What do you believe in? That's a question that gets asked a lot and has so many different answers. There's an organization called This I Believe that encourages all different types of people to write about their beliefs. Writing magazine published an article about This I Believe this past year. We asked students to support this effort and tell us what they believed in. Well, some fine 8th grade students answered our call. You can read about their beliefs here. Then go ahead, write your own. Or check out some more examples at the This I Believe website.

Memories

"I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich." That is a quote from a television show called M*A*S*H. I believe in having family time with my sisters, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It is important to spend time with your family. I have a very big family of about 30 cousins and I love spending time with all of them.

I see my entire family several times a year for birthdays, Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and many other special events. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, my whole family comes over to my Grandparent’s house to make homemade ravioli. Then at Christmas, my whole family goes over to my Grandparent’s house to have dinner. We gather around a huge table and eat the homemade ravioli. It is fun to eat the ravioli and think of the memories we had making them.

After dinner, all of the cousins make up a Christmas play of the Nativity of Jesus for all of our parents. At Easter, my family and I go to my Grandparent’s house and we have an

Easter egg hunt. The older half of the cousins hide the Easter eggs for the younger cousins. It is always fun to watch all of my little cousins to go and find the eggs. After the egg hunt, my family and I go fishing and we walk around my Grandparent’s neighborhood lake.

I grew up making fun memories with my family. I know that I am a lucky person to have these memories. I love my family. I truly do think that having a family and having memories with them is being rich.

—George Dowdy

Family

What does it mean to believe? To believe means to have an opinion or a firm conviction. My opinion is that your family is something you should hold close to your heart forever. Family is so important.

Where would we be without the love and support of those we care about? I believe it is very important to stay close to your family, no matter where or how old you are. They will always be there to back you up, no matter what. I am a part of a blended family that consists of my mother, my stepfather, and three stepsisters. Even though they are not my real siblings, I know they love me. I would not want my life any other way. I truly think that no matter how mad or upset or hurt you are at any members of your family, you should always try to patch it up, because they love you.

I believe in sharing holidays and important events with family. I can’t even picture Christmas without my Grammy or my birthday without my cousins. Family should be there to celebrate all the important times in our lives. I think that we should put our family as one of our top priorities. Everybody, no matter who you are, deserves to have a loving family that they can go home to at night and look forward to seeing. Family, next to God, should be our main goal. This I believe.

—Lauren Milton

Music

I believe in the power of music. I truly believe that music can change lives. Many songs have a powerful message in them. Most teenagers listen to radio stations that have good music, but the message in the music isn't very good. It's usually rap music, and rap music usually tells you what you SHOULDN'T be doing, but its message tells the teenagers that it's okay and "cool" to do it. An exception to that is Eminem's "Mockingbird." That song is written for his kids, and it says "Sorry that I'm gone, I wish I was there with you, but I need to keep working to keep the food on the table for you. Your mom and I are having problems, but we'll try to work through them."

A lot of music with good messages is rock or alternative music. I really like Good Charlotte's music. The band's music has a great message. Another rock song that has a good message is Nickleback's "If Everyone Cared."

I believe that inspirational lyrics could be mottos to live by, such as Hannah Montana's "Life What You Make It", which says that how you live your life is up to you. "Why be sad, broken hearted? There's so much to do. Life is hard, or it's a party. The choice is up to you."

— Jennifer Lane

Other People's Feelings

I believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion if it does not hurt the feelings of someone else. I also think people should stick up for themselves and what they believe in.

This year many of my friends have been made fun of because of something they wear or something they do, say, or eat. I don't think they should be made fun of because of what they wear or do or say. If someone doesn't have something nice to say, they shouldn't say it at all. Although everyone is entitled to their own opinion they should not always express how they feel.

Many people don't take into consideration that what they say may affect others, so they say things without thinking. I am sure everyone has gotten their feelings hurt at some time. Many people don't tell others when their feelings are hurt because they don't want to be made fun even more. So they just let that person keep making fun of them.

I believe that if someone is being made fun of they need to stick up for themselves and what they believe in. I don't think people should be made fun of because of what they wear, what they do, or what they say. If you see people being made fun, of you should stick up for them as well. I don't think anyone should be made fun of at all.

—Katie Millman

It was announced last week that the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be produced as not one but TWO blockbuster movies! That means that, including Book 6 we get three more Harry films! Yay!

Personally, I think this is a very smart idea. Deathly Hallows was one of the best books I have ever read and Hollywood's decision to make it a two-parter should give us a very clear, very detailed on-screen image to compliment our entire literary experience. I can't wait!

Film 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is set for theatrical release on November 21, 2008

Film 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One is set for theatrical release (hopefully) the following November (2009)

And, assuming all goes well and "You-Know-Who" doeesn't wreck everything...

Film 8: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part Two will come out in May, 2010.

Friends, I do believe this deserves a "Boo" and a "Yah".

BOO YAH!

Here is a phony bologna movie trailer someone put together on Youtube. It shows a bunch of old Harry Potter movie clips but is still a good way to get you amped.

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by Lauren Wrenn
age 12

The white blanket
melts away.
Hear the flowers
moaning.

Waking up
Spring sees
the birds come back.

Warm is here again.

This is a very important question that I often ask people around me. Sure it's nice to get to know someone a little better, as shown by their choice of books. But really, I ask because I'm selfish. BECAUSE I always need something to read. And I like to go to people whose taste I trust. Just a few months ago, Audra gave me a good recommendation: Disgrace by JM Coetzee. Bryon and Deb once made me read The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon. All good recommendations!

And to tell you the truth, I really like to push my own agenda, too. I mean, I like to get people to read my favorite books. I made Bryon read The Poisonwood Bible and he got sucked into it. (Audra, Deb, Amy, what about you? I thought we all were going to bond over this book.)

Well, I just found a new way to get book suggestions and push, I mean recommend my own. It's goodreads.com, where all types of readers list, review, and recommend books. I feel that my reading possibilities have broadened more than I could ever think. And I get to count all the books I've read.

So far, I'm up to 140 that I remember. Here's to many more!

SATRAPI: Well all of those things. But I believe there is no culture clash between east and west. If people are educated, they have culture, and if they are open minded, no matter where they come from, then there is no clash. The clash comes from ignorance. Many people say that I made it clear in this book that it is very anti-theology. And I say, 'no, it is not anti-theology, it’s anti-repression.' That was how [this book] started. That was what I was most focused on, remembering. Remembering how it feels to when you are 6 yrs old, 10 years old going through that.

SATRAPI: Absolutely. Education is everything. I really believe that it is a weapon of mass construction. If you want to build something it has to go through education. Education opens your mind. Education makes you understand that the other one is exactly like you.

SATRAPI: Yes! You realize how similar we are.

SATRAPI: No matter what the government is, it doesn't stop people from thinking. Being in a free place doesn't necessarily make you free in your mind, either. Plus the fact that we knew we were living in a dictatorship opened our eyes even more.

SATRAPI: It makes us a schizophrenic people because we have to have behavior outside, but inside we are the same. And you have to find ways to transcend your situation. That's why I believe in human beings, because no matter what they do to us, I think, in your mind, if you are free, if you have a brain and you use it, than you cannot take any kind of [nonsense]. I consider everybody who is against repression my friends. No matter where they come from. They are my people; they are my nation. My nation is full of people who think clearly with the brain and with emotion.

READ: Our readers are American students in middle school. They are adolescents,and they, too, can relate to the themes in Persepolis.

SATRAPI: Right. The nation of brains.

SATRAPI: Well, it's not really a documentary about my life. It is based on my experiences, but it is not all true. For example, there is a scene in the book and the movie where extremists come and kill our neighbor. This thing happened, but not when I was 12. It happened when I was 18, and when I came back from Austria. But for narrative reasons, I wanted to my coming back from Austria to be the end of the war because I didn’t want to restart the war. In storytelling, it’s very important to know where to put the events. But when you work this way, even my own character becomes fictional to myself. Its from my own experiences and to convey my own feelings. The reality itself doesn’t interest me so much. The impression it has on the reader, the feeling, this is much more important.

SATRAPI: I have been thinking about that. I never think about it when I work, but now that I look back. It is like a baby growing up in a baby. It doesn't have first one eye, then one arm and the one leg, the other leg. All of them grow up at the same time. Once in a while I can start writing, but always have the drawing in mind, or I draw, but still I have the text in mind, but always it happens at the same time.

SATRAPI: Oh my poor parents! Putting themselves in danger for two stupid posters. They could have just told me [no], but they did understand how important it was to have these posters. Like all the other adolescents in the world, we loved pop music, but also, since our country was cut off from the rest of the world, this was a way to have the feeling that we were connected to the rest.

SATRAPI: Oh yes, they did so. My parents say that your kid doesn't belong to you, so if you love your kid, you let them go. That's what they did. They were very brave, I think.

By Jessica Confer

Your smile
is so sweet
you put tons of smiles upon my face
when i see your smile ,my eyes open so wide
i know those smiles of yours will never tell a lie
i know those smiles will always tell the truth
When i see your smile i just go wild

Your smile
just makes me happy
and it will never fade away
it'll never die
your smiles will never get old
i get excited when i see that smile
they put me in a mood

Everytime i see your smile i just lighten up so bright
and i just what to laugh
they just brighten up my day
your smile is just so beautiful
and amazing to me

Your smile
Your smile gets bigger everyday
i hope your smile stays permanently
just like how it is now
i hope your smile never wears away
your smile is so deep
just like mine

Ethics and factuality are the time-honored pillars of the autobiography and memoir genre. Yet in the past two years three identity scandals have rocked the book publishing world. These three authors have lost their credibility and made their publishers look lazy and unethical as well. James Frey, J.T. Leroy, and most recently Margaret Seltzer are the authors of books describing lives they never lead. Each of them published celebrated, successful books, all of which were marketed as autobiographical, or containing autobiographical content. The reading public was fascinated by the drama and resilience of individuals who lived extraordinarily difficult lives.

In 2003, James Frey became famous for publishing a memoir entitled A Million Little Pieces. The memoir detailed his tumultuous battle with addiction. In his memoir he recounts his drug and alcohol problems and his difficult journey toward rehabilitation. It was wildly successful. But in 2006, a public documents website called The Smoking Gun discovered that several of the events described in the book were largely embellished or made up entirely. One particular chapter describes a nasty run in with the law, which resulted in his spending 87 days in jail. In fact, The Smoking Gun found that he had only been in jail for a few hours, and that most of the incident was made up. His publishers, Doubleday and Anchor books, initially backed up the author, but eventually they were confronted with too much evidence that he was lying. Frey defended himself by saying that all memoirists embellish events for literary effects, but his readership felt unquestionably duped. 

Another notorious literary hoax is that of JT Leroy. Leroy was a young male novelist whose persona and personal history deeply influenced his writing. His career began in 1996, when he was 16, and he became most famous for the 1999 novel The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things. Leroy was known as an extremely talented youth who had lived a horrifying childhood, much of which was detailed in the novel. Leroy had made only a few public appearances, and when he did so disguised himself in a wig, hat, and sunglasses. He hid under tables at his own book signings due to shyness. After a series of questionable responses from Leroy during interviews, it was discovered in 2006 that JT Leroy was actually a pen name for a writer named Laura Albert. The character who had been interviewed for so many years was actually played by her friend, Savannah Knoop. Although Leroy never officially published a memoir, most readers believed his stories contained largely autobiographical content. 

Most recently, Love and Consequences, a memoir of one woman's experiences growing up in gang-infested south central Los Angeles, has proven to be fiction. The author, Margaret Seltzer, who posed as an impoverished gang member, who had been moved from foster home to foster home, is actually from an intact family from an affluent part of LA. It is apparent that her publisher, Penguin Books, did insufficient fact checking on her sources. At the same time, she created several alibis suggesting that she was who she claimed to be. Seltzer’s true story is still unraveling, but what is clear is that her real identity is wholly unrelated to the person represented in her memoir. 

"Reader beware" appears to be the growing trend in the memoir world. Writers strive to publish readable, thrilling books, and publishers seek to print the stories they know will sell. But is it at the cost of the reader's trust? In a world of Wikipedia and reality TV, the lines between fact and fiction blur together. We seek entertainment and we seek the truth. Now both are being marketed to us as a single product in an unprecented way, making our cultural intake into a chillingly realistic dream.

Thank you to Bryana Ellery, who responded to the 1,000 Words feature in the January issue of Writing. Hope you enjoy reading her creative response to this very funny picture.

There was no evidence of me being there. Nothing but an empty clean chair, and a neat computer desk. I don't even know if anybody came looking for me. But I do know that I was lost in a game of a computer network and couldn't find my way out.

So this is the story about my journey through my own game. I could never imagine it more realistic than it was that day.

It was June 3, 2007 and I had been playing that game until almost 1:30 in the morning. I had about four cups of coffee to keep me awake. I was so desperate to beat that game. But by whatever time it was, something went completely wrong.

As hard as I tried to stop playing that game, and as hard as I tried to close my eyes to get detached from that game, it wouldn't let me go ahead. With my head was still turned toward the screen and eyes still wide open, I was sucked into the game, and literally shifted into another world.

When I landed flat, splat on my back on virtual grass, I heard a loud voice say "LEVEL 1."

At that moment, I knew I had to beat the game to get out. So I stood up, and looked around. But suddenly a bunch of monkeys started running toward me and I didn't know what to do. I ran as fast as I could until I saw something shiny in the distance. Once I picked it up, I realized it was a sword that I had to use to get the monkeys off my back.

After I fought the monkeys, my points started racking up. Then next to me a cool black convertible showed up. I thought back to when I was playing it in the real world, about how I beat the level. I finally knew what I had to do. So I drove to the top of the mountain to reach the exit door. It wasn't that easy though, even more monkeys latched onto the car and made it really hard to drive. I even almost fell off a cliff. I made it out okay, "It's only the first level, piece of cake," I told myself.

"Level 2," the deep voice said as I entered the next level. Standing up right in front of me was a huge, ugly, one-eyed Cyclops. Horrified, I ran and tried to hide. It almost got me, but I hit it with my sword. I hit it again knowing that every time I did, it lost a life. I finally killed the Cyclops, but then three more showed up and I almost passed out. Next thing I knew, I was flying through the air heading for a brick wall. It hurt like crazy, but luckily I had two lives left.

I found an energy coin that gave me strength to grow bigger. I grew as tall as the Cyclops. Then I beat them all. I jumped up and dpwn at the feeling of victory.

As I was heading to Level 3, I heard a horrible shrill noise. All of a sudden the game was over! Drifting back into reality, I woke up slowly. Slammed my alarm clock on the floor. Looked up at the computer with the bright green flashing words that said, "GAME OVER." I must have fallen asleep while playing the game. I can't believe I lost, and that it was only a dream that took me to such an adventurous place in my mind.