The Beauty and the Beast Brandi Morin, age 17 Weslaco, Texas The “beast� is the disease we are fighting, while the beauty is our outlook after we beat it. We grow afterwards, and become more aware of the beauty in our lives.
Poetry
Superman and Batman One day Superman was flying in the sky. He killed the bad guy named Martin. Superman used fire and he got the bad guy. Then the bad guy was gone forever. When Superman shot lasers from his eyes Batman threw fire and they were good Marvel friends. Batman got hurt and then Superman helped Batman. Mohammad, age 9, Ibraham, age 8, & Ahmad, age 5
The Jellyfish Rocketzzzz You know, it’s a laser thing. When you touch a jellyfish, there are lasers. They’re just filled with lasers. When you touch it they laser you. Oh just kidding, that’s a shark.
Seaweed The seaweed does nothing. All you do with seaweed is eat it. Sharks eat seaweed because they have big mouths.
A Whale A whale drinks water so he can blast the water up. I saw a whale on Sharko. It looked like a big fat whale. I saw a big fat whale. All it did was drink the water up. Then it never blasted. Josh, age 5
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MOTORBIKE FOR JACK
I want a motorbike the color red and gold and blue and silver and lead with fire on the sides and a monster in front and a mask on my face like a lion that wants to be strong and fast and to kill all bad things or maybe I’d wear an eagle that sings he’s very happy because I killed the bad thing. And the motorbike’s voice growls really loud like a tiger or a lion or a great big crowd. And on the back my name in red and gold I’ll have the bike until I’m old. I’d ride the bike in a big bike race with one million people and I’d win first place. The people would chant “Mahmood, Mahmood!” and I’d be very happy because the people love me. Mahmood, age 14
My Favorite Cake is Chocolate Cake My favorite cake is chocolate cake Sometimes I even like to bake.
I like whipped icing because it’s delicious I don’t think it’s at all malicious. I eat cake at birthday parties When I’m at school I get some tardies because sometimes I’m a little late (If there’s a line for cake I’ll wait.) My birthday is May twenty-sixth Morgan, age 9
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CHIPS AHOY Chips Ahoy is my favorite cookie. I like it better than I like turkey. I like Chips Ahoy, that’s all I like cookies, big or small. I eat cookies every day. I eat cookies then I play. I put cookies in the microwave I put everything in the microwave.
COOKIES One day I ate the cookies. Then I got another cookie. Then I ate it. Then I ate some more cookies. I ate the cookies with Spiderman. He’s twenty. Kevin, age 4
NORSE THE LION If I were a lion I’d live in the zoo. I’d like to drink coffee, especially blue. I’d scare away tigers and fly in the sky I’d jump in the clouds and I’d maybe be shy. I’d eat macaroni and catch blue fish I’d keep a canary and eat from a dish. If I were a lion I’d drink from a pan I’d paint with a toothbrush and pee in a can. My friend would be Matthew the lion like me We’d eat popcorn in movies and make a house-tree If I were a lion I’d drink from a toilet
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I’d watch a hotdog and nothing would spoil it. I’d arm-wrestle a boxer and I’d earn an arnet If I lost the match then I’d say “darn it!” But when I win then I’d say “YES” I’d jump on a plane and I’d say “I’m the BEST.” Then I’d say “hello” to the pilot of course I’d say “I’m the awesomest lion in the world. My name’s Norse.” Josh, age 5
Spiderman Spiderman swings from building to building. Spiderman likes to jump! Spiderman wears a red and blue suit. Spiderman likes to talk! Spiderman comes from a big town. Spiderman likes to fight. Spiderman only fights the mean guys. Spiderman likes to win. Roman, age 4
Dinosaur Poem Dinosaurs like to eat lettuce. Maybe they eat some meat. The Dilophosaurus is yellow. Dinosaur babies are cute. The Baryonyx has a really long tail and stripes that look like a zebra. T-Rex is walking and he’s going in the water.
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In the water he finds fish and he’s going to eat it for a snack. T-Rex likes to eat medium-sized fish. For Valentine’s Day T-Rex finds a red big heart. First he eats the fish. Then he finds a big red heart. I think he’s getting a heart for his family and he’s getting some fish for his family. Let’s count how many weird stuff is on the Stegosaurus’s back! He has 14 things on his back that look like big red lettuce leaves. I think it really is lettuce. Dinosaurs like to eat lettuce. June, age 6
Valentine Poem On Valentines Day we make Valentine cards We eat Valentine chocolate and Valentine tarts We pass out flowers to our valentine Sometimes we call them “My clementine” We decorate hearts with stickers and paint We pass out gifts and say “Happy Valentines Day.” So on this Valentines Day I want you to know When I think of you it makes me glow. Tobi, age 6
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Power Rangers They fight the demons The demons look like bad guys. The bad guys have a bad guy face. They carry swords and guns. The Power Rangers carry swords and guns too. They live with their sensei. That kinda reminds me of Ninja Turtles with Master Splinter.
The Easter Bunny The Easter Bunny sends Easter eggs. He hops around on his Easter legs. He hides the eggs before I wake up. He also left me a green cup. I put the cup in my bag and left And I gave my mom an Easter gift. The gift I gave her was a cup that was pink She really liked the cup, I think. Mommy drank soda out of the pink cup. I also got an Easter-day pup. Tristran
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Mom, Grandma, Dad, and Pho I like food. Mostly Asian food, and my favorite is Vietnamese. I’ve been eating at the same Pho place since I was diagnosed the first time seven years ago. That, and Thai Gourmet. They know me there, and don’t even have to bring me a menu anymore. I always get the garlic chicken. That or the garlic fish. Garlic is incredible. It makes everything better. If I could cook as well as I wanted to I would, but I’ve had so much really really good food that I think I would ruin it for myself. I can go eat at the smallest hole in the wall for five bucks and the food is incredible. I’ll eat anything. I started eating sushi when I was four or five years old. My mom told me I saw it in the grocery store and wanted to try it. My favorite is the white tuna. When I was first diagnosed, I couldn’t eat sushi anymore so as soon as I was done, we had a party with all the sushi I could eat. I ate so much I think I grew gills. My mom likes sushi, but I’m not sure about my dad. I think he’s a pretty generic type of food eater. Mom tries all the crazy food stuff with me. I don’t know if it’s crazy but we’ll want a particular type of food and we don’t care about whether it’s ranked on yelp and sometimes I try to take my friend Haley to a place and she’ll be like, “No way. That place looks really sketchy,” But then I convince her because she trusts my opinion, and now she’s addicted to Pho. My favorite Pho place I have on speed dial. Mom, Grandma, Dad, and Pho. Maddy, age 17
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Turtles Every Day I was a ninja turtle for Halloween. I was Raphael. But on TV Raphael dressed up in a toga. He was wearing a costume too! Today is my birthday, November 10th. I hope I get a ninja turtle. I hope I get Raphael! If I was a ninja turtle I would do nothing. I just tricked you! I took off my sweater and now I don’t look like Raphael anymore. On Halloween I dressed up with Elsa from Frozen. I don’t like Frozen. It’s for girls. I like Ninja Turtles. Carlos, age 4
The Game of Life My favorite game is the game of Life. I play it while I’m eating rice. You get money and babies and choose a career (When you have a career there’s nothing to fear) Oh you also get to buy houses too I like to choose the one with twos. That is the house with two bathtubs and a two-car garage and two snowman mugs. For a car I pick the color blue The person is light blue too. Peter, age 6
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My Pets We have a rabbit at home. My grandma calls it Dumper but I call it Fluffy.
I just jumped up and down and got really excited because my mom surprised me.
He’s mostly white but he’s got brown spots all over. We’ve had Fluffy for a year.
She got the puppy for me as a present. When my mom got her she had a different name
Well, see my aunt was raising all these rabbits and that’s where I got him.
but then somehow we started calling her Sassy. We had a lot of dogs
My aunt gave him to me. When I’m in the hospital I think he likes to hide
and all of them were named Sassy. Now I have just one dog but I used to have more
in our back yard. He gets to walk around in the yard
but they got lost. I don’t know how many it’s been so long.
but he has a little cage too. I also have a dog named Sassy. She’s all white
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and she’s medium sized. She’s a Pekinese and I’ve had her since I was six maybe. I don’t know, but I do remember how I first seen her. Well, I was at school that day, and I was getting off the bus and no one recognized me coming home so I went to the house and went straight to my room and I seen her there waiting in my room.
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David’s Poem One day Superman was flying in the sky when he saw a big blue plane. Then he landed on the ground and there was a giraffe there. The giraffe was named Superman! The giraffe looked like an airplane. The giraffe was flying in the sky. David, age 4
Having Powers My favorite hero is Thor because he can use his hammer for anything. He puts his hammer in the air and lightning comes to it. He can fight his evil brother Loki, who is smaller than Thor. Loki has a big spear he uses to control people. He puts the sharp end of the spear on people’s stomachs and he has mind control. If I had a superpower it would be the power of transformation. I’d want to turn into anything I want, like an eagle. If I turned into an eagle, I’d probably go up to the other eagles and speak with them. I’d say something that would get their attention like “what do you want to do today?” “Find food,” they’d say. I’d get food that people eat. I think eagles would like to eat people food. Keondre, age 13
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What Animal Are You? Cheetahs are amazingly fast animals. They love to hunt and they like to catch stuff. And they like to know that they’re the head honcho. You’ve got the fastest and you’ve got the strongest. You’ve got the rhino with the 7-foot horn which is an amazing feature of the intriguing rhino. How fast he is for such a big animal. He could run straight through the walls of this hospital and not stop. He’s gotta weigh at least one or two tons. He’s got all that fat and tough skin. And the hog too. No meat, just fat. Such a disgusting animal. And then the elephant. Personally, I think the elephant has to be one of my favorite sloths. I like the way the elephant raises his trunk. I’ve seen the elephant on television for elephant car insurance. Silly minded people is what that is. The elephant and the hippo. The hippo is such a massive animal with a very impressive way of opening his jaw. Kind of like a harp. Imagine what a harp looks like and that’s the open jaw of a hippo. He’s a ferocious animal in protecting his territory and his food. Who can blame him. They’re big and all. I just don’t want them running after me. Not to mention the T-Rex, which is really amazing in his own way. Big legs and small hands, who would eat nothing but fruits and leaves and look at how powerful he came to be. He’s fascinating.
Why I Want to be a Bear I’d get to eat all the salmon and leaves and everything else that I want at my request. Nobody orders me I take. And the best part is, I get to destroy people’s properties to get what I want. Nobody can do anything about it. Absolutely no-one. Groowwwwlll! My dad would want to be a bear too,
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so that’s twice the destruction. Young bear and old bear.
Eccentric Weather The weather is like a person in the form of God’s miraculous signs throughout the world, such a weather. Sloths can probably live in any kind of weather, aren’t you convinced? And then there’s the turtle. He’s a slow animal as well, and the advantage the turtle has over the sloth, is that he’s got that shell and he can always be warm. Tortoises are almost the same as the turtle and they can live up to 180 years
Bears & Salmon What amazes me is how well-equipped they are. They’ve got an advantage of height, weight, strength, & are extremely powerful & posses great intelligence. They posses a long mouth with very sharp teeth with a powerful jawbone to go along with it, & to keep him warm in his thick fur coat he doesn’t need to hide anywhere. He does whatever he wants. When you invade his territory, he will come running toward you with great anger & roar at you with the loudest of his ability. You’ll be terrified, especially if he smells food, because you’ll be in a lot more danger with an angry & crazed bear on your back. They’ve got giant paws too, with claws
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that are massive. I love salmon & I would also love to be a bear. A black bear, a happy bear, a bear digging in garbage dumpsters, trying to find out the contents, pushing vans to the side to try to get their food too. I could eat all the salmon I want because I’m a bear. I’m a black bear, & I get whatever I want whenever I want. If you try to terrorize my territory I’ll put you in a bear hug & make you suffer. & there’s nothing you can do about it. Unlimited salmon.
Gluttony 1. Why do I indulge in GLUTTONY!? It’s because I call myself food. Because I fill him with food and disease (if you don’t take care of yourself). But on the other hand I am a totally healthy human being who enjoys to glut. The delicious meat is what turns me on the most: Bacon, Sausage, Hash-Browns. Well-cooked, Over-easy eggs. I like my Hash-Browns well-cooked and crispy, with nothing but salt and pepper for all this food. It’s the pancakes, or the waffles. GLUTTONY! GLUTTONY! Now delicious cooked roast beef, So well-cooked and tender. GLUTTONY! Wild gumbo, Creole crawfish, delicious crab legs, Shrimps, Salmon or Seafood Gumbo GLUTTONY! Or EXTREME GLUTTONY!
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2. My favorite fruits for gluttonous consumption would be delicious grapes, purple or green, pineapple tastes delicious, they have that good fruit juice that lights you up like coffee or coke, because they taste so LOUD! I like fruit that has a lot of water in it such as watermelon & cantaloupe. Delicious! 3. Delicious spinach, full of water it possesses great water content. Celery, I know you make people urinate. You are a natural diuretic, which means you make people go #1. Okra, I used to hate you a long time ago because you were slimy and bland, but now I glut because you are cooked so well so deliciously for Golden Corral. 4. GLUTTONY! GLUTTONY! GLUTTONY! I enjoy being a GLUTTON! Being GLUTTONOUS! I can enjoy food until my ears pop open from the joy of being around food. Other good seasonings are of great quality such as Tony’s Creole Seasoning & A1 Steak Sauce. Delicious for any type of meat: Pork, Beef, or Chicken. Tender, how I like my Pork Chops, with green peppers, onions, garlic & just let it cook for about 30 minutes. Fall off the bone tender. DELICIOUS FOOD! Clean, Strong, & Healthy body because of HEALTHY FOOD! Miguel, age 15
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My Family I love my brother. His name is Juan. I love my mother. Her name is Patte. I love my dad. He’s good at working. I love my grandma. She likes to play. I love my dog. He’s a big dog the color of coffee. Jolette, age 9
The Best Mom My mom is caring, loving, and kind. If you can’t see that you must be blind. She likes to play board games and to cook She likes it when I read some books. I like it when we both take naps It always helps me when I’m sad. When I got sick she was there for me like leaves are on a big pine tree. My hair fell out so she got hers buzzed it made me feel like I was loved. I know she will always be there for me She is the best mommy for me. Gage, age 12
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Fiction
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How To Become King: A Tutorial One day Martin was in the hospital because he wanted to make a story. He was asking kids if they were interested in doing that. So he asked me and I said, yes. “What should we write about?” he asked. “Let’s write about you,” I said, and that’s how this story began. One day Martin was hopping clouds when he saw a unicorn. The unicorn was flying over a bridge. It looked like a horse with a squirrel riding on its back. The squirrel called his family by shouting. It was in squirrel language so all Martin heard was “Squeeeek Squeek!” Martin thought that the squirrel must be King of the Squirrels because he was riding a unicorn and wearing a crown. All of a sudden squirrels were everywhere, in the streets and in the buildings and on the bridge. Martin was afraid that the squirrels were going to attack him because they were all staring at him with big eyes and they were showing their teeth. They were all eating acorns and staring right at him. Martin started to hop clouds away and he went to his house. The squirrels followed him and surrounded him in his house. They were starting to get into the house by chewing through walls in the bathroom and by coming down the chimney. They all got in and Martin didn’t move. He was taking a shower and he didn’t know the squirrels were inside. He was singing opera and he’d forgotten about the squirrels. He thought they were way far away by the bridge with the King of the Squirrels. But in fact, the Squirrel King was on his roof waiting for Martin to get out of the shower. The squirrels got scared because of his singing. They started shaking. Martin got out of the shower and he saw the squirrels everywhere shaking. He was about to faint he was so scared, like there was a squirrel inside his chest. But of course there wasn’t. Then he started to sing again, and the King of the Squirrels got inside the house and commanded Martin to stop singing. But Martin didn’t understand. He just heard, “Squeek squeek squeek.” Martin was confused. But the squirrels realized that Martin couldn’t understand them so the Squirrel King left the house and came back with a squirrel translator. The translator was another squirrel but he was wearing a clown hat and a bowtie. The translator said, “The King of the Squirrels says that you are the new King, but only if you stop singing.” Martin took off the crown of the king and put it on his head. “I’m your new king,” he said. The squirrels were confused. The translator then repeated to the squirrels, “Squeeek squeeek squeeek squeek.” The squirrels got excited and they started jumping around and they carried him to their world. It was underground with a statue of the King of the Squir-
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rels and a little town that looked like a town in the old west. Martin didn’t fit in the town. He kind of liked being the King of the Squirrels, but he didn’t like to live under the ground. Really he only wanted the squirrels when he needed them to do something he couldn’t do like get his keys if they fell into a hole, or go shopping for him so he could stay at home and watch TV. Martin decided to live in his house. He said that the squirrels could go and live their normal lives but when he needed them he’d press a button that connects to the squirrel town and they’d all have to come to his house. Since Martin got so used to the squirrels doing everything for him, he got lazy and forgot how to cloud hop. So he decided to go to the unicorn who was kept as a pet in the squirrel town. But the unicorn was too small for him to ride. Martin said to the Unicorn “Grow bigger, grow bigger so I can ride you.” The unicorn just stared at him and ate his rice. He just chewed and chewed with big eyes. Martin got a little scared so he went home and the unicorn followed him. So he got home, and he got his car keys and he got in his car. The unicorn followed him. Martin didn’t want to be lazy anymore so he went to the grocery store and went shopping. He got some bread and cheese and milk and cereal. The unicorn was behind him the whole time, following him around in the grocery store. So Martin went to pay and the check-out clerk saw the unicorn but she thought it was like a bee because it was so small. She shouted “BEE!” and everyone in the store started running around. During the rush, Martin took the groceries out to his car. He thought there was really a bee there, and he didn’t know it was about his unicorn. He started shouting while he was running to his car. One of the squirrels heard him shouting from a tree while he was about to eat an acorn, so when he heard Martin shouting he gathered all the other squirrels. Martin was going to his car to go home, full velocity, while the squirrels were chasing him. He got to his house, where he goes when he is scared, got inside with the groceries and he heard someone knocking at the door. He opened the door and there were a lot of squirrels there. The squirrels said, “Squeek squeek squeek,” and by now Martin could understand their language. He knew that the squirrels were asking him if he was all right. “Squeek squeek,” said Martin, which meant “There was a bee chasing me.” “Squeeek,” said the squirrels. “There’s something on my nose?” said Martin. He looked at his nose by crossing his eyes in front of him. He saw the unicorn but he still thought it was a bee. He was screaming and running in circles and while he was doing this he was kicking and squashing some squirrels. At last, he bumped into a wall and he got knocked out. While he was knocked out, the squirrels saw that some of the other
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squirrels were hurt and that the unicorn could no longer fly and so the previous King of the Squirrels with another squirrel who could write took the crown from Martin and said, “Squeeek Squeeek Squeek,” meaning “I am your king again. Martin didn’t know how to be a king, so now he is just a regular human.” The squirrel that could write got a paper and an acorn, which he sharpened until it was like a pencil, and he started to write, “squeeek squeeeeek squeeek squeeeek squeeek,” which meant, “Dear Human, it was not a bee. It was a unicorn. Also, you are no longer our king, and if we see you we will attack.” He drew an angry face and at the bottom he wrote: “WARNING. Sincerely, The Writer Squirrel.” Then the squirrels all left his house, and then Martin woke up. He saw the paper that the squirrels left for him. He walked outside and admired the view. He started singing again and then the King of the Birds came to him and he said, “You can be King of the Birds as long as you promise not to sing.” THE END Juan, age 13
GOING TO THE FUTURE-PAST Once upon a time I built a houseboat. It had a pirate flag on top and it was blue on the bottom and the top was black. I lived in the houseboat because I wanted to travel to different places all over the world. The first place I went was New York. I parked the houseboat by a dock and I went to explore the city. The first thing I saw was someone on the street selling a time machine. I asked the person how much it cost. He told me it was $50. I bought it. I put the time-machine in the houseboat and I set the dial to the time of the dinosaurs. I turned a switch and there was a sound like lightning, and it felt like I was in a speeding car. I looked out the windows and it looked like a whole jungle. I knew I had arrived in the time of the dinosaurs. First I saw a triceratops fighting a T-Rex. They were fighting each other real close to where I was at, like only one foot away from my time machine. I was kind of afraid. Then the T-Rex stepped on my houseboat and I was really afraid. T-Rex ruined my houseboat, but the good thing was that T-Rex stepped near the time-machine but he didn’t break it. I ran to the T-Rex and got the time-machine. The T-Rex almost stepped on me, but before his foot landed I set the time-machine to the future and Zoooom, I was off. When the time-machine stopped its lightning I landed in the same houseboat, but it wasn’t a houseboat anymore. It was a Dolorean. Also, I looked out the window and saw flying cars and there were robots everywhere. There were
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also humans everywhere, and they were wearing clothes made out of gold and silver. I liked the future so I decided to stay there. One of the robots was passing my Dolorean so I said, “Hello, robot. What’s your name?” The robot responded in a language I didn’t know. He sounded like an alien. He tried to talk to me some more, but he couldn’t understand my language either. Then some guy came up and told me what the robot said. “He wants you to go back in time because the future is about to end.” “How is it going to end?” I asked. “The dinosaurs are coming,” he said. “Then the dinosaurs came and started destroying the city. I set the time-machine to go back to the time when I was building the boathouse and pressed the button. It made a sound like lightning again and when I got back home I was happy to be there. I saw myself building the boathouse and I said, “Stop building the boathouse!” “Who are you?” my old self asked me. “I’m just some stranger,” I said. “Don’t go to the past or the future or you’re going to mess up the timeline.” I could tell that my old self was ignoring me because he was smiling. I had another idea. I set the time-machine to the time I was in New York and I went back and broke it before I could buy it. Then I went home. “Don’t mess with dinosaurs,” I said to my family. They didn’t understand why I said that. “Why did you say ‘Don’t mess with the dinosaurs?’” they asked me. “Just don’t.” I said. “It’s a long story.” THE END
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How Josh becomes a Superhero
One day Josh the Lego man was walking down the street when he saw a big waterfall. The water was coming down from a mountain with a lot of rocks and trees on it. Josh the Lego man decided that he would climb the mountain to look at the waterfall. He started walking toward it when Batman jumped out from the waterfall and he said, “Hey! What are you doing at my secret hideout?” Josh said, “How can this be your hideout if it’s in the middle of the street?” Batman said, “My hideout is here because nobody can find me hidden in the waterfall.” Josh the Lego Man asked Batman if he could take a tour of Batman’s secret hideout. “Hmmmmmmm,” said Batman. “Well, ok, but you have to promise to keep it a secret.” They walked inside and the first thing Josh saw was the big batmobile. It was black and looked like a tank. Josh had never seen a tank before so he jumped back and said, “Wow, that’s so cool!” “Thank you,” said Batman. “My friend gave it to me. Now, let’s walk over here.” Josh the Lego Man followed Batman into the next room, where Robin was training by pretending to fight badguys. He was practicing karate. “Hi-yaa!” he said. “That’s so cool,” said Josh. “Can you teach me karate?” “Ok,” says Robin. “But first you have to promise you’ll only use karate for good.” “I promise I won’t do karate for bad,” says Josh. Robin teaches Josh a few moves and then Josh asks Batman and Robin if he can join their team and become a superhero. Batman says, “Ok, but you have to train for a year and a half.” “I’m 17 now,” said Josh, “so I can be a superhero when I’m 18 and a half!” “Come back tomorrow at 9 in the morning and we’ll begin,” says Batman “Awesome!” said Josh. Josh, age 13 22 - The Splendid Review -Summer 2015
Morgan and the Magic Birds Once upon a time, Morgan was walking in a forest. She saw lots of trees, only they were green and orange and big and fat, and they were so tall that when Morgan looked into the sky all she saw was the trees! Also, there were blue birds talking to each other, but Morgan couldn’t understand what they were saying. Morgan wanted to talk to the birds so she started chirping. When she did this, all the birds flew away. “Come back,” Morgan said, “I want to play with you,” but the birds didn’t turn around. They kept on going and before long, all the birds were gone. But Morgan didn’t know that the birds were following someone else. They were following a mean wolf, who was trying to find some food, some meat. Morgan was going where the birds were, and when she looked, the wolf was right there, right in front of her face. Morgan was so scared she turned around and ran, but not before she let out a big scream. The wolf was chasing her, Morgan was fast. She was so fast, before long, her legs weren’t even touching the ground. She was flying! “I’m flying,” she said! And then the birds started flying with her. Morgan was so excited that she could fly, she forgot about the wolf for a second, but then, when she remembered the wolf she looked down to the forest floor, and the wolf was gone. Morgan realized that the birds could save someone by helping them fly. “Thank you,” she said, “for letting me fly so fast!” “You’re welcome,” said the birds! Morgan was so surprised that the birds understood her, she became excited. “Thank you veeery much,” she said again, and then she went home. Morgan, age 9
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Non-Fiction
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Teal with the Twins I’m gonna to tell you a story about the time I went hunting with Cooper and Caden, and their dad Mr. Rodney. They’re my friends from school. We went to Madisonville, Texas to duck-hunt. It was teal season. Picture this: early morning, 67 degrees. We woke up at 4 o’clock to drive out to Madisonville, got on the road about 5, and were there about 6. We got out of the truck and it was pitchblack. Of course, the Crosby boys being the Crosby boys, Cooper forgot to bring the light. So we only had my light and Mr. Rodney’s light, and neither of them were very bright. We would have been better off with a firefly to guide us through the mosquito-ridden marsh. The sky was indigo. I covered myself in face-paint because I kept getting bit by mosquitoes. I even put it on my neck, and it ended up on my waders, my jacket, and I think I got some on my cap and my gun. There are several ways of applying face paint. Some people use two fingers to apply it to their face so it looks like the limbs of trees with no branches. Usually you put just a couple stripes on your face to help with the camouflage, but sometimes people cover their faces so they don’t stand out. I knew my mom wasn’t going to be happy because I had a blood drive to go to later that day and face-paint doesn’t come off too easily. Anyways, back to the hunting story. We threw on our waders and went out to the pond. It was more like a marshy pond, I guess, and when we got there we threw out the decoys, maybe a dozen. We had green wing and blue wing. There’s three different types of teal: cinnamon, green, and blue. We weren’t hunting cinnamon, because they’re pretty rare. We have calls also. You can’t just blow into them and expect the ducks to show up. You need to know how to use them. Not all ducks make the same sound. They don’t all go quack, quack. The call for teal sounds really raspy, and when you blow into it you say ten ten ten ten ten. As soon as it got to be shooting light, there were maybe six teal on the water in the decoy spread. You buy the decoys but then you have to set the weights yourself. Something startled the birds and they flared up out of the pond over Cooper’s head. He aimed and shot, the sound like an extended thunder-clap, but then the sound of the gun echoed across the water. “BOOOM,” you hear, and then “tat tat tat tat tat.” After someone else shoots, I’m usually looking out over the water to see if the shot flared up any other ducks, but this time it didn’t. Once a duck falls, you put your hand over the dog’s head and tell him to go get it, usually by saying the dog’s name or “back.” This trip we had two dogs with us, Cash the black lab and Cane, the yellow lab. Both are retrievers, but this time Cash was sitting with Cooper and Mr. Rodney, so when Cooper killed the duck, they gave Cash the signal and he ran out to retrieve it. The other dog, Cane, was
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with Caden and I. When Cash retrieved the duck, we saw that it was a blue wing hen, about the same size as a sweet potato. Teal are rather small, fast ducks. Once we’ve killed a duck, we throw it next to us in the mud, and then at the end of the day we bring it with us back to the truck. Then, after that first shot, me, Cooper, Caden, and Cane moved out to a couple islands 50 yards in front of where we were sitting and it was probably about 45 minutes before another duck showed up. The first island was barely big enough to hold the three of us, and Cane was sitting on another island just two feet away. There was only maybe a couple inches of water in between us. While we were sitting on the island, we heard Mr. Rodney yell, “CASH, NO!” And then we heard a loud BOOM! We jumped so high, you would have thought we were kangaroos. We turned around and asked Mr. Rodney what happened. He told us a big cottonmouth was going after Cash, so he shot it, and that snake was gone. I mean we were picking up pieces everywhere. After the snake incident, we waited about 45 minutes, and then one teal came in from the left flying 90 per, and Cooper raised his gun and shot, but missed. Then I aimed, fired, and hit the duck! It was probably about thirty yards away. I think I can speak for all duck hunters when I say that your heart starts racing when the ducks come in to the decoy spread and they stretch their wings and land on the water, and then they start flying off, but the feeling when you actually hit the bird – Of course I get excited but I’ve shot a lot of ducks before so it’s not like I am amazed I’ve hit it or anything. After we shot that one, it was time to take off and head back home. I had that blood drive to go to, and I didn’t tell you before, but it was being held in my honor. Remember that face paint I was telling you about? Well, by the time I showed up to this blood drive, I did not look like the guest of honor. We showed up with face-paint, mud, camo, everywhere. My mom had sent me on the trip with a change of clothes, and I forgot to put them on. I ran to the bathroom to scrub off the paint, and it felt like it was tearing my face off, like I was using sand-paper. So everyone wanted to take pictures with me, and when they put them up on facebook, there I was in all my camo gear. My mom saw them and I thought she was gonna skin me alive and send me to a taxidermist. Of course she’d never do this, but she was furious. Anyway, we had a bit of fun on the ride home, but that’s probably better left for another story. I forgot to mention earlier that Cooper and Caden are twins. They’re pretty goofy kids, but we’ve been friends since kindergarten. We never really started going to each others’ houses though, until about third grade, and this
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was the first time we’ve actually gone anywhere to hunt together. I’m hoping this next weekend we’ll be able to go hunting together again. I feel like they’re part of my family, like they’re my brothers. Taylor, age 13
The Ninja Turtles The Ninja Turtles are my favorite Superheros because they save people from the enemy. I don’t know who the enemy is. Maybe they save the mom and the kid, April. April just looks normal but the Ninja turtles have bald hair and their head is shaped like an oval. They look like big turtles. Tobi, age 6
Spooky Halloween and Scary Stuff First my dad and me were at our house and wearing masks and then we went trick or treating with mommy. We got sad because we had to go by ourselves. I couldn’t go in a big crowd. We went to Ms. Lauren’s house and we got candy. My favorites are tootsie rolls. Then my bag was getting full so my mommy went to get a bigger bag. Ms. Lauren’s dog Sherman was dressed in a spider costume. Ms. Lauren rescues labs and she has four of them. She tells us that her dog Forbes found her. Now, she has three black dogs and one yellow one. One of the other dogs had a crocodile costume but they didn’t like it so she took it off. After Ms. Lauren’s house we went across the street to Jayden and Rylen’s house to get more candy. They weren’t home but they put out some candy on a table so we got some there. Then we went to a house with a door that had a sign that said “we don’t have candy.” That was the Johnson’s house But theeeen we went to a house that had a lot of scary stuff in the yard. There was a hand on a sign. There was a black picket fence and skeletons and after the door there was a pumpkin and when you walk by lights came on and it just stayed there but it made sounds like a cheetah roaring. But I wasn’t scared. Then we went home and my brother Grant watched a movie called Lego Ninjago. While Grant was watching the movie, I went to Mr. Dave’s house with Daddy. To get there you keep going straight and then you hang a turn to the right and then you go across the street and hang a right and then you walk and then you’ll see Mr. Dave’s house. It’s two story (It’s a long story) and it’s red brick. At Mr. Dave’s house they gave me candy. I just got one but it was square with The Periwinkle Foundation - 27
a lot of different kind of colors. It was Starburst. Then we went across the street. There was a spooky haunted house. It wasn’t open because we were waiting for our turn to go through. But when we went through we could choose between not spooky or a little bit spooky or big spooky. We chose not spooky. We walked in the door and there was a guy shaking a cage with a person inside. And there was a skeleton head sticking out. And there was a guy shaking like a crazy zombie in a chair. And then we went to the next room and there was a skeleton sticking out and he almost got us with his face but he didn’t and then Matthew walked by a robot snake and he screamed “Ahh! You scared me!” Then we went out of haunted house and we saw Leana and Ms. Carolyn and Matteo who is our neighbor, and my friend, and I’m the same age as him. One time we raced and we both tied. I was freaking out. Then we were trying to go home but we stayed at Mr. Dave’s house for a while and my Dad talked with Mr. Dave. Then I was getting itchy for a while because of mosquitos. But then we went home and we had chicken for diner. Chicken is my faaaaavorite! Then Mommy and me and Daddy and Grant were all eating all the chicken. THE END Holt, age 6
Anti-Lottery Ticket
I know exactly the day I came to the hospital. It was September 29th. I was in the process of joining the National Guard and I had to go get a physical from my doctor. They did blood tests and I always used to go to the doctors a lot because I played a lot of sports. Before, every time I went to get tested my numbers were good but this time I had a low blood count and I was anemic. I came in to TCH at one in the afternoon and I had to stay here all day and they couldn’t figure out what the problem was. I ended up staying here until one AM. I wasn’t really scared or anything but just got bored and wanted to home. But then when the doctor came back and told me I had a blood disorder I started to get worried. When he told me he thought it was cancer I went white from shock and I was shaking. Before that all I was thinking about was wanting to go home, but after that I didn’t know what to do. I had to stay in In-Patient for a week. I got a couple blood transfusions to raise my blood-count and help me feel better. I was working two jobs and going to school at the same time so I thought that’s why I was getting headaches. After I got the transfusions I started feeling better and my tiredness went away so I was really hoping that I didn’t have cancer. My doctors didn’t know exactly what was going on. They were shocked that I was still standing because my blood levels were supposed to be at 11 and they were at 28 - The Splendid Review -Summer 2015
3. I told them I was still swimming and training for the Army National Guard and they asked if I’d passed out at all and I told them no, I just was getting headaches. In the first week the doctors came to tell me that it wasn’t Cancer, but they still didn’t tell me what it actually was. I didn’t care at that point what it actually was, but I was just relieved that it wasn’t Cancer. I had so many plans for my life and thought that Cancer would mean that I couldn’t do any of them. So after that week, they told me that the blood transfusions were going good for me and they let me go home. After that I didn’t really think about it anymore and had a good time. The following week I went to school and to work and then I started feeling some symptoms so I had to come back to the hospital. They couldn’t figure out what was wrong here so they sent me to Memorial Herman. I had to stay there for almost two weeks. They did more tests and tested my bone marrow and stuff. Finally they figured out I have PNH, which is an ultra-rare blood disorder. Only one in a million get it. I’m one of 12,000 people in the world who have it. Basically when I sleep my white blood-cells attack my red-blood cells. There’s a treatment and there’s a cure. The cure is getting a bone-marrow transplant which is risky and the treatment means that I will need to come in to the hospital every two weeks. Most people who do the treatment get to live into old age and live normal lives so I’m doing that right now. But if they can find a donor who is 100% compatible I’m going to get the transplant. They could find someone who is 80% already and my family just got the test done but we probably won’t know whether they’re compatible or not. Because my treatment is just to get this medicine I don’t have to stay at this same hospital. Like in a few weeks I’m going out of the country to Mexico City with my Grandmother so the doctors just need to send my medicine ahead of me. I still want to join the Army National Guard and then become a firefighter but the doctors say I’ll need to wait and get better before I can think about doing that. My parents are cool about it now. They were scared at first but now that we have the information and know that I can still live into old age with treatment they have a good attitude about it. The rest of my family doesn’t really know what’s going on though because they haven’t seen me since I’ve been in the hospital. My grandma is really old and she thought I had cancer so she went around telling all my family that I have Cancer. I’m sure once I tell them about what I have they’ll be fine though. Miguel, age 9
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A Roller Coaster of Emotions It’s almost been 3 years since I moved to Houston. Since I was 10 or 11 I’ve always known that I had family in Houston, but when we were living in Monterrey I thought that meant they were just on the other side of the mountains. Monterrey is in Nuevo Leon in Mexico below Texas. It’s near the border. All you have to do is drive a few hours to the border and then drive from the border up to Houston. So we’d come to Texas a couple times but I didn’t know that Houston was here. We started thinking about moving to Houston because we’d heard about a lot of people coming to the United States for opportunities. I was eleven and I used to watch TV in English because you couldn’t get the same show in Spanish. But we sold everything in our house, even the microwave and the washer and dryer, and we packed up everything to move here. I remember I had a big Power Ranger collection. It was a lot of toys and a few costumes. If I listed it all we’d be here for hours. The only thing I ever grew out of was the costumes, and I remember that all the boxes took up all the space in my grandmother’s basement. We left a lot of the stuff there at my grandparent’s house. We were limited to what we could fit into the back of the car, so we packed up our suitcases with clothes, and there was one box that had my videogames. If there had been any more space in the truck I would have brought my toy collection, but I made sure to bring my videogames, and they were enough to keep me satisfied. The first time we drove here we took the long way, first to San Antonio and then east. Now we just follow the Gulf of Mexico border. We didn’t really stop that first time. We just went through the cities and saw all those blue signs of where to eat and where to stay. I remember the exact date we departed: August 19th 2012, at noon. We stayed at a hotel in New Laredo and we left at 5 in the morning. I think that was the first time I was woken up by an alarm clock. When you’re a teenager in Mexico, the best alarm clock is your mother. You know how they say “there’s only one God?” Well in Mexico we say, “The best alarm clock is your Mother.” If you want to find all the Mariachis you go south. Anyways, we drove for ten hours, only stopping to use the bathroom. I don’t know whether I slept or not, but I remember when we arrived my butt hurt. We arrived at 2:30 at my Aunt’s house. I know it was that time because we arrived just in time to watch “Let’s Make a Deal.” I met some of my cousins who I hadn’t seen since we were all younger. It was a long time ago so I didn’t really remember. I slept like a log that night. We stayed with my Aunt for about 6 months and then we moved to an apartment that was in the same neighborhood. After a couple years of living in the apart-
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ment we finally found a house and moved there just a couple weeks before New Year’s Eve. Finally, after 14 years I have my own room. Now it’s been three years since we moved to Houston. In March or February of the year after we got the house I started getting pains in my hands and cramps in my feet. We thought they were growing pains because I was just about to turn 15 and was entering the next phase in teenage life. But then they started getting worse and worse. So three weeks went by and then on March 29th we went to the HEB to the pharmacy over there and they told us to go to this medical center. But when we were going out we met this guy who was also from Monterrey. He recognized my mother’s baseball cap, the Sultans. It would be like someone recognizing a fellow Houstonian because they’re wearing an Astros or Rockets cap. He told us not to go to the medical center they recommended because they would have us wait forever. Instead, he told us to go to the Bayshore Medical Center because they have a guaranteed waiting time of 2 hours. So there they took my blood for the first time. I did not like it. It felt like a vacuum cleaner, like the needle was the end of a vacuum. Now I’ve had so many needles I don’t even care anymore. So then they checked the labs and decided to transfer us to the children’s hospital. They put me on a gurney, and put the gurney in an ambulance. I thought these were just growing pains and now they’re putting this IV in my arm and putting me in an ambulance! I was just thinking, “What’s happening? Is this serious?” We arrived at the hospital and they checked my vitals—my height, my weight, the usual things—and then they put us in the emergency center where they took more blood for labs, but this time from the IV so they didn’t have to stick me again with a needle. Then the doctor came back and he told us the results of the labs. It was so quick. I went from growing pains to Leukemia. He said they had found Leukemia in the blood cells. That was March 29, 2015. We went to the zoo that morning, and then my hands started hurting. Of course it was terrifying. You know how you always hear about people with cancer, and how they’re always finding a cure? My first thoughts were that I wasn’t going to live until my 18th birthday, because of what I’d heard about cancer. When you spend 13 years watching those commercials on TV they make it look like a non-curable disease. The first couple minutes I thought I was going to die. Forget the surgeries. The hardest thing is the first time they tell you about your disease. The first couple minutes are the scariest of your life. Later in that week, my mother went to a conference and she told me some good news, that the Leukemia I had is the most basic kind there is, and that I would
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be fully cured in 2 or 3 years. One of the doctors explained to us that there were 3 kinds and that I have ALL, the most curable. It’s only been like a month and a half and now it is like school—like a daily routine. I’m convinced that it will all be gone in about 2 or 3 years. They kept us in the hospital for about a week for the first treatment. We started doing chemo a couple days later. They did this procedure, called a spinal tap. The first time you do a spinal tap, it’s like the worst day. You have to fast for 6-8 hours or long enough before the procedure. It was my first time fasting—for someone who loves eating as¬ much as I do, 5 minutes is long enough. I wanted to eat anything, except anything spicy. I have a very sensitive tongue, not to mention what happens after. My mom jokes that everything I eat goes into my brother’s stomach, because the more that I eat the bigger my brother gets. Anyways, my first week at the hospital was like a normal week, except I spent most of the time in bed. After the spinal tap, things started to get better. The pain in my hands went away. The medicine they were giving me was to get rid of the Leukemia. My aunt came to the hospital to visit and then my grandparents came too. They brought over some of my power ranger collection. I hadn’t seen it in three years! I felt like I got my childhood back. Rudolfo, age 15
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My Silly Crazy Dog She’s black, white, and brown. Her whole face is black, and around her torso she’s all white and then black again, and the tip of her tail is white and her feet are brown. We have this rug in our living room. It’s black, white, and brown also—it’s a cow hide, and every time I walk on it I almost trip on her because she blends in so perfectly. I’ve never stepped on her, but I trip over her sometimes. She just squealed and then she acts like nothing happened. She’s like, “whatever.” She’s really black, like coal. Whenever someone knocks on the door, she barks, and then when someone comes in the house, she’ll follow you until you acknowledge her, and once you do, she’ll roll over on her back and wait for you to rub her belly. She’s a little bit chubby, but not that chubby. She’ll never stop eating. She loves to play tug-o-war. Every time she goes outside she tries to find something smelly and rolls in it. If there’s poop outside she’ll find it and roll in it. I’m like, “Gabby, Why did you do that?!” Whenever we’re outside we have to watch her. She’ll just run down to the neighbor’s house all the way down the street, and then she just comes back whenever she wants to. She’s an inside dog and has never stayed outside overnight, but one time we couldn’t find her anywhere and then we opened the front door and there she was! She loves to play chase. I chase her and sometimes she chases ducks. We live right across from a park and there are a lot of ducks because people keep feeding them, so when a duck is in our driveway we tell her to go get them. One time she was chasing a duck and then the duck turned around and chased her. She’s a really funny dog. She’s crazy. Avery, age 11
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The Spendid Review The Splendid Review is an anthology of poems, short stories and autobiographies written by the talented young writers at Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers each week. In collaboration with Writers in the Schools, The Periwinkle Foundation unites professional writers with children and families battling cancer and blood disorders in the outpatient clinic and Bone Marrow Transplant Unit to share their stories. Through arts and creative writing programs, The Periwinkle Foundation celebrates self expression and empowerment as a vital part of the healing process. The Periwinkle Foundation develops and provides programs that positively change the lives of children, young adults and families who are challenged by cancer and other life threatening illnesses and are cared for at Texas Children’s Hospital.
The Spendid Review The Splendid Review is an anthology of poems, short stories and autobiographies written by the talented young writers at Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers each week. In collaboration with Writers in the Schools, The Periwinkle Foundation unites professional writers with children and families battling cancer and blood disorders in the outpatient clinic and Bone Marrow Transplant Unit to share their stories. Through arts and creative writing programs, The Periwinkle Foundation celebrates self expression and empowerment as a vital part of the healing process. The Periwinkle Foundation develops and provides programs that positively change the lives of children, young adults and families who are challenged by cancer and other life threatening illnesses and are cared for at Texas Children’s Hospital.
periwinklefoundation.org
txch.org
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