The King of Slippery Falls, by Sid Hite; Scholastic Press: New York, zoo4; $16.95 Imagine it’s your birthday. Your parents gave you a surprising gift that revealed your origin. How would you react? Lewis Hinton, an ordinary boy in The King of Slippery Falls, is shocked on his fifteenth birthday, when he discovers that he’s adopted. For one year, he tries to learn about his real family. On his sixteenth birthday, his adopted mother, Martha, surprises Lewis with a letter from his real mother, J. A. Poisson. The letter reveals Lewis’s real name: Louis Poisson, and his real mother gave him away to Avery, his adopted father, to find her husband and freedom. Lewis is angry with his real mother because she basically abandoned him for her own freedom! Lewis also feels angry with Martha for hiding this for s-i-x-t-e-e-n years! Now that’s quite a long time to keep a secret. If I were Lewis, I probably would have thrown a fit and started screaming in anger, and inside, I would have felt pretty sad, too. Lewis’s friend, Sophie, and an eighty-eight-year-old woman named Maple tell him that he’s of French origin by his last name, Poisson, like my last name, Chakraborti, reveals that I’m of Indian origin. Maple is what’s called “one of a kind.” She told Lewis that he’s possibly descended from King Louis XV She explains life’s gradual, out-of-the-blue, and inspirational changes to Lewis. A person’s life is like a story because both experience these three changes. I found this explanation most interesting. When I saw the misery of the evacuees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on TV, I thought it like a major turning point in their lives. The devastation symbolized out-of-the-blue changes for these evacuees. Anyhow, Lewis’s origin gets importance in his one-horse town, Slippery Falls, and the town gets vibrant. Lewis becomes the center of attention in the town. Embarrassed, he tries to stop it. I recall a rumor in my school that I liked a girl, named Laura. I felt that everyone in the school enjoyed their time by conversations involving our relationship. Thank goodness it ended. There’s another important event in this story Lewis spots a trout in the town’s waterfall and he’s determined to catch that fish. One day Lewis goes to the waterfall on his quest. He almost has the fish, but then slips and hits his head against a rock and gets unconscious, and bleeds heavily He’s taken to the hospital. Fortunately, Maple’s blood saves his life. But he fails to achieve his goal. I felt pretty sad about that. Sometimes I try very hard to achieve goals. No matter how much perseverance I have, when I can’t achieve them, I feel down. While he recovers, Lewis decides to go to France to learn about the ways of the French, his people. He and his girlfriend, Amanda, organize a car wash to raise money for the trip. My parents are from India, and last summer, I went there to visit my relatives. Before I went, I learned a little of my native tongue, Bengali, from my parents, like Lewis learned some French before he went to France, from Sophie. Learning Bengali helped me enjoy the Bengali culture while I was there, and now I really like it. Lewis will probably enjoy the French culture. Bon voyage, Louis! Neil Chakraborti, 12Tuscaloosa, Alabama
July/August 2006
A Hidden Reflection
In the meadow everything was silent and untouched. Maria looked over the vast field and the woods beyond and everything was blanketed in a thick layer of velvety snow. The air was cold and crisp, and stung Maria’s throat and chest while she panted slightly from the run to this beautiful place. But she didn’t see it as beautiful. Maria thought that the snow’s glare was too harsh and the bitter cold wind was cruel and merciless. She missed the warm sun from back in Hawaii where she was from. This was her first winter here in Oregon and everything about it made her more and more homesick. Instead of breathing in a gentle breeze filled with the fragrant scent of flowers and a touch of pineapple and coconut, she was breathing in nothing but the strong smells of snow and pine needles. Back at home she would have been lying on a warm, soft beach, feeling all the grains of beautiful white sand underneath her. Now she was standing bundled up in prickly scarves and hats with the rattling, empty crunch of snow and frost underneath her. Maria looked around at the meadow and said quietly to herself, “How I wish I was back home. Or at least with my friends.” And then, as if to answer her, a bundle of jackets, scarves, and mittens fell out of the nearby tree, screaming. Maria gasped and ran over just in time to see that there was a girl in the midst of all of them, looking more like she had just won the lottery than fallen out of a fifteen-foot tree. “Whoa! Ha ha ha! That was sooo fun!” she shrieked joyfully. In that reflection Maria saw her days with Sophie ahead of her “Are you OK?” Maria inquired anxiously. The girl merely looked at her in surprise as if seeing her for the first time. Her large blue eyes widened with delight. “Oh, who are you? I’m Sophie! I can’t believe you’re here! Mama told me our neighbors would be arriving soon but I had no idea how soon! Hi!” Sophie looked expectantly at Maria, her eyes fluttering excitedly as if she thought that Maria was about to proclaim that she was a fairy princess from Australia. “Um, I’m Maria. I come from Hawaii. Nice to meet you.” “It’s not nice, it’s spectacular!” exclaimed Sophie, tossing back her curly blond hair with one gloved hand. “It’s been so long since I’ve had a friend! Come with me! I’ll show you around.” With that Sophie grabbed Maria’s arm and led her around the meadow, pointing out different types of trees and winter animals as they went. They walked so far and long that by the time they were done there was hardly a patch of snow that was not covered in small boot tracks. After a while, Maria gasped, “I don’t think I can take another step, let alone get home. Please let me stop and rest.” “Oh, very well. Hurry, though! I’m going to show you my favorite place in the world.” Maria sat down and felt her heart beating heavily inside of her. Thump, thump, thump. Her mind was racing too. Was she actually having fun? Did she really like it here? What about Hawaii? Home? But Sophie was so nice and funny. Would they be friends? And could she ever forget about the warm beaches and swaying palm fronds? “Are you done yet? It’s gonna get real cold if we just sit here doing nothing.” And with that Sophie burst into a line of cartwheels, finally tumbling into the snow, her hat askew and her freckled face shining with joy and pink from the cold. Maria stood, laughing so hard her cheeks hurt. Sophie stood up too and after a full minute of nonstop laughter she wheezed, “I guess . . . ha ha ha . . . we should carry on. Come on! I’ll show you my special place but I’m warning you, it’s a secret and I mean to keep it that way Just over this way!” Maria followed and watched as Sophie burrowed through the bushes, disappearing into the other side. And then, rather hesitantly, Maria did the same and was immediately in awe of the sight in front of her. They were in a medium-sized enclosed area and Maria’s first impression was that she had somehow journeyed into one of those beautiful sceneries in the movies her older sister, Kami, watched. Taking up most of the space were three cherry-blossom trees, forming a perfectly straight line of strong sturdy trunks and outstretched branches. The branches were almost completely bare but every once in a while Maria could catch a glimpse of a little pink blossom budding and spreading out its delicate petals. In it, it carried the beauty of being so small, serene and tranquil, and outside of it the color was dainty and pastel. “Whoa . . .” “Nice isn’t it?” “It’s not nice, it’s spectacular!” giggled Maria. She never saw sights like this in Hawaii. “Well, that’s not all! You won’t believe what else there is, right behind the trees, hidden by all those flowers and branches.” Maria walked carefully around the trees, not wanting to disturb something so pure and beautiful. And true enough; hidden behind the rest, there was a small pond of crystal ice, the sun’s weak light bouncing off of it and the cherry-blossom trees casting spiral shadows over it. Maria looked deeply into it and saw that while the outer layer was ice, beneath that there were a few inches of tinkling water. And almost completely hidden by the ice, there was a faint reflection of two girls looking back up at them. One was blond, fair-skinned, and had huge blue eyes. The other had dark brown eyes surrounded by long eyelashes, a cinnamon- colored complexion, and long black hair. In that reflection Maria saw her days with Sophie ahead of her, and their blooming
Tickle Me Pink
Buzz! The familiar sounds of bees pierce my ears As I lay on the dewy morning grass. Sprawled next to me is Tessa, My younger sister, Doodling with her favorite crayon. “Tickle Me Pink, Isn’t that a funny name?” I ask. Squish! I roll over to hear her reply, and Stubbles of the freshly mowed grass stick to my back. Giving me her naive face she answers, “What color is your heart?” Not wanting to confuse the toddler, I flop against the pole of the basketball hoop with a Thud! “What color is spring?” Tessa persists. I was too old for her childish games, “I don’t know, now hurry up it’s at least 1000 degrees out!” The grass squelches as she stumbles towards me, Waving her drawing like a trophy She sticks it in my face, and I see her masterpiece: A picture of her and me, Lying together in the grass On a warm spring day “Your heart is pink,” She points to my chest in the drawing, “And so is spring.” She points to the grass, sky, and flowers. And at that moment, my Tickle-Me-Pink heart Is a blossoming bud. Marissa Bergman, 12Farmington, Connecticut
