School “Bird, oh bird, How is your beak so black, Black like the Night?”

“It is black because I am a Night bird Are you a bird?”

“No, but The monkey I Am” “I wanted to visit you, like just like you do.”

“Thank you,” the Monkey said.

ANIMAL POEM Colt Riverside Elementary School Snow leopard, how do you blend in the snow so well?

Cheetah, how do you run so fast like a car?

Cat, how do you jump so high?

Sloth, why are you so slow like a slug?

Firely, how are you so bright like a moon?

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RABBIT Cameron Riverside Elementary School A hilltop blooming in spring as the sun sets, A rabbit watches as the wind gently brushes the trees.

A drop of rain, the rabbit will lee under a redwood, Spring it will be soon, as it Slowly falls silent Please don’t get violent, Spring.

Now it is winter, the hilltop, covered in snow.

The rabbit is out there as it begins to snow. As the rabbit plays in the snow A fox approaches And chases the rabbit into a warm cozy hole Where the rabbit takes a long winter nap and slowly falls silent— for it is winter.

Don’t bother the cold.

Almost one year later, the leaves slowly fall. Our rabbit friend Is gone. The squirrel stashes nuts in his tree.

The ants march, and the leaves crunch under their little feet.

The Hilltop is dying, but don’t you worry: It will grow back in spring.

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USTICK ELEMENTARY

Teaching-Writers Chris Mathers Jackson, Hannah Rodabaugh, Daniel Stewart, Meg Freitag

TWO FOLK TALES Nathan Ustick Elementary School How the Gecko Got Regeneration Introduction: Hi, this is Gecko. He is ive. He eats insects.

The Story: Gecko lived in a hole in a tree. He couldn’t regenerate his tail, because way back he was told he couldn’t regenerate it because 1. It was April Fools’ and 2. For fun. He got scared when he realized it, and he tried to be as safe as he could be, but there were predators waiting out the door.

The Problem: He went out for some grub, but there was a lion right next to him. (For the record, I have no idea if lions eat geckos.) Then he realized his tail was gone, but it was a prank, and it grew back three days later.

How the Kangaroo Achieved the Power of a Pouch Kangaroo lives in a zoo. He was happy in the zoo, but nothing good lasts long, and one of the workers fell asleep.

On the “All Animals Escape Button, All of the Animals, Even the Dingoes,” the dingo saw the kangaroo and ran as fast as it could for the kangaroo.

Kangaroo got bitten, and ater a lot of pain, crying, and bandages, it turned into a pouch, and Kangaroo lived happily ever ater.

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THE BUTTERFLY THAT IS ORANGE Jessica Ustick Elementary School The butterly is orange like an orange. The butterly is black like a shadow. Its legs are small as an ant. Its wings are sot like grass.

The butterly lies fast like a cheetah. Its wings are calm like the wind when it lies, and I like it. It makes me feel happy and calm.

CELTIC QUEEN’S ADVENTURE (CHAPTER ONE) Dianchen Ustick Elementary School This is Celtic Queen. She lives in the forbidden castle next to the forbidden forest. She lives with her pet called Forbidden Red and her friend called Dark Pewter. Celtic Queen is 19 years old. Her castle has 46 bedrooms, 29 bathrooms, 11 kitchens, and over 200 people. She has black hair, white skin, and blue eyes.

She likes to go out and explore more land. She also loves to help her people. Her favorite foods are golden pizza, ice cream, and hot dogs. She’s afraid of blood, spiders, and snakes. She has also been through a lot of challenges, but she completed all of them.

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THE LAZY LIZARD (CHAPTER ONE) Zed Ustick Elementary School There once was a baby named Lazy Lizard that was just born. The lizard didn’t know that he had a talent. His talent is that he could run really fast.

Lazy Lizard and his family live in the forest. His eyes are red and black. His favorite thing to do is be lazy. He also does a little bit of magic tricks. One of his magic tricks is that he can talk for ive minutes. He eats lies and bugs. He can also ly for two minutes. He really likes to roughhouse for a hobby.

He is afraid of giant hawks. He is scared of giant hawks because hawks eat lizards. His secret is he loves cheese! There is one more thing about him: he hates mosquitos because they bug him.

SNOW TIGERS Heba Ustick Elementary School This story is about how snow tigers are more than cool, they’re awesome. Let’s get started. Their teeth are sharp as axes. Their fur coat is as lufy as a polar bear. Their claws are as sharp as knives. Their stripes are black as ink. Snow tigers are rare and might be extinct, but I don’t want that to happen because they’re just misunderstood, and they’re ighting for their family or their lives. Someday I will make their extinction stop.

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ODE TO SOFT SHELL CRABS Jason Ustick Elementary School They’re sot and you can eat it all.

I like the texture of it.

It smells good and it is really sot and squishy.

It tastes like fried shrimp kinda and put a little bit of salt on and love the crunch of the crabs. And I love it with a secret salsa that I use and it is good with BBQ.

I AM Jaxon Ustick Elementary School I am a huge wave of water.

I can control the ocean and my mind.

I splash onto the next level.

I am a giant building with a bunch of good people in it.

I am a pro gamer going on to the next level of life.

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COLORFUL GLASS SAPPHIRE Maddie Ustick Elementary School Colorful glass sapphire Like the overgrowing plants in untouched forests.

The lowing rivers that are free from ishermen and pollution.

Bears roam around the grassland and … chasing you.

Colorful glass sapphire like my favorite cuddle toy.

Colorful glass sapphire Like blueberries so juicy.

Farmer’s markets are totally the best place to get blueberries.

Carrots grow. Rivers low.

Squash sprout. Termites mount.

Apples fall. You can get them from malls.

Colorful glass sapphire like my BFF.

I AM Asshifa Ustick Elementary School I am fun Like crazy like my sister and mom.

I am a sister of 12 siblings that are fun and funny like me.

Crazy and working so so so so so much, non-stop talk, no relaxing cause you get called so much to do something.

I am funny So funny you laugh for hours.

I am a volcano that is so noisy you cover your ears and I erupt all over, ok scream.

That is me.

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I AM A GIRAFFE Larissa Ustick Elementary School I am a girafe. I always smell people when they come to me. I eat their hair because I think it’s grass, and I eat their food and run around and play. I love my colors. I have the best sight in the zoo. I am the color of the sun. I have a long tongue. I taste the fresh grass and the fresh air on my face. I hear the smooth wind breezing through the beautiful trees.

HOW THE MOUNTAIN WAS MADE Alexander Ustick Elementary School There was a lat ground, and there was a bear. One day, the ground was tired of being lat. It called its friend bear to look for a hammer so bear could bonk the lat ground so it could be a mountain. Bear looked for a hammer, and later, bear found a hammer. He went back to the ground and bonked ground. The ground started to grow tall. The ground was not a ground, but a mountain. Bear climbed the mountain, and bear and mountain were so happy.

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HAIKU Mohamed Ustick Elementary School Swimming is the best.

Some might say sunsets Are better in the water.

RIVER Skylar Ustick Elementary School Icy cold river Smells like amazing fresh rain.

Water rushing rocks.

I AM A FALCON Rosa Ustick Elementary School I am a falcon. I ly through the air. There is so much to see. I hear the leaves rustle. I am a falcon. I ly through the air. It is nice and quiet up in the sky. I am a falcon. I ly in the sky. I dive and tuck in my wings and dive. I am a falcon. There is so much to see.

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INSTRUCTIONS TO THE ARTIST Avery G. Ustick Elementary School I wish my head to be half face half wolf and in the background I want a snowy snowy forest and the beautiful northern lights above and my head should be a book size, big.

My face should include long sharp teeth and nice sapphire blue eyes. There should be me crawling in the snow carrying two wolves on my back and those wolves are my brothers who passed when I was born.

I have to have an angry look of revenge and sadness and lots of other wolves behind me looking the same. Also include a cabin and in the cabin a baby girl wolf that represents my two-year-old sister.

HOT Eythan Ustick Elementary School My insides absolutely laming.

My red-hot blood turning into smoke.

My skin burning slowly, red as lava.

All the ire from my eyes: spreading from person to person.

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ODE TO BOOKS Quinten Ustick Elementary School in the frosty cold cabin I looked for my individual knowledge I found my knowledge creators and drited of to dreamland. I imagine the knowledge low through my brain I inished imagining the knowledge was lowing through my bloodstream and into the dreamworld I go

A QUESTION Ewan Ustick Elementary School I wonder who we were in our past lives? I wonder if our past lives’ atoms are right in front of us? I already try stuing it in my ear so don’t bother trying. Am I George Washington, Albert Einstein, or maybe Dr. Seuss? Or are you? We might never know, but you should enjoy your life now, and if you want to ind your next life, don’t rush.

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LOST IN NEVADA Ainsley Ustick Elementary School Izzy is 10 years old. She has short, brown hair, white cloth clothing, and a bag full of supplies on her back. She is shy and loves to draw. She is nice.

Izzy was born in Nevada. She has only her twin and baby sisters.

Her twin is identical and is named Bella. The baby is 3 and named Katy.

She ran away with her siblings during a ire and got isolated.

She thinks about her parents. She loved them and now they are gone.

Izzy leaves home when her house burns down. She would have stayed. She hopped on a horse with her siblings. She also grabbed a little food and water. They go toward the desert.

She gets lost in Nevada with her twin and baby sister. They ind an old map and head home. It was halfway buried in the ground when they found the map. She wonders if they’re going the wrong way. Izzy misses her parents a lot. She fears she will never ind her parents. She hopes she does though.

The desert gets burning hot during the day and freezing in the night. There are no signs of life of plants anywhere. The only sound is the wind. There is a bitter smell in the air. There are lots of dry bushes. There is no food anywhere. It feels sad. It is in Nevada. There are tall mountains, all made of sand, around them. There are only ants and bugs. No water.

Izzy sometimes dreams about meeting her parents again. It makes her sad. Izzy has a dream where she meets her parents with her siblings the night before she sees her parents. She runs towards them. She calls out and it is them!

Ater she inds her parents, they go to live in a diferent city in Nevada with her siblings. They want to live in a little home.

They ind a nice, small house and live there happily.

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CURSED BY THE DEMON KING Josef Ustick Elementary School Melodias is 3021 years old. He is short, has kind of short hair, and has a broken sword on his back. He looks like a kid and acts like it. He has a curse that whenever he dies he comes back alive, but it’s only for a certain amount of lives. He only has four lives and he has seven hearts.

He was born underground. The underground was dangerous.

His father was there, the Demon King. It sounds just like lava and smells like lava. The food Melodias as cooks tastes horrible.

It’s because the food isn’t the ingredients from the over world.

The place was full of animals with meat but Melodias can’t catch them so he makes soup out of the underground vegetables and, boy, it tastes bad.

He is closest to Elizabeth. They get married and have a talking pig.

Melodias was in the boar hat shop that he owns. He makes beer for the customers. One day he got dropped into the demon world where his dad lives. He was stuck. He couldn’t leave until he defeated his dad.

He faces his dad. He ights him with full power, testing his strength and that is how he got his demon curse mark. Melodias did not realize that he had to use his strongest form just like he said he did. The problem was he got attacked by his dad. He was on the ground hurt. His dad laughed menacingly until the moment his friends came. They fought Melodias’s dad, also known as Demon King. Together they fought and fought and fought.

They defeated the demon king. They all got back but the earth was half-way destroyed. The Demon King took Melodias to try and destroy the world while Melodias was doing something.

Nobody got hurt but villages, castles and homes were destroyed and soon they ixed that mess.

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LOST ON THE OREGON TRAIL Emily Ustick Elementary School Mia, age 9, is a bold kid. She is a great artist. She loves to read.

She has a big imagination. She loves to wear dresses. She loves pets. She loves to have fun. She is shy, kind, and happy. She loves her family.

She was born on January 3rd, 1840. She is really close to her family, like her mom, dad, and sisters. Her greatest fear is wolves. Her hope is to become a teacher.

August 13, 1849 I was on the Oregon Trail walking. I saw a wild horse and followed it.

No one noticed I was gone. Then I saw that I was in the forest of oak trees. I was alone and very scared. I thought something was following me. Then my parents were calling my name. But no one answered.

Then my parents found me two hours later. Then they started to head back to the Oregon Trail.

Mia was lost in the forest, and no one found her until two hours later. She was very scared to be in the forest alone.

She was sitting on the ground crying. Then she was very happy to see her mom and dad. Mia is lost. No one noticed she was gone. Then two hours later they noticed and went looking. They found her and lived happily ever ater.

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WHAT Avery Ustick Elementary School The day I walked in I was terriied I thought the people were huge monsters except the person I love the most my sister I felt like the odd one out and I was …

I felt like a little scared kitten and I was I felt strange in this brand-new place and I was …

It was my irst day at the Y the whole day I was holding on to my sister as she played I watched it was the scariest day but now …

I am not afraid.

MY STUFFED ANIMAL Zainab Ustick Elementary School If I was a stufed animal I would think like her.

She has a story for you.

So once I was sleeping and then she scared me.

I thought she was my talking doll and then I went back to sleep.

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HIM Willow Ustick Elementary School You are the warmth of the sun but the pain of the needle.

Sot as a white lufy hello, but as rough as a stone rolling down a mountain with speed, you are not an Angel up in heaven, dressed in white, with speckles of gold. More like a devil, covered in black, speckled with red. But no matter what you are my match.

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VALLEY VIEW ELEMENTARY Teaching-Writer Natanya Biskar

BOB AND BALONEY GO TO SPACE Abigail Valley View Elementary School Once upon a time, there lived two little pigs named Bob and Baloney. They always smelled like strawberry shampoo, and they were so pink you could see them from outer space. All they wanted to do was live by a waterfall, but sadly, the only waterfall in the world was by a wolf’s den, and the wolves loved to eat pig. And they always tried to eat Bob and Baloney. But they still moved to the waterfall. Everyday Bob and Baloney would have to put up with having their house knocked down and being scared half to death when the wolves said, “Pig, Pig, let us in, we have lots of hair on our chinny chin chins” Until one day… Bob and Baloney had an idea to make two decoys of themselves. And then they built a stick house and put the decoys in the house. And of course, the wolves stormed the house and ate the decoys and chewed on the sticks. Of course, the wolves did not notice they were decoys. While the wolves were howling like the wind on a stormy night and celebrating their “victory,” Bob and Baloney were building a large house…

“I don’t know, Bob, should we really be doing this?” said Baloney.

“Yes, we need to escape to Mars before the wolves ind out the truth,” said Bob. “That we’re not dead,” said Bob. Now you are probably wondering what they were building behind the large house. Bob and Baloney were building a spaceship!! And for some reason Bob owned spacesuits, astronaut food, and rocket fuel. Soon, they got the spaceship up and running.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 …

BLASTOFF!!!

“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” screamed Bob. “WHOOOOOOOOHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” yelled Baloney.

Finally, the spaceship slowly sputtered to a stop… “Put, put, put,” it said. They landed with a thud.

Bob and Baloney slowly walked over to the window.

And what they saw made them turn as white as snow…

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“DINOSAURS!!!!!!” they yelled.

“Bob, where are the astronaut suits?!” said Baloney.

“Down the hall to your let’’ replied Bob. Baloney rushed down the hall and put on the suit.

THE TORTOISE WHO TRIED AND TRIED AGAIN Brady Valley View Elementary School Once upon a time, in the grassy hills of Who Knows Where, there was a tortoise. In the village of Who Knows Where there were many animals but there was not one animal slower than the tortoise, not even the snail! And no one in Who Knows Where was faster than the hare. The tortoise idolized the hare and his speediness. Sadly, the tortoise was not only slow, but a little plump. Also, his green shell made him look like a scaredy cat who would hide in his shell when a single raccoon attacks him. The tortoise wanted to be the popular animal in Who Knows Where, but to do that he would have to beat the hare, and he would never be able to do that. However, for some reason the tortoise’s conidence began to grow until one day he thought he could best the hare.

One day while the hare was bragging about being fast to the young chipmunk and weasel, the tortoise came out into the clearing and openly yelled, “I challenge you to a race match!” He pointed at the hare. The animals stared at him then burst out laughing.

“You, beat the hare? You must be insane!” the weasel said, bursting out laughing.

The tortoise looked on in disapproval.

“I accept your challenge,” said the hare. “But I must warn you. You are dealing with the fastest animal in all the land, and also be careful to not get crushed by my paws.” The hare walked away laughing.

“Oh, I’ll show you, I’ll show you alright. I will beat you and the whole town will love me, and there’s nothing to stop me from doing that!”

Over the next couple of weeks, the tortoise tried to do 50 push-ups, 50 sit-ups, and 25 pull-ups. Even though he usually stopped at 10 for each.

The day of the race came and all of Who Knows Where 34

came to watch the hare, not the tortoise. The race began and the tall hill looked like a giant anthill. Even though the tortoise worked a lot he wasn’t even close to the hare and the hare made it all the way up to the inish line in 30 seconds. Even though he was right by the inish line the hare said, “I’m so far ahead I could take a nap.” So, he took a nap. Slowly, over time, the tortoise began to get closer to the hare and ater a long 2 hours 37 minutes and 22 seconds the tortoise passed the hare. The tortoise moved so slow it was like he was stuck in syrup. A couple minutes later the hare woke up and looked at the inish line.

“What!” The hare ran as fast as he could, but the tortoise barely managed to beat the hare.

“Woo-hoo,” said the tortoise. “I win!”

The hare was crying with the defeat and everyone in the crowd was in awe until the oicial said, “The hare wins!” The hare jumped up in happiness and the tortoise was shocked.

“I ask for a replay!” cried the tortoise.

Even though the tortoise obviously won, the oicial said, “Like before, the hare wins!”

The tortoise was shocked, and his heart was broken, so he went home. He was able to turn on his old television and rewatched the news report, but then he noticed something of.

Ater replaying the clip seven times the tortoise saw that the hare stufed the oicial’s pockets with money! The tortoise did win, but, because of some stupid cold hard cash, he lost. Now, more than ever, the tortoise was determined to beat the hare, but he knew he would need something else. The tortoise pulled out his old rocket engine book and got to work. Over two weeks of non-stop work the tortoise re-challenged the hare for a rematch. However, the tortoise was prepared this time.

The tortoise showed up late but when he arrived everyone was in awe. The tortoise walked in with a giant irework on his shell. Everyone looked at the tortoise questionably, but he walked up to the inish line.

“Okay,” said the oicial.

“On your marks…”

The tortoise lit the fuse on the irework.

“Get set…”

The hare got ready.

“Go!” The irework ignited and the tortoise went lying and everyone looked in awe.

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“I-m-mm-m do-oo-oo-ing i-ttttttt!” exclaimed the tortoise while he was lying, and his cheeks were lopping around.

The hare was in so much awe that he didn’t even start.

The tortoise kept going around the hill, he was about to win!

The tortoise kept going until his irework ran out over the clif.

He looked down and said, “Oh would you look at that?” And then he fell.

“Aaaah!”

The hare rejoiced and ran up the clif and won again.

The tortoise was at the hospital for the next 3 months and winter came again. He knew that he needed something less dangerous but still be able to be fast if he wanted to beat the hare. So, he took a train to the big city for the winter, and nobody saw the tortoise, until now.

The tortoise had sent a challenge to the hare via email and waited at the inish line for the third time. As the oicial was about to give the win to the hare, hip-hop music started playing in the distance. Everyone looked behind them to see the tortoise in a Lamborghini wearing a golden chain with sunglasses.

The hare looked at the tortoise in confusion. The tortoise pulled up to the starting line and said, “Wassup,” to the hare.

“Ok, this is weird,” said the oicial.

“Ready, set, go!” said the oicial.

The tortoise drove and crashed into a clif.

“Um, give me a sec,” he kept reversing out then into the clif.

The hare was looking at him in confusion and didn’t start, until the tortoise managed to get on the road. The hare ran as fast as he could and was able to get on the inside. The tortoise and the hare were neck and neck with each other, but the hare was on the inside. The tortoise cut the hare of and got in front of him and hit the pedal to the metal.

“Eat my dust!” the tortoise said behind him. Then, at the last second the tortoise looked forward and saw a rock.

“Oh no.”

The car hit the rock and the tortoise went lying.

“I forgot to put on my seatbelt!” cried the tortoise as he went lying.

“Owww!” said the tortoise.

Again, the hare ran up to the inish line and won again.

For the third time, the hare won. Nobody thought that the tortoise would challenge the hare, but the tortoise, being 36

absolutely stupid, challenged the hare once more.

The hare won over and over and over again, until 523 days later. The tortoise, who had 27 broken bones, again walked over to the hare.

“For the last time, Tortoise, you are not going to beat me! You’ve been trying this for 2 years, and how many have you won? Zero!” said the hare.

“Ohh, but I’ve got a trick up my sleeve this time. I rechallenge you ater I rechallenged you ater I rechallenged you ater I rechallenged you again ater I rechallenged you for the 4th time ater I rechallenged you the 3rd time ater I rechallenged you the 2nd time ater I rechallenged you the 1st time. I rechallenge you to a rematch.”

The hare looked at him and rolled his eyes.

“Fine, I’ll do it,” said the hare.

The day of the race came. Surprisingly, the tortoise wasn’t late, but he came there…. with nothing!?

“What?” said the crowd.

“Ok,” said the oicial.

The oicial started, “On your marks, get set...”

“Wait!” said the tortoise and the hare at the same time.

“I have something to say,” they both said in unison again.

“I’ll go irst,” said the tortoise.

“I just want to point out that this only started because of my jealousy, to beat the hare. I wanted to be your friend. I also want to point out that the hare didn’t win the irst race.”

The crowd gasped.

“When the oicial was reviewing the play, the hare stufed the oicial’s pocket with money! $5,000 easy. Also, I have proof.” The crowd gasped again, and the tortoise showed them the clip. Then one member of the audience yelled, “How do we not know this isn’t photoshop?” and the crowd agreed with him.

“Tortoise!” the hare yelled. The tortoise turned around.

“If you don’t forfeit, this will go on for an eternity and keep hurting Who Knows Where.”

“I realize my mistake I...”

“I’ll see you at the inish line,” said the tortoise. Dynamite exploded under him, and he went lying. Then he landed in the same spot.

“Fine, I...”

“I’ll forfeit,” said the hare in disappointment.

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The tortoise jumped up in joy and said, “I’m the winner of every single race in Who Knows Where!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said the hare. “I’m just the beginning, you’ll have to deal with my 3rd cousin on my mom’s side, the cheetah.”

“Nooooooooo!!”

So, the tortoise failed to live happily ever ater.

The End

THE THREE LITTLE CHICKENS AND THE BIG BAD BEETLE Leo Valley View Elementary School Once upon a time, there lived three cute and sot chickens. The irst chicken was a chickenere named Fill, and was brown, the second was a cluckest named Todd and he was yellow, and the third was a chicolie in clucker named Jerry and he was white with spots. One day their mother got as sick as if she were to die.

“If I were to die you must go of to build coops of your own, but beware of the Big Bad Beetle, he lives in the valley. If you decide to go down there, send him an email—his email address is YUMMY03,” said Mother.

They all loved their mother a lot and the next day the chicken’s mother died. They were all so sad. So, they did what their mother had told them, to go of to build chicken coops for themselves.

“Where should we build the coops?” said Fill.

“Down there in the valley looks like a good spot because the Big Bad Beetle does not live there, I think?” answered Jerry.

“I agree,” said Todd.

So of they went into the valley to build coops for themselves. Fill built a coop out of, um... his natural fertilizer, Todd built his coop out of mud and sticks, and Jerry made his coop out of clucker balls because it was the only thing he had to build with. The next day the chickens were helping their brother, Jerry, practice clucker, just then they saw a big shadow.

“Hello there, neighbor,” Jerry almost shouted out, but 38

luckily his brother stopped him.

“Everyone hide,” whispered Fill.

“It is the Big Bad Beetle.”

All the chickens went into their coops, the Big Bad Beetle went up to Fill’s door, but when he took a whif, he plugged his nose and knocked on the door and said, “Can I come in?”

“No,” answered Jerry and he stayed still. The Big Bad Beetle went over to Todd’s coop, he knocked on the door and said, “Can I come in?”

“No way,” answered Todd and he ran into his brother Fill’s coop, knowing it stunk so he would be safe. The Big Bad Beetle went to Jerry’s coop and when he knocked on the door the coop made of clucker balls fell down.

“AHHH!” Jerry screamed and ran into his brother Fill’s coop thinking the same thing his brother Todd was thinking. The Big Bad Beetle went back to Fill’s coop and instead of knocking he tried picking the lock on the coop door and the Big Bad Beetle got in. Then the most unexpected thing happened.

The Big Bad Beetle talked in a way no one expected, he talked in a small helpless voice.

“Hello, my name is Gerald the Beetle. I will not hurt you” “Hi Gerald,” the chickens said together.

“Do you want to live with us?” asked Todd “Sure,” answered Gerald, talking more strongly yet.

And they all lived happily ever– well, no, eventually they ate Gerald because they were so hungry.

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GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE Js Giuliana Valley View Elementary School

Once upon a time, there lived a little girl named Goldilocks who lived in a little cottage. One day when she woke up, she suddenly had a craving for some oatmeal. She cooked some for herself, but it was too hot for her to eat so she went on a walk.

Also taking a walk were three bears named Jimmy, Johnny, and Jorge. They were wandering around when they smelled the delicious aroma of the oatmeal coming from Goldilocks’s house.

“That smells good!” exclaimed Johnny. “Let’s go ind out what it is!”

Ater a long 30 minutes of running into painful and unforgiving trees and getting lost, they inally reached the house.

When Goldi went for a walk, she accidentally let the creaky cottage door open. When the young bears discovered this, they decided to go inside. They all saw the oatmeal at once and got in a ist ight because they all wanted it.

“It will be mine!” screamed Jorge.

“Not in a million years!” yelled Jimmy.

So, they all got tired and drited of to sleep on the loor. Ater an hour, Goldilocks inally got home with some sweet honey she bought from the store on her walk.

“Oh my gosh! What are you bears doing here!” Goldi asked.

Goldilocks had always been a friend to animals, so she was not scared of the bears. But she was sneezing a lot when she was with them, and she realized she was allergic to the bears’ sot, fuzzy fur.

“We are very sorry for intruding your home when you were gone,” said Jorge. “But we were super hungry!”

“Thank you for your apology. You must still be starving so have some honey,” Goldilocks said while handing Johnny the jar of sweet gooey yellowness.

The three young bears ran of back to their house and Goldi immediately stopped sneezing.

Then, Goldilocks ate her oatmeal in peace and the bears ate their honey in peace and every Sunday, Jorge, Johnny, and Jimmy go to Goldi’s house for honey and oatmeal. Also, Goldi went to the doctor to check on her allergies.

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THE BIG BUT NOT SO BAD MONSTER: THE LEGENDARY STORY OF THREE LITTLE CREATURES Rowan Valley View Elementary School Once upon a time, there was a big scary monster; he had spines on his back, leafy green, leathery skin, burning orange eyes, and razor-sharp teeth like thorns. One day, when the monster was in his deep dark cave, he heard chattering outside.

He poked his head out to see what all the commotion was, and he saw a bear, a beetle, and a rabbit. He was furious.

The monster ran outside and roared the most terrible roar, but the animals did not hear him, they were too focused on building their homes. So the very angry monster went to bed. The very next day, he looked outside at the three little animals, as smoke came out of his ears and his eyes turned a sour yellow and an angry red. He was more than furious. He did not want them outside his cave.

“Why won’t vay leerv mer alowne!” said the monster. “I don’t want arnijals!”

The monster ran outside his cave, making earth shaking stomps, and then… ROOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR! The big scary ferocious monster had blown the house down. But then, in slow sad movements he went back to his cave.

The big, bad, and now sad monster sat down in his cave, and started crying glowing green tears. The monster had never known what it was like to feel bad for someone. The next entire week, he was awoken every morning by the animals yelling at him. He made a low sad roar, and they let him alone. The next day he travelled to the English teacher monster, and learned to speak English.

Soon ater, the monster went up to the animals and tried to apologize, but they ran away as soon as he said: “Hraim Rawry.”

The next day the monster said to himself, “Brayke day crake to rowpologize.” He used his baking skills, and experimented with monster ingredients, until he made a “yummy” cake.

The big monster then went to the wise English teacher monster, and showed him his cake.

“You think you can apologize with this? Not even a rat would eat this!”

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The big bad monster started crying, then found himself in his bed with a metal tray in his hand. It was a dream. Ding!

The oven opened and shot out a cake, which landed on the tray.

“Me drid irt bercuze mer bileve in merselv!”

The monster had baked the perfect cake, so he went to the English teacher. The wise English teacher was quite impressed with the cake, so he walked with the monster to the bakery, to show he was harmless, and the baker wanted the recipe, and ate the whole thing.

The monster baked a new cake, and the baker and teacher walked with the monster, to prove he was harmless. The monster walked up to the animals, saying, “Sime rawry,” and the animals forgave him, and ate the cake. The monster (myself) had felt happy because he became a better person, and they all lived happily ever ater. With this tale being passed down the many generations, it teaches the future monsters and YOU that no matter how bad you are, you can always have a chance to become a better person.

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WHITE PINE ELEMENTARY Teaching-Writer Sharon Hanson

IF I HAD A CESSNA SKYHAWK Solomon White Pine Elementary School In the morning I went on my morning light. The time was 5:30 a.m. I taxied on Charlie and Delta before coming to the runway. When I was hurtling along the runway at 130 kts, I saw a noctilucent cloud! One of the rarest clouds ever! I retracted the laps at around 7,000 t. I got up to 15,000 t watching big commercial freight planes come and go.

I decided to do some touring before landing, so I lew around the cityscape. It was beautiful seeing people and cars weave around the buildings. It was time to land, so I called for permission to land. I pulled the airbrake and touched down on the runway and taxied to my private hangar and turned of the ignition, and I went to work.

WATER CONTROLLER Ru White Pine Elementary School He threw with all his might, but the rock came skipping back. He tried again but the same thing happened. He threw again but this time the rock loated. It grew and grew until it was the size of a skateboard. Then he jumped on and lew away.

Ater he was about two miles away it looked like he dropped something.

I wanted to investigate, so I jumped into the old ocean water and swam toward the object. Ater about ten minutes of swimming something big slammed into me. I was out cold.

When I woke up, I was inside the object. Inside, it was dark and gloomy with strange lights. According to the object I could control water. This should be easy, I thought. I willed the water to blast me up. The object exploded, and I came tumbling out of the sky. Yes! The water caught me. I’m alive!

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I REMEMBER…

Jada Mae White Pine Elementary School I remember one day in the summer at my dad’s old house, my brother and I were eating freshly cut watermelon.

My dad knew that we loved watermelon, so he bought another one. In the morning, my brother was playing video games and was not paying attention to four- or ive-year-old me. Well, now something’s going to go wrong…

Because my stomach started to grumble, I brought out that watermelon and just like any kid, I pretended to be a ninja.

That didn’t go well because I came back downstairs with an Elsa bandage right on my inger.

MAGIC MUSICIANS Jacob White Pine Elementary School Fred steps on the stage for his late-night concert. It was in the middle of winter, and there was snow on the ground. It was cold outside. Fred starts playing the piano. Bob joins in and starts playing his violin. Then George appears and starts playing the cello. The music takes them to a beautiful ield full of lowers.

They see a forest and go inside. They see a castle, and they go inside because they are lost. The castle is overgrown.

They see a princess in a thorn bush. Bob has some bush clippers; Bob clips the princess free. The princess takes them back home as a token of thanks. They started to play their instruments and as quickly as they appeared— they vanished.

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MY WILD BEASTS, ZUG-ZUG AND CHAINSAW Adriana White Pine Elementary School When I am away and coming back from a trip, or when my sister is driving me, or when I am reading or looking out the car window, I can smell the wat of damp soil pushing itself to the side—digging, and then it stops. The dirt stops moving and ZugZug and Chainsaw lit themselves up, up onto their feet climbing up to the grass, out of their graves and then into the house and onto my bed ready to cuddle—sleeping but still alive.

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ADAMS ELEMENTARY

Teaching-Writers Heidi Kraay and Kathleen Olp

INTO THE BACKROOMS (EXCERPT) Andrew Adams Elementary School As I was riding to school, I saw a newspaper. I stopped to pick it up. It read, “17 children gone missing and never heard from again.”

Instead of taking it, I let it and went to school. When I got to school, it was already lunch. As I went outside, I saw my friends. When I started to walk over to them, I felt a punch on my cheek. My gum started bleeding and I tasted the blood. He threw another punch but this time he missed. My body didn’t move. I just fell through a solid surface. Before I knew anything, I was in a yellow room.

I saw those oice lights that make the buzzing noise.

They made my head ache. Suddenly, I saw a black, thin monster. He smelled like a tree but I didn’t wait to run. I was running at full speed. I looked behind me but I didn’t see him. The smell was not gone, though. All I could see were rooms full of yellow wallpaper. It was like I was in a hotel. The smell that I smelled before. It was gone. I wasn’t worried anymore, until I saw something. No, it was someone. I started to smell the forest smell again. I thought that he was the stick monster. He lunged at me.

I dodged it, only he wasn’t trying to get me. I looked behind me.

The stick monster was there and the kid snapped him right in half. I didn’t have any time to process what just happened before he grabbed my arm and started running. There was a door on the right. He dashed to it and closed the door. He waited for a second and then opened it as hard as he could, came out, and beat the stick monster mercilessly. The monster’s head was gone and he was dead. The kid grabbed a few limbs and put them in my backpack.

“You got a name?” I asked.

“Noah,” he replied.

“I’m guessing you were at school when you got here,” he said.

“How did you know?” I said.

“Backpack,” he replied.

“The limbs of the monsters should be useful later,” he said.

“What was that thing, where am I, how did I get here,” I said.

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“I don’t know how we got here, but I know what that thing was, it is Entity 01,” he said. “I’ll explain everything later, but irst we have to escape.”

We were walking for hours before I noticed. He was one of the children that went missing. Ater hours, days, maybe even months, I couldn’t even tell anymore, there were stairs leading down. We were now at level -01. When I looked down, all I could see was pitch black.

“Let’s go,” Noah said as he jumped down the stairs.

I followed him as usual and I couldn’t see anything. I felt Noah take the sticks out of my bag and make a hole in the roof. It was a drop ceiling. A drop ceiling is a ceiling that is lower than the actual roof, so you can it wires and stuf in the gap.

Noah made the hole by pushing tile from the drop ceiling up.

Noah cut the wire. A spark lew onto the stick. A few seconds later, I saw light.

I saw Noah holding the stick monster’s limb, using it as a torch, but I saw something else too. It was a demonic looking face with a creepy smile in a doorway. I only saw it for a second before the door closed and before Noah saw it. I told him what I saw, but he didn’t respond to me because he was more focused on the metal slide that was right in front of him. I didn’t know for sure, but I had the feeling that this is our escape. But as he was sliding down, a black spike impaled him. I slid under the spike and Noah’s dead body.

THE BLUE HALLWAY Brenner Adams Elementary School Worms with Arms “Lock him in.”

Those were the last sounds of a human I would hear. I checked my surroundings: an empty room…with blue walls and loors…and a hallway that led to another identical room. The next room was the same, with one subtle diference. There was a tiny hole. I went through the hallway. Same but now two holes.

The next room has two holes and one abnormally large one.

Suddenly, two slimy, pink hands shot out of the min52

iature holes, grasping my legs and dragging me under. Ater breaking free of its grasp I dashed down the hallway. Arms shot out of every hole and dashed toward me. I got back to the irst room and caught my breath. A hole appeared in this room, the same size as the third hole.

A ginormous worm popped his head up, with a happy expression, and said, “You will be back,” in a dark, menacing tone.

Then its face turned to a menacing expression, turned completely black like ink, and melted into the hole. Then the hole disappeared, without a trace.

APPLE Josie Adams Elementary School An apple, just an apple. Maybe a green one, maybe a red one. Where is it? Well, that is a question without an answer.

It could be behind a waterfall, a misty waterfall. A waterfall that sounds like whoosh. But then the apple would be lonely, let’s give the apple a friend. A book, an old book, lots of old books. Maybe we will give the apple a desk to sit on. And then some walls, sturdy walls. Old ancient-smelling walls, but still sturdy. We can add bookshelves for the books. Maybe some loose papers strewn around, books do get loose pages. We’ll make it an old, no, ancient library, an old ancient library behind a rushing waterfall.

Around the waterfall we will make an island in a gorgeous tropical ocean. On that island we will put a beautiful rainforest with lush leaves and magical creatures, rainforest dragons, maybe a pretty phoenix. How about some parrots, magic parrots, oh no – a tropical storm is coming. Let’s give our island clear, cloudless skies. A beautiful, wild paradise. Sot leaves, clear skies, the sun high, a summer breeze and an apple. Let’s make our apple a green one to match all the lush green plants.

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LOGIC Lexie Adams Elementary School Author’s note before reading: This is supposed to confuse you.

One day, a classmate was trying to explain a show to a former friend of mine. She (my former friend) didn’t get it. So, I told her that you have logic and so does everyone else. And that the TV show did too. As he (my classmate) kept on trying and trying, I just told her to ill in the parts of the show’s logic that she didn’t get with her own logic. But the problem was, she didn’t even have her common sense. * Logic. Logic. Logic. What do you think about when you hear the word? You can think it’s like 2+2=4. But if you think that it is WRONG. What I gave you a piece of was KNOWLEDGE. Also if you think pedaling on a bike is logic it is not. That is COMMON SENSE. If you want to know what Idiots look like, you probably are one if you are still reading because I haven’t even gotten to the point! Now of that side column, my point is it’s a science! Logic is SCIENCE. It’s like chemistry. (NOTE: Chemicals and other stuf have the logic.)

In reality everyone has logic or a science, so don’t go down the street thinking everyone has common sense, knowledge, or is an Idiot. For one reason, they may not have one of those things but they always have Logic to their thinking.

For your information! I’m not alone. So you know the story I told you earlier? That story has confused 4 out of 5 people. (One of them being my former friend.) Don’t feel bad if the irst paragraph confused you. But if you’re still confused, let’s just go back to paragraph 2, sentence 10. I quote it, “If you want to know what Idiots look like, you probably are one if you are still reading because I haven’t even gotten to the point.” So if you’re still confused please read again. I am telling you right NOW! Before I end this! And I cannot stress this enough!

LOGIC IS A SCIENCE! (Love is a Science also.) Hatred is a Logic.

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IN THE BAKERY Noah Adams Elementary School Part One: Origin I am a donut. Not just any donut. A jelly donut. My mother was a glazed, my father was a chocolate.

Behind a glass roof that holds us like a prison, monsters from outside stare down at us. One by one, we are plucked out of the glass prison by another monster and replaced by others.

The ones that are plucked are put in a brown bag. They are then given to the monster that was looking at us.

I am a donut. I am Bob. Part Two: Now Today is the store’s anniversary. All of the monsters will gather around our prison. More of us are taken by the second.

Our numbers are dwindling. The store has closed for the night.

The ones that were taken are being replaced slowly. It is morning. One of the elders called a meeting.

“We should start a revolution. Against the monsters!” says Raspberry Bear Paw. There is a murmur of agreement.

“Gather the ighters! Maple Bar, go get us weapons.”

“What weapons?”

“Toothpicks, of course!”

Later, we are riding wild bags of chips and attack the monsters. They are bigger than we thought. They have two other bodies they walk on that each have ive heads. But we manage to drive them of.

The next day, there is a sign on the door saying, “Closed for Riot. Do NOT Enter! … unless you really like donuts.”

“We won!” exclaims Bear Paw. The next day, we have a party. We will live tastily ever ater. WE THOUGHT. Part Three: Attack Immediately, there is a scream. We all rush over to see what is happening. It is terrifying: unlike us, the donuts, and the normal monsters, this monster has four legs. Its nose and 55

mouth are protruding out of its face. Raspberry Bear Paw stands in front of it. And just like that, it eats him. We don’t have time to mourn over him right away, though. Maple Bar is expressionless.

“I remember my mother and father somehow escaped the glass prison. We watched as they hopped on the loor, but then they were eaten by a monster, just like this,” says Maple Bar. “I asked one of the elders what it was.” He said, “‘It is a ferocious beast called dog!’”

Later, the monster is gone. The next day, we all mourn Bear Paw’s death. They put sprinkles over his memorial.

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GRACE JORDAN ELEMENTARY

Teaching-Writers Katie Fuller, Sharon Hanson, Hannah Phillips, Guisela Penados Baldizón, Daniel Stewart, Tessy Ward

OPEI AND THE DOG Emerson Grace Jordan Elementary School It was winter and Mariah went for a walk. Her brown hair was lowing in the wind. Her orange cat, Opei, was sleeping in her arms. She was thinking of things she could paint. Suddenly Opei jumped out of her arms!

Opei ran into her neighbors’ yard. She had no idea what to do. Those neighbors weren’t the nicest people, and they had a dog. Their dog wasn’t a big fan of cats either. Mariah tried to look over the fence but, she was not tall enough to see over. She went to the door and rang the doorbell, but no one answered.

She started to panic. Mariah ran to her house to get cat treats.

She looked out the window and saw that the neighbors’ dog had come outside!

The dog had not seen Opei yet. She grabbed the treats.

She ran outside and shook the bag. Opei heard her but could not get over the fence. The dog had noticed Opie and he was ready to pounce. Mariah noticed it. The gate! She opened the gate and ran inside. She grabbed Opei and took him home. She set him in his bed, and he fell asleep, Mariah felt so much better.

SUMMER DAYS Sophia Grace Jordan Elementary School Stacey and Cameron are best friends; they have been forever. They do everything together. The school year has ended. They both get out of school and say wow we… We are done with 5th grade! Cool! Let’s have a great summer, they get home, and their moms say… “Girls … we are sending you to summer camp!” The girls look confused, and they scream, “YAY!” Now their moms look confused. “What? Oh good, we thought you were gonna be mad at us for sending you to summer camp for the summer!” No, we are happy. “Thanks mom!” They both said, “When are we going?”

Their moms say, “you’re leaving tomorrow! Pack your bags, okay?” The girls agree, “Okay!” The next day the girls are 59

all packed and they go outside and wave to each other. “Hi!” They both yell. Their moms are in the car, “Get in girls!” Stacey’s little brother is complaining and says, “Why can’t I go?”

“Angelina,” Stacey’s mom says, “You’re too young to go to camp, maybe next year!”

“Aww okay...!” The girls look at the map on the way and they daydream of how fun it will be!

The girls inally get to the camp, and they are now welcomed to the cabin of the fox, for all girls. They are so happy their camp counselor shows them around. Wow, this place is so cool! The counselor jokes around and says, “yeah, better not get used to it, it’s almost like school!” The girls laugh and then say…

“Wait, really?”

“No!” Says the counselor and laughs but, this place is fun! They get to the cabin and then say, “let’s play the get to know you game!” So, everyone starts sharing about them. A bit later they lose track of time and then Mary the camp counselor says, “Oh, it’s dinner time, let’s go get dinner in the cafe!”

Everyone agrees and says, “I’m starving.” Mary laughs, “ha-ha!”

At dinner they choose subjects to do. Cameron says, “Let’s do swimming,” but Stacey wants to do arts and crats, they start to complain. Then Mary says, “Girls! You must choose four subjects, so choose arts and crats, swimming, and something Stacey wants and something Cameron wants!”

The next day the girls wake up from their bunk beds and Mary says to go to their art subject. Once the girls are done with all their subjects, they go to the bunk beds and sleep.

Just like that, the summer is over. They had a bunch of fun and now their moms come to pick them up. They run over to their moms saying, “I missed you!” On the way home they listen to music and talk. Once they get home they unpack and then play together. There is still one more week of summer, so they don’t have to worry about school. The next day they play in the pool outside. Their moms yell, “Put on sunscreen girls!”

They yell back, “We did,” so then their moms laugh. The girls go back to swimming over the few days they have let then go back to school shopping and it was extremely fun. Little did they know tomorrow was school. Their moms make them go to bed now and they wake up the next day. “Yay, I can’t wait to see our 6th grade teacher,” they say. They got to the school doors and looked at the forms. Wait… we’re in diferent classes? They look so sad but now they go their separate ways. “Goodbye,” says Stacey. “Bye,” says Cameron sadly, and they walk into class.

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TREY’S ADVENTURE TO THE BOISE STATE BASKETBALL GAME Trey Grace Jordan Elementary School

It all started ater basketball practice when my friend’s dad picked us up and said we were going to the Boise State basketball game. My friend named Jake and I were so excited!

So, on the way to the game we got Subway. We gobbled it down the delicious sandwiches because we were so hungry ater b-ball practice.

We were in a hurry. We were 5 minutes late. It was a long drive. Since I was with my friend and his dad I had to call and check in with my mom ater half time and tell her how it was going. I forgot my phone in the car. Right when we got to our seats, I realized I forgot it! I’m sure my mom was annoyed and maybe a little worried cause I told I would call her.

Half time just ended and it’s a good game. Next thing you know there’s a streaker! In his underwear. I’m thinking, what the heck is this guy doing? Ater a while, the police took him out of the arena. The 4th quarter Boise State made it a good game and came back and beat Wyoming. It was late on a school night, so we hurried home. We got home at 12:45 at night. That’s my fun adventure to the Boise State basketball game.

THE DANCE Ava Grace Jordan Elementary School Summer STEM The white bird walks up to me. “Care to dance?” I shrug holding a teacup and sip it slowly. He squawks looking hurt and waddles away. I draw my teacup and sigh.

The bear walks up to me. “Care to dance?” He wonders, taking his hat of. I shake my head and climb up a tree. He growls looking hurt and crawls away. I take my shoes of and look around amazed by the nature surrounding me when the squirrel scurries up around me and squeaks, “Care to dance?” I jumped down from the tree and walk away. The squirrel hides the nuts he’s collected in my shoes looking hurt. He picks up the shoes and pads away. I noticed a light from far away. I follow it, 61

mesmerized. I get closer and noticed the bear with the hat, the white bird, and the squirrel with my shoes dancing together.

I stomp, looking hurt that they wouldn’t invite me, and walk away.

THE BIRDS AND THE BEAN Maya Grace Jordan Elementary School It was a cold, windy October aternoon, and I was a STARVIN MARVIN! I lew to my favorite place to ind tasty snacks. There, lying on the ground, was a large brown bean.

Right away, I lew down and happily hopped over to the bean.

Right as I reached to grab the bean, I saw out of the corner of my eye a large black igure stepping toward me. I looked over to get a better view, and to my surprise, it was the meanest bird around, Mean Bobby. He swooped in and snatched the bean from my grasp! I gently stepped closer to him, and in my most polite voice, I said, “Hey. Can I please have that bean? Well, you see…” I was suddenly cut of by the sound of Mean Bobby’s voice. “This is MY bean. I had it irst!” he said. Then he turned around and lew away! I lew ater him. I continued lying until I was not too far behind Mean Bobby. There he froze in the air.

I stopped, wondering why Mean Bobby had stopped. I looked a little farther, and to my surprise, the bean was loating in front of Mean Bobby! The bean had magically developed a face, arms, and legs. The face of the bean was simple: two dots for eyes, a U-shaped smile, and a pair of angry eyebrows. The bean started to laugh maniacally. It stared at Mean Bobby. A wild, angry expression swept the beans face as it screamed, “If you want to eat me, I will eat YOU!” The bean gobbled up Mean Bobby. If you ask me, I don’t really get how the bean ate Mean Bobby, because it was an eighth of Mean Bobby’s size. But still, the bean ate him.

The bean then looked at me and asked, “Were you trying to eat me?” I did not know what to say, so I responded, “Um…no.” That was obviously a lie, but if I told it the truth, it would have eaten me! The bean said, “Good. Would you like to join me for lunch?”

I had still not eaten, so I shouted, “Yes!” And the bean took me to his house, and we ate such delicious sandwiches!

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THE MARCHING BAND Arabella Grace Jordan Elementary School The marching band Is passing by, See the trumpets, Hear the drums, they sound like popcorn.

The marching band Trots down the street Instruments in hand.

Hear the wind whistle as they pass.

Like a storm driting by you.

You rush inside as the storm passes over, The marching band packs up.

THE DARK HORSE Omari Grace Jordan Elementary School One time I was walking in the forest, and I saw a piece of black horsehair. I started looking around, and I saw the horse: she was a beautiful black horse. I walked to her, she was scared, but I got her trust. We looked for the owner, but there was no owner. She was wild, so I kept her.

I named her Acheta, a beautiful black stallion. I thought Acheta was perfect. I loved her, and everyone could tell she was mine. I was the only one she could trust. I saw a mark on her. It was a scar. I didn’t know where it came from, but it didn’t matter. She was safe now, and we were inseparable. I could not live without her. She was my whole life. She was the glue that held me together, and we will stay together until death takes us apart.

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SURVIVAL Lawing Grace Jordan Elementary School One day, while Lawing, Dominic P, Dominik D, and Trey were in school, they grew bored. Little did they know they would never be the same. All of a sudden, the ire bell went of.

Lawing and Trey grabbed their backpacks, and they got out.

There was groaning coming from the hall. The door burst open and zombies came out. They dashed down the hall.

The teacher yelled, “Get back here!”

It was fake, you see. And then they heard some of the kids scream. Lawing, Trey, Dom P, and Dom D went the back way out of the school. There were zombies everywhere! A bus driver was barricaded in the bus. The friends knocked on the door; the driver let them in. They locked the door again.

“Where do you want to go?” the bus driver said.

“Go to my house,” Lawing screamed.

“What’s the address?” the bus driver said.

“I forgot; I will just tell you where! Take a right, a let, forward. We are here!”

“The gray house with the trampoline and the shed, that’s your house!” Dom P said.

“Yes, sir!” Lawing said. “Go, go, go.”

Lawing opened the door and closed it, locking it. Everybody else locked the other doors. They barricaded the doors with furniture.

Trey said, “What are we going to do?” Dom D said, “Find weapons!” Dom P said, “We need to clear the zombies out of the yard!”

“Well, we can ask the bus driver…”

“Oh, darn! It’s illed with zombies!” Trey said. “We forgot to lock the bus’s door!”

“Poor bus driver,” Dom P said.

“We need to build barriers around the yard!” said Lawing.

“Yep!” said Trey.

They found weapons in the house. Lawing had a knife, Dom P had a baseball bat, Dom D had a sledgehammer, and Trey had a BB gun. They felt ready. They went to the porch.

Trey was shooting the zombies, while Dom P was swinging his bat. Lawing was kniing them. Dom D was swinging his sledge.

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There were too many, so they went back inside and locked the door again.

“There are way too many,” Lawing said.

“We need to build a base around our house!’’ said Trey.

They found a chainsaw in the garage. They cut through the attic. They also cut through the roof.

“Now we need something to build with,” Dom D said.

To be continued…

A MAGICAL HALLOWEEN Aneita Grace Jordan Elementary School Once there was a lady named Jewels, and it was Halloween night. She decided to make a pumpkin pie from scratch.

She went to the best pumpkin patch, and she found the perfect one. It was the farmer’s most praised one, so it wasn’t cheap. It was $100. She bought it though, because her pumpkin pie had to be perfect. She went to the supermarket and bought all of the things she needed to make the crust. Ater she did that she went home, made the crust, got out a knife and was about to cut the pumpkin, when it came alive. ¨Hey, don’t cut me!” the pumpkin said. “I am the spirit of Halloween!”

Jewels jumped with fright. “I didn’t know you were alive!” she said, “That must be why you were $100. Do you want to be my friend? I don’t really have friends.”

“Neither do I,” said the pumpkin. “Oh, by the way, my name is Bob. Oh, and tomorrow I will be a human just like you!”

The next day she checked if he really was human, and he was. Now she wasn’t lonely, and neither was he. They had a child together, and her name was Rose. In the end they were one big happy family.

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THE MILE Charlee Grace Jordan Elementary School There, run the kids. There, run the kids running a mile. There, run the kids as they smile. There, run the kids out of breath.

There, run the kids taking a rest. There I run, my feet pounding on the gravel. There I run, thinking about my novel. There he runs, with his sweatbands. There he runs, running for cans.

There he runs, on land. There run the kids, inishing the mile.

There run the kids, sitting for a while.

THE DRAGON Samuel Grace Jordan Elementary School You are in a fox den somewhere in Scotland. A bird lies by, singing merrily his happy song. The bird lies into the den and perches on your shoulder, still singing his song. You and the bird are not alone in this “fox den.”

The ground beneath your feet begins to tremble. You smell something that smells like wildire smoke. Suddenly, a massive talon lands on the ground in front of you. You hear the lapping of massive wings. You quickly take action, realizing it is a dragon. This massive dragon is as black as night, and has silver scales on the underside of its wings. You hope that it is a friendly dragon. You realize that you are in its den. It sees you but takes no major notice of you. It rolls a massive boulder in front of the den entrance, trapping you. The dragon proceeds to look you directly in the eyes. It walks past you and lies down. It raises its wing as if motioning you to come forward. (To be continued)

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ABOUT MY NAME Dallas Grace Jordan Elementary School Dallas might mean Texas as a state.

What Dallas really means is of Scottish and English origin.

Someone who likes to ski.

Dallas means I like the colors blue and white.

I see blue in the sky, water and ice cream.

I see white in the sky, buildings and technology.

Dallas means the one who likes to stay out and love family, The one who does not like to get yelled at.

Dallas means I have a big family.

I have ive dogs and two houses and I have three siblings.

Dallas means let’s get out of the house let’s go to the cabin let’s go to the North Pole.

And those are only some of the things I know What Dallas means.

TINY ORANGE JUICE Kalani Grace Jordan Elementary School The tiny orange juice walks down the block. He makes it to the donut shop. He is dressed with a nice tie. With his hairy legs looking like bigfoot, he gets a blue donut. He has big eyes with glasses.

He goes home. He takes a bath. And he goes to bed. He works as a president in McDonalds. He is single with one kid named Bill.

His mom and dad abandoned him, so he went and raised a big family.

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UNEASY CIVILIZATIONS A Seventeenth Century Poem by Elder Bell, In Which the Bell Species Speak of the Humans Maximilian Grace Jordan Elementary School our lands as sot as cotton their lands as sharp as paper our land is peaceful their land is not their lands as sharp as paper our grass, the animals are peaceful their land is not our land is our grass, the animals are peaceful their land is not peaceful our land is society is calmer the way it is their land is not peaceful our land is peaceful society is calmer the way we are our lands as sot as cotton

MY RINGS Alayna Grace Jordan Elementary School My anxiety is like my rings, with me everywhere.

Their metal can sometimes hurt, and can pull things apart or together.

They make you think about life.

The feelings they cause only disappear when music is playing.

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BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY Camille Grace Jordan Elementary School Author’s note: this poem is formatted like a butterly I walk outside a cool breeze greets me The warm sun hits my skin, I hear birds chirping and then I see a big, beautiful

The Butterly makes me feel free. Like it’s Watching over me.

I feel I have an unbreakable wall of safety.

This is beautiful The Is big and blue with bright green spots and a black outline. It’s wings do a big lap and then the butterly glides across the sky.

The Does a big circle then spiral inward like the beautiful butterly is trying to entertain me.

I love beautiful BUTTERFLIES.

HONEY BLUSH

Elizabeth Grace Jordan Elementary School Honey blush is a shy yet bold looking girl. She loves being outside running in the tall green grass, with all the fresh lowers.

She has beautiful blonde hair like vanilla cake that lows in the wind. Honey loves to be with her family and loves to bake. Her style is very sot like summer dresses, she’s always wearing summer dresses everywhere she goes.

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THE SKY AND THE CLOUDS Audrie L. Grace Jordan Elementary School It is very loud Up in the clouds In the sky Who could lie Up in the sky It is so high Up in the clouds It’s hard to feel What exactly is real In my mind I see the sky As I saunter in my thoughts I feel like I’m not Thinking right Up in the sky I don’t feel right I think my mind Can’t think right My mind is separated From the real world I can’t feel what is real Because…nothing is

TAFFY Maraiah Grace Jordan Elementary School Tafy is a girl who is 15 years old and she loves art! She recently started making her own tik tok account! And started posting.

One week later she started blowing up on the whole internet!

But she noticed something that people keep saying in the comments… They kept saying how beautiful her eyes were and she decided to keep scrolling down the comments. She noticed this girl’s comment and it said… I wish I had your eyes they’re like Tafy in milk chocolate with a brownie on top! Then soon people kept saying how beautiful her hair was, her eyes, her 70

smile and her teeth. Her hair was like a milk chocolate brown and her skin color was like a sand brown. She thought to herself am I really that pretty?..

YOU’LL FIND US CHASING THE SUN (A PANTOUM) Abby Grace Jordan Elementary School You’ll ind us chasing the sun, through ields of tulips and roses, through puddles of wonder, through dreams of creativity.

Through ields of tulips and roses, colors of black and white hooves pound against the grass.

Through dreams of creativity, we follow our longing memories of the past.

Colors of black and white hooves pound against the grass.

Galloping along, come creatures like you’ve never seen before.

We follow our longing memories of the past, attempting to grasp what was ours.

Galloping along, come creatures like you’ve never seen before.

Through puddles of wonder, attempting to grasp what was ours, you’ll ind us chasing the sun.

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CANTERBURY BELLS (A CHARACTER SKETCH) Lyllah Grace Jordan Elementary School Canterbury Bells is a 21-year-old Latino girl who just hit 5.7K on TikTok. She loves to paint mostly landscapes and lowers.

Her room is illed with lowers, vintage things, and old paintings and some paintings she did by herself. She loves music. Some of her favorite artists are Adam Levine, Demi Lovato, Adele, Imagine Dragons, and Alan Walker. She loves to be outside, and she is deinitely a night owl. Her favorite foods are pineapple and watermelon. She loves to read teenage romance novels. She has two moms and seven siblings. She has long blond hair and glasses, and she wears very vintage clothes. Her best friend died just last year, and she has had to go to therapy ever since. Her pronouns are she/they, and she is a Leo. She has three cats and one hamster named Mister Glitter. She grew up in Ohio, but now she lives in LA.

HER Alyssa Grace Jordan Elementary School She was born to be brave Her smile is brighter than the sun She runs faster than the speed of light She shines bright like a light Her smile is brighter than the sun She smells better than strawberries She shines bright like a light Her life is a dream She smells better than strawberries Her head is held high looking at the sky Her life is a dream She can never be brought down Her head is held high looking at the sky She runs faster than the speed of light She can never be brought down She was born to be brave 72

THE WIND Asha Grace Jordan Elementary School Summer STEM The wind has always been there like a friend that was in your childhood or a dog that was there when you were born it rustles through the leaves we can’t see but it’s there

IT WAS AS COOL AS THE OCEAN (A PANTOUM) Desmond Grace Jordan Elementary School It was as cool as the ocean.

The lake was as still as glass.

Only a ripple when the water spider moves.

The lake was as still as glass.

That memory I’ll never forget, when the water spider moves.

That memory I’ll never forget.

When the water moves, when the water spider moves, I’ll never lose it.

When the water moves, Only a ripple.

I’ll never lose it.

It was as cool as the ocean.

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WE ARE ALL ANIMALS (AN ABECEDARIAN DIALOGUE) Sierra Grace Jordan Elementary School Emily: “Animals? We have to act like animals?”

Johnny: “But we’re humans, not animals!”

Emily: “Can’t we just, you know, be normal?”

Johnny: “Don’t you think that this forest that we live in now is awesome?”

Emily: “Er, I think it’s a little diferent from our actual home.”

Johnny: “Forget about our home. We live here now!”

Emily: “GRRRRRR! I’m acting like a tiger!”

Johnny: “How the heck do you act like a tiger?’’

Emily: “I just go on all fours and act all scary.”

Johnny: “Joe, what are you doing?”

Joe: “Klicking my mouth to sound like a weird creature.”

Emily: “Look over there! It’s a hippo!”

Johnny: “My oh my!”

Joe: “No, that’s not a hippo. That’s Bob!” Emily & Joe: “OOOOOOH!” Joe: “Put your foot in the river water. It’s so cold and calming.”

Emily: “Quit it! I don’t want to. It’s too cold!’’

Johnny: “RAWR!” Emily: “So you do know how to act like a tiger!”

Johnny: “Though I wasn’t acting like a tiger, I was a lion.”

Joe: “Under there! It’s a lizard!”

Emily: “Valakaka—that’s what the lizard is called!”

Johnny: “Wow! Never seen anything like it.”

Joe: “Xander is dancing. That’s funny!”

Emily: “You know he is crazy, right?”

Johnny: “Zebras are everywhere! LOL!”

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IF YOU SAY GOODBYE TO ME Valentine Grace Jordan Elementary School If you said goodbye to me tonight There would still be music let to write Remember who you are Do not look back There would still be music let to write A view of the city from mountain high Do not look back The music is as peaceful as angels passing by A view of the city from mountain high The hunter becomes the hunted as time lies The music is as peaceful as angels passing by With a basketball launched into the sky The hunter becomes the hunted as time lies Remember who you are With a basketball launched into the sky If you said goodbye to me tonight

GUILT Lilah Grace Jordan Elementary School Summer STEM We all have something that we wish we could take back. That guilt can be so heavy, all you want to do is bury yourself in it and cry. Sometimes you will never forgive yourself for what you did, but I learned that everyone makes mistakes, not just you. I learned not to be so hard on yourself. You should forgive yourself, because you don’t deserve to be trapped in your own guilt forever. Focus on the present, because your past does not change your future. Focus on this moment. Right here. Right now.

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MY MIND WAS RACING LIKE A MARATHON RUNNER Chloe Grace Jordan Elementary School My mind was racing like a marathon runner, The pots’ delicate diamond and gold pieces inside of it were gleaming in the moonlight Don’t wish for something if you don’t work for it too, But for me, I wished, I wished but I worked as well.

The pot’s delicate diamond and gold pieces inside of it were gleaming in the moonlight, I can’t believe I inally found it, But for me, I wished, I wished but I also worked as well, Sweat running down my forehead.

I can’t believe I inally found it, I watch and stare at the pot, crying, I wipe the sweat of my forehead, I keep touching it again and again to make sure it’s real.

I watch and stare at the pot, crying, Don’t wish for something if you don’t work for it too, I keep touching it again and again to make sure it’s real, My mind was racing like a marathon runner.

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LIKE A FIRE Logan Grace Jordan Elementary School My anger is like a ire spiraling out of control Mama said it was alright, mama said that it was quite ok A night’s drive through the city Fishing out of the pond with my cousin Mama said it was alright, mama said that it was quite ok Break a leg Fishing out of the pond with my cousin One rotten apple spoils the bunch.

Break a leg The fox dives through the snow for its food.

One rotten apple spoils the bunch My mind is open like a book The fox dives through the snow for its food.

A night’s drive through the city My mind is open like a book My anger is like a ire spiraling out of control

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DEAR SPONGEBOB Roemie Grace Jordan Elementary School Dear Spongebob, I’m in ISreal (it’s not really real) as of right now I came to repair my motorcycle and ride it back home while you are probably getting this postcard. I am almost done. It’s very complicated y’know it’s a motorcycle! When I am able to get a break from ixing my motorcycle I go to my tuba lessons so I can get better at it. The instructors are excellent at tuba. I also like how many libraries there are, they all have such good books! My least favorite thing is some of the people because they are very smelly.

I miss the horrible smell of your grease when you come back from work although I have mostly missed you!

Yours truly, Gary P.S. Can you please acquire a tuba? I’m starting to get addicted to them a lot.

ALL THE STARS ARE CLOSER Laila Grace Jordan Elementary School All the stars are closer.

Swimming in the ocean.

Don’t swim too deep in the ocean, you’ll drown.

The orca plunges in the water.

Swimming in the ocean.

There’s a blue moon, staring down on me, like a huge spotlight of Earth.

The orca plunges in the ocean.

The whole world spins frantically underneath me.

There’s a blue moon, staring down on me, like a huge spotlight of Earth.

Water is soaking all around, the sand sucking my feet irmly into place.

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The whole world spins frantically underneath me.

Water is rushing around my ankles, my feet, pulsing, rushing, throbbing ‘round my shins.

Water is waving at me with cool, blue, icy ingers, weaving, braiding through the night.

Don’t swim too deep in the ocean, you’ll drown.

Water, thrashing, rolling through my cold hair.

All The Stars Are Closer.

WE PLAYED OUT THERE BY THE WILLOWS PJ Grace Jordan Elementary School That person that girl that friend we played out there by the willows We were sisters we had to be soul sisters, family on the willow branch above the clouds We had to be soul sisters, family in a family above the clouds we sang out loud of the joyous tunes In a big meadow that friend we sang out loud of the joyous tunes that person

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ON THE WAY THERE I LOOKED UP TO SKY Zachary Grace Jordan Elementary School I found some frogs the irst night I was there.

When the summer ceased its gleaming and the sky is red.

I’ve liked turtles since I was one.

I found some frogs the irst night I was there.

I looked for more and then I found some toads.

I’ve liked turtles since I was one.

I’ve wanted and still want one.

I looked for more and then I found some toads.

I’ve liked turtles since I was one Those bumpy back roads.

I’ve wanted and still want one.

Those bumpy back roads.

When the summer ceased its gleaming and the sky is red.

Those bumpy back roads.

On the way there I looked up to the sky.

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ELEMENT HAIKU Emilee Grace Jordan Elementary School Summer STEM Water relects your beauty words can’t describe how it feels earth center of life Fire a blazing beauty more destructive than a kid heat as warning Trees blocking out the sun trees and their beautiful leaves wood full of wisdom Air stronger than a bear ire’s best friend currently yet its enemy

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RIGHTS Tifany Grace Jordan Elementary School Summer STEM a girl with no power.

She has rights though.

Right? She gets treated like she doesn’t, yet she has rights. Right?

She can’t walk alone at night because of what could happen.

Yet she has rights.

Right? She got killed for being a woman walking alone in midday, yet she has rights. Everyone is equal, yet she got killed by her kidnapper at the age of 13. Women have rights, yet get treated like they don’t.

It happens to men too, yet more targeted to women.

We’re not all equal like we say we are.

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SAGE INTERNATIONAL Teaching-Writer Chris Mathers Jackson

CRIMSON TRAIL Julien Sage International School of Boise As Jerado was wandering lost in the deep dark green evergreen forest he saw a glimmer of crimson in the corner of his eye.

As he took a closer look, the crimson trail, was leading to a bronze blanket of fur, which smelled as if someone put spoiled milk and blue cheese inside of a rotten pig. As he felt the silky, tangled, bronze fur he heard a weak growl coming from behind the tree. He saw a red blotch of paint-like substance on the belly of the beast where he found a scar as if someone had cut open its stomach with a serrated knife, inch by inch, resealed it, and did it again.

INSTRUCTIONS TO THE ARTIST Wylie Sage International School of Boise My head shall be round with my chin a sharp but dull point.

My eyes shall be a sea blue with a hint of gray with my pupil small in a surprised expression.

The background will be a forest with pine trees, these trees shall be a dark emerald green.

I shall have a cat at one of my sides and a dog at the other with a lock of birds in the back.

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PAINTING OF MY DREAMS Claire Sage International School of Boise The colors of your pallet shall be yellow and blue to represent my origin (Ukraine).

My hair shall be hidden by a swimming cap to conclude I’m a swimmer.

I want my hand to be sot but not lazy and to be writing.

The background should be bright to reference the meaning of my name (the light from heaven), but never forget the efort that you’ve strained and sign your name over my let eye and mine above the right.

THE SQUIRREL IN THE ROAD Mattie Sage International School of Boise I walk upon shades of concrete gray with a group full of other children such as I. We turn the corner and see a horrid sight: a squirrel lying in the road. The poor creature lay with death in its eyes, tears in its mouth, because it is no longer alive. The other vehicles ignore it, and just continue to pass by. Guts pour from its stomach, I feel like I could cry. If you were this poor squirrel, would you, too, be petriied?

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HERON Riley Sage International School of Boise As I fell out of bed, I got dressed and slumped my way toward the kitchen. When I made it, I was surprised to see no snow. As I thought of this, my brother yelled in excitement, “No snow!”

I started to cut my bagel I had toasted seconds ago. My mom yelled at me to get to the car. My mom was there sitting and waiting because I was going to school. I got to the car and we started to drive down the boring road. I went past a river and saw a heron stalking a ish. When I got to school I talked to my friends about how I saw the heron. When school ended POOF! I teleported under the water of the river to see the same heron.

The heron started to say, “You are the chosen one” then I was teleported back to school. I was surprised but excited to ind out all this news. I barely made it to the bus. I ran home. Ater I got of to see the same heron I saw before. Once the spring day had inished I fell asleep and when I woke up, I slumped out of bed once again. When I ate my morning bagel, my mom yelled at me to get in the car and we started to drive to school.

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GARFIELD ELEMENTARY SUMMER STEM Teaching-Writer Laura Roghaar

A STACK BELOW Addie Garield Elementary School Summer STEM In this world a leshy, meaty smell follows you everywhere, and the ground is forbidden. The buildings reach up to the clouds, and everything is man-made, even the livestock. Inside, the skyscrapers are cold and dark illed with scared families in bare rooms. On ground level, all you can see is destruction and the smell is the worst down there. Everyone knows what the smell is, nobody wants to talk about it. The only way to even see the ground is on a bridge that feels as if it could break any second, and it’s loud on the bridge and you don’t want them to hear you.

Walking on the rickety old bridge as its waving and making a terrible creaking sound, I can hear them. I can smell them. They smell horrid, maybe they smell so bad to lure you in.

Don’t look down, don’t look down! You don’t see them, you don’t hear them, just walk and forget the feeling of the wood bending.

But I can feel them trying to climb, trying to get to me, sweat dripping down my face as I speed up. How can walking across a bridge take this long? I can hear their hunger, I can hear the horrible sound of their nails, or should I say claws rubbing against the metal. Please don’t die. If I do, I can’t protect my sister.

Finally I make it to the other tower. I’m safe. A wave of relief washes over me, but it’s short lived because I may have evaded the monsters outside but there are still people inside these bare, dark hallways. Walking the cold corridors, my footsteps echo, and I hope no one can hear me. If they hear me I could get hurt. The bad people might want my food or they might want my sister.

With every step I take, my heart drops. Why do these hallways have to be so empty and echoey?

I may have made it across the bridge, but I’m still scared. I’m always scared I can’t protect her. I hear someone walking.

“Oh no,” I said. Wait. Did I say that out loud? Oh god, no, please be a good person. Please be kind.

“Hello?” the stranger said.

I instantly remembered the voice. It was Nana. She was one of the people on the top loor. So I knew I was safe with her.

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I instantly called out, “Nana!” As soon as I saw her a wave of relief washed over me. Finally I was safe. Nana ofered to take me.

“So how’s your little sister?” Nana asked, hoping for good news.

“She is getting better or worse, it’s hard to tell,” I stated, knowing that my sister gets worse every day.

“Well, I will be praying for her every night,” stated Nana.

Nana was a kind old woman. I always felt safe around her. Nana was like a roof of protection. She always helped me when I was in trouble, but she won’t be able to forever.

“Oh, well, here we are. See you tomorrow,” Nana stated.

“Bye, see you tomorrow!” I yelled. Turning to my pod door, fear overwhelms me.

Wha—what if Kara isn’t alive? I think. This thought always comes into my head every time I go to open the door.

I’m shaking as I open it. Once I inally open the door, my heart skips a beat. A wave of fear washes over me when I see her lying on the loor, face down. I run over to check her pulse. Oh, good, she’s still, she’s still alive, must’ve fallen of the long bright orange sofa.

I pick up my sister and place her back on the sofa and prepare dinner. I’ve never really thought about how bright that couch is. It’s almost neon. My sister has always been sick, it’s just never been this bad.

GO BACK FOR GLOBAL WARMING Celia Garield Elementary School Summer STEM Kevin woke up sweating. He looked around and saw a purple lower and emerged from his den to get a closer look at it. It was wilting. He thought to himself, I’m not the only one that the heat is getting to. He thought about what would happen when it got too hot. Would everything melt? Would he have to leave? So many questions but not one answer. He didn’t want to think about it but he knew that worse was coming. And coming fast.

Kevin walked to the lake that was once frozen over but now had less than 20 platforms of ice and they were thin, too.

He thought that some food might cheer him up, realizing that with all the thinking he had just done, he never ate. The lake 92

had a refreshing mist covering it that was not only thick but also cool. The ish in the lake were swimming about, not noticing Kevin. He quickly dove in and caught a ish. Ater a few more ish, Kevin thought again and again about what might happen to his home, he was only a polar bear, what could he do? Ater inishing his meal he went to ind a short, stubby, lightless bird, a penguin named Pax. Kevin found Pax on an icy and slippery clif watching ater his daughter while his mate went to ind food.

“Kevin!” Pax said, surprised to see him. “Where have you been?”

“By the lake,” Kevin said.

“Haven’t you heard?” said Pax. “The seals are going away to ind a colder climate. They can’t take the heat!” he said excitedly.

Kevin knew Pax would be happy, the seals were never nice to him or anyone else.

“So,” said Kevin. “I came here to ask you if you wanted to help me try to do something about this global warming thing.”

Pax laughed. “What can we do against it?” Pax said. “Tell the sun to go away?

“No,” said Kevin. “Something like…like…” Kevin had no idea.

He let Pax and his daughter there and went to the research center. While he was walking there a short, lufy, camoulaged igure hopped up to him. It was an arctic hare named Calvin.

“Hello!” said Calvin cheerfully. “Going to the research center?”

“Yep! I just need to see something,” said Kevin.

“Great!” Calvin said. “I’ll come with you.”

When they got there, Kevin saw a scientist was watching TV through the window. The scientist was watching a movie about a man who went back in time to see his grandpa. Kevin then got an amazing idea. He rushed to his den as quickly as possible to think about how he could build a time machine.

Ater a while he developed a plan.

“Kevin!” someone interrupted. It was Calvin, out-ofbreath Calvin. “You ran away so fast I thought something was wrong! So I followed you back, but I kinda got lost because hare legs don’t get you very far chasing an animal 1,000 times your 93 size.”

“Well, I’m ine,” replied Kevin. “I just got a great idea.”

“What is it?” asked Calvin.

“I’m going to build a time machine to go back in time and make people aware of what will happen if they don’t do something about global warming,” said Kevin.

“Cool,” said Calvin. “If you need any help building it, Stephani can help. She’s made some great stuf from the scraps of the plane that crashed in the lake.”

“Thanks,” replied Kevin. “I’ll get her tomorrow.”

A little while later, Kevin went to his den to sleep, thinking about his plans. The next morning, Kevin awoke to Stephani salvaging metal scraps from the plane wreck to build the time machine. There were plenty of scraps because the plane was as big as an elephant, like a giant metal bird. Stephani was like a vulture feasting of of a carcass. Stephanie was the most creative polar bear in the polar ice caps. She built snow statues using her bare, (or bear, if you must) paws.

Kevin went to help her get parts, which was easy seeing as polar bears are good swimmers. Ater collecting the scraps, they started making the basic shape of The Time Machine.

Kevin then went to get ish, some nice and tender ish. He came back to a basic time machine structure. All that was let to do was beef it up and ind a button.

When Stephani and Kevin inished, the time machine was as big as four vending machines, a life changing box.

Stephani warned Kevin it could be dangerous.

“So,” she said, “while you were away, I brought Calvin and Pax, and we all agreed to help you save our home.”

“Great!” said Kevin, “let’s get this party started!”

They all hopped in the time machine and pressed the ON button. BOOM! Pax jumped on Calvin, who immediately collapsed.

They heard the crackling of ire, and looked at each other. And found themselves human!

They were no longer animals. They all started panicking.

“C’mon,” Pax said. At least, Kevin thought it was him.

“Let’s just get this over with. The faster we inish this, the quicker we become animals again.”

They awkwardly walked out into a Native American village. Locals started greeting them while their children asked where they came from and why Pax, Calvin, and Kevin’s hair 94

was not long, like the other locals. They ignored all the staring and proceeded to tell them about what will happen to their homes in the future if they don’t do something about it.

They then disappeared as fast as a penguin swims. Ater the time machine brought them back to present time, they became your average animal, but now they were heroes! A cold breeze came around and they all sighed in relief period Kevin stepped out and saw all of the Arctic animals gathered there, including the seals, they were all happy and thanking Kevin and his friends were saving their homes. They thanked them all day until Kevin went to bed.

Before driting of to sleep he said, “That’s what a polar bear can do.”

THE SPIDER WASPS Fili Garield Elementary School Summer STEM In a very deep Amazon rainforest, a 26-year-old girl lives in a tiny house. The Amazon rainforest is the world’s most biodiverse rainforest containing many million species of insects, plants, birds, and mammals. The area is covered with tall green trees. The trees are very brightly colored and the sweet smell of the lowers attracts the pollinators such as bees, bats, butterlies, and birds. Emma is very friendly to the animals. She always listens to the sound of nature and was adapted to the Amazon rainforest. She could study the animals from forest loor through the emergent.

Emma used to go to school when she was a kid, but she thought school won’t help her become a pharmaceutical scientist and zoologist. So she went to the Amazon rainforest to study animals. One day Emma went to the city and asked people how she is going to apply for a job. She tried to apply for a job but many people said that she needed a bachelors degree. While Emma was walking someone stole her bag. In Emma’s bag, there was a note about how animals behave.

Emma was frustrated so she went home with an evil idea. She thought people were mean. She started hunting for spider wasps, lower nectar, and snake venom. She kept the spider wasps in an apiary.

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First, she made a vaccine from the snake venom so she didn’t get stung by the spider wasps. Then Emma added a very tiny controlling gadget on the lower nectar and fed the spider wasps. Now that the spider wasps were controlled, Emma let the spider wasps spread.

The spider wasps stung every person one by one, except for Emma, and everyone started to feel pain. Ater a few hours, everyone turned into a zombie. Emma ordered the spider wasps not to sting the South American president. Ater a few days, Emma called the president and told him that she has the vaccine that will turn everybody back into a normal person. The president was happy to hear that.

“I will give you anything you want if you give the vaccine to the people,” the president said.

“I agree to your ofer,” Emma replied.

Emma and the president started to vaccinate everyone.

The zombies slept and ater one day, everyone was back to normal. Emma asked the president if she can be a pharmaceutical scientist and ecologist.

“If you have the talent, you can be anything you want,” the president answered.

Emma became one of the most popular pharmaceutical scientists and zoologists. Ater a few years, Emma felt bad for trying to destroy people. So she made a video on YouTube to apologize to the people and to tell them that she planned to turn them into zombies. She also explained how badly people had treated her.

The video hit 23 million views. Many people were as mad as hungry giants, so they wrote mean comments. Some people forgave her, and the president wrote, “There are mean people and good people in this world. So many people hate me, but I only focus on those people who like me.”

Emma only focused on the people who liked her and went back to her life.

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HEART OF THE TUNNEL Lili Garield Elementary School Summer STEM No one has ever adventured outside of our loating island, or even our tunnel. Our island is far up in the sky with the clouds and is in the shape of a square. If you go on top of the green hills surrounding our island, you will see a steep drop of.

Some say that if you look down, a four-headed beast will appear from the darkness to gobble you up. Others say that you will be manipulated to jump of the island, never to be seen again.

That’s why we mostly stay in a deep, dark tunnel. No one is allowed to leave the tunnel except for the elders. However, I have traveled outside the tunnel myself many times. When you look out of the tunnel, you see trees upside-down, a loating river, and even a snowstorm on the corner of the island, although the snow is falling the wrong way. There are many colorful lowers, and even the upside-down trees are colorful. The trees turn into a forest the farther you walk towards them. We call the forest the upside-down forest for obvious reasons. I was just about to leave the tunnel again through a separate well-hidden tunnel that I created, when just before I could reach it, someone asked me where I was going.

It was one of the elders. You rarely saw them away from the heart of the tunnel. As he spoke, his white beard bounced up and down.

“Where are you going Chris?” he asked me.

“Nowhere,” I replied, now becoming more fearful of what he would say. In the dimly lit tunnel he looked ghostly.

“Where are you going, Elder?”

“Nowhere,” he replied, as he slowly turned around, disappearing back into the blackness of the tunnel.

I could hear his footsteps on the brown dusty loor fade away. When I thought I couldn’t hear anymore footsteps, I breathed a sigh of relief and continued on my own to the outside of the tunnel. When I got to my hidden tunnel, I noticed that the vines covering the entrance had been pushed aside so you could see into the tunnel. I didn’t think much of it but as I entered, I looked around to make sure no one was watching me.

I hurried through the dimly lit tunnel and could begin to see a gleaming light ahead. When I made it to the end, I stepped on the familiar squishy green grass and saw the familiar hills. For 97

whatever reason I felt like I was being watched. I could feel their glassy eyes looking at me from a distance. However I had no idea where they were.

I ran to the upside-down forest to hide in the trees. It seemed to take forever to get there but at last I inally made it and jumped in the nearest tree. I found a good branch to sit on and looked around me. From what I could tell, there was nothing but the colorful trees of the upside-down forest, and the occasional melody of the birds singing. I waited a good ive minutes before I jumped down. The leaves below my sandals made a loud Crunch.

It was actually a nice sunny warm day, the sun beating through the trees to the ground. I was now regretting wearing my giant green sweater and baggy black pants. It was almost too hot to stand. I decided to go back to the tunnel, even though I had only let about 10 minutes ago. “What a waste,” I mumbled to myself. On my way out of the upside-down forest, I looked around to see if I could see anyone, and to my surprise, I saw a little green bald head bobbing through the rocks near the entrance of the tunnel.

Right when I saw it, I jumped up at least two feet and began to run back to the forest when the creature said, “Wait, Chris!”

I stopped in my tracks immediately and slowly turned around. “You, you know my name?” I asked nervously.

“Yes, everyone knows your name. You come out here a lot, so it’s hard not to see you,” it replied.

“Wait, who are you? How do you know my name? What do you mean by everyone?” I began walking backwards, trying to hold my balance so I wouldn’t fall. I was becoming more and more terriied with every second that went by.

“You mean you haven’t seen us out here?” asked the green creature. A bit of disappointment was beginning to show on his face. The creature began to slowly rise out of the rocks.

“My questions irst. What is your name?” I whispered. I could barely get the words out of my mouth, I was so terriied.

“78!” replied the green creature, his mood seeming to lighten slightly.

“What do you mean, 78?” I replied, confused.

“That’s my name! Now, how have you not seen us? We have been following you for a while now,” 78 asked.

“Uh, can you show me what you mean by everyone 98

irst?” I asked. I wasn’t going to answer his questions before he answered mine.

“Alrighty then!” yelled 78. “You can come out now!”

Suddenly the whole area around me began to make noise. It was as loud as a passing airplane. I began to look around and saw lots of little green bald heads starting to pop out of bushes, grass, and even the ground! They were about as tall as a desk in a school classroom, so I was easily able to tower above all of them.

“Who are you?” I asked, now feeling like they might try and tackle me because of how many of them there were.

They all started saying random numbers anywhere between 1 and 1,000.

“53!” one yelled.

“653!” another yelled Those were the only numbers I was able to understand in all the noise. When it had inally quieted down, I asked where they were all from.

“From the Earth, of course!” answered 78.

That’s when I learned about the world outside of the loating island. The so-called Earth had trees, like here, but the trees weren’t upside down. It had many other interesting things on it as well. I would have to go against the Elders, but it would be worth it to see the blue and green sparkling planet.

“I’m going to go back to the tunnel,” I told them. “I have to get some things from inside.”

“Okay,” they all replied at the same time.

I raced back into the dimly lit tunnel, my footsteps echoing against the dry dirt loor. I was most worried about seeing the pale, ghostly face of one of the elders, mainly the elder I saw earlier. I would have to pass by the heart of the tunnel in order to get the items I would need. All of the elders would be huddled in the heart of the tunnel, all sitting around a small silver cofee table. I began to think of what I might need.

“Maybe a lashlight?” I mumbled under my breath.

I honestly had no idea what I would need to go to the planet. 78 had told me that there was an old, rickety fallingapart-bridge I would have to cross.

“It is hidden and everyone who has crossed it has fallen of,” 78 explained.

“You mean there are others that have gone outside the tunnel?” I asked, now beginning to feel terriied of the bridge, 99

but yet excited that I wasn’t the irst person to go out of the tunnel.

“Why, yes!” replied 78, now practically dancing. I was in front of a large doorway opening that led into the heart of the tunnel. I tried to walk as quietly as I could, but I guess it wasn’t enough.

“What are you doing?” asked a voice from behind me. I spun around so quickly that I almost fell over.

“Kyle?” I asked. It was one of the children that lived in the tunnels.

“Uh, nothing,” I replied quickly in a hushed voice.

“Are you sneaking out again?” asked Kyle, sounding very dull, like he had asked it a million times.

A KIND OF LOVE ONLY SHE CAN MAKE Ruth Garield Elementary School Summer STEM This story takes place in the village in Uganda. In the village there is a group of friends who go fetch water at the stream every day. The girls always liked the dry land in the village. They liked it because they could play so many games on the dry lands. One day as they were on their way to school, someone gave them lowers. When they were reaching close to school most people knew that Mercer, Maddy, Esther, Monet, and Angel, would come to school together because they were a group of best friends.

In their school that they went to they were in secondary. In their class they had diferent teachers coming for science math English and more subjects. The reason why all the classes were in one class was because in Africa, especially in the village, many schools didn’t have enough classrooms for every student.

So one classroom would have everyone in like the 6th grade together in one room and some of the students didn’t get to sit on the chairs. Some stood, and some sat on a rough hard dry loor.

Some students couldn’t even aford the shoes that went with the school uniform so when they sat on the loor or stood on the loor it would feel bumpy and rough under their feet.

The teachers at the school were very strict like in school from my experience, every time you misspell a word, if your 100

writing doesn’t make sense, if you can’t answer a question they ask you, if you don’t get your answer right, or if you are late for school, they would beat you up with a stick, or they would remove their bounce and beat you. But that was only for some teachers. In fact some teachers were nice and they would help you if you asked for help. Some of them would help buy some students uniforms for them.

Mercer–Mercer was a girl. She loved to learn. She was the ith member in their friendship group with Maddie, Esther, Monet, and Angel. She loves to play with her friends. Mercer was 13 years old. She lost her parents when she was 10 years old.

Her parents died from poison. One day her parents had gone out to visit her neighbors. But as hours and days passed without her parents coming back, she went to ask about her parents. She went to go ask the neighbor that her parents went to go visit. Her parents had went to go visit Maddy’s stepmother.

Mercer and her friends, even Maddy, they didn’t like Maddy’s stepmother because she was really mean to them.

When Mercer went to go ask Maddy’s stepmother why her parents didn’t come back the stepmother had answered, “Because I poisoned them. Why? Because I didn’t like them.”

When Maddy’s stepmother said that, Mercer felt the wind blowing on her. She felt like the world was upside-down now. She felt like nothing would ever workout again. She also felt like she would never be happy again. Things just felt like it was the end of the world. It was like, by losing her parents, she had lost another part of her.

Anyway, Mercer never liked talking about her past experience of losing her parents. She wanted to be happy.

Mercer was not always happy. She used to be mean too.

She was the only child in her family. She used to be ungrateful to her parents. She used to take other kids stuf that she saw.

But she changed her actions when her parents died she said to herself that she would never be ungrateful or mean to anyone else again. From the day her parents died, she started to be nice.

She started to help her neighbors out when they needed help.

She gave food, treats to the little kids who were hungry, and she started to change.

In school Mercer’s favorite subjects are writing and English.

“Why do you like writing so much?” Angel asked.

“Because when I write I can express my feelings easily 101

by writing it out,” Mercer replied. “And you never know, writing can be handy in the future.”

Ater Angel heard her, she said, “That’s pretty smart.

But why do you like English?”

“I like English because it can help me get a job when I inish with school. And it can help me earn my own business.”

“That’s pretty smart!”

Mercer loved school because her parents used to force her to focus in school but she never wanted to. But she started to like school when she thought about why her parents used to force her in school. Her parents used to tell her, “Focus on your education. You can get a nice job when you’re older.”

She would always say, “You guys will always be here for me. Why do I need to focus on school?”

They would always say to her, “You never know when we can be gone or dead, and it will help your future. That’s why we want you to focus on school.”

Ater they would say that, Mercer never talked back to them, never argued with them, because she knew that they were always right.

Ater school, Mercer would always play with her friends, study, then she would go fetch water at the stream. She would go barefoot under the hot sun because she only had a pair of shoes for school, church sometimes.

Mercer is a Muslim and Christian. One question Monet would ask Mercer, “How can you be half Muslim and half Christian?”

Mercer would answer her, “Because my mother’s side is Muslim and my father’s side is Christian.”

Monet was full Muslim. “Okay, but don’t you feel weird when people know you’re half Muslim and half Christian?” said Monet.

“Well, actually I think you shouldn’t be ashamed of your religion. Instead you should be proud of your religion,” said Mercer.

“Well okay, I guess you have a point over there,” replied Monet.

“Monet, let me tell you, I know you don’t like school, but I want you to focus on schools as you see your parents are struggling to keep you in school. I want you to focus on school so in the future you can have a good job in the city and move your family to the city,” said Mercer.

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“But why should I do that?” said Monet.

“Well, you see you have a sibling. Set a good example for them,” replied Mercer.

“Okay, I will do my best to focus on school,” Monet replied, knowing that Mercer was right.

Days went, Mercer kept on doing the usual things, until she met her best friend who was back from the city where he goes to school.

“Hey!” exclaimed Mercer, hugging him tight.

“Hi, how have you been? I’ve missed you,” said Enock.

“You know, things have been hard for me since my parents died, but I have been missing you so much. How is the city?” said Mercer.

“The city has been okay but, I miss being in the village with you and my other friend,” Enock replied.

“But you know the village is a hard place to live in,” said Mercer. “It’s as hard as running up a mountain.”

“I know. I feel like this is the place where I belong. It feels like a beautiful wonderland to me,” said Enock.

“Okay,” replied Mercer.

One day as Mercer was walking back to her house, it was a dark night. As she was walking, she felt as if her parents’ voices were talking to her. Her eyes illed with tears as the memory illed. The sorrow and pain came back to her, the same pain she felt when her parents let her. But this pain was stronger than she had felt before.

As she was almost back home she saw some of her friends waiting for her. As she was approaching them they handed her roses.

“Close your eyes,” Monet told her.

“Why should I?” Mercer replied.

“Just do it,” replied Monet.

“Okay,” said Mercer as she was covering her eyes. Her friends helped her enter the door.

She didn’t know when she was entering the door was there was a surprise for her.

“Happy birthday, Mercer!” said everyone in the house.

“Thank you guys so much. I forgot about my own birthday!” replied Mercer.

“It’s okay. We have a surprise for you, but irst we have a poem for you. It’s called ‘Roses’,” Monet replied with everyone else.

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“Okay,” replied Mercer.

“Roses Roses look as beautiful as fresh lowers and rose cakes Roses you can hear bees around them as they’re buzzing with happiness.

The petals of roses are as sot as a newborn baby.

But rose thorns sting like a bee sting.

Roses taste like a beautiful decorated rose cake.

Roses smell like new fresh lowers and rose cakes.

Roses,” they said.

“You guys copied my poem assignment,” Mercer said with happiness.

“I know, I didn’t have any poems in my mind so I had to copy yours,” said Angel.

“You did a great job writing your poem. I want to read your poem to the class tomorrow,” said her writing teacher.

“Okay, I will,” Mercer said.

Of the night, Mercer had fun. Later that night when everyone let her house she recited her poem for the next day.

When Mercer went to school, she was reciting her poem. When she went to writing class, her teacher said, “Mercer, please read us your poem.”

“Okay,” she replied, getting ready to say her poem.

“Roses Roses look as beautiful as fresh lowers and rose cakes Roses you can hear bees around them as they’re buzzing with happiness.

The petals of roses are as sot as a newborn baby.

But rose thorns sting like a bee sting.

Roses taste like a beautiful decorated rose cake.

Roses smell like new fresh lowers and rose cakes.

Roses,” she said, loud and proud.

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Everyone clapped for her. Her teacher was really proud of her.

From that day on she had a scholarship for university and she was happy. Mercer had never thought that she could get a scholarship. But she got her prize in the end because of the hard work she put into her education. Her friends threw a party for her getting a scholarship, and her teachers were so proud of her hard work.

Ater Mercer got a scholarship, she moved to the city to make investments so she can make her own company. Though she was in university she also got employed to work in a company. In school she studied how to make investments, math, science, and chemistry. At work she was a cleaner and a messenger. Although she had to work and go to school, her friends were always there to help her out. Her friends helped her pay the rent in the house she was currently living in.

About three years later she graduated from university with so much struggle, but she made it through. Her friends were also proud of her. A week later, ater she graduated, she inally went to work in her own company. She employs some of her friends from university, and some of her friends from the village.

“I can’t believe you have your own company now. How did you do it?” asked Alice, her friend from university.

“Well irst of all, one thing I can say, is that you have to believe in yourself, and never let anyone get in your way, just keep believing in yourself and work hard for your dream, or what you want to be in the future,” replied Mercer.

“Thanks for the advice. I am really proud of you for achieving your dream. And thank you for hiring me,” Alice said with a warm smile on her face.

“You’re welcome.”

Ater a few weeks later, Mercer is sitting outside of her house she just bought. She starts to think, “Now I live in the city with so many car noises at night, with so many lights at night glowing as beautiful as a sunset. I am supposed to be happy for what I have achieved on my own... But I still feel a sorrowful pain because I don’t have my parents to share my happiness with. I see children playing with their parents which makes me want to have that childhood,” she says, driting to sleep.

A week later as she is going back to the village, she sees 105

a family sleeping on the rugs. She decides to give them some money. She says, “Here, take this money. It’s all I have on me right now. Use it to ind some food to eat. I promise, next time I come I will take you guys to your house that I will buy for you guys in the city,” Mercer said with a smile.

The mom of the family replies, “Thank you so much young lady. But why are you helping us? I always thought that city girls like you don’t like helping poor villagers like us,” said the mother.

“Well, I want to help you guys because I used to be a villager like you guys. I know the struggle you guys go through.

And my late mother always told me, ‘Always help those in need because you never know the pain they’re in,’” said Mercer with a warm smile on her face.

“Thank you for helping out my family,” said the mother.

“You’re welcome, but can I take your kids with me to the city? I promise I won’t hurt them. I want to enroll your children in the school in the city. And I will have bought a house for you guys in about a week. I promise,” said Mercer.

“Thank you. Of course you can take my children. But please, don’t hurt them. God has sent you to us, may God bless you my daughter,” said the mother.

A week later ater the children had been enrolled in school, Mercer went to get their mother from the village.

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MORLEY NELSON ELEMENTARY SUMMER STEM Teaching-Writer Tracy Sunderland

IN 2018 Amelie Morley Nelson Elementary School Summer STEM My Dad was on a plane ride to Wisconsin where my Grandma lies sick. He was on his way to visit her, but before he could get there the message came. She’s gone Gone, and into the heavens.

Her life gone, her body still on this planet, her soul rising to heaven. Dad called us, me and Mom, to break the news.

I remember going to her funeral, a couple weeks later. Her beautiful coin which she was in and now she is ashes in a pot.

Sometimes I wish she would rise from the ashes, alive again like a phoenix.

I never cried over her gone. She died when I was 9. She lived in Wisconsin and I was in Idaho. I visited my family in Wisconsin probably once a year.

I have a memory of walking on the beach with her in Florida picking up shells. She loved the ocean, the beach, the shells.

Whenever I see something connected to an ocean, or beach, or shells, I think of her. Grandma Midge.

THE PHONE RINGS

Hassan Morley Nelson Elementary School Summer STEM I remember this one time it was Halloween and I was goin’ Everywhere having fun and then this Other Time I went to this park called Borah and at that time I had a lot of candy from Trick or Treating and my legs hurt so much from Trick or Treating and then I went to Borah Park to go Trick or Treating, but then these Teenage drug dealers came to steal our candy chasing us with real guns and knives and even though my legs were hurting, I was like Nope Nope Nope, my candy not bout to get stolen today. So I bolted and dipped and Ran so quick without even caring about my legs hurting and me and my friends got away from them. They continued chasing us not with their legs but with their cars, but the only reason they didn’t get us was 109

because they were smokers so their lungs don’t work that Good.

So before we stopped running they stopped way way way way way before us so we were able to get away and hide somewhere so they wouldn’t ind us and the only reason they weren’t able to get us was because it was dark and nighttime. I went to call the cops to tell them what happened, but the cops didn’t answer and we heard the drug dealers sing songs past us and our phone suddenly rings and we get caught. All of our things are taken away and then we die.

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WHITNEY ELEMENTARY SUMMER STEM Teaching-Writer Katie Fuller

Excerpts from RETRO MINT Betzabeth Whitney Elementary School Summer STEM Retro Mint was out for a walk with Warinder in the morning. The sun shone brightly above them.

“Hey I saw something,” Warinder said as her ears perked up.

“What?” asked Retro Mint.

“It sounds like a scavenger.”

“A scavenger?!” Retro Mint yelled with fear as a cascade of purple illed his teal-colored scales.

“Oh don’t worry Mint. I don’t think a puny scavenger will hurt us,” Warinder said. “Let’s go and ind this… scavenger,” she said. They both continued their walk trying to look for their scavenger. The sun was higher in the sky, watching their every movement. There was a rustle in a patch of bushes. “Shh,” Warinder whispered, with one talon on her snout. Retro Mint nodded with fear as the Nightwing got closer to the bush. Then she leaped, tangling and wrestling the bush. The scavenger came out..but Warinder was still ighting the bush like it was a dragon.

Mint had an even darker shade of purple, but didn’t look at himself. His eyes were on the scavenger. * Warinder growled at a sloth that was hanging from a tree. “These sloths are scaring the scales of of me.” Retro Mint picked up the human with one talon. “Wow. Humans are really small. I wonder how they killed the SandWing Queen…” Retro Mint thought. Soon they went to a hamlet that had some lowers and colorful feathers-of-paradise birds. They found them and shone its warm yellow sunbeams on them. Peach-colored birds, fruits and RainWings appeared in the irst. Retro Mint saw dark green leaves with water drops mixed with light blue wings and frogs. “I hate this,” grumbled Warinder as she landed on a big fat leaf that had light green on it. Light orange and scarlet red danced on his teal scales. “Please, Warinder,” he calmly said.

Soon his angry colors dance stopped. The human pushed a talon and jumped on the same leaf Warinder was one.

“Okay...if you can talk, what’s your name?”

“My name is Harper.”

“That’s a wonderful name,” said Mint.

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THE STORY OF ALAEA AND DRESS BLUE Biombe Whitney Elementary School Summer STEM Alaea lives with her grandparents. She and her sister, Dress Blue, both of them have been trying to ind answers to what happened to their parents. Dress Blue still thinks their parents are alive. Her parents are really smart. Blue found some pictures hidden under her grandparents’ room. They were pictures that had clues on how to ind her parents. When she had kept looking for clues she saw blurry pictures. It was like another planet, there were cute aliens and monsters, goblins, and holding hands in the middle there were two people, a husband and a wife.

“Those must be my parents,” Alaea said.

“They are just people wearing masks sisi. You’re wrong.

Next time you should check carefully.”

“Al we are going to look for mom and dad. Pack your things, we are going on a trip.”

COLORS Sadie Whitney Elementary School Summer STEM Peach color like his skin. Peach color like fruit biting into the juicy goodness.

Greenish yellow like soda, greenish yellow like grass.

Dark green like his eyes.

Blue.

Light blue like eyes under the sky. Light blue like my sorrow like my soul.

Brown like free birds. Like my midnight cravings.

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THAT DAY I ALMOST CRIED FOR THE COLOR BROWN Joshua Whitney Elementary School Summer STEM The color brown so light and majestic at a lounge is where I saw it The room color so pretty I’ve never seen it It’s a memory to remember At a lounge is where I saw it I was shocked at its color and I was speechless It’s a memory to remember never in my life have I seen it I was shocked at its color and I was speechless That day I almost cried for the color brown Never in my life have I seen it Will I cherish this? Yes. Yes I will.

That day I almost cried for the color brown The room color so pretty I’ve never seen it Will I cherish this? Yes. Yes I will.

The color brown so light and majestic

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MY NAME Rebekah Whitney Elementary School Summer STEM People don’t usually mispronounce my name, but people usually spell it wrong. I wish that my name was Hope, or Indigo or Sage. All three of those names are such beautiful names. People used to make fun of me at my old school because of my irst, middle and last name. My mom irst named me Jade but then decided she didn’t want that name for me. I’m ine with people calling me Bekah, just not Becky. I don’t like how long my name is. Seven letters because adults always tell me my full name is too long to put on something, so bracelets and other jewelry usually say Bekah instead of Rebekah. I wish people weren’t so mean in the world and would leave others alone. My full name is Rebekah Ann Dahlin, but people call me “Becky, Ann, or Rebekah Donkey.” I have been dealing with this for a while so I wish my name was Hope, Indigo or Sage. I love sage, one of my favorite colors is indigo and I have a lot of hope for myself and for others. I don’t know if my name means anything, but I know the way my name is spelled is a special way to spell it.

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RESTFUL WHITE Monique Whitney Elementary School Summer STEM Restful White is a 9,027-year-old ghost. He is light gray, almost fully white. He lives within the hills of Mt. Tamahashi and if you listen closely, you’ll think that you’ll hear the wind whistling but really you’re hearing Restful White snoring from his deep underground cabin. Then in the morning of a windless day, that’s how you know he’s awake, and when he’s awake there are only a few reasons, but most of the time it’s for food because ater long sleeping days he gets real hungry but he has one problem with eating. It goes in his mouth but instantly drops to the ground so year ater year he gets more and more hungry.

One day he decided he was going to go look for food that ghosts could eat. So he packed his stuf and took the irst step out of his house ater 5, 067 years and continued on. He then saw something that reminded him of a special place. He decided to have a peek at the place for a moment so he hiked up to the toppy top of Mt. Tamahashi and looked at the very special place. The spot where Restful White got married as a living human to his now in heaven wife, Peaceful Blue. This place was beautiful. There were willow trees with beautiful light green leaves and dark brown trunks, the wild roses with a magnetic color smelling like Peaceful Blue’s mother’s fresh baked raspberry pie, the hills rolling with long grass waving in the frosty wind as if waves of the the ocean. But now sagebrush had taken over most of the land and and the willows were now dark green and old but the wild roses still held their ininite beauty and lovely smell.

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WHITTIER ELEMENTARY SUMMER STEM Teaching-Writer Colleen Brennan

3 NAMES ARE MINE Savannah Whittier Elementary School Summer STEM Savannah, Savannah, Savannah.

Sweet as fresh mangos, yellow like lemons. Sot and long.

Smooth and fragile on your tongue.

A place far away or close by. Savannah, Georgia.

A place, city, town, a home, shares my name.

Sweet, yellow, sot, smooth, fragile.

A girl and a city share a name.

A sot whisper, a nice breeze.

My name Savannah, the sound of the wind. A whisper, a voice.

Adair, second name.

Pronounced A dare, not A deer or A-d-air.

Adair, windy, sot, smooth like my irst.

They it together like 2 puzzle pieces.

Shadle, passed down by father ater father, family to family.

Shadle, said like “ladle.”

Hard, sharp, and cold, the name is a shard of metal.

Nothing like my other 2 names.

Shadle, passed down by families going back so far, years, decades, or maybe centuries.

Shadle, a name that feels like plunging into an ice cold lake.

Savannah, sot, long, smooth, fragile.

Adair, a whisper, breeze, a voice.

Shadle, ice cold, sharp, and hard.

3 names are mine.

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MY NAME Lamis Whittier Elementary School Summer STEM My name is Lamis.

I know what my name means, but I don’t know how I can explain my name in English. But I know it means “beautiful.”

My mom, she gave me my name because before I was born, she was watching a movie and she saw this name and she liked it.

My family calls me “Lolo.”

Nobody in my family has my name.

If my name were a color, it would be white, and it sounds like a compliment. It is the name of a nice girl.

CORAL Finnian Whittier Elementary School Summer STEM It is as cold as steel but as hard as rock.

With calming smell but bitter taste.

It thumps around while thousands in small caves call out to me.

From a living thing to a dead thing, from water to land with its colors disappearing.

Coral.

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STAY COOL Austin Whittier Elementary School Summer STEM Love dog, hate cat Ten apples up on top Minecrat is so awesome!

Books, wood, new school, It’s okay, just stay cool!

United we are Sky blue, lime green, sand-like brown.

Elephant and pig It’s okay for now!

Books are towers of stories.

THE HAPPY FLOWER Morgan Whittier Elementary School Summer STEM I see a happy lower.

Its vibrant orange and bright yellow faded into each other express the true beauty of this happy lower.

The feeling of this happy lower is as sot as a peach And as delicate and an old vase.

The sound is as quiet as a dark cave.

The lower smells like nature, sweet and fruity.

It tastes like sweet dirt.

This happy lower has a great place on this earth.

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THE HARDEST THING ABOUT BEING A WRITER Deborah Whittier Elementary School Summer STEM The hardest thing about being a writer is that your heart starts to hurt when you write and you run out of ideas, so you take a break and when you come back, you have an idea sometimes.

But being a writer is about giving a lot of details to give your reader a better, clearer picture of your story. So it’s not all about writing; it’s also about how you write, what it’s about, and more.

Being a writer is harder than you think.

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ROSE HILL MONTESSORI Teaching-Writer Elizabeth Barnes

IN THE PLACE-OF-THE-CROWS Henry Rose Hill Montessori School Where the ires don’t ight and the trees never grow You will ind no warmth In the-place-of-the-crows Yes the-place-of-the-crows is a small town indeed and in the-place-of-the-crows You’ll ind nothing but greed Yes, the town, oh it aches!

For a touch of spring green But in the-place-of-the-crows It has never been seen In this place of the death and this place-of-the-crows Where the ires don’t ight And the trees never grow.

CHEESE KNEES (A LIMERICK) Adam Rose Hill Montessori School There once was a man made of cheese Who couldn’t stop eating his knees And one night in bed He moved down his head and nibbled away the last of his knees.

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THE GLITTERING MOONLIGHT SHONE Jack Rose Hill Montessori School The whispering waves The glowing embers of ire The hardness of earth The rippling waves Washed upon the sandy shore On that crazy night, The glittering moonlight shone…

BECOMING Boone Rose Hill Montessori School Golden ields of wheat ready to be ground to lour and mixed to sweet bread

A grove of maple trees ready to be milked for sap Then boiled to syrup

A powerful stalk greener than a ield of grass ready to bear corn.

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MAKING A WINTER WONDERLAND Alexander Rose Hill Montessori School Cold wind The biting chill Frosty lakes coat the hill.

Bundled up in all your gear gazing at the darkened sky Wondering what forbidden things are hiding up on high.

Watching the snowlakes drit to the land making a winter wonderland.

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CARDINAL ACADEMY Teaching-Writer Guisela Penados Baldizón

CHOCOLATE SKIN Sattagrace Cardinal Academy Beautiful milk chocolate skin With this beautiful mix you were formed You are not deined by those colors You are beautiful because of those colors.

SNOWMEN CRAWLING Rayne Cardinal Academy Snowmen crawling up my spine Snowmen crawling all the time Snowmen crawling day and night Snowmen crawling down a dime Melting now Melting soon Snowmen walking Snowmen lying Snowmen crawling and slowly dying Snowmen in the wintertime Snowmen crawling up my spine Up, down, let, right In the morning and at night Always crawling forever more When it rains When it pours Snowmen crawling down a dime Snowmen crawling all the time Snowmen crawling day and night Snowmen crawling up my spine

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GRANDPA’S OLD WRINKLED HANDS Rebecca Cardinal Academy The house is so cold.

Even the mice are shivering.

Frostbite got your nose.

Not even close to a delight.

Slamming the back door.

Grandpa is that you?

With a bright smile.

Carrying a pile of wood too.

His old, wrinkled hands.

Such a beautiful sight.

Covered in slivers.

He didn’t mind.

His bones crack as he bends down.

Snap, crackle, pop.

Cozy up until it gets warm.

Grandpa is building a ire.

How sweet.

Flames emerge.

Here comes the heat.

THE FARTHEST OF DISTANCES Akassja Cardinal Academy The farthest of distances, I’ve seen mountains.

The farthest of distances, I’ve noticed an array of beautiful lowers.

The farthest of distances, I’ve walked on ledges The farthest of distances, a steady pace to get to the other side.

The farthest of distances, Longed for something new and diferent.

The farthest of distances, Seen far and long.

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INTERNAL WHISPERS Jada Cardinal Academy Her voice is strong Her voice is more than powerful Her voice may be loud, but it is hers Her voice can explain herself Her voice is lost and lonesome Her voice deserves to be heard Her voice has potential Her voice has never changed Her voice will be saved Her voice is meaningful Her voice may feel lost, but truly isn’t Her voice can be safe again Her voice needs changing Her voice deserves gratitude Her voice is beautiful Her voice was stolen Her voice was changed Her voice is important Her voice will not lose Her voice is worth it Her voice deserves listeners Her voice deserves to win Her voice can save herself

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FRANK CHURCH HIGH SCHOOL Teaching-Writer Daniel Stewart

UNTITLED Sarah Frank Church High School Sitting behind the wheel of a ‘68 Impala thinking of what got me here.

I went up and down Mount Everest, chasing my dreams.

I went to shower and love myself, but the bear pushed me out.

I love you. I really do. What does that even mean?

I love my vessel, but it is not my outer beauty that made us fall in love.

My soul and my heartbeat always chirp our own song.

The person I see in the mirror shows less emotion than the engine inside the vessel.

A butterly showing her true colors.

IN BETWEEN PAUSE AND PLAY Kota Frank Church High School He stood in front of the mirror Reality paused he was looking past his eyes and what was let?

What is let of me without this vessel? beyond himself what is the material of everything?

I talk about the same things, I do the same tasks, I say “good,” when people ask me how I’m doing.

His throat closed his eyes shut his skin crawled reality played once again “I don’t like my options,” he said.

“I don’t like anything at all.”

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THE WATERFALL YOU FOUND WHILE DRIVING INTO TOWN Sean Frank Church High School Glistening in the night, listening to the rumbling, you put the car in park, and stepped into the dark.

The waterfall doesn’t know that you’re there, it needn’t have a reason to care.

It just keeps falling, a calming knocking.

Like the keys on a piano, raining down into the ground.

CEILING FAN McKinley Frank Church High School I lay on my bed, watching the fan spin and contemplating everything I’ve done this summer. I worked with a maia of magic. Oooooh. I learned to breathe in a pool of lava. Spicy! I saw a blue cat lying a bike. That’s hot. I found a clock that tells someone’s death date. Eww. I showered in a bath of Red Bull.

Gross. I jumped into a world of music where people sing. That’s annoying. Wrote a book that came to life and told me the story.

Oh wow! I found a phone that could call God. Let me see . . . A butterly landed on me and whispered I was a queen of a country. Damn. A tiger jumped out of a photo and tried to attack me. And you’re still alive? I stood at the top of the Eifel Tower.

That’s pretty. I partied in a rich person’s house and trashed it.

You should have called me.

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UNTITLED Nadia Frank Church High School I’ve always wanted my life to be perfect but no one is perfect not even god I say I’ve always wanted to be but I’m the one giving out the love … Why? Why don’t you love me?

I want to be someone who can control their emotions & thoughts. Someone who is able to cry, just let it out without a struggle feeling dumb or just the fact nobody cares. People only care for themselves. Without realizing they are not only hurting themselves but others around them who are just like them.

Nobody cares nobody listens nobody will just take a look around the world is hurting more than you ever will.

I don’t know what to do what do you do when you feel all these emotions, do you talk about it? Let it out in a cry for help? No, I just hold it in keep it to myself because that’s what’s best.

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SOUTHWEST IDAHO JUVENILE DETENTION CENTER Teaching-Writers Laura Roghaar and Cassandra Padilla

ALL THE PAIN I’VE KEPT CONCEALED Adam Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center Closet illed with jars and my jars are illed with events.

You would think the jars are empty, But everything has a value.

My value is: priceless.

Sometimes, it can be dangerous.

My closet is getting full.

Jar 1: Mom’s getting paid minimum wages.

Jar 2: She’s working all by herself, 12-hour shits every day like she’s the man of the house.

Jar 3: The verbal part. I see the tension.

You can talk the way you want but you’re running out of blessings.

I’m only 17 but I can and will do some damage.

Tired of hearing the sounds of stress.

I don’t know how she deals with the pressure.

I got some mail last night, It made me sorta happy.

Not 100%. You don’t know who your homies are. That’s 100%.

I thought this foe was my homie.

Backstabbing it is.

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People are crooked these days.

One day I’ll be out. Can’t wait.

I miss you pops. I miss you mom.

I’m on a trip. I’m not gone.

ALLEY ABECEDARIAN Emanuel Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center Alleys—there’s a lot where I grew up Broken bottles scattered in the alley Cats messing around in the big blue dumpster Dogs barking at something or someone all night Everyone I grew up with ready to get down and ight Family in and out of jail prayin they make bail Grass all dried up and dead House being raided, spiders and bugs all over my bed In and out of juvie Judge O was hella moody Knew one day I would make it out Life was hard, I didn’t write this for the clout Mom stayin up late wondering where I am No clue what I’m doing just hope it doesn’t jam Oicer looking at me, hope he don’t remember who I am Probation’s really hard then I’m locked up once again Quit playin with them Legos so I thought I was a man Ridin with my cousins lowkey wonderin where I am Up hella late tryna make a couple bands Vatos start to trip when I’m cruising through my land War is very likely if you livin where I am X’s all over tagging, see a lot of empty spray cans Young, dumb and reckless, tryin not to get in jams Zig-zagging through my ally yeah I’m lovin where I am

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LIFE SENTENCE Ethan Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center Cold summers, blank thoughts and sleepless nights.

Always wishing on a prayer cause momma taught me right.

Soundless screams and reversed tears.

Muled emotions. No chance to escape fear.

Always wishing on a prayer cause momma taught us right.

Time never stops with no chance to say goodbye.

Muled emotions. No chance to escape fear.

Now you’re on to better things whether it’s there or it’s here.

Time never stops with no chance to say goodbye.

You either ducking or dumping with no way to survive.

Now you’re on to better things whether it’s there or it’s here.

I patch my pain like a cast. Forever trapped in fourth gear.

You either ducking or dumping with no way to survive.

Cold summers, blank thoughts and sleepless nights.

I patch my pain like a cast. Forever trapped in fourth gear.

Soundless screams and reversed tears.

CHATO Joshua Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center My dog Chato he always wants food.

Follows me everywhere. He’s a big dog.

A friendly big dog. He likes people.

He barks at everything outside, inside.

A friendly, big, loud dog that likes people.

Chews on everything he can.

Really likes his treats.

He’s brown like me.

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DEAR, THE DAY IS HOLLOW Jose Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center Dear, the day is hollow.

The walls stay cold.

The light stays on but the sun goes out.

I wake to a new day but all’s the same.

I walk the halls but never see the streets. So many people, yet so alone.

I hear your voice, then the tone. My only freedom is the dreams I see, time goes on but all has stopped.

I awake and none has changed, In my head I’m free but the guards remind me: all is taken and none is to keep [for what you see is what I dream].

Are any of us really free?

THE CYCLE Jace Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center I get out, I come back.

Knock, knock.

You want a snack?

We got turkey bologna and apples, homie.

Alone in my cell contemplating what I should have done well.

In my mind I feel so alone.

On the outside I act like Al Capone.

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God, I’m tired of sinning.

Why can’t I stop?

We all fall short to God, said Grandpop.

I get out, I come back.

I close my eyes.

I see black.

THE OTHER SIDE OF ME Monte Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center Like a black cat the evil inside me hides in the dark waiting to break free. I hold it inside me trapping it like a bird in a cage. I can control it for now but when I get mad some of it comes out.

I don’t think before I do things and end up regretting it when I calm down, deep down inside.

It’s mocking me, saying, “Soon I’ll be free. Just give it some time.” I tell it, “You can’t control me.

You will be gone sooner than you think.”

So much has changed since the evil inside me came, I don’t like all the things I used to love.

I pushed so many people away, even my own family.

I like to ight now. I think it is fun.

This isn’t me. I’m trying to go back to the way I was.

I’m a kind loving person. At least that stayed with me when the evil showed up.

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VALUES LIKE WEATHER Na’kyha Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center When you’re old, you realize a lot.

Like, I’m fall weather, the leaves gently coming down, ending on the ground.

Changing like the sky changes, the way clouds move.

The sun and moon change within hours.

Weather rainy, foggy, summer and spring.

I change and melt. Warp.

The way lowers change depending on the sky and hour.

You plant a seed, wait for rain and sun so you can watch it grow.

Then lower petals fall to the ground.

That once-beautiful lower shrivels up and dies…

The weather changes. What happens in 24 hours changes. It’s always diferent through each passing hour.

Our thoughts change like the weather.

My cloudy mind.

Sun peeking through.

My values for loyalty have changed.

I was loyal to the wrong people and it broke me, time and again.

I decided, inally, to change.

Stop giving my trueness away.

Ater change of mind, and change of heart, I will only give the loving of my heart 150

and what’s let of my loyalty to the people who gave it to me.

Now, before I die, with happiness inside.

I’ll be next to the ones I call mine, with pride. By my side.

IN THIS ONE Jacob Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center (before) Me and my mom Beautiful woman Smiling, both of us Piercings in her dimples Make-up Young Black clothes Playground The mall— (when everything’s a shadow) Old stepdad Serious White shirt Chain Slicked back hair Loves to make things A really trusted person Took me to school every day Having another kid I had to leave Never seeing him again

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TEACHING-WRITERS’ BIOGRAPHIES Whether being charged by a grizzly in Denali National Park or being bitten by piranhas in the Amazon, Elizabeth Barnes is an avid adventurer and outdoor enthusiast. She loves reading, writing, cooking, and parenting. A lecturer at Boise State University, Elizabeth teaches writing by day and by night battles dragons via her pen.

Natanya Biskar is an MFA student in iction at Boise State University, where she has taught writing and serves as Associate Editor for The Idaho Review. She is the recipient of a 2021 Alexa Rose Foundation Grant, and the winner of the 2021 Glenn Balch Award for Fiction. Her work has appeared in Subtropics.

Before she entered graduate school, she was a teacher for over ten years.

Colleen Brennan is a freelance writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher with an MA in linguistics. Her stories appear in Writers in the Attic and A Year in Ink. A native Minnesotan, she has lived and worked in San Diego, Boulder, Paris, Bordeaux, and Boise. She is the recipient of a 2018 literary arts grant from the Alexa Rose Foundation.

Meg Freitag was born in Maine. She earned her BA from Sarah Lawrence College, and has an MFA in Poetry from UT Austin’s Michener Center for Writers, and an MFA in Fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her irst poetry collection, EDITH, was published by BOAAT Press in 2017. Individual poems have appeared in Tin House, Boston Review, and Black Warrior Review, among other journals. She’s currently at work on a second poetry collection, a short story collection, and a novel. She lives and works in Boise, Idaho.

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Katie Fuller is a poet and teacher. Originally from Maine, she worked as a freelance writer before earning her MA in Literature and MFA in Poetry at Boise State. Previously the Program Manager at The Cabin, she’s since returned to teaching full-time and her true passion, spreading the power of the written word to bring joy into the lives of others. She is the author of two chapbooks of poetry, Valve and The Greenwood Cemetery, and teaches writing at Boise State and the College of Idaho.

Sharon Hanson has been a high school language arts and creative writing teacher for over thirty years, and she recently retired from Boise High School. The core of her teaching has always been the power of narrative. Writing is her parallel passion; she cobbles words together to make sense of the world.

Sharon has worked as a freelance writer in the past and continues to write with her students. Her daily writing has taken shape as a book for Scholastic and a Fiction 101 First Place. Currently she works as a trainer for Narrative 4, furthering her belief that by sharing our stories we grow community.

Chris Mathers Jackson is a freelance writer and editor, an aspiring novelist, a teacher, a mom, an artist, and a lover of the natural world. Chris received her MA in English Literature from University of Montana in 2005. She taught English Composition at UM from 2003-2006, both during and following completion of her master’s (as a TA and then an adjunct instructor). She worked in the administration of Missoula International School from 2006-2010 before becoming a full-time freelance writer, editor, and graphic designer. Ater several years, she stopped doing design work professionally to focus on her growing family and her passion for the written word. In 2019 she established a book review website (LitReaderNotes). In addition to teaching, writing, and editing, Chris enjoys spending as much time outside as possible, adventuring both near and far, with her husband and two daughters.

Playwright, writer and theater maker Heidi Kraay examines the link between brain and body, seeking empathy with fractured characters. Her work pulls myth, metaphor and monsters together to discover connections across diference. Plays include Unwind: Hindsight is 2020, see in the dark, How To Hide Your Monster, New Eden and Kilgore, as well as co-devised plays, one-acts, plays for young audiences and short plays. Her work 154

has been presented where she lives in Boise, Idaho, regionally, in NYC and internationally, recently through The Bechdel Group, West of Lenin Theatre, Spark! Creative Works, Oregon Contemporary Theatre, Women’s Theatre Festival, Fargo Moorhead Community Theatre, Trinity Street Players, HomeGrown Theatre, Tomo Suru Players, Thingamajig Theatre Company, Radio Boise, Boise Contemporary Theater and Seven Devils Playwrights Foundry. Heidi holds an MFA in Creative Inquiry, Interdisciplinary Arts from California Institute of Integral Studies and is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

Cassandra Padilla is a poet and a teacher. She decided she was a writer at the age of 14 and was determined to use her story as tangible evidence that if she could make it, anyone could. She realized she was a poet while attending a writing class, similar to the ones provided by The Cabin, in a juvenile detention center. She’s won several poetry slam competitions in Boise, has performed throughout the Treasure Valley, and was chosen to represent Boise at Portland, Oregon’s regional poetry slam in 2019. She is a mother to four children and teaches poetry at the same juvenile detention center where she became a poet.

Guisela Penados Baldizón is a writer of iction, poetry, and prose. She has been working with young writers for more than iteen years. A native of Guatemala, Guisela has lived in Boise for 25 years where she was a Top Ten Scholar at Boise State University and earned her M.A. in Literacy. She has been teaching since 1977. She has provided literacy and whole language Spanish workshops throughout the Northwest. One of her favorite projects has been to work with street children in Guatemala, showing them how to use literacy to ind their voices. She runs La Tertulia Spanish Learning Center in Boise, an organization that aims to promote bilingualism and the beneits of multiculturalism.

Hannah Rodabaugh is the author of With Words: Verse in Concordance, We Don’t Bury Our Dead When Our Dead Are Animals, and We Traced The Shape Of Our Loss To See Your Face. She’s been published in Anti-Narrative Journal, Berkeley Poetry Review, ROAR Magazine, Horse Less Review, K’in Literary Journal, and Written River, among others. She’s received grants from the Idaho Commission on the Arts, the Alexa Rose Foundation, and the COVID Cultural Commissioning Fund. She’s been an artist-in-residence 155

for the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and Surel’s Place. She is a teaching writer for The Cabin.

Laura Roghaar is a poet, educator, and arts administrator.

She serves as the Poetry Out Loud coordinator for Idaho and teaches writing at The Cabin. She holds an MFA in poetry from Boise State and her chapbook of poems, SISTERHOUSE, is out from dancing girl press.

Daniel Stewart, a poet, is the author of the collection The Imaginary World, and a teaching-writer for The Cabin’s Writers in the Schools. A Pushcart Prize nominee, he won the Erskine J. Poetry Prize from Smartish Pace, and has published in BOAAT, Graviton Lit, NightBlock, Prairie Schooner, Puerto Del Sol, RATTLE, Sixfold, Skidrow Penthouse, Thrush Poetry Journal, Yes Poetry, and elsewhere.

Tracy Sunderland loves storytelling and the particular demands of writing plays and screenplays. Her short ilms have won multiple festival awards and her irst feature ilm script Tailor played in festivals all over the world and won the 2021 Best Screenplay award at Festival 36 Mostra de Valencia in Spain. Tracy holds an MA in ilmmaking from London Film School and received the 2015 Fellowship in Filmmaking from the Idaho Commission on the Arts. She also teaches at Boise State University and received the Adjunct Faculty of the Year Award in 2015.

Tessy Ward is the author of My Head Can Feel the Vibrating of a Full Heartbeat Through a Chest That Is Neither Hollow Nor Dark, a chapbook from Press 254. She has an MFA from Boise State University and was a Sutherland Fellow in poetry at Illinois State University. Her work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Requited, Rougarou, and Touch The Donkey, among others.

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THE CABIN is a Boise, Idaho literary arts organization. We’ve been creating human connections through words since 1996.

You can read, write, and learn with us at:

READINGS & CONVERSATIONS an annual lecture series that brings internationally-acclaimed, provocative, and inspiring writers to Boise.

WRITERS IN THE SCHOOLS (WITS) a program that places professional writers in classrooms with 3rd-12th grade students.

SUMMER WRITING CAMPS literary adventures for young writers.

ADULT WRITING WORKSHOPS creative small-group classes led by published authors.

GHOSTS & PROJECTORS a reading series that pairs emerging, innovative, and experimental writers with writers from our community.

WRITERS IN THE ATTIC (WITA) an annual publication contest and event for local writers.

LITERARY ACTIVITIES such as book club meetings, readings by local authors, and other events that create conversation and community around literature.

The Cabin’s administrative oices are housed in a restored log cabin, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, on the banks of the Boise River in downtown Boise.

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INDEX A

C

Abby • 71 Abigail • 33 Adam (Rose Hill) • 127 Adam (SWIJDC) • 145 Addie • 91 Adriana • 47 Ainsley • 26 Akassja • 134 Alayna • 68 Alexander (Ustick) • 22 Alexander (Rose Hill) • 129 Alyssa • 72 Amelie • 109 Andrew • 51 Aneita • 65 Arabella • 63 Asha • 73 Asshifa • 21 Audrie • 70 Austin • 123 Ava • 61 Avery G. • 24 Avery • 29

Cameron • 13 Camille • 69 Celia • 92 Chaewon • 12 Charlee • 66 Chloe • 76 Claire • 86 Colt • 12 Cora • 7

B Bashir • 7 Betzabeth • 113 Biombe • 114 Boone • 128 Brady • 34 Brandi • 5 Brenner • 52

D Dallas • 67 Deborah • 124 Desmond • 73 Dianchen • 18

E Elizabeth • 69 Emanuel • 146 Emerson • 59 Emilee • 81 Emily • 28 Ethan • 147 Ewan • 25 Eythan • 24

F/G/H Fili • 95 Finnian • 122 Giuliana • 40 Hassan • 109 Heba • 19 Henry • 127

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J

N

Jace • 148 Jack • 128 Jacob (White Pine) • 46 Jacob (SWIJDC) • 151 Jada • 135 Jada Mae • 46 Jason • 20 Jaxon • 20 Jesse • 6 Jessica • 18 Jose • 148 Josef • 27 Joshua (SWIJDC) • 147 Joshua (Whitney) • 115 Josie • 53 Julien • 85

Na’kyha • 150 Nadia • 141 Nathan • 17 Noah • 55

K/L Kalani • 67 Kota • 139 Laila • 78 Lamis • 122 Larissa • 22 Lawing • 64 Leo • 38 Lexie • 54 Lilah • 75 Lili • 97 Logan • 77 Lucy • 11 Lyllah • 72

M Maddie • 21 Maraiah • 70 Mattie • 86 Maximilian • 68 Maya • 62 McKinley • 140 Mohamed • 23 Monique • 117 Monte • 149 Morgan • 123

160

O/P/Q Omari • 63 PJ • 79 Quinten • 25

R Rayne • 133 Rebecca • 134 Rebekah • 116 Riley • 87 Roemie • 78 Rosa • 23 Rosie • 5 Rowan • 41 Ruhaan (Ru) • 45 Ruth • 100

S Sadie • 114 Samuel • 66 Sarah • 139 Sattagrace • 133 Savannah • 121 Sean • 140 Sierra • 74 Skylar • 23 Solomon • 45 Sophia • 59

T/V Tifany • 82 Trey • 61 Valentine • 75 Victoria • 11

W/Z Willow • 30 Wylie • 85 Zachary • 80 Zainab • 29 Zed • 19

CAMBIA WRITERS IN THE SCHOOLS 2022

THE GLITTERING MOONLIGHT SHONE The whispering waves The glowing embers of fire The hardness of earth The rippling waves Washed upon the sandy shore On that crazy night, The glittering moonlight shone…

– Jack, Rose Hill Montessori School The Cabin is a Boise, Idaho literary arts organization. We forge community through the voices of all readers, writers, and learners. The Writers in the Schools (WITS) program brings professional teaching-writers into Treasure Valley schools and juvenile detention centers to provide in-depth writing instruction and confidence-building feedback to local students.

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