Posted in Posted by Rudyard Kipling

Wot ho, Pip here. My two little sister, Katsy and G.B., and I have decided to write a long story (or short book) together! It's called "Popchanka", and we've just made a blog for it and posted chapter one. You can see it at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mangoguava/, please read and comment! Here is a bit of chapter one as kind of a teaser:

Once upon a time, there were three children called the Graces. They lived with their mother and father in a small apartment in New York City. Each night they fell asleep to the winking city lights and the sound of cars on the bustling freeways, and each morning they woke up to the birds singing in their nests on the window sills, and children shouting for hot dogs and popcorn in the lush green park nearby. The three were fairly happy living in the tiny rooms, but the noisy neighbors posed a problem. The three siblings were writers, and quite good ones but a writer has to have certain sounds to help their inspiration. Noisy neighbors is hardly fresh inspiration.

The youngest sibling in the Grace family was named Violet. She had honey colored hair and turquoise eyes, and her cheeks were always rosy. She loved puppies and liked to burst out laughter. Violet also loved to run in the park among the trees and the balloon stands. She was the pet of the family, everyone loved her and was charmed by her. She could have a temper at times, but she was very smart and always ready to forgive and forget.

The second child was a little boy, named Andy. He had curly yellow hair and his skin was pale, but he had a perpetual sunburn across his pointy nose. The other children at school and his friends in the park thought Andy was strange, not only because he loved to draw but also because his eyes were a soft shade of purple. Andy was quiet and rather shy, but his imagination and quick wit soared above the other little boys and he loved creating cute pictures of kittens.

Deker Grace was seventeen years old, and took care of his two younger siblings. He was somewhat of a recluse, tall and thin, with black eyes and a thick shock of brown hair. He could be funny and sociable, but most of the time he was intense, like a panther waiting to spring. The only people in the apartment building who weren't afraid of Deker were Violet and Andy.

It started out being a normal summer in the Big Apple; the sun's heat arose from the asphalt in waves, hot dogs sizzled deliciously underneath red and white striped umbrellas, and dozens of children swarmed in the park playing in the cool pond. School was out, and three Grace siblings, or the "Three Graces" as their mother often called them, were happy for a chance to sleep late that Friday morning...