1.Daisha
is the Mountain Person
It’s
a real scary thing living next to the tallest mountain in the world. All I have
to do is look out of my bedroom window and there it is, Mount Everest, standing
there in all its splendid magnificence, just behind the gas station.
Both
my daddy and my granddaddy are heroes, you know. My daddy is in the army and he
is always away from home. He is working in the mountains in some far off
country and I sure miss him. He calls on the computer once a week and Mom and I
talk to him. My granddaddy was a soldier, too, a long time ago.
“Longer
than I care to remember, sweet pea.” He’s forever telling me.
My
granddaddy still has a taste for climbing in the mountains. “It never leaves
you. It gets a man right here.”
That’s
when my granddaddy makes a fist and hits on his chest where his heart is and
then he says, “I’m going to make you a mountain person, too.”
I’ve
always wanted to be a mountain person since I was knee high to a snowman. So
I’m going to make sure I am ready for the mountain when my granddaddy says it
is time to climb.
I
know I can do this and I know people will think I’m crazy to want to climb the
highest mountain in the world but it’s what I’ve always wanted to do. Honest.
When
you know your own heart, you know things are going to be all right. At least
that’s what my daddy tells me all the time.
Marion
is always trying to get the other kids in my class to say stupid things about
me. There goes the crazy mountain girl, she shouts at me, but as my granddaddy
is always telling me, what people say about me isn’t my business.
I
remember one day Marion brought a book into school about mountains. I remember
she said that the mountain behind the gas station wasn’t anything more than a
hill. She told me there was a book that said that Everest was a long way away
in China or Nepal or somewhere like that. Then she said that we didn’t live in
China or Nepal or anywhere close by.
I
told her she was lying but she was having none of it. Said I was a stupid kid
who believed her stupid grandfather.
Then
last Saturday guess what I saw? Go on guess. Give up? It was Marion pulling
herself up a tree using ropes and stuff like that. She didn’t see me, so I just
stood at the bottom of the tree until she got to the top and I said to her that
she must like climbing.
Well
she nearly fell off the tree she was so shocked. When she stood up, she told me
that maybe she did like climbing and maybe she didn’t. I didn’t think that kind
of talk cleared anything up as I was still confused.
When
I told my granddaddy about Marion, you know what he said? He said, why didn’t I
take Marion along with us to climb Mount Everest? Have you ever heard anything
so crazy? Just in case he was right, I
asked Marion and she said yes. So that is why the three of us are setting off
to climb the highest mountain in the world.
I’ve
packed soda and water. Marion baked some cakes with her mom helping. She says
that there are animals called Yeti and they live in Mount Everest and they tend
to like cakes. If you throw one to them, then they’ll leave you alone. We
didn’t see the Yeti, so we just ate the cakes instead.
The
climbing wasn’t as difficult as I thought, but I guess all those months of
training helped.
When
we got to the top, granddaddy planted a flag, the flag of the United States,
and he said that we were the very first to get to the top. Marion started
crying because she said she’d never been the first in anything. I gave her a
hug and she said she felt better.
The
other thing was that at the very top my granddaddy lifted me up on his
shoulders and he said that if I looked hard enough, I could see my own daddy in
the mountains where he was working.
I’m
sure I saw him waving, so I waved back and when he talked to me on the computer
last week, he said that he’d seen me waving.
I
reckon everyone should climb Mount Everest.
Every Thursday without fail, well every Thursday since
school finished that is, the Lansdale Monster Hunters meet in Stuart’s tree
house for soda, candies and a monster meeting.
The gang have noticed that there has been a severe
increase in monster activity within their area in the last few weeks. They are
troubled that if they don’t do something soon, the whole problem will get out
of hand. If the monsters take over, who’s to say that the gang won’t be able to
control them.
“I hereby call this meeting to order.” Says Jane, who
watches lots of movies about courts and court cases, too many according to her
mom but then what does her mom know?
The meeting is duly brought to order and Jane introduces
Mia as that evening’s monster hunter. Each week they take it in turns to report
stories, footprints or if they are real lucky, photos of monsters that have
caught their attention.
“Hi, my name is Mia.”
“Hi, Mia” say the whole gang. It is part of the meeting
for everyone to greet that week’s monster hunter.
“You all know, Mrs Coutts” says, Mia.
“I don’t” said Melvin but that was because he stays in
his house most free days playing computer games, except on Thursdays when he
comes to the meeting.
“Everyone, apart from Melvin, knows Mrs Coutts. She
lives on North Broad Street. As we all know there have been a few sightings of
monsters in that area.”
Harry, the gang’s accountant, looks at a sheet and
reports that there have been three sightings in Mrs Coutts’ area since January.
“Thank you, Harry.”
“You’re welcome” says Harry who goes back to reading a
book about pirates.
Mia gives a very important cough before she starts
talking again. She noticed her uncle do that before he gave a speech at a
wedding. She coughs again just to make it seem doubly important.
“I believe that there is a monster hiding in Mrs Coutts’
shed.”
“Wooo!” Says the gang.
“Any idea which type of monster, Mia?” Asks, Hilary.
“I think it might be a first but I do believe that it is
a three-headed-Jumbalee.”
“Wooo!” Says the gang, again.
Harry looks up from his book.”That’s just crazy talk,
Mia. No one has ever seen a three-headed-Jumbalee, well no one except Andrew
and we all know he disappeared soon after.”
Actually Andrew moved with his family to Philadelphia
but that wasn’t as
exciting as being eaten by a three-headed-Jumbalee.
Mrs Coutts, whose shed the monster lived in, had heard
from a friend of a friend that the gang might go looking in her shed. Not being
one to want to disappoint anyone, she feels that if there wasn’t a three-headed-Jumbalee
living in her shed then she might just have to make one, just as a backup.
Mrs Coutts goes down to the library and looks on the
Internet and she can’t find anything about three-headed monsters. So she gets
out her crayons and pencils and decides to invent her own.
What would a monster have? Five eyes on each head, she
decides, so that it could see around corners, and maybe a nose at the front and
a nose at the back so it can smell if any enemy are approaching. It will have lots of hair in the winter and
none in the summer. It has seven ears on each head, some can hear music and
some can listen for dogs barking. You see the three-headed-Jumbalee is frightened
of dogs as they will bark at them. With so many ears, it is a bit painful to
listen to.
Mrs Coutts goes home and makes a three-headed-Jumbalee
from cloth and bits of plastic. It is so good that it almost scares Mr Coutts
who finds it sitting on their bed.
Mr Coutts hides the monster at the back of the shed and
then waits on the gang.
The gang pushes Mia in first to the shed as it is her
monster, when she hasn’t been eaten, she calls out for the rest of them to join
her. When all the gang are in the shed Mr Coutts does a very foolish thing, he
taps on the glass of the shed.
Well you have never seen so many kids run so fast out of
that shed and just for extra measure Mr Coutts roars like a Jumbalee would.
Mr Coutts laughs and laughs but Mrs Coutts says that the
kids will probably have nightmares and he’d better go around to each of their
houses and explain.
He tells all the parents what he has done and they think
it is funny too.
Parents can be strange.
3. Caleb's Dad is a Spy
Caleb’s
dad is so good at being a spy that no one knows.
Caleb
knows, of course. He has decided to keep the whole story to himself, not even
telling his best friend just in case he lets the story slip.
Caleb
didn’t really notice that his Dad was a spy at first then his friend, Joshua
had given him a book for his last birthday. It was called ‘How to Tell If You Have a Spy in Your Family’. He’d thought the
book a bit far-fetched at first until he started studying it. If you look carefully
there are signs everywhere.
For
instance, his dad will go to an ATM and when he punches in a special code,
instructions will come out. His dad will read those instructions, then fold up
the paper and put it in his wallet. This is a very obvious indication of spying
as mentioned in chapter fifteen of his book.
Caleb
thinks that type of spying is dangerous, as the wallet might fall into the
wrong hands but he also reckons his dad knows what he was doing.
Caleb’s
dad is very clever with disguises. He makes people think that he works in a
bank. It is a great cover because everyone believes it, not Caleb, obviously,
but everyone else including Caleb’s mom.
He’d
thought for a while that his mom was also a spy but her cover is just being a
mom and that doesn’t seem very good. So he has scored her off the ‘possible
spies’ list.
Caleb’s
sister is only three, so she too has been taken off the list. That just leaves
his aunt Patricia; she is his dad’s sister and probably comes from a long line
of spies. Maybe his grandparents are spies as well? He will leave that
investigation for another time.
Last
week, Caleb’s teacher had spent an hour discussing with the class what their
parents or guardians did outside the home or whether they stayed in the house.
Caleb had to say that his dad was a banker but he was so wanted to say super
spy.
“Is
there something else you want to add?” asked his teacher.
“He’s
not just a banker” said Caleb.
“This
sounds interesting, Caleb” said his teacher “please tell us.”
“He’s
a” but the word ‘spy’ wouldn’t come out. He knew it was a secret and that was
that.
“He’s
a great Dad, too” added Caleb but annoyed at himself.
On
the bus home Robert, his best friend, asked him why he was so quiet. Caleb
wanted to talk to Robert about his dad but he just said he was tired, that was
all. Really Caleb was thinking through what would happen if the world knew his
dad was a spy. Well it wouldn’t be much of a secret, so that was a good reason
not to tell. Also his dad and family might be put in jail if he did things he
wasn’t supposed to do because he was a spy. Caleb couldn’t think of any
particular thing that his dad might have done, but he was sure that there must
be something.
Everything
comes to those who wait, that’s what Caleb’s auntie is always telling him and
one day, in the week before New Years, the thing he had wanted more than
anything happened.
Robert
and Zoe, their other best friend and her dog, Toto were walking through the
park. Zoe felt it was safe enough to let Toto run free for a time, she had seen
her dad do the same but for whatever reason Toto was really jumpy that day and
was rushing all over the place. Suddenly, as Zoe tried to get him back, he
slipped down an embankment and slid onto the ice that covered the Whistledown
Pond. No matter how much they called on Toto, she wouldn’t come back in and she
just sat on the ice shivering and barking. Caleb’s dad had always told him to
stay off the ice because the ice can crack and you can fall through. So Caleb
called his dad on his phone hoping that he was nearby and not in Japan or some
other country being a super spy.
Luckily Caleb’s dad was standing at the pond
within five minutes.
Caleb’s
dad had brought a rope with him. One end, he tied around a tree and the other
around his own
waist. He handed his phone to Caleb and told him that if the ice
should break that he was to call the fire station and let them know. Caleb took
the ‘phone and stood proudly, ready to make the call. His dad, the super spy,
had trusted him and no one else. One day I will be a spy too, thought Caleb.
Caleb’s
dad then crawled onto the ice keeping his body very flat. Caleb thought that
they must have taught his dad that at spy school although it didn’t mention it
in his book. When Caleb’s dad reached Toto, she was shivering with the cold.
Caleb’s dad gave her a hug and managed to get his arms around the dog and get
her back on shore.
Caleb
felt really proud of his dad that day and when Robert asked him where his dad
had learned to go onto the ice like that, Caleb told him spy school.
Robert
just laughed and Caleb smiled, happily.
4. Billy
Billy
only had himself to blame.
If
only he hadn’t spent the whole of the summer reading every book in the house
that his mother had approved for him. She had meant Billy to read one or two
books at most then spend the rest of the time playing with his friends. But no,
Billy had to do what he always did and that was to give the whole exercise
every minute of the day that was available.
Billy
was always excited when he tried something new and now that he had discovered
books again, he wanted to read everything. At least, he thought he did.
He
had read so many books that he felt he couldn’t read another one. Not one more
book or he would be ill. It’s just that he loved books so much and this is what
made his predicament so difficult.
That
night Billy lay awake imagining that there was writing on the ceiling of his
bedroom and wondering what he should do next.
The
idea must have come to him in the middle of the night, when he was asleep,
because the next thing he knew, it was morning and he had the greatest idea
ever in the history of greatest ideas.
Billy
was going to write a book by himself, one that he could enjoy reading over and
over again, because it would be his own story.
Now
the only problem was what to write as a story. What did Billy like to read
about? To be honest, he liked to read about everything. So that wasn’t much
help. You couldn’t write a book about everything. So Billy would need to narrow
it down to something easier. What though?
He
would start by describing his own bedroom and see how that worked out.
My bedroom has a bed
and three windows. It is painted in my favourite color and I have books and
computer games.
Then
Billy thought that describing himself might be a better idea to start with.
My name is Billy and
I am nearly as tall as my bookshelf. I reckon I’m really good at sports,
especially soccer. The walls of my bedroom are covered in posters of soccer
players. I love to read books and magazines, I can’t help myself. When I go
into book stores, I imagine the writers sitting on the shelf telling me to read
their books. Imagine a book store full of people sitting on shelves rather than
their books.
He
could hear his uncle Raymond talking to his mother downstairs, so he thought
that asking him what to write about might be a good idea.
His
uncle Raymond was a large man who was always laughing and smiling. Billy liked
to be around him and Uncle Raymond was always telling jokes. Not all of them
funny.
“So
my little nephew wants to write a book. I would say write about horses, definitely
horses. Everyone loves to read about them, so I imagine they will be easy
subject to write about. If you have any problems you only have to ask me.”
So
Billy ran back up the stairs and started to write about horses, or rather he
wrote the title, ‘Horses’ and then he
was stuck. He had to be honest with himself and admit he knew nothing about
horses. He didn’t want to upset his uncle so Billy sneaked along the corridor
to Andy, his big brother.
Andy
was always taller than Billy. I didn’t matter how much Billy grew, Andy also
grew some more. Andy was Billy’s hero as he always helped him out with any
problems he had. So he seemed as good a person as anyone to ask.
“Andy,
if you could write a book what would it be about?”
“I
could write about anything?” Asked, Andy.
“Anything”
said, Billy.
“Then
it would have to be about baseball. I mean everyone loves baseball, so it would
easy to write about and if you had any problems you could always ask me.”
So
Billy went back to his room and started on a new page with a story called, ‘Baseball’ but soon he was stuck again.
He didn’t know anything about baseball.
Just
then his wonderful Mom who always smelled of warm bread knocked on his door.
“Billy?”
“Come
in, Mom.” Billy called out.
“Your
uncle says you want to write a book. How are you getting on?”
Billy
had to admit that things hadn’t been going well. His uncle Raymond had
suggested horses which he knew nothing about and then Andy suggested baseball
which he knew even less about.
“What
can I do, Mom?”
His
mother thought for a while and then said, “What is it you love more than
anything else in the world?”
That
was a great question, thought Billy and so he considered it.
“The
thing I love the most in the world is my family, you and dad and my big
brother, Andy.”
“Then
that’s what you should write about. Write about your family.”
This
time when Billy wrote, ‘My Family’ he
wasn’t stuck. This time, he just kept on writing.
My family is my dad,
my mom, my brother Andy and my dog, Asterix, oh, and my uncle Raymond.
Asterix is a crazy
dog who is never short of energy. My dog is always waiting on me to come home
from school. He is brown and white and the friendliest dog in the world.
We live in a house
on a really nice street called Sycamore Street. Our house has an upstairs and
downstairs and last summer, my dad, my brother and me, painted the outside of
the house in the color white.
Billy
spent the rest of the day and most of the next day writing his very first
story. This is going to be the best book ever, he thought.
bobby stevenson 2013
thoughtcontrol ltd
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