Reila's Big Race

THIS IS A STORY I WROTE FOR A SCHOOL ASSIGNMENT WHEN I WAS 10:

Reila was a girl with dark brown straight hair and sparkling blue eyes. Her hair was kind of short and always tucked neatly out of her face with a headband. She was ten.

Reila was really hoping to win the big race next month, though there was not much chance of it. She had not signed up yet. She was going to go to sign up that afternoon. Reila loved races. Reila was a good, fast runner but she had a challenge. It was Mary. Mary was fourteen. Mary was a strong, fast girl who liked showing off. She won in all the school races and all the village races. She was also really selfish, unkind and actually did not like races so much. Reila hated Mary’s unkindness and selfishness and meanness.

Reila walked on. She was thinking about the race and so did not notice Mary running swiftly past. “Let’s see who gets there first!”  Mary shouted over her shoulder.

Reila ran as fast as she could. Mary, as always, beat her. When Reila got there, Mary was already signing up. Reila signed up too and went back home.

After she had lunch, Reila ran to the track to practice racing with her friends. When she got there, her friends, Tracy, Denia, Emily and Rachel were waiting for her

.

“Shall we start?” she panted as she ran up to them.

Tracy grinned. “Looks like you already did.” she said.

Reila laughed. “I guess so. I had to hurry. I was going to be late.”  She faced the playground track and jogged in place.

“I can’t wait! I want to go! Come on!” Reila took Denia’s and pulled her towards the track. “Also, if we don’t practice, Mary might win!”  Reila added. That set them going. They all ran to the track and as always, Reila got there first and they started running at once

.

Suddenly, Reila stopped. “Whoa!”  Tracy cried. She was right behind Reila and almost bumped into her.

“Why did you do that?”  Tracy cried.

“Do you suppose Mary will win?”  Reila asked. She didn't seem to hear Tracy.

Tracy frowned. “I hope not, I don’t like her.”  She said.

“Neither do I.”  Reila, Denia, Emily and Rachel replied.

There was a moment of silence. “Well, let’s hope we win this time.”  Denia said finally.

Reila took off again. She ran around the track and her friends followed. They practiced until sunset in silence. All of them were concentrating as hard as they could.

When Reila got home, she went to her dad and said, “Dad, I want to… to… to talk with you after dinner.”

Then she washed up and sat down to dinner. Everyone was silent. Dinner was a silent meal.

After dinner, Reila’s dad took her to her room and said, “Reila, what’s bothering you? Tell me!”

“Um…I… I… I… I really don’t know what to do! Mary is so fast! How can I ever defeat her? I don’t even like her!”

“It’s okay, maybe you will like her. Make friends.” Her dad replied.

“How could I make friends with Mary?!!!”  Reila cried suddenly. “She is so overconfident and mean and…” She suddenly burst into tears.

“It’s okay, just try your best! Don’t be sad, cheer up!”  Reila’s dad said. "You might win!"

That made Reila feel better, but she still wasn't sure. She wiped her eyes and went to bed, thinking about it.

When she woke up, she had decided. She would race. She would practice. Maybe, she might also win.

Practice. Reila raced with her friends every day and got faster every day. She was getting real strong, but she still couldn't win against Mary, even though she tried hard.

“You still can’t defeat me, slowpoke!”  Mary shouted as she ran past. Some girls laughed. Reila was going home and she knew she would not be able to run with her backpack. 

Still, she decided to try it. No use. Not with her backpack.

It was a week before the race. ‘Time goes so quickly.’ Reila thought. She was upset. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't beat Mary. Suddenly, Mary was behind her and she was yanking Reila’s hair! Reila snatched it away and went home, thinking of how rude that was.

Reila didn't have time to think about that, though. The race was coming! She was enraged at herself and at (almost) everyone because she still couldn't beat Mary. She had to beat Mary!

It was the day of the race. Reila woke up, and put on her racing outfit. The race was going to start at 9:00 am and the racers had to get there at 8:30 am. Reila willed herself to try not to get her hands shaky and sweaty. She ran to the track.

Coach Hairshy was there. She greeted Reila warmly. Reila gave her a nervous smile. Reila sat down and then, after five minutes, everyone got up to warm up. Reila was so shaky, she could barely stand up. She managed to stand and then took a deep breath. She felt calmer. She started to warm up. She jogged, ran and ran.

It was 9:00 am, race time. Reila felt numb as she took her place on the line. She again took a deep breath and felt calmer.

“Ready, set, go!” Coach Hairshy cried.

Reila ran as fast as she could. She raced past the other racers and caught up with Mary. She ran and ran. Mary was still a bit ahead. Reila couldn't keep up! Reila suddenly had a determination, a will to win. This gave her energy and she suddenly was beside Mary. Mary looked surprised. Reila didn't have time. The finish line was just there…

Reila suddenly had that wave of determination again. She shot forward and crossed the finish line, just in time.

No one cheered. No one clapped. They were too shocked. Mary was too shocked. Reila was too shocked. Then, there was applause, people cheered and clapped. Reila was proud. Her parents were proud. Everyone was proud.

Reila realized that if you practice, work hard and believe in yourself, anything can happen.

The Cat Who Went To Heaven

The Cat Who Went to Heaven is a wonderful book. It is written by Elizabeth Coatsworth. It is a short tale about a poor Japanese artist and his cat.

One day, the housekeeper of the artist goes out to the market to buy food. She returns home with a cat. The poor artist is not happy. Soon he realized that the cat is very good and they named her Good Fortune. Good Fortune is a gentle, loving, polite and well mannered cat.

Then one day, a priest from the temple comes to their house and tells the artist that he was chosen to paint a scene from the time when Lord Buddha died. The artist thinks and puts in animals after animals in his scroll of silk. He works on the painting for many days and the cat sits beside him watching him paint. He paints a picture of snail, swan, elephant, horse, monkey, bull, dog, tiger and deer. It is shown that the animals came to receive the blessings of Lord Buddha. He paints and with every picture, the Good Fortune becomes sadder because he was not painting a picture of a cat. The artist couldn't see his poor cat sad any more. So he finally, knowing that the cat only, of all animals, refused the teachings of Lord Buddha, painted a cat. 

Then, when the priest hears that the painting is finished, he comes to see it. But when the priest sees a cat in the painting, he is so angry; he decides to burn it publicly the next day. Overnight, a wonderful miracle happens.   Read the book if you wish to know!

There are some really wonderful illustrations in this book. Every animal the artist draws is illustrated separately and there is kind of small story every time an animal is drawn. 

 There is a really good illustration near the end of the book of the whole painting. 

Elizabeth Coatsworth is really good at poetry too. There is a poem at the end of each chapter and they are absolutely wonderful.

 Here is one poem:

'She’s sure to starve,
She won’t grow fat,
No dinner tempts
Our little cat!

All day I follow,
All day I cry,
“Come, pussy, come, pussy,”
As she goes by.

But she will starve,
She won’t grow fat,
It’s always that painting
She’s looking at.

All day I grieve
To hear her cry,
“Miaou, miaou,”
As I go by!'

So, go and enjoy the book! 

My Hiking Adventure

Click on this link.  My Hiking Adventure!

Flora and Ulysses

Flora and Ulysses is a great book by Kate DiCamillo. It is the latest Newbery Medal winner (for 2014) and is truly amazing book. It is a mix of comic and a Novel, as there are plenty of illustrations.This book is about a ten year old girl Flora, a ‘natural born cynic’ and a squirrel named Ulysses.Flora loves reading comics, specially comics about this super hero called ‘Incandestol’. Her mother does not approve of comics. She is divorced and a writer by profession. She writes romance novels. Flora hates romance!

One day, while Flora is reading her comic, she looks out her window and sees her neighbor vacuuming the yard. Her neighbor vacuums up a squirrel while vacuuming the yard. The vacuum cleaner is a strangely powerful machine and goes out of control. Flora rushes to the rescue. When the squirrel is revived, it lifts up the vacuum cleaner with one paw over its head so Flora and her neighbor think it is a super hero. That was how it all started, really.

The squirrel is then named Ulysses, after the vacuum cleaner that almost consumed him. Overnight, Ulysses types some words on Flora’s mum’s typewriter and Flora is shocked. Then, her neighbor, Tootie’s great-nephew, William Spiver suddenly turns up and is staying with their neighbor, Tootie for the summer.

Flora (and I) think he is quite annoying. Flora’s mum hates Ulysses. Tootie takes him for a while to her house. Flora goes with her. There Ulysses types a poem! Tootie then raises a point- what kind of super hero types? Flora’s dad shows up at that point.

Flora goes back to her house with Ulysses. There, she overhears her mum telling her dad to kill Ulysses. Her dad refuses. Flora and her dad then go (with Ulysses) to the ‘Giant Do-Nut’. There something wonderful, astonishing and  … unfortunate happens (read the book if you wish to know).

That unfortunate thing, then leads them to someone called Dr. Meescham’s house. They have a conversation and then Flora returns home.

Her mum suddenly starts to act strange and accepts Ulysses in the house. It is not long before she kidnaps him. Will he escape? Will Flora be able to find him?

Read the book if you wish to know!

It is a wonderful, funny, hopeful, difficult and a bit strange book all at once. There are many illustrations in this book and they are very helpful in picturing the book in your mind.

You will love the book!

Sarah, Plain and Tall

Sarah, Plain and Tall is a wonderful book. I love it.  It’s  a Newbery award winner book by Patricia MacLachlan.

As a new mother for Anna and Caleb arrives by train, rides a wagon to come and wears a yellow bonnet, a wonderful story is unraveled. Anna and Caleb have lost their mother and Papa has sent an advertisement in the newspaper asking for a wife. Sarah (the new wife) arrives, and everyone is nervous. They wonder if she will stay. If she does, Papa and Sarah will marry in summer, next month. I really hope she stays. I am curious and nervous just like the characters in this truly wonderful book. Also, what amuses me the most is how the two children are always thinking about Sarah and wondering if she will stay. They always try to be at their best behavior to impress her!

What I liked most in this book is not the plot or characters, but the way the rural life in the past is described. Very detailed descriptions and very wonderful. It is as if a movie is forming in your head. You can picture everything so wonderfully.  The plot is good, but not the best thing about the book. The best thing is its simplicity in the story.

They live on a farm. They have two dogs, two horses, a few sheep, and few cows on the farm. Moreover Sarah comes with her pet cat. She also gets three chicks for eating but keeps them as pets. There are few interesting incidents involving these animals.  

   

Sarah really and badly misses the sea, where she came from, so there is not much chance she will stay. Worse, their house is small and a storm suddenly comes. Sarah says there are storms by the sea, too, so there is no problem. Anna, Caleb and Papa are not so sure. Sarah wants to learn to ride a horse wagon by herself, so Papa teaches her. Sarah is a fast learner and Anna and Caleb are worried. Will she ride to town, take a train ticket and go away? Does she not like them? I was nervous too.

Finally, one day, Sarah wants to go to town by herself in the horse wagon. Everyone waits and waits. Will Sarah come back? Will she go away? Read the book if you want to find out!

      

The Vain Horse

Long long ago, when the animals could talk, there was a young horse named Stalin and an old horse named Duggy. While they were grazing, Stalin teased Duggy about his old age and challenged him for the race. The day of race was decided. The news spread all around. The old horse was training very hard for the race, every day. But the young horse was not training. He was very vain and kept showing off, "Look at me", he said to the fishes in the pond."I will win the race"."Okay", the fishes answered. He kept showing off. He walked to the only tree in the meadow, all the birds were there. "Look at me", he said. "I am going to win the race". "Okay", the birds answered. He kept showing off.He went to all the other animals who were standing nervously on the middle of the meadow. "Look at me", he said "I am going to win the race"."Okay", the animals answered.

He kept showing off. He was going to the pond for seeing his own reflection in the clear water. He was so proud of himself and loved to admire his own young body. While he was trotting toward the pond in style to impress the other animals, he tripped on a small rock and fell. He hurt his knee and could not do the race.

He tripped because he was not paying attention to where he was going. He was too busy in showing off.

"I will not be vain anymore, I am sorry", he said to the old horse Duggy. Now, the young horse Stalin learned his lesson and was not vain anymore. 

Son

I love Son by Lois Lowry. Son is the last book by Lois Lowry in the series which started with The Giver. The unique setting is same as in The Giver. I will only describe a bit of the ‘community’. There is a normal place. The people in the ‘community’ think of. This place is called ‘Elsewhere’. People in the community think ‘Elsewhere’ is a strange place. Actually their ‘community’ is really strange, but you will have no difficulty understanding it if you've read The Giver. I have also written a review about The Giver on this blog. You can check it out if you want.

Anyways, the community is the one without feelings. Oh yes, they do know anger, hate, like and all, but the feelings aren’t really so deep and they barely feel them. Also, there are no colors, same as The Giver. I really think one should read The Giver first, because it will be easier to realize the settings and all.

Clarie is the main character in SON. Clarie is ‘assigned’ a job of ‘birthmother’. After the first birth she gave, she and the workers who take the ‘newchild’ out of her tummy, realize she cannot do birth anymore and that she should (must) be assigned a different job. Her product, number 36 was taken to the nurturing center. Clarie is sent to work at the Hatchery and she goes to visit number 36 almost every day.

One day Jonas runs away to Elsewhere and takes 36 with him. I felt really sorry for Clarie that her baby was stolen.

Then Clarie accidentally boards a ship there and is shipped off to Elsewhere. She is determined to find her son. I admire her determination and courage, in spite of all odds. After a while, there is a storm and she is flung overboard. The ship is wrecked. She is kind of rescued and brought to an old woman named Alys’s cottage. She spends one year there, without knowledge of her past. Her memory is damaged by the sea and I wanted to tell her all about her past. I felt sorry for her. Clarie is now called ‘Water Clarie’. After one year, her memories come back in for the while she watches the birth of her friend’s sister.

Now she is again determined to climb out the cliff which surrounds the village on one side. Einar, a young man who had climbed out before, helped her train for the treacherous climb. Five years, and she was ready. Six years, she spent in the village. Everyone is sad to hear that she is going. She starts in the middle of the night.

Clarie reaches the top and the ‘Trademaster’ comes up. Read the book if you want to know more about this. Trademaster makes a trade with Clarie that he will take her to her son in return of her youth. I was really puzzled. Why would he want her youth? What did he even mean?

She turns old, finds her son and he, when she is dying, finds out about his mum. Her son, Gabe, finally found her! I felt sad, but also happy at the same time. Gabe goes out to find Trademaster to defeat him and get her youth back.

Will he be able to defeat the Trademaster? Read the book if you are curious!

I love Lois Lowry’s style of writing. The setting is so innovative. I love the way she unravels the plot and setting. It is kind of mysterious and full of suspense.

The Bailey School Kids

The Bailey School Kids is a series of Books. I love the Bailey School Kids. It is so interesting. I am always after any of the books in this series. The adventures of the Bailey School Kids series are so fascinating.

My recommendation – pick up any book in the series, if you get a chance, you will be glad! I am sure about it!  

The books are about four children, Liza, Melody, Eddie and Howie. Liza and Melody are girls, while the other two are boys. The books are like mystery and adventure books.

There is usually a person, a weird person in the book. The kids suspect he or she is a monster, vampire, ghost, skeleton or something scary. Sometimes, the character might seem nice. I mean the ‘bad’ mystery guy. Though they might seem nice, they are usually up to something. In the stories, one or two of them say the weird person is a monster or something and the others argue, so to prove that the weird person is monster or something the kids who believe that the weird person is a monster do crazy and adventurous stuff. Then, at the end of the stories, the kids usually discover that the monster or something is really a weird person.

In other stories, they don’t really solve the mysteries or explanation of whether the person is a monster or something is not really so clear.

I am always feeling really glad that I read a book of this series. I read it because I love adventure stories and these stories are great if you are mystery or an adventure lover. I love both, so I say these books are totally great.

I usually like the plot, and the way everything turns out most in the stories. I sometimes feel scared when I read them, sometimes I laugh, sometimes I feel so sad and sometimes I am so happy. It is a roller-coaster ride of emotions.

I also like the way it is written by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones. The illustrations in the book are also very good and apt to the story.

Amazing Venice

Recently I went to Venice on vacation with my family. I loved it. Venice is a city of water. It has a grand canal, beautiful as it is and many small , narrow peaceful canals. The whole city is built on water. Its wonderful if you spend a lot of time in water (boats). So wonderful Venice is with all the water!

As the city of Venice has canals instead of roads, we went around by water-bus most of the time. Water bus is the main mean of getting around in Venice. On one of the water-bus ride, I saw a huge cruise ship. I was very excited to see such a huge cruise as I have never seen a real life cruise before.

On another occasion, I saw a small motor boat with a cute dog on the front deck. We then came up with a name of 'captain doggy' for him. Apart from the water-bus, there were many other kinds of boats with different color codes; water taxis, post boats to deliver letters, police boats, traffic police boats, very small sail boats to cross the canals, and the most magnificent gondolas! There were some boats loaded with boxes of goods and they looked kind of funny. I was told they are like water-trucks or goods carriers.

The system of water-bus is neat and there are floating bus stops! The water-bus stops and water bus scenery is really nice. One last thing, Venice would not be worth visiting at all without the wonderful water.
 

The grand canal is wide and winds straight through the Venice. Four water-buses and four gondolas can fit comfortably side-by-side in it. The beautiful waters of the grand canal are at their best at sunset. I love the grand canal. Walk along the grand canal, with a cone of Gelato in your hand is very good!

We also went to the Rialto bridge. The Rialto bridge is over the grand canal in the middle of the city.












It is the most famous bridge of Venice. The ancient Rialto bridge is magnificent. I love it. The view of the grand canal from the Rialto bridge is very beautiful, especially at night.
One thing which I did not like about the Rialto bridge is that it is always a bit crowded. At night its all lighted up and looks really nice and peaceful. On the Rialto bridge we also saw a bride and groom. They were there for a photo-shoot. The bride was looking very beautiful in her long white wedding gown.


We saw lots of bridges and small canals. It was wonderful. The gondola ride was the most memorable moment of my Venice visit. I think, it may not sound so wonderful, but if you experience it, it is! I wish we'd never left Venice.





























The little bridges which cross the small canals are also beautiful. I love these bridges. They are tiny, peaceful and the view of the small canals and the gondolas from them is very good. The first time I went on those little bridges, I liked them at once. They were so cute!











One thing, you must take a gondola ride when you are in Venice. They may be a bit expensive, but they are worth it! The teeny-weeny small canals are so good! There are only foot bridges and gondolas to let you have a peek at these wonderfully cute canals. Two gondolas can barely squeeze together in those peaceful and beautiful canals. On the side of the small canals are the walls of the buildings, beautiful water and bridges are up ahead.