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Well, we began our 08/09 school year last week. And I just had to share a few of the short stories that came out of that first week's assignments. The oldest 4 girls are working in Learn to Write the Novel Way. They were to create short stories using 3 ordinary items which were assigned . Light bulb, kitten, chewing gum Abigail: Once there was a curious kitten that watched too much "MacGyver". He tried to make a bomb out of a light bulb and chewing gum. He succeeded.... Poor guy. Alexandra: Once upon a time, there was a lonely lightbulb. His name was Frederick. Frederick had no friends. One day, a kitten passed by close to him. Frederick shouted out, "Oh, no! Look out, little kitten!" But it was too late. The kitten got stuck in some chewing gum that had been carelessly thrown down. The kitten cried and cried. "Do not be afraid!" Frederick said valiantly. "I will burn the gum off you." And in a short time the gum (and a little bit of the kitten's fur) was burned all away into magically nameless oblivion. The kitten was very grateful to Frederick. To show how thankful she was, she gave Frederick twelve dollars, two penny whistles and a 13% off coupon to Lowe's. Spaghetti, typewriter, wrench Madeline: Once upon a time, there was a fellow by the name of Harold who was unusually tall and strong. His friends nicknamed him "Superman" and he had fans in abundance. This fame, unfortunately, puffed Harold up with pride. So one fine Saturday morning, about the time when lazy people roll out of bed and plop onto the cold bedroom floor, and people who actually like mornings have already read the paper, gone for a brisk jog, done the shopping, fed the children and downed 3 cups of strong coffee, Harold decided to call up a friend of his friends (one "Kristof" by name) to come and write a biography of him. "This biography," Harold explained when Kristof arrived, "is to be an account of my life - my ordinary, day-to-day activities. In this way, I may show the public that though I am a celebrity, I am also an ordinary man like them." He flexed his biceps in the mirror that stood by the front door. "Well, almost ordinary." He grinned at himself, assuring himself that the people in the world loved him almost as much as he loved himself. Kristof sat in an expensive leather armchair and drew out his Dell laptop, which Harold immediately condemned. "I want it to be professional!" he declared, pointing to an ancient typewriter residing on a small, rickety, wooden desk by a window. Kristof rolled his eyes and proceeded to blow the dust off the decaying items. Throughout the day, Kristof recorded every single thing Harold did in great detail, even when he wiped his nose on his sleeve. (Kristof knew he would be paid a great deal for this ridiculous venture and so did not even object to Harold's demands of rewording and rearranging entire pages.) At the end of the day, however, the items of highest interest were nothing more than the cat eating Harold's lunch of spaghetti and meatballs and the plumber accidently hitting himself in the head with a wrench. So Harold abandoned his biography and took Kristof out for ice cream, where he had his picture taken with Smokey the Bear and was quite happy for the rest of the evening.
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Posted by Alexandra
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