In issue 2 of READ, our theme was Caribbean Stories. At the end of our Readers' Theater play, Before We Were Free, we asked you to send us your thoughts on freedom. Did you think the price the de la Torre family paid for freedom was worth it? Here are two responses from Mrs. Heinzel's 6th grade class in Creston, Iowa.

Darian Huff, Age 11
This story changed the way I think about freedom a lot, because it made me think about how much I appreciate it. I loved the way the de laTorre family stood up for their freedom. They stood up for what they thought was right, even though it ended up getting them hurt or having to move. This play made me appreciate our freedoms and realize how lucky we are.

Alex Fargo, Age 11
This story changed the way I think about freedom, because now I know how it can be in other countries that don't have the type of government we have. Now, I feel like I have been taking my freedom for granted. I'm lucky to be in a country where people even have a chance at becoming a citizen. There's an old saying that "things will get worse before they get better" and I think that the de la Torre family took a chance that things would get better, and it was worth it.

Send us your own thoughts about Before We Were Free... or about freedom in general. Email to word@weeklyreader.com. Put "Freedom" in the subject line. Or click on the comments section below.

Editor's note: The following is a blatant advertisement for a company outside of Weekly Reader. Due to punctuation cooincidences, I could not resist.

Just a couple hours after Deb posted her blog entry about National Punctuation Day earlier today, we received an email from Chrisel at MSR Communications. Chrisel wanted YOU to know about Spinvox, a "sophisticated mobile service that converts voice messages into text messages that may be delivered via email, SMS, and blogs. The SpinVox service even punctuates better than people! (Well, most people.)"

We Do!!!

Happy Punctuation Day Yes Today is a big holiday Bet you didnt even notice Hey if we can celebrate things like groundhogs hearts and fools then we can certainly take a day to honor the humble punctuation mark

Today September 24 is the 5th annual National Punctuation Day This great holiday was founded by Jeff Rubin a former newspaperman who now dons a red cape to reinvent himself as the superhero Punctuation Man to inspire schoolchildren to love the poor underappreciated little puncs

According to Rubins website httpcolonbackslashbackslashwwwdotnationalpunctuationdaydotcom National Punctuation Day is and I quote a celebration of the lowly comma correctly used quotes and other proper uses of periods semicolons and the ever mysterious ellipsis

Of course on the site that quote is cluttered up with these funny little doodads that look like this “ , , , . ” Whatever they mean

Myself Im a big fan of the dash I find it quite dashing

And hey how about that cute little comma Is it not adorable

And lets not forget parentheses those mirror image identical twins are very affectionate why just look at how they embrace an interjected explanatory or qualifying remark

Well I could go on and on about the philosophical virtues of the question mark and the joie de vivre of the exclamation point and dont get me started on the semicolon

Check it out for yourself Here Ill make it easier for you

Oh man are you going to love this!

We at READ are currently working like crazy on an Edgar Allan Poe electronic issue. It is going to be posted on January 19, 2009. Wow, that seems like a really long way away, huh? Well it's not. Not really.

Anyway, you may be asking yourself, why Poe? Why now? Well, the long dead literary genius is turning 200 years old in January and we're celebrating! And guess what? We need your help!

We know that many of you are very VERY electronically jacked. You've got your cell phone and your iPod and your myspace and your youtube and... well, let's just say that when you try to talk to Grandma about these things she's baffled.

So here is the contest you have been waiting for!

Create an electronic birthday card for Poe! Yah! ... Wait, what does that mean, exactly? Well, you can make a video of one of his short stories or poems. You can get your whole class to throw a birthday party for him and send us the highlights. Or write an original script that has Poe as a main character. Send us the footage. Use your imagination! The opportunities are endless!

We're still working out how exactly you can send us this stuff so don't worry about that just yet. We'll post more announcements in the coming weeks and months. For now, just get to work creating your electronic birthday wishes!

WINNING VIDEOS (etc.) WILL BE POSTED ON OUR POE WEB SITE! Also, winners and runners up will receive these awesome Poe dolls that we have. You know you want one.

Any questions can be directed to word@weeklyreader.com. Just make sure to put "Poe Contest Question" in the subject. Or you can leave a comment below.

OK! Have fun! Can't wait to see what you come up with!