Little Book in a Big World

Little Book in a

Big World Imaginations from the Writers’ Room

A Chapbook from the

Writers’ Exchange Spring 2013 • Volume 2 • Issue 2 WE chapbook 02 COVERS-final.indd 1

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Copyright © 2013 The Writers’ Exchange This chapbook is a collection of writing and art created by the students in the after-school Writers’ Room program during the winter and spring terms of 2013.

The Writers’ Exchange makes literacy exciting and accessible for inner-city kids through free mentoring and creative writing projects like this chapbook. All Writers’ Exchange programs are free for the children and families we serve, so we could not exist without the support of generous donors, including Megan Abbott, Marily Mearns, the Vancouver Foundation, Lindsay Mearns, Nancy and Ted Maitland, Bernard MacLeod, Claudia Casper and James Griffin, and Claudia Cusano and NUVO magazine. Thank you. And thank you to the amazing volunteer mentors who work with the kids in all Writers’ Exchange programs so that each student can succeed to the best of his or her ability.

Thanks to the 70 fantastic volunteer mentors who helped with the Writers’ Room after-school program at Queen Alexandra during the 2012/13 school year: Alex G., Alex K., Alice, Alysha, Aman, Amanda, Andrea, Andrew, Angie, Barbara, Belinda, Blaine, Brittney, Carina, Carissa, Cat, Chloe H., Chloe T., Christy, Claire, Colleen, Connie, Courtney, Dan, Eliza, Emily, Emma, Haley, Hollis, Iris, Jennifer, Jessica, Jodi, Joe, Julie, Kari, Kate, Kathleen, Kathryn, Kelly, Kelsie, Laura, Lauren, Mary, Matthew, Melanie, Mirey, Morgan, Nadia, Natalie, Patty, Prabhi, Rachel, Raheleh, Randy, Raoul, Sammy, Sandra, Sarah D., Sarah F., Sean, Shadi, Shannon, Stacey, Tessy, Tim, Vivi, Wai Liang, Wendy, Yoyo

Writers’ Exchange 881 East Hastings Vancouver, BC V6A 1R8 To read more great student writing, visit www.vancouverWE.com Design and layout by Krysta Furioso and Dylan Doubt www.krystafurioso.com | www.dylandoubt.com

The Writers’ Exchange is a project of Tides Canada Initiatives Society.

The Writers’ Room program runs in partnership with Queen Alexandra FAMILY School and the Vancouver School Board’s Van Tech Community School Team.

Printing for this chapbook was generously donated by Hemlock.

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Contents Imaginary Pets

3 A Guide to Caring for a Fithten by Braydon and Williams 4 How to Care for a Spider Cow by Sebastian and Andrew 5 A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Take Care of Your Three Headed Dragon by Nikita and Jeremy

Typewriter Tuesday Stories 6 7

Hell Run by Bryan, William and Samuel The Diamond Sisters by Joy and Chelsea O.

Animal Tales 8 10 10 11 11 12 12 13 13 13

The Jellyfish That Went to the World Nebula by Selena The Epic Battle for the Potato by Khalil The Monkey in Canada, by Renil Rosie the Bunny by Liza The Bunny by Jan, Faris and Jaykwon Chicken by Huynh and Branky The Stinky and Evil Wolf by Victor The Dream by Kurtis and Sean Egg Hunt by Jason The Kitties by Thu

Short Short Stories 14 14 14 15 15 15 16 16

The Show by Tatiana I Like the Philippines by Jacky My Cat by Ella The Unicorn by Gabby My Barbie by Giao Setting: Home by Ryan The Cat Dad by Robert I Like Cake by Cathy

16 The Park by Kim 17 Who Is It? by Azayle 17 I Am Like a Cat by Celest

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Super Stories

18 Luigi’s Mansion by Nirel 19 Super Mario Bros! by Francis

Writers’ Room Fun 20 21 21 22 23 23 24 25 25

If You Give a Man a Pizza by Angelo How Do You Become a Princess? by Clara Ka-boom by Sean Lost On an Island by Ana My Vampire Sister by Jasmine The Boringest Day by Judy Pretty Princess by Ibtihal Going to Jordan by Ali The French Tourist by Mico

Writers’ Notebooks 26 27

28 29 30 31 32 33 33 34 35

Lux Monster by Erika I Was Totally Terrified When I Had a Nightmare About Vampires and a Zombie by Gyle Random Stories by Aron Friend Break Apart by Clare Prank by Stas If Animals Were Stalking My House by Brisky Coke Coming Out of My Nose by Bogdan Random Quotes & Stuff by Rochelle When Stranded on a Desert Island by Precious Why Facebook? by Kaki If You Were Stranded on a Desert Island for 3 Days, How Would You Pass the Time? by Kimleen

Reviews

36 A Review of Twizzlers Percentages Book by Andrew J. 36 A Review of the Computer Game Minecraft by Jeremy

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Little Book in a Big World

Imaginary Pets A Guide to Caring for a Fithten

By Braydon and Williams, age 11 Food: Eats anything, but likes coal, wood and flesh.

Why you have to feed him: You have to feed him 10 times a day or else he will burn your underwear.

Appearance: He has sharp wings, a fiery body and tentacley arms. His feet are like tree roots. He is like a parasite. To become a parasite he needs to multiply, but then he gets smaller so he can enter a creature’s body.

Predators and Prey: His predators are humans and his own kind. His prey are everything. Humans hunt them for their tentacles because they can make humans immortal.

Their own kind can kill them by battling for mates.

Weakness: The rainbow apple. You can find it by getting all the rainbowcoloured apples.

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Little Book in a Big World

How to Care for a Spider Cow

By Sebastian, age 9, and Andrew, age 11 Feeding: It eats everything.

Feed it once a week.

It shoots sticky spit to catch prey.

It’s the top of the food chain.

Special Abilities: Sees through walls.

Jumps high and long.

Shoots milk webs from its udders.

Feed it one piece of gold and it “produces” gold forever.

Appearance: It has 11,210 eyes and 9000 legs.

It is as big as the sun.

The mouth is 25 times the sun.

It has compound eyes.

Habitat: Everywhere across the globe.

If it lives in the wild, it lives on Jupiter. If it is tamed, it lives on Earth.

Breeding: Barfs out the baby alive with no blood.

Communication: Moo means hi.

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Little Book in a Big World

A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Take Care of Your Three-Headed Dragon

By Nikita, age 9, and Jeremy, age 10 Get an InderDragon with zero anger issues.

Then you must give InderDragon a bath. You must pay 1000 dollars and 99 cents to go to a volcano and make it erupt and put everyone’s life in danger to give InderDragon a bath. Get a lot of lava and make sure it will last a lifetime. Then return to your house and give InderDragon a bath.

Remember to put cat and dog foods away so he will not kill the cat and dog when he sees one. If he sees a cat or a dog he will only hurt one because InderDragon plus dog equals major disaster.

The way to feed your InderDragon is by giving him Microsoft computers, only the good, unbroken ones. You can buy them from eBay. InderDragon likes when you pay for shipping and handling, but it is your choice.

Don’t forget he likes apples, and drinking the oil used to feed cars because that is how he breathes fire. The advantages are he can cook meals for you by breathing fire.

InderDragons like when people tell the truth.

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Typewriter Tuesday Stories Hell Run

By Bryan, age 10, William, age 11, and Samuel, age 11 One day a guy named Steave was making a door, but he needed more materials so he went to get some more. Then a guy named Ezio made Steave’s door into a portal to hell.

They got sucked into hell. When they were in hell they saw devils everywhere they went, even a flaming sauna.

Steave and Ezio ran through every place to find a teleporter. They searched everywhere except the amusement park.

Then they searched there and found a teleporter and teleported everyone to Jupiter.

They were stuck in Jupiter for a very long time until some Martians found them and started to chase after them. Steave and Ezio ran into a cave, where they found a legendary blaster and blasted the aliens out of orbit.

Then they found another portal and went into it. The portal led to a very hot place, which was a sandy desert, so they were all hot. They were walking until one of them found a water bottle and picked it up. Then something weird happened. The ground started shaking, a dragon came out of the ground and swallowed them whole.

Gulp.

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The Diamond Sisters

By Joy and Chelsea O., both age 9 Once upon a time there were two twins that called themselves the Diamond Sisters. One day they were getting ready to go on a cruise for the summer.

They got dressed and ate pancakes for breakfast. Then their limo came to take them to their cruise. The driver was creepy and suspicious.

They got out and got on the cruise ship. Then the driver got out to steer the ship. The Diamond Sisters realized that the driver was actually a pirate named Emma.

Emma wanted to take the sisters’ money so she told her henchmen to kidnap them. Then Emma the pirate tried to make them walk the plank. But then they escaped and got into a sword fight.

Meanwhile, their dad was looking on his tracker to see where his daughters were and what they were doing. Then he saw that they were with Emma the pirate and he got his speedboat to look for them. Emma cornered the twins and tried to make them walk the plank, so they plugged their noses and landed in their dad’s boat.

Then they sued Emma and she got arrested because her lawyer quit.

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Little Book in a Big World

Animal Tales The Jellyfish That Went to the World Nebula

By Selena, age 10 Once upon a time there lived a knight. The knight’s name was Connor.

He wanted to defeat something ferocious that would make him a star and also he wanted to be the king of Nebula. Being king would give him all the power to control the land of Nebula, and maybe give him a chance to even things out with his parents. They had a fight that made them separate. So Conner lived in his own house but he still missed his parents but he was afraid that his parents wouldn’t take him back.

So he was sitting around waiting for something to battle when a giant jellyfish just came to Nebula with lightning arms. Connor stood up and held a sword in one hand and a shield in the other; he charged at the jellyfish as hard as he could. At the end of the battle, he managed to trap the giant jellyfish in a space in the fields.

But then the jellyfish asked him to let her explain, so Sir Connor let the jellyfish explain. The jellyfish told Connor about how these hunters had taken her kid, and now she was alone and so had gone there to get some help to save her kid.

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Little Book in a Big World

The story was so sad that Connor made a promise that he would save the jellyfish. The mom jellyfish was so happy that she said that she would accompany him on his journey. The knight said, “Okay,” and then they started their climb up the Mountain of Fears. Even though he was a knight, he was kind of frightened of the Mountain of Fears—even the name freaked him out.

When they passed the Mountain of Fears, they were right in front of the home where the hunters lived. The house was on water that was polluted with trash and bullets. The knight carefully sneaked in from the back and hid in the cupboard until the coast was clear. The jellyfish had to wait outside because she was too big to fit in the house of the hunters. Connor saw a bag that was slimy, he decided that he would take the bag and see if the slime was coming from the little jellyfish. So he took the bag and jumped on the mom jellyfish and they ran away.

When they were about 10 miles away from the hunters, they looked in the bag and it was the little baby jellyfish. He was chewing on those little juicy drop taffies.

Everybody cheered for Connor as he was being rewarded for saving the baby jellyfish, but one thing was still missing in his life. When Connor was about to say the thing that was missing in his life, they just appeared beyond the crowd. It was his parents. They hugged Connor and told him how proud they were of his bravery.

So Connor learned that he didn’t need to fight something ferocious just to have popularity, and he finally got all he wanted by saving a jellyfish, so he thanked the jellyfish for its help.

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Little Book in a Big World

The Epic Battle for the Potato

By Khalil, age 10 There is a turtle in a pet store. He is bored. Outside of the pet store, he sees a woman about to eat a potato. The turtle, who is also fast, escapes the cage and breaks the window and jumps high in the air and grabs the potato just before the woman puts it in her mouth.

Meanwhile, at the park across the street, people are crowded around something. It is a squirrel that thinks he is a dragon, and he says, “Fear me, people. I am a dragon!” But the people think he is just too cute.

Suddenly the turtle and potato fly into the middle of the crowd, and people crowd around the turtle instead.

Squirrel thinks the potato is a large nut and starts gnawing on the potato.

The potato enjoys his massage from the squirrel all the way home.

Potato lives peacefully ever after.

On the other hand, the squirrel is not happy because he isn’t getting his food.

The turtle also wonders where his potato is.

The Monkey in Canada

By Renil, age 7 On Wednesday a monkey named Clare went to the airport, and spent all her money to go to Africa to meet her family. But she was on the wrong plane and was going to Canada! Everybody noticed there was a monkey in Canada and searched for her family. She was going to school in Canada. She went to the markets and everywhere in Canada. She was walking down East Broadway. She found a school named QA School. She went inside. She went to the third floor. She was walking down the hall and then she was in Writers’ Room and they had a party and they had fun.

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Little Book in a Big World

Rosie the Bunny

By Liza, age 8 One day the bunny was walking in the woods. She saw more bunnies. They saw her and all of the bunnies fell in love with her. And Rosie saw that all of the bunnies fell in love with her so she ran away. She saw a party and she went in. When she was going in she saw carrots so she ate them. When she was eating, some bad guys snuck up on her. But the bunnies found her and rescued her and they all lived together.

The Bunny

By Jan, Faris and Jaykwon, all age 7, and their mentor, Morgan The bunny is on a sandy island.

The bee has a fancy apartment.

The bunny gets lost.

The bunny finds a spooky house.

A fish is inside the spooky house.

The bee is not inside the spooky house.

Bunnies don’t eat fish. They eat carrots.

The bee knows where the garden is.

But the bee does not know where the cupcakes are.

The bunny knows where the cupcakes are.

But the bunny is lost.

Along comes a soldier, who helps the bunny find the cupcakes.

Then bunny gives the cupcakes to the bee.

And the bee shows the bunny where the garden is.

The bunny eats the carrots.

The bee eats the cupcakes.

The bunny is on a sandy island.

The bee has a fancy apartment.

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Little Book in a Big World

Chicken

By Huynh and Branky, both age 10 One day in Chicken Land there was a war. A chicken flew up and sniped the enemy with his chicken gun that shoots out egg bombs, and he got a direct shot. Then the chicken flew down and uppercut the other team with a wing in the bellybutton. The chicken who got uppercut flew up high and airstriked the other chicken, but that chicken dodged the airstrike. Then the blue chicken airstriked the other chicken right on the face. Then the chicken fell asleep. Some blue chickens were hiding in their underground base where they kept their minions. It was very large. The blue chicken had dragon wings like steel that can slash through anything. They all fainted and one survived.

The Stinky and Evil Wolf

By Victor, age 8 Once upon a time there was an evil and stinky wolf that smelled like stinky cheese. He went to the mountain of dirt to unleash a gigantic, mad dog.

Wolf Man’s mother came to the mountain of dirt and grabbed a flag and sent him to the ocean, then sent him to space. When the wolf came back, he looked like a creeper. The evil and stinky wolf captured a teenager called Reyanne. He jumped on her to make her faint. He made her eat her own best friend (that was a gigantic carrot) and tried to make her eat a poisonous tomato too. The moon was a waning gibbous now so he turned back into a human (his mother turned back too).

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Little Book in a Big World

The Dream

By Kurtis and Sean, both age 8, and their mentor, Raoul Last night I dreamed I was lost and a jungle monster was trying to kill me.

Then a spider monkey came to help me travel to Los Angeles. We caught a flying train to L.A. The jungle monster was getting close to the train, and then a catfish came and ate the jungle monster. We arrived in Los Angeles in the middle of the day. We found a hotel and went to sleep. The catfish came and said, “Hi! It’s my birthday today! I’ll go order a birthday cake!” We ate the cake with the spiders, but the spiders were poisonous so we died, and then I woke up.

Egg Hunt

By Jason, age 10 The Easter Bunny gives out chocolate eggs in hard-to-find places so they will rot. The Eater Bunny will really hate you if you find its eggs, so don’t find its eggs.

The Kitties

By Thu, age 8 At the park, kitty-Lucy’s treasure box was being stolen. Louise said, “That’s OK.” Louise cheered Lucy up. Lucy was smiling. They both went to the PNE. At the PNE, they bought cotton candy. They had the best day ever. Then they went home.

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Little Book in a Big World

Short Short Stories The Show

By Tatiana, age 6 Our class is dancing in front of everybody. Everybody is watching us dance.

When we are done, the other class is going to dance. Everybody will be so happy and will clap, because everyone claps at the end of the show.

My Cat

By Ella, age 6 I live with a cat. My cat’s name is Scooter. He is cute. He is snuggly. Me and Mom feed him. I love Scooter. He sleeps in my bed.

I Like the Philippines

By Jacky, age 7 I like the Philippines. It is the best day of my life. And the saddest thing of my life is Gabby going to the Philippines. And the most important thing is it is sunny and it is cloudy.

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Little Book in a Big World

My Barbie

By Giao, age 6 I got a toy called Barbie and she has the pink shoes. I play with it and I sleep with it, and I bring it to school for show and tell. I love it because she wears a pretty dress.

The Unicorn

By Gabby, age 7 Once upon a time there was a unicorn. She saw a hole. She went and jumped into the hole, and was never seen again.

Setting: Home

By Ryan, age 6 Once upon a time, the monster did something bad. He threw the ball to the fairy. On a bright, sunny day, the fairy went to a picnic on the 22nd of March. Sarah came and she said, “It is my mom’s birthday.” Sarah’s mom said, “Sarah is gonna give me a pumpkin for my birthday.”

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Little Book in a Big World

The Cat Dad

By Robert, age 8 One day the cat went to the store and it rained. Clara’s cupcake got wet. Clara was sad. The cat stole human Clara’s cupcake. The cat threw the cupcake.

I Like Cake

By Cathy, age 6 I like to put my face in cake and I like mama cake. I like cupcakes and toys and singing.

The Park

By Kim, age 6 I love going to the park. I play on the slide. I play on the swing.

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Who Is It?

By Azayle, age 7 I am happy!

I have a big smile!

I love Slurpees!

I am a best guy!

It’s Azayle!

I Am Like a Cat

By Celest, age 7 I like scratching.

I get mad.

I have feet like a cat.

I like climbing.

Sometimes I chase people.

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Little Book in a Big World

Super Stories Luigi’s Mansion

By Nirel, age 11 As our hero, Luigi, entered the mansion with his head, he suddenly heard a blood-curdling scream. He screamed his hat off.

He grabbed his flashlight out of his pocket and tried turning it on, but it was out of batteries so he took the stairs. Every step, a loud scream happened.

Luigi said, “Sorry, Mario.” He dropped a life shroom, which can revive anyone.

Then a ghost smacked him in the face with a frying pan, and it said softly, “Goodnight.”

“Its Mario’s turn,” said the ghost.

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Little Book in a Big World

Super Mario Bros!

By Francis, age 7 Once upon a time, Mario is a baby. He trains to kill Goombas outside with his brother, Luigi. Mario is done training, and Peach tells Mario to have a tea party.

Mario says, “Can my brother come to the tea party?”

“Yes!” Peach is setting up the tea party. BUT Bowser comes to get Peach and put Peach in Bowser’s castle.

Mario and Luigi need a password. Luigi puts “Mario.” WRONG! Mario puts “Bowser.” RIGHT! But they need the other password, so Mario gets mad. So Mario puts “ASDfiodgnerkdtuirhduifhuithfuighruijhruiymnerothrithm.” RIGHT! Luigi looks happy, so they go in. They find Peach.

Bowser jumps in the top and lands on Mario, so the fight begins. Bowser does fire ball. Mario does fire ball too. Luigi does ice ball. Ice ball works!

Bowser is defeated!

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Little Book in a Big World

Writers’ Room Fun If You Give a Man a Pizza

By Angelo, age 8, and AJ, age 7 If you give a man a pizza, he is going to ask for juice.

When you give him the pizza, he’ll probably ask you for another juice.

When he’s finished, he’ll ask for a Slurpee.

Then he’ll want to take a rest.

When he does this, he might notice he is hungry.

So he’ll probably ask for another pizza.

When he’s finished, he’ll want a toy.

He’ll start playing. He might get carried away and he will be thirsty.

And when he’s done, he will probably want to eat pizza.

You’ll have to eat it.

All of that will remind him he that he is thirsty.

So, he’ll ask for a toy.

And chances are, if he asks for a toy, he’s going to want everything.

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How Do You Become a Princess?

By Clara, age 7 Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess and every time she went out, all the girls asked the princess, “How do you become a princess?”

The princess said, “I become a princess because I was born from a queen.”

All the girls thought that she was lying, because she always goes out and buys new clothes everyday.

The other girls were so jealous, but she was a princess and she liked shopping.

Ka-boom A song by Sean, age 8 Musical genre: country or western Tempo: super slow!

Today I’m feeling mad!

Today I’m feeling sad Because I got sent to my room And I slammed my door ka-boom!

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My Vampire Sister

By Jasmine, age 10 One day a girl named Taylor was walking around and bumped into a girl.

They said sorry at the same time and looked at each other and they looked the same.

They both said, “Wow, sorry to bump into you.”

Taylor said, “I’m Taylor.”

The other girl said, “I’m Ivy. You want to come to my house?”

“Sure,” said Taylor, so they went to her house.

When they were at her house, Ivy had to tell Taylor something. Ivy said, “I think we are twins.”

“No way,” said Taylor.

“And I’m a vampire.”

“What?!”

“We should keep this a secret and not tell our parents about us OK?” “OK.”

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The Boringest Day

By Judy, age 8 One day Judy was really bored and no one would cheer her up. When no one cheered her up she got so mad that her head was burning red, and her mouth was on fire. And she never went outside her house ever again. But if she did, she would wear a long coat and a hat and black sunglasses. So no one would cheer her up except ice cream. So Judy bought herself ice cream and she turned happy.

Going to Jordan

By Ali, age 9 First I had to go to school from 7:30 in the morning to 1:30 in the afternoon.

Then I left for the airport, we ate food and then we went to our gate. We were the first people on the airplane. We found our seats, and when we sat down, the airplane got filled up, and the flight took a day. Then we got to London. Then we ate. Then the gate number came out. We went to the gate.

Then there was a big lineup. At last we got on the airplane.

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Pretty Princess

By Ibtihal, age 8 The princess went to a party but there were strangers at the party. The strangers stole the princess and then she was yelling at the strangers.

And then there was a strong, handsome boy and he saved her. He was a ninja boy, and he was stronger than a frog and a lion.

There was one more boy and he was in love with the princess, but he was very skinny because he never ate. And everybody laughed at his skinny glasses and his big fat glasses.

And there was another boy and he said, “I can save you,” to the princess and the three boys started to fight each other.

And the strong boy was stronger than them and the princess said, “I’ll marry the strongest boy ever. Do a race and let’s see who is the strongest at the race.”

And the first one said, “I will totally win.”

But the second one said, “No, I will win for my favourite girl.”

And the third one said, “No, I will win and I will marry her and she will be my prettiest wife in the whole world.”

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The French Tourist

By Mico, age 10 Once upon a time there was a Canadian waiting for his friend in France and he lived in a hotel called Le Freduvet. Le Freduvet is a hotel with fancy hotel rooms including 3D televisions that are also smart televisions, and computers. Oh, and all the televisions have a pack of ten 3D glasses for the whole family. Two hours later, his friend arrived. It was Sarah. She had long brown hair. Later Sarah and him went to the room and ate ice cream and watched hockey. Sarah had so much fun, she felt like sleeping. When Sarah woke up, she was on the school buts and she was still in Le Cravat High School and was always a citizen of France.

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Little Book in a Big World

Writers’ Notebooks Lux Monster

By Erika, age 12 Lux’s quest is to make the Earth and living things healthy, which are animals, humans, nature and earth. Lux has a special ability, which is communicating with animals. His biggest fear is that people won’t accept him for being himself. There are a lot of things getting in the way of Lux’s quest, like humans. Even though Lux is trying to save the humans, humans still don’t accept him, just because he is a monster. To make the humans accept him, he has to communicate with the animals. His best friend is a puppy named Shiba. They will travel the world together until the quest is finished.

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I Was Totally Terrified When I Had a Nightmare About Vampires and a Zombie

By Gyle, age 12 It was so scary. The vampires tried to get in my house and they almost did! Then the vampires changed into zombie things. Yes! There’s only one zombie chasing me because my dream changed (that always happens). Now that I’m talking about this, the dream or nightmare is kind of scary and cool!

I like zombies better than vampires because vampires burn in the sun while zombies are chilling there.

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Random Stories

By Aron, age 13 A guy was biking and he was shirtless and he was buying a Viet-sub. He acted like he was a nice guy. But when he ordered, there was a bug on him.

I was thinking, should I tell him or no? I chose the bad choice. His reaction was “Huh? Ohhhh!” I tried not to laugh. He looked at me and saw me laughing. I think he is angry at me.

--When my mom and I were just taking a walk, a guy was on his skateboard and had good speed or something, I’m guessing. Then a car blocked him.

Then he got mad at the driver. He had to jump off his skateboard and he kicked the driver’s car. I started to laugh. Then there were homeless people nearby, and when he kicked the car, all of the homeless people said, “Yeah man! Woooo!”(there were three). My reaction after I saw that was a straight confused face.

--I was sleeping. All peaceful. My family and I were going to the USA. Then suddenly a car ran fast over a puddle and the water landed onto our car. My mom screamed and that made me think that we were going to crash. I hate my life, man. She was just screaming because the sound made her surprised.

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Friend Break Apart

By Clare, age 12 29

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Prank

By Stas, age 12 This guy is about to pull off the biggest prank in the history of the school on the principal of the school. He knows he will get in so much trouble, but he is already in so much trouble.

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If Animals Were Stalking My House

By Brisky, age 12

“The motions are so fast.”

—a sloth

“If that was yellow, I would eat it.”

—a rat

“Wow, I can push the buttons.”

—a turtle

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Little Book in a Big World

Coke Coming Out of My Nose

By Bogdan, age 11 It felt like a bee sting in my nose. The Coke wipes your nose of burgers. You will feel like a needle shot in your nose.

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Random Quotes & Stuff

By Rochelle, age 12 The definition of awesome is me! #gyki #hashtag #yolo #tagsforlikes #foodporn #instagram #peace #picture #green #random #picture #drawing #hashtagsdonthaveanyspaceHAHA! YOLO = You. Only. Live. Once.

Spelled backwards. . .

OLOY = Only. Losers. Obey. Yolo.

When Stranded on a Desert Island

By Precious, age 12 Swim Build a sand castle Dream, sleep Catch fish to eat Draw pictures in the sand Climb up the tree and say, “Helloooo!!!”

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Why Facebook?

By Kaki, age 12 It’s great.

You can talk to friends.

You can share photos and videos.

You can like or comment on someone’s post.

You can play games.

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If You Were Stranded on a Desert Island for 3 Days, How Would You Pass the Time?

By Kimleen, age 12 Day 1 I would explore the island (not that there was anything to explore).

Night 1 I would watch the stars and fall asleep.

Day 2 Feeling a little hungry.

Night 2 Sleep again but count the stars this time.

Day 3 Get ready to leave this island ’cause the question said so.

Night 3 I’m free!

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Reviews A Review of Twizzlers Percentages Book

by Jerry Pallotta

By Andrew J., age 6 This book is about math.

I like this because you can learn about this symbol: % My favourite part is 33.3333333333333

A Review of the Computer Game Minecraft

By Jeremy, age 10 I like Minecraft because it has zombies and is fun.

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Copyright © 2013 The Writers’ Exchange This chapbook is a collection of writing and art created by the students in the after-school Writers’ Room program during the winter and spring terms of 2013.

The Writers’ Exchange makes literacy exciting and accessible for inner-city kids through free mentoring and creative writing projects like this chapbook. All Writers’ Exchange programs are free for the children and families we serve, so we could not exist without the support of generous donors, including Megan Abbott, Marily Mearns, the Vancouver Foundation, Lindsay Mearns, Nancy and Ted Maitland, Bernard MacLeod, Claudia Casper and James Griffin, and Claudia Cusano and NUVO magazine. Thank you. And thank you to the amazing volunteer mentors who work with the kids in all Writers’ Exchange programs so that each student can succeed to the best of his or her ability.

Thanks to the 70 fantastic volunteer mentors who helped with the Writers’ Room after-school program at Queen Alexandra during the 2012/13 school year: Alex G., Alex K., Alice, Alysha, Aman, Amanda, Andrea, Andrew, Angie, Barbara, Belinda, Blaine, Brittney, Carina, Carissa, Cat, Chloe H., Chloe T., Christy, Claire, Colleen, Connie, Courtney, Dan, Eliza, Emily, Emma, Haley, Hollis, Iris, Jennifer, Jessica, Jodi, Joe, Julie, Kari, Kate, Kathleen, Kathryn, Kelly, Kelsie, Laura, Lauren, Mary, Matthew, Melanie, Mirey, Morgan, Nadia, Natalie, Patty, Prabhi, Rachel, Raheleh, Randy, Raoul, Sammy, Sandra, Sarah D., Sarah F., Sean, Shadi, Shannon, Stacey, Tessy, Tim, Vivi, Wai Liang, Wendy, Yoyo

Writers’ Exchange 881 East Hastings Vancouver, BC V6A 1R8 To read more great student writing, visit www.vancouverWE.com Design and layout by Krysta Furioso and Dylan Doubt www.krystafurioso.com | www.dylandoubt.com

The Writers’ Exchange is a project of Tides Canada Initiatives Society.

The Writers’ Room program runs in partnership with Queen Alexandra FAMILY School and the Vancouver School Board’s Van Tech Community School Team.

Printing for this chapbook was generously donated by Hemlock.

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Little Book in a

Big World Imaginations from the Writers’ Room

A Chapbook from the

Writers’ Exchange Spring 2013 • Volume 2 • Issue 2 WE chapbook 02 COVERS-final.indd 1

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