The College Currency

Author’s Note: This is a research paper about the money that some college players receive. Not every player receives money, but the ones who do get serious punishments.  This piece states reasons why and why we shouldn’t pay college athletes.

Robert Traylor, Reggie Bush, and Cam Newton: three players that are suspected of receiving money or other items for playing in college sports (Dayton). Unfortunately some of them have received various awards and have been stripped of them due to this.   For example, in 2005,  a football player named Reggie Bush was awarded with the Heisman Trophy, but due to receiving money from college boosters, Reggie was later stripped of his Heisman award and other murals displayed in his honor were taken away. Mostly everyone involved in college sports is aware of the serious issue of college players receiving illegal money.

Some reasons that people think that players in cllege should be paid are that the collegeo players cannot be in any video games, T.V. shows, or commercials because it ruins their minor league reputation.  Another reason is that the players are the ones that attract the fans and earn the money for the university, so they should get at least a part of that money.  Finally, some think that players that come from poor families might get injured in school or get in trouble and be suspended, or won’t make it into the professional leagues and thus, won’t receive money for what they have done in the past (Brill).

Although there are a lot of people that support players receiving money, there are also many people that disagree.  A few reasons people don’t want to pay athletes are that they already got a scholarship ,which pays for all school needs, and they don’t deserve any other awards (Salvadore). Also,  some people think that they should prevent paying athletes because players getting paid in college is against the NCAA rules and that they don’t want to change them. Finally, people think that if receiving money in college was legal, many players might struggle with their college contracts and might end up having to stay in college more years than they wanted.

The few players that received money in the past were top notch athletes that now have money, with or without getting paid in college.  All three players mentioned are now, or were millionaires and threw their past behind them.  Paying athletes for playing college sports is a serious topic that mostly everybody involved in college sports is aware of.    

Works Cited

Dayton, Kels. Should College Athletes be Paid. n.d. News Article. 6 May 2013.

Salvadore, Damon. Top 10 Reasons College Athletes Shouldn't Be Paid. n.d. Document.

Brill, John. Why College Athletes Should be Paid. N.d. News Article. May 22, 2013

Vacation Scare

Author's Note: This is a creative piece about a family going on a vacation, but is late to get to the airport and barley makes the plane. This piece can relate to many family that are bad at staying in time.

Finally, the sun was peeking from the clouds and the the weather was finally feeling like spring.  After spending for what felt like an eternity in the winter, spring was on its way and by the looks of it, it was coming fast.  Tomorrow was spring break and my family and I were as eager as a kid on Christmas.  Florida was our destination and so far everything was going smoothly.  I attempted to get to bed early, but excitement got the best of me and I ended up staying up way late.

In the morning, I woke up as drowsy as a sloth and it looked like my whole family was the same way.  I got up, packed a little, looked at the clock, packed a little more, looked back up at the clock, and screamed.  We were supposed to leave twenty minutes ago.  I ran around arousing the whole house until everybody was up and packing.  After a few minutes, we were out the door and on our way to the airport, hoping that our flight would be delayed.

We arrived at the airport around a hour late because of the raging traffic.  Everybody in my family was sprinting down to get to security and make our flight.  At the security gate our day didn’t get any better. My dad go pulled for a random security test and that took a good chunk of our precious time.  After we finally got past security, we gazed up at the departure times and our flight was delayed.  We made it on the plane and the rest of the vacation was smooth sailing.

Winter Wonder-Not

Author's Note: This is a creative piece about the scares and wonder of winter. This story is shown from the perspective of a boy who has never experianced snow in his life until one day when an enormous blizzard comes.

This seems pretty weird, but the worst day of my life was also the best. It all started on February 15th, the day before the so called blizzard, a word I have never heard for years.  Living in North Carolina it would be expected that a twelve year old boy wouldn’t know about a blizzard. In all of my twelve winters I’ve only experienced snow twice and that was only a quarter of an inch. On this particular day I was extremely jittery: I heard stories about cars crashing, people dying and the worst, shoveling. The night of February 15th was one of the craziest nights because everyone was freaking out not knowing what to expect.

All of my thoughts that last night were wrong though.  I woke up at five to gaze upon my greatest fear, but looking at the snow I knew I was wrong.  In the past, the snow came down in small flakes falling slowly and then melting on the concrete like an ice cube melts in your mouth. This snow was different, it came down in huge clumpy flakes that bombarded the concrete and stuck to everything.  I could tell there was already about five inches of snow on the ground with more coming.  After examining the snow through the window for a few minutes, I thought it wouldn’t kill me to experience the weird wonder of winter.  I grabbed all of my equipment and ventured into the snowy wilderness.

The first thing I did when I got outside was touch the snow.It was a very heavy substance and it was very cold.  After a couple of minutes doing that, my sister’s face  appeared in the door and she rushed out as curious as I was.  While we were further examining the snow my parents came outside with a giant present.  We didn’t even notice it at first, until they threw a ball of snow at us. After we saw it we ran over as fast as a bull charging at a red flag.  We ripped the paper off and discovered a large piece of red plastic.  Apparently you could ride through the snow like a surfer rides the ocean waves.  It seemed kind of pointless, but when we tried it, we loved it.  

The day ended by us drinking a kind of silly thing, which was milk and chocolate warmed up in the microwave.  Even though it was a very different day than normal, I really liked it.  It’s not everyday that a city like Raleigh, North Carolina received this much snow and I am pretty sure I made the most out of it.

The Mustang Miracle

Author's Note:This is a creative piece about a high school football team and there journey into the playoffs.  In this piece I really worked on my punctuation and grammar.

Seconds were winding down, the Mustangs were down by two and with no timeouts, it was going to be a hard game to win.  The Mustangs had the ball at the twenty yard line,  all they need is to get the ball to a good position for the kicker, but the Grizzlies’ defense was amazing the whole game.  The quarterback on the mustangs received the snap the ball and hits their star receiver for a twenty yard gain.  Now at the middle of the field twenty more yards would be ideal  for the kicker.   Again, the quarterback receives the snap and rolls back, but no one was open and the  grizzlies star linebacker sacks him for a loss.   It’s second down and the quarterback is rolling back, finds the running back for a five yard gain.  Third down the running back blows through the middle and gets the first down.  Only a few yards left and a few seconds left.

The quarterback receives the snap, but  a defensive lineman breaks through the line like a bull breaks through  a gate which forces the quarterback throw the ball out of bounce.  The time is stopped at five seconds and the  team’s only choice is to attempt an around fifty five yard kick.  Not only does the kicker have to focus on accuracy, but he also has to kick the ball as hard as he can for it make it there. The team is on the field and the ball is snapped.  It’s a clean catch and put , the kicker runs and gets the kick off.  It whizzed across the field like Usain Bolt whizzes across the track , hits the bottom post of the field goal and … goes in! 

The bench of the Mustangs goes crazy as well as the crowd.  That snapped the Grizzlies undefeated season and had brought the mustangs into the playoffs.  The kicker gets picked up and carried around the field and into the locker room.  Over the next few weeks the Mustangs went on a hot streak, blowing out teams that they would’ve lost to. The Mustangs made it all the way to the division championship where they played the Grizzlies again, but this time instead of a close game the Mustangs won by seven.   This season went down in the school records, leaving the juniors pumped for the next season. 

The Battle of the Views

Author’s Note: This is a point of view piece about how both the Americans and Great Britain felt around the time of the Revolutionary War. Everybody in America thinks they were right for not wanting the taxes and everybody in Great Britain thought they were right for taxing.  This piece will explain the point of view from people of both of these countries.  Both countries would’ve had very different point of views because both of them had honor for fighting for their country.

Mostly everybody in America knows about how America came to be and how they thought America was right about rebelling and breaking away from Britain.  The thing is that these people who think America did everything are from America, but if you look at this situation from Great Britain’s point of view the story might be very, very different.  For instance a Great Britain citizen might think that America did everything wrong and was not smart to rebel.

Journal Entry 1773 by a British Loyalist: I don’t know why those stupid Patriots calling themselves America’s, tearing apart the beautiful country of Great Britain.   First the Americans don’t want to pay their taxes, which are only helping all of them, now just the last week they break into our tea ships and dump all of it in the sea.  How dare them, we give them the privilege to live in Britan and they repay us by vandalizing all of our goods.  Pathetic!  Not only are the patriots doing all of this, but they are also threatening to start a war.  All I know is that we don’t care about the threats, if we had a war we will destroy them.          

Journal Entry 1783 by an American Soldier :  I can’t believe we are this far into the war.  Everybody on the King George’s side doubted us since the beginning, but look where we are now on the verge of winning the war.  Although, we didn’t win yet, once those French soldiers come it will be an easy ride to freedom, if they ever come.  We have spent months of waiting for those darn French, if they could just come and help, we will end this war.  Alas, all us soldiers can do now are fight as hard as we can for America.  God Bless America!

All of the people living and fighting honored their country and it in shown through their point of view that people from different countries had very different point of view.

Mystery of Life

Author’s Note: This is a theme piece about the determination of a young boy named Bud to find his long lost dad.  

If you lived in an orphanage for almost your whole life and you knew that you have other relatives living in the world that you could find, what if you found a clue that could help you find one of them, would you try to find him or not?  A young kid by the name of Bud in the book Bud Not Buddy by is about a boys’ determination to find his lost father.  Determination is a huge theme in this book and it is also shown in life and literature.

The first  of many reasons that this book shows the theme determination is how Bud never gives up looking for his dad. One moment in the book he misses a train that would have brought him right to his destination, but he didn’t give up, he researched maps and decided to take the 7 day walk to Grand Rapids.  Also, when he finally made it to the house his dad was at, is father turned him down and denied any relationship between them.  Bud didn’t give up, he kept spitting out evidence like a printer spits out paper and finally his dad caved in and told him the news.

Although Bud is extremely determined to find his Dad, the whole city of Flint Michigan is also determined to help Bud find his dad. Right after Bud misses the train he went to  a library and a librarian gives Bud food and a map  so Bud can walk to Grand Rapids. Likewise, while Bud is walking to Grand Rapids a random bus driver pulls over, picks Bud up, feeds him, and takes him to where his father is.  Lastly, Bud’s father’s band always sticks up for Bud when his dad didn’t believe they were related.

Even though, Bud, Not Buddy is a one of a kind book with a giant amount of determination, Enclave by Ann Agurrie is another story that shows determination because the main character Deuce is determined to save her section of the city or Enclave and find out who her parents are.   Both of the characters in these books are very strong and started off with nearly nothing.  But, given a small  opportunity each of these characters can get determined and do almost anything.   An example is in Enclave when Deuce and her partner are running to help save a city, they run days on end determined to save the collapsing city.  Both of these stories show a significant amount of determination.

Not only does the theme in this book relate to literacy, but it also relates to life.  Most humans and animals that are determined will go to an extraordinary measure to accomplish a task, kind of like Bud.  For example, if a  

After overcoming all of these obstacles Bud is so much stronger and his journey paid off with Bud having an actual family.  None of this would have happened though, without Bud’s amazing determination. Also, Bud would have never got to where he needed to be.  Determination truly is a huge theme in this book and in many other literacy writing and throughout life.

Defending Your Colony

Author's Note- This is a prediction piece about what I think will happen in the book Enclave. I have wrote an alternation ending to explain what I think will happen as well as my other predictions. 

In first part of the book Enclave by Ann Aguirre the main character Deuce has her naming day, which consists of Deuce getting 6 scars up her arms to represent that she is a huntress.  The next day she is rushed into battle with the briefing that an unknown animal called the Freaks are threatening their village.  I predict that Deuce and the rest of the hunter and huntresses will go out and try to stop them but most of Deuce’s ally’s will die and they will have to retreat.  I will also predict that the beast will have a giant leader that Deuce and her remaining ally’s will have to search for and kill throughout the book.  Lastly, I think that Deuce will kill the leader Freaks and things are going to return to normal in their village.

I think this prediction is accurate because most of the Hunters and Huntresses are new recruits so I think that the savage Freaks will maul the un experienced bow men and women.  Plus, Deuce is probably the toughest one so I think she will survive.  Finally I know if there is a leader beast that the Hunters will have to follow it because the leader of the village is very strict and un caring about the conditions of his people and has very harsh rules in place . 

This book is similar to the character Catness in the book The Hunger Games by Susan Collins because both of them have a main character who is trying to survive in a different environment than normal.  They both have to hunt for food and survive by themselves.   Also, both of them are really good at hunting and amazing with a bow.  Finally, both of them have broken up family’s, Catness doesn’t have a Dad and Deuce only has sisters and brothers.

Alternate Ending-

Deuce and her partner Silk marched off into the darkness of the winding underground tunnels.  Their job was to hunt the freaks and find the food that got caught in the traps.  Silk and Deuce went for the first trap and saw their first freak tearing apart the game they caught.  They sliced the beast up and five  more jumped out from their hiding places and jumped on top of Deuce.  Through the hoard of freaks a giant mutated freak slipped into Deuce’s view.  Silk was trying to get the freaks off but there were too many.   

The freaks took them back to their den and locked the Hunters in a cage.  After being starved for 2 days the whole colony went on a search for them and fought off the hoard and Deuce escaped and had to kill the giant freak.  After a mighty battle the Huntress came out on top and the colony turned back to normal.

Changing Wilderness

Author’s Note: This is a Character Development piece about how the character Cole changes in the book Touching Spirit Bear.  Cole doesn’t think he has to change but as he finds out, he does need a change.

At the beginning of Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikealsen, the main character Cole hates every speck of life including a fellow student Peter.  Cole  bullies just about every kid in his school and when he hears that a boy named Peter is talking bad about him, you know something is going to go down.  After school Cole strikes with UFC like power and causes Peter have real issues.  Cole is sent to a bare Alaskan island for a punishment and is forced to survive for 6 months.  At this point everyone knows Cole needs to change.

While Cole was on the island a huge series of events occurred that helps Cole become the man at the end of the book.  First, Cole burns all of his supplies so he has no food, and then he tries to kill a random white bear.  The white bear turned out to be a Spirit Bear which mauled Cole leaving multiple flesh wounds and barley any life left in him.  It is a struggle, but Cole somehow makes it back to the camp and survive long enough for rescue after this Cole is a changed man.

When Cole returns from his punishment he is anew person.  His attitude for life changed, as well as his attitude for Peter.  As the book quotes “Cole put down the bag. Today things are going to change.”  On the first day back Cole visits Peter and help him recover, even though he s still immobilized Cole helped Peter recover a lot.  After Cole does this the people in the town start changing their attitude towards Cole.  All of the kids don’t rat him out after he does something small and the cops act a little nicer to him. 

Not only does Cole affect the lives of the people in the book, but he also affects the reader.  At first the reader thinks that Cole is lifeless being with no sole.  Although as the book goes on the reader feels Cole’s pain when he is hurt in the woods and end up loving him after he returns.  He really influences the reader to not make the choices he makes, because there will be consequences. 

This transformation is similar in the book The Call of the Wild where the main character, Buck, who goes to the Tundra  to escape from life, which is basically what Cole did in Touching Spirit Bear.  Both character need to change their life Cole needs to handle his anger and Buck has to escape from dog slavery.  The characters receive countless beating shaping them into the finished figure they are at the end of the book. 

Cole’s appearance changed in a whole bunch of ways.  First, he started acting nicely to everybody he sees as to the mean Cole where he would bully everyone.  Also, when the community sees that Cole is helping out Peter, they start to like him more too.  Now everybody in the town likes Cole more and he is feeling  better about himself.

Founding America

Author’s Note: This is a piece about all the great thing our Founding Father’s gave us in America.  They were the men that sculpted America and her people.

How did our great country of America come to be?  We started off as a bundle of colonists with no order or leader.  That all changed when our first president and part of the Founding Fathers took charge.  In the upcoming years there was a variety of different Founding Fathers that helped America become the country we know and love today.  They added things like beautiful monuments, freedom, and our amazing  government.  Our country wouldn't be as good as it is now without our Founding Fathers.

One thing our Founding Fathers brought to America were all the monuments, city names, and money.  If we didn’t have our Founding Fathers our money would be really different because either a president or Founding Father’s face is on our currency.    In addition, we wouldn’t have the same cities or states as we do now since most cities are names of our Founding Fathers.  George Washington is probably the biggest influence,  a whole bunch of cities are named after him and his face is on a lot of money.

Another way the Founding Fathers affected us is the way we have our freedom.  They gave us the freedom of speech, political, and many more.  Without that we would be like any other country that has to follow certain rules that the people can't change.  Every day we can choose what to wear and what we want to do that day.  Most people don’t know how good freedom is.

Probably the most important way the Founding Fathers affected us is the government they put in.  Our democratic government is like no other we can actually choose our president and government figures.  Also, like the freedom our president cannot order us around like a bunch of slaves, they can't  put in rules we don't like.  We have a few broken holes in  it, but overall it is an incredible government.

Without our founding fathers, this nation wouldn’t be half as good as it is now.  The founding fathers dedicated their lives to making our country better.

New Recruits

Author’s Note: This is a writing piece about the cause and effect happening in the book Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse.  This piece also analyzes the climax of the book.  Some things people might need to know about this book are that half-bloods are half god and half man.  They have the powers of the gods and help save Olympus in the Percy Jackson series.

When Percy Jackson and his friends go on a smaller mission to try to recruit two potential half-blood recruits, the job turned into a whole new assignment when a group of hunters, half bloods that run around with bows, and monsters show up.  All of a sudden a mini war is taking place between the hunters, monsters and Percy.  Percy and his crew had to act fast and finish their original mission.

Even though, the battle played a big part in the book the climax took place when the captain of the hunters gets captured and one of the new recruits , Rico, discovers he had underworld powers.  Now Percy and Rico go to rescue the leader of the hunter, they encounter a titan named Atlas who is literally holding the world.  When the leader of the hunters get captured Atlas switch places with her and she is forced to carry the world or else the earth will get destroyed.

This book is very similar to the book Enclave because in the book the two main characters Deuce and Fade have t escape a run-down underground town.  When they escape they find a girl getting beaten on by gang members, so they fight the gang and rescue the girl.  The girl whose name is Teagan tags along with Fade and Deuce like how Rico tagged along with Percy and his friends.  Overall these two great books have the same rescue concept.

Rico eventually battles Atlas and forces him to switch back with the Hunter leader.  Rico joins the half-bloods and everything turns back to normal.  Plus, Rico has a brilliant plan to get back on the titans which applies in the next book.  If Percy hadn’t recruited the powerful  Rico then they might not have rescued the leader of the hunters or created the amazing plan.  

The Battle for War

Author’s Note: I wrote this piece about the main conflict and resolution in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief  

The book I read was Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan there were a lot of conflicts like the one between Percy and Annabeth at the beginning or the battle between Percy and his Ad-Hd.  Probably the biggest conflict though is between Percy and Zeus.  The main conflict is how the God Zeus  is falsely accusing Percy for taking his lightning weapon and is threatening to start a war among the Gods.

In the book Percy has  to try and get a weapon that he didn’t steal and has to find it with no knowledge to where it is.  Percy has to think fast to get it because Zeus said in three days he will start an attack against Olympus.  So Percy travels from state to state searching for clues to where Zeus’ Lightning Bolt might be.   Along the way he encounters monster, gods, and also has to decipher clues hidden across the US.

The conflict is in this story is really similar to the movie Over the Hedge because the main character in the movie a raccoon gets falsely accused for stealing a bears food and has to get it back before a certain date.  If he doesn't the bear threatens to start a war between the bear and the raccoon friends.  The whole movie is basically the same as the Lightning Thief but instead of a missing lightning bolt it is the bears hibernation food.

Even though there are so many things wrong the conflict gets resolved when all the clues point to a former friend ,Luke, who stole the weapon all along.  Percy confronts Luke  they both have an epic battle, but  in the end Percy prevails and gets the lightning bolt back to Zeus before he could start a war among the gods.  However, Luke makes a daring escape and starts to plan another way to start war.

In my book Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief the main conflict is between Percy and Zeus’ stolen weapon.  When Percy realizes how bad the situation is he steps up and fixes everything.

The Road to High School

Author’s Note: This is a personal narrative piece about the struggles kids face on the way to collage.  I got the idea for this piece when our school had an assembly for anti-bulling.

The road to high school might not be the easiest way to travel, but everyone needs to do it.  Some kids suffer from getting bullied, getting caught  in drugs, or just don't get anything in school.  Also, there are some kids that feel left out because they don't play any sports.  There are many issues in school that nobody can completely resolve.  Even though there are a lot of issues, if kids stay on track and out of trouble, they can overcome these obstacles.  

First off is bullying, a huge problem in every school.  Any kid that gets bullied feels powerless or scared.  As Chris Colfer quoted “When people hurt you over and over, think of them like sand paper. They may scratch and hurt you a bit, but in the end, you end up polished and they end up useless.” Although every school has countless ways to try to help, almost none of them do.  If the bullied kids tell an adult that talks to the bully, they feel like a snitch; if they don't they keep getting bullied and hurt.  Not only does bullying bring down students self esteem, but it can also lead to kids killing themselves because they don't feel right.  

Although bullying is bad, I don't think it is as terrible as kids doing drugs,which is a problem in most suburban areas.  If a student doesn't like the way they are, they might resort to drugs to make them feel better.  Most times a victim sees another kid doing it, so they think it is all right to do when really it isn't.  Other times they might want to look cool so they start doing drugs to try to impress their friends.  Drugs can affect how you work in school and can sometimes mess up your whole life too.  

Finally, some kids just don't get how to do good in school.  It may be from a messy binder and folder to a disease where they can't learn as well.  Many people could improve in school if they gave a little more effort, like reading  a book at home instead of watching TV.  Or asking for more help in school and taking notes to remember what they learned.  Other people with more severe learning problems might have to get tutored or stay after school to get extra help.  People that struggle now need to do something because they still have high school and collage ahead of them.

Student can overcome most of these challenges in school if they don't get in trouble and stay on track. If you do what you need to do and word hard, you can have a very successful life.  

New Life

 Author's Note: This is a retelling piece about the book Crossing the Border.

A young and poor Mexican boy nicknamed Turtle journeys to America in hopes to get extra money for his family.  Along with his friend, Pepe, the boys will face Border Police, a group of killers, and  fearsome mountain lions.  When Pepe and Turtle finally make it to America they look back and notice how lucky they are to be alive.

Fall the Wonder Season

Author’s Note: This is a piece about the joys you can have in Fall.

Think of the crisp air, beautiful leaves and chilly wind.  Fall is finally in season after spending three months in the thick muggy summer air, we get to relax in what seems like the perfect time of the year.  From  Halloween to fall football and baseball Fall truly is the greatest season.

All of the kids are out raking leaves to try to earn the extra money to get those new shoes or the expensive gaming system.  Raking the leaves into one big pile on the street and then inviting all the kids over to jump in it was one of the many highlights for elementary kids around our block.  Another would be how they bust out their Dad’s new leaf blower and spray all the leaves at the daredevil of the group.  Then some of them just like riding through them with their bike hoping some leaves would get caught in the tires so the bike sounds like a motorcycle. 

Not only do the kids get to have fun but adults get the family time when Thanksgiving rolls up.  So much delicious food and deserts you don’t even know what to get first.  Nothing is better than eating a slice of turkey and watching the Bears cream the Packers. Parents love meeting distant relatives that come in from different states to enjoy an amazing night.  The thing I like to do most after Thanksgiving is go shopping at Black Friday.

Although all of those other activities sounded fun, there’s nothing I love more than starting football and basketball.  For the whole summer I’m stuck with just recreational baseball.  Which is fun for a while, but there is something about the sport where you can hit someone and not get in trouble by the kids mom.  Or rejecting someone so hard that the ball goes in the stands.  These sports play a big part in my life and they all start in fall.

The nice weather, amazing sights, and fun for everyone is a great part of everybody’s life. Fall really is the most superlative season of them all.

Dog Fight

  Author's Note: This is a piece about how my dog was the runt of the liter; was this a fact or fiction.

Teddy ,my dog, an 8 year old mammoth St. Bernard who ways over 150 pounds.  Believe it or not he was the runt of the liter.  He was so small the owners were practically giving him away.  Plus, only one of his eves is black and regular St. Bearnard's have both off their eyes black.  Our neighbor has a dog that is over 160 pounds.  My dog is still a midget among the giants of other St. Bearnard's. 

Math Battle

I always liked math class it was always fun and it came so easily to me.  But now we’re in 7th grade and we changed into a program called Aleks which is all independent and digital learning.  At first I thought it was the best idea but now it’s plain out boring.  Working on topics, not knowing how to do any of them, and no teacher assistance.  Math class in like a torture chamber now.  I wish we could go back to regular class.

The Best Book

My book is titled Trash it is a mystery about 3 ghetto kids that look through the trash for a living.  One day they find a bag with 20,000    pesos and an identity of an unknown man.  Now the boys have to uncover the mystery of where the man kid 1,000,000 pesos and his daughter.  The 3 boys encounter policemen, ghosts, and a lot of rats.  Anyone who likes mysteries and action will love this book.

Favorite Place

Author's Note: This is a piece about what place I would go in the world.

If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go, the Bahamas or maybe China.  For me I really want to go to Africa.  I want to go to Africa because there are so many cool animals you can see.  Plus, I would like to see how all of the Africans live.  I watched a TV show where they went to Africa and it was like a picture from a pop up book.  It would be so fun  to go to Africa.

Delicious Food

 Author's Note: This is a short story about my favorite restaurant. 

When someone asks “what’s your favorite restaurant” what do you say about it.  Do you say I like the hot juicy turkey or the cold jiggly jello.  For me I love the restaurant titled Dennys.  I love the warm buttermilk pancakes and the hot juicy cheeseburgers.  The food tastes as good as a thanksgiving dinner.  Just feeling to food makes me drool as much as my dog on a summer day.   Every time I go I get something new, there are so many choices.  Denny’s is a fun place with quality food for the whole family.

Dinosaurs

Author's Note: This is a small piece about what kind of life the dinosaurs lived years ago.
 
Dinosaurs are the most magnificent creatures of the past.  Roaming the earth far before we even thought of  existing.  Feeding on leaves, drinking the mucky water, and sleeping in caves.  Oh what a life the dinosaurs lived so simple but yet far more complicated than ours.  They never knew what their life would be like; they could be the king of the land killing everything that went in their path and live for decades.  Or they could be the prey of the land and get eaten within a few hours of their birth.  The life of a dinosaur is not a stable life, but it twas a life they had to live.