Fiction
I can remember so clearly the day when my troubles began. I was thirteen years old, and it was the spring of 1665. It was unnaturally warm for Madrid, but I loved the sun. I was sitting outside near the garden, reading a wonderful book. In our flower beds, a bright array of color burst [...]
Fiction
Stroke. Stroke. Breathe left. Straight legs, follow through with the arms. These are usually my thoughts while swimming the hundred-meter freestyle. For those of you who don't know, that's two laps. I can do it in about a minute and twenty seconds, sometimes more, sometimes less. Oh, and my name is Sophia, been swimming for [...]
Fiction
I can still remember the day I met my best friend. I rode my bike past her house a few days after she had moved in. The afternoon air was clear and crisp, and a few fluffy white clouds danced over my head in the breeze. There had been a storm that morning, so the [...]
Fiction
This is a story about my great-grandfather's dog. This story takes place in Mexico in the town of Tampico, where my great-grandfather, Rosalino Dominguez, had been trying to get land for poor people, but that was against the government's laws. My grandmother told me, "The only time he had ever cried was when he had [...]
Fiction
“Mother, don't," I shrieked. Mother looked at me and opened her mouth threateningly. "Rebecca, you'll wake everybody up!" "I like this side," I said quickly, stroking the dark yellow cotton. "Yes, but you know that your grandmother made that quilt and when she arrives, she'll want to see the patchwork side up. Say you had [...]
Fiction
PROLOGUE am a guardian angel. I am retelling one of my missions to earth long ago. It was my first mission; I was proud of my abilities. And to go to a foreign country made me excited. * * * The radiant noon sun shone brightly as the cool breeze ruffled the palm branches [...]
Fiction
It was the first day at my new school. I was excited and nervous. I am the first in my family ever to go to a Gymnasium (a German secondary school for grades 5 through 13, preparing for university entrance). Frau Heintz, the homeroom teacher for class 5b, was calling the roll. "Andreas Ludowsky?" "Here!" [...]
Poems
I can't remember the crash, Only closing my eyes, A falling feeling rushing through me, As if I were sinking under water. But there was none, just rocks. My eyes wouldn't open. I remember thinking this must be What it's like being dead. I floated out of the ditch, "Crawling like a cat," they told [...]
Book Reviews
Angelfish by Laurence Yep; G. P. Putnam's Sons: New York, 2001; $16.99 When I first read Angelfish, I had many reactions to it, but as I progressed through the book, many of the reactions shifted to reveal different ones. At first, when I first met Robin, the main character in this book, I pitied her [...]
Book Reviews
Making Waves by Barbara Williams; Dial Books for Young Readers: New York, 2000; $17.99 In making waves, author Barbara Williams returns to her two main characters who survived the sinking of the Titanic in her last book, Titanic Crossing. These two young people, Albert Trask and Emily Brewer, continue the friendship they forged on that [...]
