Each month, we feature EIGHT new pieces of student writing on the TWENTY-SIXTH of the month. (Get it?) This month, we are delighted to feature student work from our Liberty Street Tutoring program.
*Liberty Street Tutoring*
Dallas Meria, age 12
“Mission to the Moon”
Forsythe Middle
When I decided I wanted to go to the moon, only my dog Violet liked the idea. I built a rocketship out of a city bus, but nobody thought I could. It took me five years to build it, but it was worth it. Then, it took me two more years to make the suit. I made it out of tinfoil.
Everyone was surprised when I did. I told them, “You didn’t believe me.”
I snuck out of my room at 2am and rode my bike to the rocketship, and Violet ran alongside my bike. When we got there, I got the suit on and took off in the morning. My mom and dad watched the news and they saw my rocketship flying to the moon. It took five days to get there. On the way there, I made a filter so that I can make air out of nothing.
When I got there, I turned my rocketship into my house. I made some more air-makers to install in my windows. I made a greenhouse with one thousand panels of dirt and twenty giant sheets of metal and glass. I sectioned my house into five rooms: bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, workout room, and the control room.
Djeneba Soumaoro, age 13
“Manifesto”
Slauson Middle
It is true that a grape jelly sandwich is better than a peanut butter sandwich.
It is false that I hate the mall.
I believe that I am my own person.
The most important quality in a person is you have to be loyal.
It is a person’s obligation to be unique.
People should keep in mind that they should be kind to people when typing.
Happiness is attained through a person’s emotions.
The best way to deal with loss is to forget it ever happened.
The worst way to deal with loss is to laugh about it.
Nothing is more fun than being yourself.
Nothing is more boring than not being yourself.
It is difficult to fit in.
It is easy to make friends.
Evil is the result of putting people down.
Beauty comes from the heart.
Education is number one.
Friends are good for cheering you up.
Technology will lead to destruction.
I insist that every child should go to bed with a full tummy.
I promote that if you have food and your neighbor doesn’t — share with them.
Eva Patterson, age 13
“My Perfect Week”
Tappan Middle
My perfect week would to be sitting in the back of a limo with my mom, dad, brothers, sister, auntie, grandparents (both), and (cousins) Diamond, Dashayla, Damion, D’K’len, D’A’vah, and D’Reon, and eat, sleep, and talk on the phone.
Then, next thing, we all wind up with wings and start floating. We are all scared. My sister and brothers are screaming, but the rest of us are looking at each other like, “awkward moment.” After the awkward moment, the limo driver opens the door and we all fly out without him knowing and then we all realize that we are actually flying, so we can learn to control ourselves and fly back into the limo and he still doesn’t know.
Then we realize it’s my Auntie Tanisha driving the limo. Then I tell my Auntie that we have wings and she doesn’t believe me, so we prove it and she freaks out screaming, “WHAT!?!?!?”
Then I open my eyes and realize it was all a dream and that morning I have to go to school.
Medrick Simms, age 8
“Pikachu’s Vacation”
I hate Pikachu because he is mean. And nice. If he got babysat, he would run away and be terrified and say, “Bye bye!” If he caught someone trying to get his money, he would say, “You can keep it.” He is too nice to be true! If he heard a song that he has not heard in a while, he would dance.
On a vacation, Pikachu fished in the lake, and he was so happy to go to a big lake and catch a big fish, and he told Ash to cook it at a camp fire, and the fish was golden, and it was a big, big, big fish!!! And they loved the big fish, and they were stuffed. They were so happy they caught the big fish, and they caught one more fish, but Ash was too stuffed. Then Pikachu really wanted to cook the fish, and Ash said he could, and he did, and he was exhausted. But he did not eat all of it.
Pikachu and Ash went to Little Caesar’s. It smelled like pepperoni pizza. Pikachu’s favorite pizza is pepperoni. They ordered a meat pizza, then they ate the meat pizza. They said it was delicious. Next, they went out of the place and went to a waterpark. Then they jumped into the pool. Pikachu went up the waterslide, and he raced down the slide and jumped in the pool. He was wet but . . . he did not like it. He loved it. They saw a hot pool. Ash and Pikachu raced to it and jumped in, and it was too hot. Ash raced out of the pool and turned it so it would not be so hot. Then he sat in the pool. Then it was time to go, so they got a towel and put dry clothing on and went home.
Priscilla Du, age 8
“Priscilla Du Ice Cream”
Pleasant
Really fast
Intelligent
Smart
Cool
Interesting
Likes poems
Loves soccer
Awesome and eats
Dumplings
Unique
Icy and
Cold
Enjoyable
Cookies ’n’ cream flavor
Really good and I
Enjoy it
A delicious dessert
Melts in the sun
Isabella Herrmann, age 11
“Arachne, The World’s First Spider”
Dicken Elementary
One day in the country of Lydia, there lived a mortal named Arachne and they demanded that she work. They stared in awe as she finished weaving an intricate tapestry of rainbow thread. The townspeople thought her work was amazing and congratulated her. “The gods could do better,” an old woman in the crowd said. “Your work could never be as good as the goddess Athena’s.”
Arachne challenged Athena to a weaving contest. “I am not scared, Athena! You think you can weave better than I, Arachne?” At that, the old woman sprang forth, transforming into Athena. Their weaving duel was incredibly fast. Athena’s tapestry showed the victory of the gods in the Titan War and Arachne’s mocked the gods, showing them at their worst. Athena was so furious that she ripped Arachne’s tapestry to pieces and turned her into the first spider ever on Earth.
The End
The Moral: Don’t lie to impress others.
Karamo Camara, age 12
“Doing Homework”
Slauson Middle
Doing homework feels hard. The things I have are paper, pencils, computer, and calculators. I work on fractions and area and perimeter. I hear sounds of writing.
I suddenly see a money tree growing in my backyard! I feel so rich and really happy. I run outside and get it. It is hundred dollar bills. I spend my money on everything I want. I grab a lot of hundred dollar bills. I buy a new game system and Footlocker shoes.
John Zhu, age 19
“The Gobbler of Craziness”
King Elementary
On a November Thursday, I was having an emergency. It was Thanksgiving, but no one is invited. On that day, Obama was sitting in his room of the White House — he forgot about Thanksgiving — and it is hard to describe how he was jumping twenty feet high when he got a phone call from me.
He called out, “Later my friend, I am having trouble with the United States! Later!”
But that made me angry, so I did it again; he answered, “Fine! Fine! This is Obama, what is the matter?”
I answered him in an adult voice, “Today is Thanksgiving and you’re invited to the Thanksgiving party at my house. The address is: Ann Arbor, MI, Green Brier Blvd.”
I put the phone down 0.5 seconds before he answered, but that is “people less,” so I am going to call Mr. Fish. His phone number is longer than the Great Wall, it is: 1-6478-4866-8726-4327-4632-8753-7846-2345-7632-8746-5738-4738-6574-2896-3757-3276-78559857-9858-7983-4758-7559-2738-7648-7629-7069-6098-4389-6789-5368-7564-9857-0740-9874-5091-8709-8570-9437-9824-3759-8697-8548-9270-9834-7049-8234-7508-9436-7847-5409-8673-8957-8934-7982-7203-8946-7680-9476-9387-9897-8987-8758-7867-8978-7083-7087-8782-0787-8782-9107-8374-3593-7083-7847-8783-4783-0914-8309-4857-0708
Finally I typed them in my telephone and it started ringing. I said, “Hello?” but the voice answered me with, “No Service.”
So I called again! I shouted, “Hey Mr. Fish! Your whole family is invited to my house! The address is: Ann Arbor, MI, Green Brier Blvd! Now! Come here!”
I waited for a couple of minutes, then the door flew open, and there was Obama and twenty-two fish walking with their strong fins. I put the mashed potatoes and the giant turkey on the large-sized table in a flash. Except for Obama and I, the rest of the living things in my house (except the boring bugs) start eating. They dove into the mashed potatoes! And some of them dove into the turkey! Finally I realized that I forget to bake them, so I put my half-eaten thanksgiving meal and the fish that are ready to be baked into the oven.
I looked at the door and said, “Whew!” because Obama was gone! He must have had to go back to do something very important for our nation.
“Beep! Hey you, pay attention! I am burning!” my one-thousand-degree oven shouted.
I pushed some weird button that made the stupid oven say, “Low power! Please charge me!” in a very quiet voice — I don’t care though. I get the mashed turkey and smushed potatoes out of the oven, and I realized it was hard for me to eat, but I ate them.
Boring!
That’s how to spell my Thanksgiving: b-o-r-i-n-g.
Because when Benjamin Franklin knocked down the door and I was surprised, he was surprised too!
He thought, “Hey! I thought there were a lot of people,” but he couldn’t handle it!
The ten tons of food! All of mashed potatoes smashed me! Uh, mashed John, I thought, I was covered in a lot of mashed potatoes! I tried to run but, this is not true at all, my own mouse-trap trapped me, and I turned into a mouse this time! What a boring Thanksgiving! Then I was surrounded by a lot of turkeys! I thought there were no turkeys, but how should I know that Benjamin Franklin was holding a lot of turkeys too! Quack! What? What could it be? Will that be a duck? And five minutes later I knew what was happening: I was nearby the refrigerator. Now, I am stuck in my freezing refrigerator.
BOOM! That was 100% a gunshot.
My wall falls down and I saw George Washington with his hungry soldiers
coming in and stealing my food. Yay! I was free! They ate all the food! Ha, George Washington was fighting for freedom and eating for freedom too! That’s funny!
But . . . it was still a boring Thanksgiving!
And that’s because you will never reach the end of the story!
Just then, George Washington came in and shouted, “Hey! Today is not Thanksgiving! I am the president! I changed it to the second Thursday of November! Sorry, you missed the real Thanksgiving!”
It was an English cartridge; the red coats destroyed my house, and they asked me if I had something to sell. I said that I had a bag, and I was surprised when he gave me a hundred thousand pounds of gold! I was going to be rich! And now, I didn’t care about my boring Thanksgiving! Just look up on the newspaper, it will say: John is the richest person on Earth!
Then, I heard something: “Hey! Sleepyhead, are you going to sleep forever?” the voice shouted!
Oh! Yes! My weird adventure of Thanksgiving was a dream. But, the next thing is the thing that you cannot believe. The door was still knocked down and the wall was still crashed, and George Washington was still there! And the hundred thousand pounds of gold was still there too! I was going to be very rich!
Is that the end of the story? Nope, I already told you, you will never reach the end! That might take all of your lifetime!
Your next step to reach the end is easy, though. Just choose: what do you think about this great book? Send your answer to zh2527@163.com!
Your next step is to read the funny paragraph. It is about a person wanted to reach the end in a flash very much. His name is Zack. He wants people to call him Z.
Z said, “Hey mister, is that the end of this book?”
I said, “Hey! You stupid thing, I told you about a zillion times! You will never reach the end!”
Z said, “Um, just show me on Google Maps, where is the goal of the book or the end of this book.”
I cheated, “The internet is not connected, so you cannot connect to the internet!”
Your next step is very easy, just look down here!
The end!
Surprised, huh? But that’s not the real end—I told you, you will never reach the end!
Your next step is to take this ship and to the end!
HEE! HEE! HEE!
MAYFLOWER /
I was one of the pilgrims. I have signed the Mayflower Compact. I was searching for George Washington, but he was not born yet, so I jumped into my time machine and went to Lincoln’s time.
He said, “You’re smart! How did you know I am going to change Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday and not the second?”
But it was the end of my mission. You had reached the end.
Actually, it is NOT the end because you have to look for the next edition!
Wait! Another way in front of you appeared, and someone wearing a tie said, “Hey! Today is not Thanksgiving; it is not even November! Well, he’s the president! He changes the date! Of your life! Thanksgiving again!”