One year ago today, our little literary blog came into the world. With a flourish of trumpets and another flourish of manic typing, WORD came to be. Now WORD is officially 1. And he's more jazzed than ever to be here!

In its 2nd year on this planet, WORD will be bringing you more writing tips, more book news, and much more student writing! Click "submit your writing" on the right hand side of the page to send us your stuff! Poems, stories, essays... it's all good! Yah! You can also write us any time at word@weeklyreader.com.

And now in celebration of this glorious day, we give you a few of our contributors' thoughts on what WORD means to them.

DALLAS WOODBURN, WORD CONTRIBUTOR
In first grade, I started keeping a diary. I remember being disappointed that my conversations were always one-sided. No matter how many times I poured my heart out on those pages or asked questions about what I should do, the only response I could hope to find was within my own mind. Being involved with WORD, I feel like I finally get to write in a diary that responds back. I get to be a part of a community of writers just like me! If I am struggling with writer's block, I can blog about it and others will respond with support and advice. If I read a good book, I can talk to other people who have read it, too -- and find out what else they're reading. When I finished my novel and blogged about it, other WORD members responded with a barrage of exclamation-pointed congratulations and cheers. Who needs a diary when we've got WORD? Happy birthday, WORD, and here's to many, many more! :)

DEBBIE NEVINS -
Managing Editor, READ, WRITING, and KNOW YOUR WORLD - EXTRA
   In the beginning was the WORD. For me, WORD has been the beginning of a whole new literary adventure, since I wasn't really into blogs before we launched this one. I think this is the coolest thing ever, and I just want to say, Blog on!

SANDHYA NANKANI - Senior Editor, WRITING
Words have always been magical to me. WORD is magical to me as well because it connects me to the readers of our magazine every single day. It's one thing to put your thoughts down on paper for your eyes to see; it's another thing to put your thoughts down for the world to see. It takes guts to hit the <send> button and that's why there's nothing more exciting to me than checking the WORD inbox and seeing it filled up with words by you, our prolific and poetic student writers. You are brave and inspire me with your writings about your lives, your experiences, your fears, your dreams, and your epiphanies.

JEFF IVES - News Group, Editor
WORD is more than just another blog to me. WORD is the calm center of the internet storm. When everything in cyberspace roils with the madness of rumors … When online newspapers have boring and confusing headlines that I don’t care about … When all hope for an enjoyable, relaxing read have faded into the abyss of my monitor … That’s when I turn to WORD. And it never disappoints. While I have made my own small contributions to this wonderful blog, I think we all know that WORD is bigger than any one person. WORD is made by all of us and for all of us. And it shall never perish from this internet. Happy birthday WORD. You may only be a year old, but your place in my heart is endless.

BRYON CAHILL - Literary Editor, READ & WRITING
Dear WORD,
   Hey buddy. Sup chu? Happy birthday, brutha! Yeah, that's right. You're an old man now. Welcome to the club. Hey, let me ask you something. Where do you get your ideas? That's probably a question you despise, huh? When you get together with the other literary blogs, do you laugh about numbskulls like me who ask you silly questions? Well here's another: Who is John Galt? Ay, there's the rub. What rub? What are you talking about? It's the pig that's unusual. It says so, right there in the middle of the web. Are you sure? I have a good mind to believe that your truth is questionable! Prove it! No. I'm outta here. Goodnight, my little prince. Goodnight.
   Truth and fiction live in books. Nonsense in a Cheshire Cat's grin. Everything in-between lies here. We give you our WORD.

WARNING: If you have not read Of Mice and Men yet, you may not want to read this blog entry. It kinda sorta spoils the ending. 'Nuff said.

In Issue One of READ magazine, we asked you a few questions about the Reader's Theater play Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. One of the questions was:

Does George make the right decision at the end of the story? Why or why not?

Here is what a few of our READers thought:

Oh Pluto. I'm still with ya, big guy.

Did you hear? Some smarty pantses out in Prague decided to strip Pluto of its planetary status. We're down to 8 now. Can you name them all? Can I? Oh, I certainly hope so.

Earth um Mars um Venus um Mercury um Uranus um Saturn um Jupiter um um uhhhhhhhh I probably should have gone in order. Oh yeah, and Neptune. Phew. I pass 4th grade science. Yayyyy!

I thought our universe was supposed to be expanding? Not constricting. In fact, I know a family that lives down the street from me who was seriously considering going to Pluto next summer for their vacation. They were all like "Oh yeah, you gotta go to Pluto! It's the furthest planet!" Now they won't even look at it through their high-powered telescopes. All the Plutonian brochures have vanished from their house. It's so sad.

If you all feel like I do, and you want to see Pluto get it's planetary status back, then leave a comment below or write to word@weeklyreader.com. Once I get 100,000 concerned readers on my side, I'll print out all your letters and shoot them off in a rocketship to the farthest reaches of the universe. Together, we can give Pluto it's 248 orbital years back!