Well, today was fun. I accidentally kicked over my computer box. (I think it's called the "hard drive" actually, but computer box sounds less stuffy. In any case, it's the big, rectangular, black lego piece that sits at my feet and holds all the stuff.) When it hit the ground it went THUNK! And my screen went black. Oops.

Luckily for us here at Weekly Reader, we are protected by a swell duo known as The Computer Guys! (Actually, I'm pretty sure they're known as I.T., but that's a bit complicated to get into and way beyond the point I will be eventually making.) I ran over to the computer guys and told them of my problem. Within minutes, they had me hooked up to a brand new computer and showed me where all my stuff had been saved.

The TAKE FIVE contest is complete and our winners have been announced in the April/May issue of Writing Magazine. Thank you to everyone who submitted their work.

TAKE FIVE!

Enter Writing magazine's 2005-2006 writing contest! Not sure how to get started? Allow us to give you a hand. We've picked six interesting objects for you to write about.

1) red bicycle
2) elephant
3) chicken noodle soup
4) umbrella
5) shadow
6) key

Your job is to take five. That is, choose five of these six objects and use them to write a poem, a story (fiction), or an essay (nonfiction). You may include the five objects in your writing in any way you'd like. Just be creative and have fun! If you have any questions, e-mail us at writing@weeklyreader.com.

CONTEST RULES – PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!

The competition is open to students in grades 5–12.

Twelve winners will be chosen.

Entries will be judged by the following grade levels: Middle (grades 5-6), Junior (grades7-8), High (9-10), and Senior (11-12).

Poems should be no longer than 400 words, and stories and essays should not exceed 800 words.

Winners will be chosen by the editors of Writing.

Each winner will receive $50. Winning poems, stories, and essays will be published in the April/May issue of Writing or on our Web site. Each entry must include your full name, address, phone number, e-mail address (if you have one), school name and address, parent or guardian’s signature, and teacher’s signature. Entries received without all of the above will not be accepted.

You must tell us which five objects you used and which object you discarded.

Entries must be received no later than December 2, 2005. Any entry received after the deadline will not be accepted.

Mail contest entries to this address:
Take Five! Writing Contest
Writing Magazine
200 First Stamford Place
P.O. Box 120023
Stamford, CT 06912-0023

Or you can e-mail contest entries to: writing@weeklyreader.com 

Best of luck to all!

The DVD of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was finally released last Wednesday, November 9. We asked readers of Writing to compare the book to the movie and to tell us what they liked better.

Here's what some of them had to say:

I would have to say the movie is better than the book. I say this because for one, I'm not too crazy about reading. Another thing is I think even though the movie was less detailed than the book, I like the modern twist to it. In the book, the oompa loompas were little dancing midgets, while in the movie they were renamed as rock stars. Another thing that I think made the movie better was that in the movie you actually know how everything was supposed to look and how the characters were supposed to look and how their faces react to certain things. What I mean by this is that a picture can mean 1,000 words. These are my reasons for liking the movie better than the book. -- Bob E., Grade 7

In The Missing Manatee by Cynthia DeFelice, 11-year old Skeet Waters finds a dead manatee. He tries to track down the killer and .... (well, you have to read the book to find out what happens next!)

On page 46, Skeet says:

"When I finally got to sleep, I had some very weird dreams. The manatee killer appeared. As I fought him, he turned into a giant hammerhead shark, laughing at me, his big mouth open to show rows of shark teeth."

Write about one of your crazy dreams. Submit it to us.

I'm getting on a plane tomorrow. I'm flying across the country. Washington State, here I come! (See, I have to say "Washington State" because, living on the East Coast, when I say just "Washington", people assume I mean D.C. It's exactly like when we say we're going to "New York" we usually mean New York City. Hmm... it's a Connecticut thing.)

Longest parenthetical ever!

Anywho... I love to fly. I hardly ever do it which makes each trip a special one. What I don't love is trying to pick out a book for the flight. This morning I was going absolutely nuts as I stared into my many bookshelves. What is the perfect airplane novel? Man, it's tough.

Last time I was on a plane, I flew to California. I brought with me The Confessions of Max Tivoli. Great great book. Max is born as an old man and ages backward through his life. So it was wild reading as I flew west across three time zones and landed in the past.

Yesterday was Sesame Street's birthday! In honor of 36 years of groundbreaking children's programming, we give you some of our favorite characters from the show! Who's your favorite Sesame Street character? Let us know who and why and we'll post your writings here!

Big Bird

When you're a kid, the thought of an 8 foot 2 inch bird can be a scary one. Think dinosaur on the loose. But add a splash of canary yellow, a curious nature, large innocent eyes, and a spirit of adventure to the mix and what do you end up with? A huggable, kindred spirit. That's what Big Bird was to me. An immense yellow birdie who saw the world through my eyes—and spoke to me. He could do all the things I wanted to do—write poetry, draw, ride a unicyle, ice skate, roller skate, dance, sing … and he was only 6 years old!!! But he never seemed out of reach—he told me it was OK to make mistakes, to be yourself, and to not have all the answers to life. He reminded me that "Asking is a good way of finding things out!" Come to think of it, I guess Big Bird’s larger-than-life yellow frame still speaks to me.

When I was growing up and my imagination was running wild, the best character on Sesame Street was Snuffleupagus. It was a simpler time back then and everyone on Sesame Street believed Snuffleupagus to be Big Bird's imaginary friend. For some coincidental reason, Sunffleupagus (or "Snuffy", as Big Bird called him) only showed up to hang out when no one else was around. It drove Big Bird crazy and he was usually distracted when his friend came over to play. He'd run out of his nest (a back alley of Sesame Street) and try to convince people and muppets to come back with him and meet his friend. Meanwhile, Snuffy would realize that he had left the iron on or some other ludicrous thing and would wander away just as Big Bird came back with Oscar or Maria or any one of his peeps from the Street. "Oh Big Bird," they would say, "You have such an imagination!" And then Big Bird's face would turn beat red and the veins would pop out of his forehead and he’d start kicking over garbage cans and punching walls. … Well, maybe I’m embellishing my memory a little. In any case, everyone thought the bird was nuts, and, as a viewer, we never really knew that he wasn't. It was awesome.

I just found out about some neat poetry contests for teens. Here they are, in order of upcoming deadlines:

The Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers is open only to high school sophomores and juniors. The winner receives a full scholarship to the Kenyon Review Young Writers workshop and has his/her poem published in The Kenyon Review. The second and third place winners will also see their poems published. Deadline: Nov. 30, 2005. How to enter...

The Christian Science Monitor's 10th Annual Young Poets Contest will publish winning poems of students in preschool through high school in its national edition in January 2006. You can submit one to three poems. The judging will be done by poet Elizabeth Lund. Deadline: Dec. 2, 2005. Get "Ten Tips for Writing a Poem" and download an entry form.

Ann Arlys Bowler Poetry Contest sponsored by READ magazine is open to students in grades 6-12. Choose up to three of your own original poems to enter. Poems may be in any genre (such as open verse, rhymed, narrative), but each poem must be no longer than one typewritten page. Deadline: January 31, 2006. Rules ...

These are good opportunities, but there isn't much time left to send out your work. So pull on your writing gloves and get ready to spin out some verse!

In The Mob, the first book of the trilogy Feather and Bone: The Crow Chronicles by Clem Martini, an old crow named Kalum ru Kurea ru Kinaar tells the story of a crow family that is faced with troubled times....

On page 25, Clem Martini writes:

"We Crows are pilots of the wind, acrobats of the air, placed on Earth by the Maker to measure each gust, each breath--and in this we have no equal. Let hawks and terns reign in matters of speed and endurance--when Crows fly, we fly with style."

Here's this week's writing prompt: What would you tell this crow about yourself?

In READ magazine, Issue 6, you read a play adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. At the end of the play, we asked you to imagine yourself in one of the scenes by replacing the character of Alice with your own name and finding out how you deal with the absurd characters you meet. The following is an example of how I think I would handle myself at the March Hare's and Mad Hatter's tea party. I don't think I handled it very well. If you've written a scene of your own, we'd love to read it. We'll post the best ones on our student writing web site.

Bryon in Wonderland

Narrator: At the March Hare’s house, the chimneys are shaped like ears and the roof is thatched with fur. Bryon nibbles a bit from the mushroom in his left hand and grows to two feet tall.
Narrator: There is a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Mad Hatter are sitting and having tea. A Dormouse is between them, fast asleep. The table is a large one, but the three characters are all crowded at one corner of it.
Mad Hatter and March Hare: No room! No room!
Bryon: Fine. Bye.
Narrator: Bryon turns to leave but the March Hare stops him.
March Hare: Wait!
Bryon: What?
March Hare: Sit?
Bryon: Where?
March Hare: Anywhere you like! There is room now.
Bryon: You’re weird. But OK.
Narrator: Bryon sits near the Mad Hatter.
Mad Hatter: Your hair wants cutting.
Bryon: You know, I thought I heard it complaining about something earlier.
Mad Hatter: Why is a raven like a writing-desk?
Bryon: Riddles huh? Well alright. I’ll take a crack at it.
March Hare: Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?
Bryon: Yes, of course.
March Hare: Then you should say what you mean.
Bryon: But I do say what I mean! I mean … I always mean what I say! It’s the same thing!
Mad Hatter: It’s not the same thing a bit! You might just as well say that “I see what I eat” is the same thing as “I eat what I see”!
March Hare: You might just as well say that “I like what I get” is the same thing as “I get what I like”!
Narrator: The Dormouse talks in his sleep.
The Dormouse: You might just as well say that “I breathe when I sleep” is the same thing as “I sleep when I breathe”!
Mad Hatter: It is the same thing with you!
Narrator: The party sits silent for a minute.
Mad Hatter: What day of the month is it?
Bryon: I’m sure I have no idea.
Narrator: The Mad Hatter takes his watch out of his pocket and shakes it next to his ear.
Mad Hatter: I told you butter wouldn’t suit the works!
March Hare: It was the best butter!
Mad Hatter: Yes, but some crumbs must have got in it as well.
Bryon: Dude, I don’t think butter is the best thing to smear in a broken watch.

Dear Faithful Readers of READ and WRITING magazine,

On, Monday, I'll be interviewing William Shakespeare for READ. Now, I've interviewed some great authors in the past but come on... this is William Shakespeare! Anyway, I'm kind of nervous about it. The interview is going to be in the year 1600 and I'm somewhat unprepared. I haven't even bought a jerkin yet! I'm hoping some of you could give me some questions to ask him? Click on "comments" below to post your question. I'll be sure to ask him the best ones and will certainly give you credit in our January issue.

Thanks guys. You're really helping me out here.

In Mad Cat by Kathy Mackel, Madelyn Catherine Campione plays baseball. Have you read the book yet?

This is what "Coach" (Kathy) Mackel has to say about her sports novel:

"If you want a rousing sports story, MadCat is for you. If you want to find your way back to the game, MadCat will help you. If you want to tell your parents or your coaches to back off, MadCat can speak for you. Play hard. Play often. But play…."

Before you pick up the book, here’s a writing prompt for you to play with:

Early on in the book, Madelyn Catherine Campione loses a game and goes home disappointed. On page 9, Kathy Mackel writes:

Mothers can say a thousand things without opening their mouths.

We tromped into the kitchen, Mom flicked her left eyebrow. My father nodded and the discussion of the game was left for later.

Has your mother ever "said" anything to you without saying a word? Write about it. (Don't forget to submit it to us!)

Hello November and welcome to National Novel Writing Month. Anyone interested? Go to www.nanowrimo.org to sign up to participate. 50,000 words in 30 days. No problem. Right?

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha... well, it should be interesting to try anyway.