The Greatest Dreams of Writers' Room

The

Greatest Dreams of

Writers’ Room A Chapbook from the

Writers’ Exchange Fall 2012 • Volume 2 • Issue 1

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Copyright © 2012 The Writers’ Exchange This chapbook is a collection of writing and art created during the fall 2012 school term by the students in the after-school Writers’ Room program run by the Writers’ Exchange in partnership with Queen Alexandra FAMILY School and the Vancouver School Board’s Van Tech Community School Team.

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, 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.

Writers’ Exchange c/o Queen Alexandra FAMILY School 1300 East Broadway, Vancouver, BC V5N 1V5 The Writers’ Exchange is a project of Tides Canada Initiatives Society.

To read more great student writing, visit www.vancouverWE.com

Design and layout by Krysta Furioso www.krystafurioso.com

Printing for this chapbook was generously donated by Hemlock.

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Contents 4

The Magic Apple King by Selena

24 Spooky Stories

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Cheese City by Andrew D.

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I Want to Go to Japan by Kurtis

25 The Haunted House in the Classroom by Ashley

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True Love by Tatiana

26 The Crazy Man by Faris

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The Dragon Who Was Angry at the Reaper by Victor

26 Scary and Scarier by Clara

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The Long Spaghetti by Judy

28 The Takeover by Robert

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Defeat the Pokéking! by Nirel and Bryan

28 Goosebumps by Jalen D.

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The Story of One Direction by Jasmine

10 Russell the Sheep by Ryan

29 The Ghost Is in the Beach

by Jan and Jaykwon

10 The Rare Rules by Francis

30 The Fairy Named Rebecca by Chelsea J.

11 Air Riding by Joy

30 The Head by Shirley

11 Jacky’s Adventure by Jacky 12 Super Pig by Chelsea O. 13 Excerpt from a Letter by Gyle 14 Exploring the Darkest Forest

in Canada by Mico

27 Something (Can’t Write a Name) by Jason

31 Giller Slim 32 Liza, Celest, Thu, Renil 33 Giao, Alex

15 A Letter by Donna

34 Zine Scene

15 The Happy Dog and Cat by Gabby

34 Training Routines of

WWE Fighters by Peter

16 Alone by Angelo 16

I Had Pop by Azayle

17 JB Fans (Comedy) by Brisky 18 Spiral Story by Sean 19 The Pumpkin Princess by Ana 20 A Sad, Sad Story by Kimleen 21 Grandma and the Car by Vincent 22 A Kid with a Train by Branky 22 The Loud Guy by Danny 23 Barbie and Barney and a Chewy,

Fat Colossal Chocolate Bar

by Brayden, Huynh and Williams

35 Smarties by Precious 35 Breaking One Direction

News by Erika

36 Artists’ Space 36 Illustration by Samuel 37 Pizza by AJ 38 Rapunzel by Kahlil 40 Illustration by Nikita 41 Comic by Caleb 42 Made Up Pokémons by Sebastian 43 3 Tree by Thomas 44 Comic by Rochelle 45

Illustration by Victor

46 Typewriter Poetry by Jeremy

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The Magic Apple King

By Selena, age 10 Once upon a time there lived a very old man. He was wise, nice and always planting apple trees. The old man called himself the apple king because he lived on this little island called River Way Island. On this little island they had such little food. So the old man travelled all the way over the ocean to Summerville. At Summerville he bought apple tree seeds with all the money he had left. With all the money he had he was able to buy 400 apple tree seeds. So when he got all the seeds he travelled all the way back to River Way. He bought all of those apple tree seeds so he could plant a tree every day until it was time for him to pass away. Now, every day everyone goes to the old man’s house for an apple.

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Cheese City

By Andrew D., age 10 Once upon a time Cheese City was the most popular city because every living cheese was rich. There were cheese mansions, cheese cars, and the city was all yellow. One day there was a huge problem: the sun was up and the cheese was melting and rotting because the cheese was out in the open for too long. Every cheese was screaming in horror. Five hours later, the cheese disappeared. More living cheese was surprised because they were tourists. They flew from Apple Island to Cheese City. One day a human took Cheese City into the refrigerator. The cheese started to revive and Cheese City was saved. Hurray!

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I Want to Go to Japan

By Kurtis, age 7 I want to go to Japan because I like it so much.

Japan has lots of snow.

I love to play in the snow.

I also like the parts of Japan that are hot.

I could buy lots of things in Japan.

Japan is fun.

True Love

By Tatiana, age 5 Once upon a time there was a little girl named Princess Ariel. She had a fish friend and his name was Ocean. She met a prince on a boat. The prince loved her. They got married and had one baby. That’s true love.

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The Dragon Who Was Angry at the Reaper

By Victor, age 8 One day the dragon was angry because the reaper destroyed his home. The reaper just accidentally sneezed and breathed out a dark blast and broke the home. They fought with their mighty strength and the dragon lost and the reaper lived happily ever after.

The Long Spaghetti

By Judy, age 8 Once there was a man who went to a restaurant and bought spaghetti. He ate it. He kept eating and eating but it did not stop. He yelled, “Waiter! Cut this please!” Then he cut it. He said, “That’s better.”

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Defeat the Pokeking!

Written and illustrated by Nirel and Bryan, both age 10 Once upon a time two guys named Lance and Draphoonic went to Professor Chuck to get their very first Pokémon! In the lab they tested it out. But they messed up the lab. Professor Chuck yelled, “Get out!”

Before the professor said that, he said, “Train your Pokémon to defeat the Pokéking! So they trained for five weeks nonstop. They trained really hard. And their Pokémon named Dragiddy and Tecro evolved to their last evolution, Dragonabas and Teckronancer, so they went to challenge the king and won.

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The Story of One Direction

By Jasmine, age 9 Harry, Niall, Zayn, Louis and Liam all went to the X Factor and completed the first challenge, and went on to the second challenge, boot camp! Boot camp means performing in a group. After Zayn performed, he headed backstage. Then his mentor, Simon, told him, “Why aren’t you out there?”

Zayn said, “I can’t dance.” But Zayn did. None of the boys made it. But when the boys were about to pack, they were called up to the stage and were called to be in a band and made it to the semi-final where they lost.

But the boys signed the contract with the record label and started the song “What Makes You Beautiful” and hit the U.S. charts, and then they went on a world tour and they are now coming to Canada! I am going to their concert maybe?

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Russell the Sheep

By Ryan, age 6 Once upon a time there was a sheep! The sheep did not sleep. Russell’s mom asked Russell to sleep. The next morning he was still awake and the next night he went to sleep. He looked at the sheep, the other sheep and the other sheep. They were asleep.

The Rare Rules

By Francis, age 7 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Do not kick a tree.

Do not punch a kid.

No running at home.

Do not say no to someone.

Don’t steal.

If you have an answer, put your hand up.

No bullies.

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Air Riding

By Joy, age 9 Once upon a time inside a rock lived a teeny weenie boy named Harry. He was best friends with another boy called Mico. They liked to “air ride” on leaves and play with chestnuts. Once day their leaf crashed into a tree so Mico and Harry fell off and a snail saved them but they broke his shell.

After that they lived happily ever after but the poor snail didn’t.

Jacky’s Adventure

By Jacky, age 6 One day, Jacky decided to go on the monkey bars. Then she went to the garden. Suddenly, Jacky saw Giao playing on the slide. Jacky said, “Hi.” Jacky and Giao saw a big black crow. They decided to scare the crow. The crow flew away. Then it was time for Jacky’s piano lesson. Jacky’s teacher was named Ms. Hickman.

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Super Pig

By Chelsea O., age 9 Once upon a time there was a pig named Frank. He lived on a farm with his family but he ran away. Nobody knew why. He was just wandering because he didn’t know where to go. He was very scared because he thought that people were going to kill him and eat him! So he ran somewhere safe into a dark alley. Then he thought of going home. Then he thought that he could fly back to the farm. So he went on top of a garbage can and he jumped, but it didn’t work. So he tried again and again and again and again and then a human appeared. Then the human said, “Hey you! What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be on the farm.” Then another human appeared and said, “Stop hurting that pig!” And the first human ran away. Then the nice human saw the pig was trying to fly and he said, “You can do it. I believe in you.” Then he gave him a cape that said SP. The pig tried to fly again and it actually worked. So he started to fly everywhere and people looked up at the sky and said, “Hey, what’s that?” He was about to fly home but he saw someone in trouble. Then he flew down and saved the person.

The person was actually a famous person so on TV he said, “A pig saved me!” but no one believed him.

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Excerpt from a Letter

By Gyle, age 11 Dear One Direction, you guys are my inspiration and you guys changed my life. I always spam you guys on Twitter and I stay up all night waiting for your tweet or twitcam, but when I go to sleep you go follow some fans and you go to twitcam. You guys are flawless, beautiful and you distract me.

Guess what? I still love you guys. Zayn, you only tweet once a month. Are you still taking a bath?

Now I’m gonna talk about JBiebs. Justin, I’ve been a fan of you since January 1, 2010. I remember all the lyrics to all your old songs. Now you’re a pop star. I’ve been waiting for you to go to my house but you didn’t go because you’re far away from me. Now you have a girlfriend, Selena. I love her, too. Keep believing!

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Exploring the Darkest Forest in Canada

By Mico, age 10 Hello, my name is Mico. I’m going to explore the darkest forest in Canada by myself. I might get really scared. When I go to the darkest forest I might even get hurt, but at least I have armour and protection so I won’t get killed.

When I went to the forest I saw nothing but trees that were dead. So I got scared but then I started to love the darkest forest because there were no animals that were going to attack me, like bears or other wildlife. I slept there for the whole night and I kept on dreaming that the forest was always awesome and cool.

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A Letter

By Donna, age 11 Dear Mom, I love you so much because you are the best person ever. When you’re gone, it makes me feel sad and homesick. But when you’re here, you make me feel so happy. No matter where you are, I will always miss you.

I love you so much, Donna

The Happy Dog and Cat

By Gabby, age 6 Once upon a time there was a cat and dog. And the cat and dog were happy.

But they didn’t know what to do and they cried a lot. But they had an idea.

They played tic tac toe.

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Alone

By Angelo, age 7 One day a boy was alone—no cars, no people—and the boy went in the school. Then the zombie came, the green ninja and the red ninja and the blue ninja and the black ninja and the white and then Spider came and then Sonic came and then Snake came. To be continued. . .

I Had Pop

By Azayle, age 7 I had pop.

I had chips.

I had a lollypop.

I had junk food.

I played with pop.

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JB Fans (Comedy)

By Brisky, age 11 Once upon a time there was a penguin that lived only in places that are warm so he could chill out a lot with his friends, and they liked to break trees down to make a wooden sword so they could take over the world in about 30 seconds. . . Thirty seconds later, they were terrorizing the city and in 40 seconds. . . they had finally ruled the world and they got free Justin Bieber songs! They listened to it all day and then they sang aloud, but nobody was there, so they did rock music instead and then penguin fans came in a jiffy. They zoomed in and started saying, “We love you,” and some of them jumped onto them like a doggy pile. At the end they lost the babies and lost their job. But they still had their chill place. . . not.

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Spiral Story Written and illustrated by Sean, age 7 You are eating ice cream.

You are having a nightmare.

You are a book.

You are a monster.

You are a bed.

You are eating chicken.

You are eating the Earth.

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The Pumpkin Princess

By Ana, age 10 Once upon a time there lived a little girl named Naya, and she lived with her mom, dad and brother. They all lived together in a town called Simtheya.

This town had a population of 300.

Naya had a huge imagination. She loved stories and she loved to play outside with her friends. One day, when she was picking apples on an apple tree, she came across something weird. It looked like a white horse with golden hair, but she wasn’t sure because she was far away from it. Then she got down from the tree and slowly walked up to it, very excited but kind of scared.

Then she saw. . . she saw. . . a unicorn. It had a horn that was golden with purple vines on it, and her eyes were bright lilac. She was white, and her hair was golden, but she looked lost.

After that, Naya looked at her for about a minute without saying a word, and she went and first she thought that her imagination was blowing up, so she touched her, and her hair was softer than a kangaroo, and her skin was so smooth like a koala and her eyes were amazingly beautiful. Then after she felt it she said, “Nope, you’re definitely alive.” She wanted to keep it, but then she thought that maybe it had an owner or something. It didn’t have a collar to say an owner, so she went home, got a rope, and tied it to one of her apple trees.

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A Sad, Sad Story

By Kimleen, age 11 Once upon a time, there was a boy walking on the ground. He was playing with his yoyo. Suddenly there was something that jumped out from the bush. It was a die! The die tickled the boy. Then the boy laughed. The die tickled the boy because he wanted to make friends and play on the monkey bars with him. The boy became friends with the die and they lived happily ever after.

P.S. The die didn’t have hands so the boy and the die played something else.

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Grandma and the Car

By Vincent, age 7 A man’s shirt was on a grandma. She was driving a car.

A man said, “You’re not allowed to drive a car! You can only drive the car if you break the dirt and make me a house.”

Then the grandma said, “Yes.” Then the police said, “You can’t do that!”

“What? I have to build a house!”

The police put the man in jail.

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A Kid with a Train

By Branky, age 10 Once upon a time there was a kid named Nick. He was working with his friend named Andrew. Their job was taxi driving. They were driving until it took too long to get one person to a school, which got that person so mad that now Nick got fired and now a miracle happened. Now he got a job at the train station!

The Loud Guy

By Danny, age 8 Once upon a time there was a guy. His name was Huynh. He was so loud that in the neighbourhood his name was Danny. He showed them the golden blue pen. To be continued. . .

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Barbie and Barney and a Chewy, Fat Colossal Chocolate Bar

By Brayden, Huynh and Williams, all age 10 Once upon a time there was a dog named Barbie that accidentally stepped on an action figure named Barney.

One day, Barbie was eating a colossal chocolate bar. Five seconds later, the chocolate bar came to life. Then the chocolate bar started to regenerate itself from the bite that Barbie took out of it.

Day two, Barbie and Barney went to the mall to get BFF necklaces for when they go to the ball.

Then the chocolate bars invaded the ball to capture Barney and Barbie.

Then Mr. Bean ate all the invading chocolate bars and a second later, Mr. Bean went to sleep until 2058.

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Spooky Stories

During the week of Halloween, we wrote some pretty scary stories.

Reader beware!

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The Haunted House in the Classroom Ashley, age 11 On a dark and gloomy day. . .

We were all in class, Mr. Ion’s science class, to be exact. Half of the class was working on zombies and the other half was working on cloning things, like Nyka. And the half working on zombies made them for the haunted house in the classroom. They cloned the zombies. They were supposed to make ten zombie clones, but Ashley put 100 into the cloning machine. But she did not notice, and then the bell rang for recess.

After recess all the zombies were in the classroom waiting for somebody to open the door. Mr. Ion opened the door and all the zombies ran away into the school. Everybody ran to the doors. They did not open, so the only way that we could get out was if somebody came in. So we had to fight the zombies.

Next thing you know, all the power went out! To defend herself, Gyle sharpened pencils to throw at the zombies to distract them so we could run away. Sydney thought that when they came back, she would karate kick them in the heads. When she did, they all fell over.

After 10 minutes, the zombies were all dead and then the power came back on. Our parents were wondering where we were so they came to the school then found us and took us home.

Back at school. . .

A zombie got back up off the floor, looked around and Mr. Ion was still there. He ran away like a screaming little girl.

And that is the end of that story!

Happy Halloween, everybody!

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The Crazy Man

By Faris, age 7 He is crazy. He destroyed the grocery store. He came back alive. His ghost came back. He threw 2000 pieces of garbage at the people. He climbed up the ladder and skydived. He turned into a zombie. He scared a million people.

Scary and Scarier

By Clara, age 6 There was a scary vampire. The opposite of Little Red Riding Hood was scarier. They both enjoyed themselves because they were both mean. Then it started raining for the rest of their life. They had to eat wild animals. And then they found special flowers. They ate them. They turned young again.

They went back home because their parents recognized them and their parents turned young again.

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Something (Can’t Write a Name)

By Jason, age 9 Once upon a time, there was a small family living in the forest but lately they say that they’ve been seeing strange things around their house. One of which is known as a man wearing a tuxedo with no face. They say that their daughter said that she saw a tall man outside her window in the living room on her front porch. She also said that once when she was walking alone in the forest she saw in the distance a spiderlike man wearing a tuxedo. While she was running, when she looked behind her she saw that the man was wearing a tuxedo. While she was running, when she looked behind her she saw that the man was chasing her. She ran and ran until she finally made it home. Then when she looked behind her once again she saw that the large creature was now walking away.

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The Takeover

By Robert, age 8, and Mary It all started with ghosts, zombies and monsters that took over the world.

Everybody was dead but only Robert was the one who would survive.

He was really strong and powerful but there were new zombies, ghosts and monsters that were too strong and powerful for Robert. They were really creepy and spooky. The ghosts were invisible so Robert couldn’t fight them. Robert got really weak. He lost to them, so the monsters, ghosts and zombies took over!

Goosebumps

By Jalen D., age 9 I went to space for the first time and I saw a five-headed alien but he didn’t see me. And it was my birthday. There were 52 aliens.

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The Ghost Is in the Beach

By Jan and Jaykwon, both age 7, and Morgan, their mentor Math Boy is a skeleton. He is really white. He went to the beach to get a tan.

While he was at the beach, Math Boy ate donuts, lots and lots of donuts.

He wanted to go swimming in the ocean. The ghost in the beach came out of the ground and said to the skeleton, “Hey, you can’t swim.”

And the skeleton, Math Boy, said, “Why? Because I’m a skeleton?”

And the ghost said, “No, because there is a whale in the water.”

And the skeleton said, “Do whales eat skeletons?”

And the ghost said, “No! But they eat donuts. And you have donuts stuck all over you.”

And the skeleton said, “Well, thanks for the warning, but I’m going swimming anyway.”

So Math Boy the skeleton walked out into the ocean, and a shark came and ate him all up.

Then the ghost in the beach turned around, and, whamo! A ghost shark was there and ate the ghost in the beach all up. And that was the last anyone ever saw of the ghost in the beach.

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The Fairy Named Rebecca

By Chelsea J., age 10 Once upon a time there was a girl named Rebecca. She was a fairy. She loved to eat candy. One day there was this guy named Slender Man. He was very creepy. Once she was playing and all of a sudden she saw Slender Man. She got amnesia. She didn’t know anyone so she was walking down the street. She got hit by a car. She died. When she was in the coffin, she was alive, but she was already dug under the graveyard. She tried to get out but she died because a ghost went inside of her.

The next day her spirit was alive. She started haunting people. It was the day of Halloween. She scared lots of people. She said, “Boo! Happy Halloween!”

The Head

By Shirley, age 10 There was once a story about this girl. She was only a head. She went around the neighbourhood and start killing people that saw the head. And people start running but the head was faster than anyone, faster than kids, faster than grownups and racing cars, faster than a world. But the girl wasn’t always a head. When she was 11, she got poisoned by a flower. She couldn’t do anything. She couldn’t sleep or eat or stand up. She didn’t get better.

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Giller Slim The following pieces were written to be entered into a contest called the Giller Slim, run by the people who choose the annual Giller Prize for the best Canadian fiction.

Every story had to use certain words from the titles of the books that were nominated for this year’s award.

Can you guess what those words were?

Some of the entries here were featured online by the Giller Prize.

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The beautiful bride cried inside because her mean sisters were imposters.

She whirled away into a door that had 419 numbers. She rued opening the door. ~ Liza, age 7 The mom won $419 to buy her kids candy. The candy was inside a present.

The kids went away because they got the candy. ~ Celest, age 6 The bride got away so he could pretend to be the imposter so he could get rich. He is inside the spy club where his friend was. Even he wanted to be very, very rich. He wanted to be handsome so he could get all the girls. He even wanted his hair back again. ~ Thu, age 8 Once upon a time a prince and a princess got married outside the kingdom.

Then a horrible whirl came and nearly blew them away. Then they ran inside. They saw an imposter in the kingdom. The imposter knew the code to the kingdom. It was 419. And they said, “You will rue the day you did it.”

And the prince and the princess lived happily ever after. ~ Renil, age 7

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The butterfly flew away and the bride caught the butterfly inside her bedroom. The bride wanted to whirl because she thought about dancing with a prince. She went to the ball as an imposter pretending to be a princess.

She showed 419 butterflies to the boys and girls at the ball. At the end of the night, she felt rue for pretending. ~ Giao, age 6 One day Peter wanted an ice cream so he accidentally went inside a shop that was actually a time machine! He went back in time to the year 419. It was a whirl. It looked like a place far away. The people there were green so he pained himself green too and became an imposter. He rescued a bride from a dragon. So he found the time machine and went back home. At the end, he was rue. ~ Alex, age 8

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Zine Scene Excerpts from the forthcoming QA magazine, written by grade 6 and 7 students.

Training Routines of WWE Fighters

By Peter, age 11 Sheamus • • • •

Do you know that Sheamus does other sports to train?

He plays rugby and football.

Sheamus started training when he was 18 years old.

He trains five days a week.

John Cena • He trains five days a week.

• His main goal is to build muscle, like legs, calves, chest, arms, shoulders, back, abs.

The Rock •

• •

The Rock used to work out six days a week and rest one day a week.

He rests on Sunday.

Back then, he was on the college football team.

Now he does movies, TV and wrestles.

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Smarties

By Precious, age 11 Smarties M&M’s Always delicious Red Tasty Icy Every bite is yummy Sweet

Breaking One Direction News

By Erika, age 11 Okay fans of One Direction, there is a major problem! Apparently, there is going to be a new mate in One Direction. I don’t even want to know his name or whatever, but anyway, he is not as cute as the rest of the boys in One Direction! Some people say that he is like an embarrassing old man.

He looks like he could be their dad. Liam Payne also said that his voice is well okay or needs some work. What do you guys think? Should One Direction get a new member, or should they stay with five hot, talented, beautiful good singers that make girls die. . . unlike this new someone?

What do you guys think?

Yes

No

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Artists’ Space The Writers’ Room kids are great writers, and they’re fantastic artists, too!

Here is just some of their amazing art.

Illustration by Samuel, age 11 The monster is attacking the city. It is a baby Godzilla and is hungry. He is about to knock the apartment down. He is slimy green. His tail is to balance.

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Pizza by AJ, age 7 37

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Rapunzel by Kahlil, age 9 38

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The Greatest Dreams of Writers’ Room

Illustration by Nikita, age 8

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The Greatest Dreams of Writers’ Room

Comic by Caleb, age 7 41

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The Greatest Dreams of Writers’ Room

Made Up Pokemons by Sebastian, age 9

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The Greatest Dreams of Writers’ Room

3 Tree by Thomas, age 10 43

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The Greatest Dreams of Writers’ Room

Comic by Rochelle, age 11 44

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The Greatest Dreams of Writers’ Room

Illustration by Victor, age 8

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The Greatest Dreams of Writers’ Room

Typewriter poetry by Jeremy, age 10

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Copyright © 2012 The Writers’ Exchange This chapbook is a collection of writing and art created during the fall 2012 school term by the students in the after-school Writers’ Room program run by the Writers’ Exchange in partnership with Queen Alexandra FAMILY School and the Vancouver School Board’s Van Tech Community School Team.

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, 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.

Writers’ Exchange c/o Queen Alexandra FAMILY School 1300 East Broadway, Vancouver, BC V5N 1V5 The Writers’ Exchange is a project of Tides Canada Initiatives Society.

To read more great student writing, visit www.vancouverWE.com

Design and layout by Krysta Furioso www.krystafurioso.com

Printing for this chapbook was generously donated by Hemlock.

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The

Greatest Dreams of

Writers’ Room A Chapbook from the

Writers’ Exchange Fall 2012 • Volume 2 • Issue 1

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