BASEBALL

AN ACROSTIC POEM BY ERIC ZHU, AGE 8, 2015

Bats are what you swing

A sport is what it is.

Starts in April, ends in October.

Every day in the season, there is a game.

Balls are what you hit.

American League and National League are the leagues.

Ladies don’t play in the MLB.

Loved by many Americans.

THE ONE-MINUTE MIRACLE

A NARRATIVE ESSAY BY ADITI CHATRADHI, AGE 9, 2013

One minute left, just one minute. In one minute, the champions of the girls’ fifth and sixth grade Reno AAU tournament would be decided. This was one of the most crucial games, and my team, Shark City Hoops, was losing.

Thirty one minutes ago, we were warming up. I watched the other team practice their defense. The girls on the YBA Panthers, the team we would be playing against, were stronger and much taller than us. I felt like an ant standing next to their shortest player. I could feel the tension radiating off my teammates. Even Sharon, who always smiled, had a very serious face. Maybe it was the heat that was snaking its way through the Reno-Sparks Convention Center.

A minute before the game started we had a team huddle and Coach Ron told us the game plan. “We came all the way here and we aren’t going to turn back. Since they are taller, we are going to do full-court press,” he explained. It was going to be a long game.

Eight minutes before, the score had been 36-16. The Panthers had been crushing us by twenty points! Every time they scored, the weight on my shoulders became heavier.

Then Coach Ron put our starting five in. The starting five played together as aggressively as monsters. Slowly our score built itself up. When it was four minutes into the fourth quarter, the score was 47-44. We had a chance to win, but it was not going to be easy.

“Anissa!” Sharon yelled from down the court. “Pass it to me!” As Anissa was about to pass the ball, a huge girl on the Panthers pushed her over. I picked up the ball, passed it to Sharon, and ran behind her. A few minutes later, Sharon shot a threepointer. The ball swished through the net like an eagle soars through the air, but Sharon was pushed to the ground. Both Sharon and Anissa were injured and couldn’t play for the rest of the game.

One minute left. Sharon and Anissa, two of our best players, were injured and I was about to shoot free throws. After Sharon shot the three-pointer, the score was 47-47. I tried to shoot a two-pointer, but I was fouled. The fate of the game was in my hands now.

If I made these two shots, we had a chance at winning.

I concentrated on the shot.

I could hear the crowd cheering for both the teams. One side was shouting “Sharks!” and the other, “Panthers!”

Slowly, I released the ball. It bounced off the rim. I felt horrible inside, but then I remembered my second shot. I set my feet and released the ball. The swish echoed through the silence of the gym. The Sharks’ crowd erupted in a loud roar. We quickly ran to defend.

I could hear the crowd chant: “5, 4, 3, 2,…” as a girl from the Panthers shot a two-pointer. My heart stopped. The ball went into the hoop, but popped back out. Brrrng!The buzzer went off. We were champions. My team jumped around me.

“Champions!” we yelled, as we ran around the court. Then we smiled widely as we received our trophies.

Kizza

BY KARISSA CHOI< AGE 9, 2015

Kizza, the zebra who lives at the zoo, is very attractive. She’s the only zebra in the zoo, and is very hyperactive. She sings zebra songs on Saturday evenings, and she can do tricks too. Now, Kizza is not so smart, but she’s getting there. One of her fans gave her lessons about how to be smart.

“Over here, over here, Kizza,” someone calls out. Kizza turns to the person and sees her favorite zoo-keeper, Katelyn. Fans crowd the fence. They throw mangoes and berries on the floor for Kizza to eat. Kizza appreciates it. Today is very hot. Everyone is practically sweating. The ice cream man is running out of soda and ice cream. Everyone is crowding around a gigantic fan. Eight years ago, someone mistakenly bought an extra-extra-large fan, so that person gave it to the zoo. It has been there ever since.

Someone shouts out, “Do you want autographs from Kizza?

Line up here and pay $2.10 for two autographs!” Someone brings Kizza out, and Kizza starts stamping her hoof in ink and pressing it on paper. Poor Kizza! She does autographs for five hours straight. Katelyn tries to help, but there are too many people. Finally, at night when everyone is gone, it is time for Kizza’s night walk with Katelyn. All of a sudden, a wolf jumps out from behind a clump of trees and bites Kizza on the leg. Blood gushes out. Katelyn calls 911, and is worried.

She is not afraid for herself, because she has a tranquilizer gun with her. She feels lucky she has not been bitten, but feels sorry for Kizza. Animal Control comes very quickly. They put Kizza onto the truck, and Katelyn feels sad but doesn’t cry. Kizza’s wound is not too deep, because she had been kicking her leg when the wolf bit it.

The next day, word gets out about Kizza’s injury. The zoo has a lot fewer visitors. The ice cream man almost loses his business. The wolf is taken to Africa and released into the wild. Kizza is stuck in the recovery room for one month, and after a while, all of Kizza’s fans come to visit her.

Katelyn continues working at the zoo, but at night she visits Kizza. When Kizza finally gets better, everything goes back to the way it was, and everyone gives her presents. The popular zebra even gets her own five-hundred dollar leather box full of “Get Well” cards.

The Golden Pen

BY GRACE YU, AGE 8, 2014

I’m Bucket. My body looks mostly human, but I have a bucket as a head. My parents like me. I also just turned eleven a few weeks ago, and I live in a small town.

As I went downstairs this morning, my dad was reading the morning paper. I started reading an announcement on the back of the paper, “That gold pen from Golden Gifts was stolen yesterday.” You may enter a contest and whoever solves this mystery first will get their picture in our local paper and get rewarded that golden pencil from Golden Gifts. I was definitely going to compete!

After breakfast, I left my house and biked to Golden Gifts to sign up. When I got there, I found out that there were going to be two other contestants, a boastful bird named Feather and a one-foot tall girl who was in my class last year called Miniate. We were each shown the clue that the police had found, the single fingerprint on the shiny metal pen case.

I used my camera to take a picture of it. Later I would bring it to the police station and see if they could identify it. It turned out our police didn’t have that fingerprint.

On the way back to my house, I saw Miniate heading to the new office supply store. I would go there later.

First, I would need to go to my room to do some research. After I logged onto my laptop I went onto the Golden Gift’s website. I found the place advertising the golden pen and clicked on the advertisement. That brought me to a page showing all kinds of information about the pen, including a list of people who had offered a price to buy it. I grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled all the names onto the paper. They were; Bob Person, Pen Wright, Sky Cloud and Venus Space.

I knew who Pen Wright was. She was rich! Really rich! And she had been in my class last year. I decided to go to her house. I started biking out toward her house when I looked up and saw Feather. Feather was apparently following me. I stopped. Feather flew into a tree. I went backwards a little. So did Feather. She was cheating.

I had an idea. I stopped and strapped my camera to my bikes’ handlebars. I used the masking tape I had in my backpack. When I arrived at Pens house, I took off my camera and stuffed it back into my backpack.

I knocked on Pens front door and she opened the door, “Hi Bucket!” she said.

I asked, “Did you make an offer for that pen in Golden Gifts?” Pen replied, “Yah, and I got it in the mail yesterday! It’s so cool! Do you want to see it?”

“

Sure, but can I see the address of the guy who sent it?” I asked, feeling I was getting close to solving the mystery.

“Okay”, Pen said, giving me a funny look. I read the address and put it down in my notebook, Bob Person, 1650 Raven Ave., Saratoga, CA 95131

“Thanks! Got to go!” I said.

I remembered Bob Person was one of the people who had bid for the pen. On the way to Bob’s house, I stopped at Golden Gifts and showed Carnia, the judge of the contest, my video of Feather following me. Carnia frowned and said disapprovingly, ‘Feather will have to be disqualified.”

She called Feather and told her to go to Golden Gifts. Feather soon arrived and so did Miniate, also with a video of Feather following her. Carnia told Feather she was disqualified and Feather stormed out of the store cursing in bird language. Now only Miniate and I were competing.

I continued on to Bob’s house, and knocked on the door. Bob came and asked me what I wanted.

“I’m here to sell pens”, I said quickly making an excuse.

I grabbed a handful of pens I had with my name on them. While Bob was deciding, I looked into what appeared to be his living room. I saw the gold tea set that was specially made for Golden Gifts and had also been stolen some time ago. This time I used my cellphone camera and took a picture of Bob with the tea set in the background. Bob decided not to buy any pens from me and I decided to go straight to Carnia.

I biked to Golden Gifts and told Carnia all that happened. She called 911 and the police made Bob confess. Then Bob had to give back the tea set and the money for the pen to Golden Gifts and Bob went to jail.

Carnia told me I won and rewarded me the gold pencil. Oh, my gosh, I felt so proud and excited! Finally, she called the newspaper team and just when they arrived so did Minate. Miniate had also solved the mystery, but I solved it first. We both got our picture in the paper. That was one of my best days ever.

How The Frog Got Its Croak

BY ADVIKA DEODHAR< AGE 8, 2015

Long ago frogs weren’t able to croak. They could just make weird sounds like an emu.

There once was a frog that was very lazy. He laid on a lily pad looking at the sky, wondering what he should do next. He was holding his stomach because he just ate a whole bunch of flies.

The frog was very bored of gazing at the sky, so he set off on an adventure. He passed some poison ivy in the rainforest, where he met a crocodile. Splash splash splash! The crocodile came closer. “Help!” cried the frog. But nobody could hear him because he made really weird sounds. Luckily a monkey was in the tree above and heard the frog. He shook the tree, so a coconut fell on the crocodile’s head.

It worked! The coconut fell right onto the crocodile’s head and to the monkey’s surprise the coconut split right in half and all of the coconut water spilled out! Both the monkey and the frog laughed until the crocodile left and went to the deep end of the river.

The monkey climbed down the coconut tree and said “Hi, my name is Jobo.”

“My name is Leap,” said the frog. “Thanks a lot, you saved my life!”

“Oh, that was nothing,” said Jobo. “What were you doing down there?”

“Oh, I was just going on an adventure because I was tired of eating flies and gazing at the sky.”

“Well, I have to go now. My family might be looking for me. It’s time for us to split bananas for our picnic!”

Leap was very surprised. He had never heard of a monkey who went on picnics. Something was wrong with Leap. His throat was growing bigger! It looked like there was a tennis ball stuffed inside! He just didn’t notice it. So, he went on.

Leap saw a very interesting leaf shaped like a giraffe. He was very curious, so he leaped right on to the leaf. For a moment nothing happened. But as he tried to get off he noticed that his feet were stuck to the leaf!

After a second, everything started spinning. Leap realized that this leaf was magical! After a while the spinning stopped and he ended up in the African savanna! He found out that he was stuck in a tree and a giraffe was about to eat him!

“AAAAAAAAAH!” The giraffe was pulling on Leaf’s throat and Leap screamed for his life and he suddenly croaked! He was very surprised. He could croak loudly and clearly! And everyone could hear him!

He said thanks to the giraffe and asked if he would do this to other frogs and the giraffe said, “Sure.”

Leap found the same leaf and went back to the forest. On his way home he asked the monkey if he could throw more coconuts onto the crocodile. He went home and told his family what had happened.

Soon all of the frogs in the rainforest lined up single file, waiting for their turn. So from that day on every frog in the world could croak!

How The Mice Beat The Men

BY ISAAC LIU, AGE 7, 2014

The mice and the men were very much alike. They lived in the same house. They ate the same food. But they did not like each other at all.

So one day the men and the mice decided to have a war. Before the war, the men did a dance. The men made bows and arrows, slingshots, canons, and rock volts. The men were tired, so they took a nap.

Meanwhile, the mice chewed on everything the men had made. When the men woke up in the morning, they were surprised. They had nothing left to fight with, and so the mice had won the war.