A couple months ago, I showed my 5th grade class a video for
Project Mayhemer James Mihaley’s award-winning novel, You Can’t Have My Planet, ButTake My Brother, Please. When I told James how much they liked it, he
offered to send us a signed copy, which morphed into a writing contest for my
students.
Both my reading/writing classes wrote stories (or a portion
of a story) involving elements of James’s book – aliens, robots, and/or rotten
siblings. The students voted on six finalists, and James selected a winner.
Since many readers of this blog are middle grade writers and
teachers, I thought I’d share the winning entry here, so you can see the bright
potential of young writers. James had nice things to say about all six
finalists, but this is why he selected Rachel’s story as the winner:
Her dialogue was sharp.
I thought there were some wonderful details, like the blue mirror
floating in thin air. And the ending was superb.
Rachel is excited that I’m sharing her story here today.
Please let her know what you think!
MY BROTHER’S AN ALIEN by RACHEL
“Matthew!
Get up,” I yelled
I
strolled into his room.
“Ewww!
What the heck is that stuff? It’s all over your bed! Mom is gonna freak!” I
said in disgust.
“No
she’s not because you're not going to tell her,” said my brother.
“With
what price?” I announced
“I'll
make your bed for a week?” he said in a questioning voice.
“Nope.”
I said.
“I’ll,
um, ohhh! I’ll give you twenty bucks?” he said in a questioning voice again.
“Deal!”
I said in excitement.
I
thought to myself, I can’t wait to spend
my money on new boots, or should I save it up? Then all the sudden my mom
interrupted my thoughts.
“Alexa!
Get down here, you are going to miss the bus!”
“
Umm, mom, can you give me a ride?”
All
the sudden I see the bus pass by. Honk,Honk!
“Sorry
sweetie, I can't, I have a big meeting at 8:00. Works twenty minutes away. I’ll
already be about five minutes late. Love you gotta go, bye!”
“Wait!”
I screamed. Too late she was gone.
I
dashed to my phone and called Casey. P.S. she is my best friend.
“Come
on answer your stupid phone!” I guess the only other thing I can do is walk.
After
walking 10 minutes I was almost there. A minute later, a huge shadow passed
over me. At first I thought it was an airplane, but the shape was a circle.
I
looked up, I gasped, then everything went black.
I
started blinking my eyes until my eyes were completely open.
“Where am I ?!” I was so dizzy.
“Shhh,
relax, you are going to be ok. Just lay down, I'll be right back.”
I thought to myself, ya know, if a
person you dont even know tells you to lay down and relax when you're in a
place you have never been before, I mean they practically just took me off the
streets. Would you listen to them? Obviously I'm not.
I
heard my brother’s voice. I tried to get up but my wrists and ankles were
cuffed to the chair. What kind of place is this?
I
heard somebody's voice coming. This time it wasn't my brother’s, it sounded
familiar. I feel like I haven't heard it in a long time, like since I was a
baby. A young woman came in. I feel like I have seen her before, like I said,
when I was a baby. She had golden strawberry blond hair, she was also very skinny.
She looked like she was four foot seven and had big dark brown eyes. I feel
like we could be twins except for her height, but other than that we are
practically identical.
“Hello,
my name is Annika,” the woman said.
“Hi,
I’m-”
She
cut me off and said, “Alexa, ya I know I met you before, but to be specific I
have meet you twice. Once when you were one, and another time when you were
two. I know this might sound stupid, but, you're my sister, and I was a total
idiot to leave you alone when you were two with someone that didn’t even know
about Matthew’s kind. But I really regret it because now you're stuck here
having to have to save a planet that you’re now on, and-”
“Whoa,whoa,whoooaaa,
slow down. What are you talking about, I have to save a planet?”
“Ok,
we don’t have much time, so here is the plan.”
“Ahhhhhhhhh!”
I heard people screaming from outside.
“Help!”
“Oh,
no,” said Annika. “Ok, stay calm.”
She
took out a silverish goldish colored ball. She threw it on the ground. It
turned into kind of like a blue mirror that floated in thin air.
“Come
on we have to jump in.”
“Are
you crazy!” I said.
“Ok,
you have two options: you can stay here, get shot and die, or you could come
with me and survive. Tik,tok, we don’t have all day.”
I
jumped in. I landed in a room that was all fancy. All the sudden the portal
closed. The silver/gold ball fell from nowhere into my hands. I realized that
Annika never came through. I threw the ball on the ground and jumped through
the portal.
I
was in the room I was originally in. There was complete silence. The glass wall
was shattered, but there was no one there. The only thing that stood out in the
room was a note to me from Annika that said,
To: Alexa
Go to the warehouse on Planet 5.
From: Annika
Awesome story. I want to read more!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Donna! I would love for her to write more!
DeleteCongratulations to Rachel! Great work. And how fun! I love that you and James did this!
ReplyDeleteThanks goes to James for agreeing to read and judge -- and to my students for buying into the concept!
DeleteWell done, Rachel!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Caroline!
DeleteALL my students worked hard on this project.
Wait !What happens next!!!??? I cannot WAIT to find out! Well done, Rachel! Thanks for sharing, Dianne! And James!
ReplyDeleteI know, right?! She set up so many questions for us!
DeleteAwesome job Rachel!
ReplyDeleteShe truly did an awesome job on this!
DeleteYes, great job by Rachel. And what a fun idea to do in a classroom, Dianne. You are a splendid teacher. (James, you rock too!)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Michael! This was a fun project.
DeleteFantastic! Rachel, I want to know what happens next!!!
ReplyDeleteDiane and James, how fun!
Joy, me too!
DeleteI have only one problem with Rachel's writing. It's better than mine!
ReplyDeleteLOL, James. You cracked up my class with this!
DeleteWhat a fun writing opportunity for the kids and Rachel's writing is very good. Congrats!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Brenda!
DeleteI love her dialogue!
Love it! And what a cool idea for your class! Rachel might have a career following in your footsteps :)
ReplyDeleteShe certainly might, Sherrie!
DeleteA very gripping story. Well done! It will be a good example for other students to strive for. Agents may have slush piles, but teachers invented them. A teachers desk is always filled with student writing at all levels of proficiency and no rejection form letters are allowed.
ReplyDeleteVery true, Greg!
DeleteI love this comment, Greg.
DeleteThank you. Love love, Andrew. Bye.
ReplyDeleteCan I just say wow? What a fun read and as I read along I started to go faster and faster because I wanted to see what was going to happen. Way to build suspense. And yes....love the opening dialogue!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Deb! That back and forth brother-sister negotiation was just perfect!
DeleteI love this! What a great idea!
ReplyDeleteWonderful job, Rachel - very exciting opening.
Rachel is thrilled to get this great feedback from so many authors!
Delete