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Contents

With Liberty and Justice for Some

"Yip!" The sharp, insistent yapping of my dog Urashima drew me sluggishly upright the day the summons came. "Yip!" "Betty," my mother called to me from the kitchen, "quiet your dog, please!" "Yip!” I responded with an unpromising grunt, flipping the page of my book. I was engrossed in Gone With the Wind, reading it [...]

Autumn Thunder

It had been one of those days when the sun could not seem to make up its mind whether it wanted to hide behind a curtain of clouds or look out over the world. Throughout the day the light had alternated between the brilliant gold of autumn leaves and the darkness that inspired the owl [...]

Halfback

The score was tied, one to one, in the second half. It was a hot July day, the kind where people say you could fry an egg on the sidewalk, or however the saying goes. The sun was beating down on the soccer field like crazy, and everyone on our team was getting tired, especially [...]

Permanence

The U-Haul pulls out of the driveway. Raindrops fall on the windows, pelting the glass in a steady rhythm. Dad is driving. He's wearing his old red flannel shirt and worn blue jeans, which I haven't seen since we came here, to Miami. My stepmother Lisa is in the passenger seat, humming along to the [...]

Abby and the Pony Express

Abby heard a long, distant call, somewhere out there in the night. A trumpeting call, like a bugle or maybe it was only the wind. Snow whirled past the cabin window in an endless parade of white, and the wind moaned as it blew around the corner of their house. There had been blizzards like [...]

Ellen’s Sixth-Grade Family

The sixth grade had finally come to a close. Actually, the year hadn't been too long or hard. The last day dragged by so slowly. Yet here it was, the end of the year, and it seemed it had all passed by in the wink of an eye. Ellen went to the end-of-the-year pool party [...]

September 11, 2001

today is my birthday i am eight years old colored tissue and balloons then in one bright blinding moment life changes forever a thousand dreams float from the sky and scatter jigsaw over New York City

Sounds

My iguana cage is silent. Just two weeks ago it was alive with sounds. I wish we'd just throw it out. The other night I heard a helicopter fly over my head. I hear a lot of helicopters at night when I'm trying to sleep      but this one was different. I was at UCLA and [...]

Visiting Miss Caples

Visiting Miss Caples by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel; Dial Books: New York, 2000; $16.99 When I first saw the cover of the book Visiting Miss Caples I thought the story would be downright boring. I put off reading it for a while. When I did start reading the story, I was easily caught up in the [...]

Lost in Time

Lost in Time by Hans Magnus Enzensberger; Henry Holt and Company: New York, 2000; $18 Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel in time? And have you ever wondered what problems you might encounter and what the consequences might be? In Lost in Time Robert finds out all these things and [...]