c16rb

Because we are studying Cinderella, everyone in our class wrote a version of a Cinderella story. This is mine.

Edward and the Princess

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a boy named Edward. Edward was very handsome. His mother had died when Edward was three years old. A short time afterward, Edward’s father remarried another woman. She had two sons of her own. Edward’s father died shortly after this. After Edward’s father died, his stepmother and stepbrothers showed their true evil nature, making Edward do all the chores in the house, effectively making him one of their servants.

One day, there was a knock on the door of Edward’s house. His stepmother answered it. It was the Royal Messenger! He presented Edward’s stepmother with an invitation to the royal ball, inviting all the young men in the kingdom to the ball, where Princess Lima hoped to find a husband. The ball was to be in one week.

In the week until the ball, Edward was very busy. He had to iron all the clothes, dress his stepmother and stepbrothers, and all the while, his stepmother and stepbrothers were shouting things like, “Get in here!” and “You have work to do!”

Finally the day came. A carriage came to pick up the stepmother and stepbrothers, and they went off to the ball. As they were going, Edward started to weep, for he had also wanted to go to the ball very much. His stepmother and stepbrothers had locked him in the house and told him that the house had better be clean by the time they got back.
As Edward started to weep, there was a flash of light behind him. He turned around and saw a young fairy!

“Hello,” the fairy said, “I am your fairy-god-fairy.”

“My what?”

“Your fairy-god-fairy! Now tell me, why are you crying?”

“I want to go to the ball too, but they locked me in and told me to do chores,” Edward said.

“Alright, get me an onion, a lizard, a rat, and four mice,” the fairy said.

When Edward came back, his arms full of squirming creatures, the fairy told him to put them down and back away. As soon as Edward was a few feet away, the fairy waved her wand and there was a flash of light. When he could see again, he could not believe his eyes! Right there in front of him was a beautiful carriage, with a footman, a coachman, and four beautiful white stallions! He almost fainted with delight. After a few minutes of examination, Edward said, “So, can I go to the ball now?”

“Yes, you may,” and with a wave of her wand, Edward was dressed in the best clothes anyone had ever seen. He was wearing a clean white suit with shiny white shoes. OMG! How nice!

“Now off you go, and remember this, you must be home before midnight, or all of this will go back to the way it was,” the fairy said.

And so Edward went off to the ball. The trip was uneventful, except for the part where one of the wheels fell off the carriage and Edward had to walk the rest of the way.

When Edward got to the ball, no one knew who he was. When Princess Lima saw him, she immediately fell in love with him. She asked him to dance with her. They danced for a long time. Edward finally remembered the fairy’s words – “You must be home before midnight.” Edward looked at the clock –11:45. Edward broke away from Princess Lima and ran as fast as he could home. By the time he was home, his suit was soaked with sweat: he wasn’t used to exercising like that. He went to bed. When his family got home, they woke him up and started bragging about how nice the party was, and how much they danced with Princess Lima – “Liar alert! Liar alert!” Edward thought. After they finished bragging, they all went to bed.

The next day the Royal Messenger came again with an invitation to a second ball in three days! This time there was an even greater rush than the last ball.

When the day came, Edward’s family left and once again, the fairy appeared. Edward brought the things needed and in a flash he was off to the ball. This time the wheel did not fall off but it was a very bumpy ride.

When Edward got to the ball, Princess Lima was waiting for him. Just as the previous night, they danced for a very long time, ignoring the angry people with plates of food they were getting dirty (people eating on the dance floor – stupid!).

Once again Edward remembered the fairy’s words just in time – 11:55. He ran to the waiting carriage that raced to take him home. It stopped so fast that Edward flew out the front window and through the front door. He was very tired, so he went to his bedroom and fell asleep.

When Edward’s family got home, they tried to wake him up, but he just grunted and slapped his stepmother in his dream (he was dreaming about fighting his stepmother).

The next day, the princess’s personal messenger came to Edward’s house and gave Edward’s stepmother a invitation to another (awwwwwwwwwwwww…come on! Seriously?) royal ball. It was to be that night! Edward’s stepmother fainted. It took Edward and his stepbrothers ten buckets of water to revive her, but Edward’s stepbrothers kept on pouring. (Be green, dudes!) The rest of that day, Edward was rushing so much to get his family ready for the ball, he almost died with exhaustion!
When they were ready, Edward’s family left. It was six o’clock. Edward waited for the flash of light that signaled the fairy’s appearance. But it did not come.

Edward waited for a few minutes, and then turned around to go to his bedroom. When he got to his bedroom, he almost fainted just like his stepmother earlier that day. There was the fairy, standing in his bedroom!

“Where did you come from?” he asked.

“I appeared here just as you were leaving the room to say goodbye to your family, and I decided to stay here,” the fairy replied.

“You really scared me there!” Edward exclaimed.

“Okay. I’m sorry.”

“Well, um… don’t do it again!”

“OK, I’m sorry, so to make up for it, I’m going to give you something special tonight,” the fairy said. “So get me a pumpkin, a sparrow, a hummingbird and four plump rats.”

When he came back there was a flash of light and right in front of Edward there appeared a carriage, a footman, a coachman, and four beautiful black stallions, all of which were much better than the previous nights. The fairy waved her wand again and Edward was dressed in a blue suit with blue dress shoes. There was a crash from somewhere overhead and he asked, “What was that?”

“Oh, it was probably the narrator; he likes my taste for fashion,” the fairy replied.

“Can I go?” Edward asked.

“Hop in!”

Edward got in the carriage and he was off to the ball.

When Edward got to the ball, Princess Lima was again waiting for him. They went inside and she asked him to dance. He accepted and they danced for a long time. This time Edward did not remember the fairy’s words in time. (Big no-no there!) They danced until the clock struck twelve. Then he sprinted out of the golden ballroom and down the front steps, causing one of his dress shoes to fall off, tripping him and making him roll down the palace steps and into a pool of mud. (Nice move, shortstop!) As he was scrambling up to get into the carriage, all the magic went back to the way it was. The carriage to a pumpkin, the coachman to a hummingbird, the footman to a sparrow, the horses to rats, and his clothes to rags. (Except the shoes.) Edward ran home one-shoed.

The next day an announcement went out that all the men in the kingdom were to come to the palace to try on a shoe. The one that fit the shoe would marry the princess. Edward’s stepbrothers went immediately, but Edward waited to sneak out that night. When he got to the palace there was no one there. He tried on the shoe. It fit perfectly. When the guard, helping people try on the shoe, saw that Edward fit the shoe, he told him to wait while he got the princess.

A few minutes later, the guard and Princess Lima came running into the room. Princess Lima recognized him immediately. She ran to him and asked him to marry her. He accepted.

The next day Princess Lima announced that she would marry Edward in three days time. The wedding was very happy. And they lived happily ever after. (Well, not yet.) One day, Edward was taking a walk, and there was that telltale flash of light (I wonder who it could be?) and the fairy appeared.

“Oh, what is it now?” Edward groaned.

“I just wanted to know what you wanted to do with your stepfamily,” the fairy replied.
After a few minutes of thinking, Edward replied, “Bring on the evil witches!”

(Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha! Not funny.) A few days later, two young men and a woman were seen running and screaming from the woods.

And (thank God) they lived happily ever after (Finally!).

THE END

This is a recording of me reading the end of the story.

 

 cinderellastorypodcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 I saw The Golden Compass movie a while ago, but I liked it a lot so I decided to review it.
The Golden Compass movie is very exciting, which is why I like it.  It has lots of cool action scenes.   The special effects are really really cool.  Overall, good movie.

My teacher, Ms Edinger was on the Newbery committee this year, and she wanted us to read the book that won. So everyone in our class chose one of the 21 poems in the book, and read it in school. This is a recording of me reading the first poem in the book, Hugo: The Lord’s Nephew.

 

 Hugo: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is a poem about Sarah Margru Kinson:

Sarah Margru Kinson, by Ms. Edinger (my teacher) is about one of the captives on the slave ship The Amistad. Margru was taken from her family in Africa by slave traders and brought to Cuba. She was then sold to another group of slave traders and forced onto The Amistad. Once Margru and the other captives were out at sea, they mutinied and took over the ship. They told the sailors to sail back to Africa, but they were tricked. The sailors were sailing to Africa during the day, but sailing toward America at night! The Amistad was captured on the east coast of America. They were to be tried for mutiny and murder. After a long series of trials, the captives on The Amistad were declared not guilty by the Supreme Court, and were sent back to Africa. The Americans set up a mission in Kaw Mendi where Margru is a teacher. Ms. Edinger does a few poems about Margru dreaming which I think is very interesting. Overall, it is very good.

My buddy, from the lower section of Dalton (the third grade) is helping me write a post about his class’s buddies in New Orleans.

When I first heard that we were going to have NOLA (New Orleans) buddies I was nervous that we (the NOLA buddies and I) would not like the same thing. When I got my buddies first letters I was relieved that we liked the same thing. I learned a lot from their letters like that Louisiana is famous for its swamplands and some of their favorite activities. In 2005 New Orleans was hit by the famous hurricane Katrina. The most water damage was from the breaking of the levees. The levees are waterways that lead water around New Orleans. New Orleans is shaped like a Bowl so it was very hard to get water out of there. One of the feelings of having buddies 12,000 miles away is, cool because not many people have now, or have had buddies that far away. Some feelings I can’t explain. They feel something like happiness and friendship.
Our NOLA buddies are planting trees for a program that helps make more Bald Cypress trees. Bald Cypress trees are important to New Orleans and Louisiana. They are endangered mostly because of humans cutting them down for land for oil refineries and draining the swamp for places to build houses. It is also due to animals called nutria that eat their wood. It is perfectly natural.

That is my buddy’s post!

Last Thursday, our grade saw The Tempest at The Dalton School. I thought everything was really good, but I found the plot kind of confusing. A lot of kids (including me) thought that the Tempest was Prospero! My favorite character was Ariel. Good screaming! Other than the slightly confusing plot, it was very good.

The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung by Lawrence Yep is a historical fiction book about a Chinese miner-boy during the Gold Rush. Wong sails to America on a ship called the Excaliber. Many die on the ship. Once in America, Wong finds that the Americans beat and attack the Chinese, making the journey to where Wong’s uncle is working in the gold fields dangerous. Lawrence Yep uses many historical facts in his writing, including the use of water chains and “rockers” in Chinese mining. He is very descriptive, making the book sound very realistic. Some examples of this are: “the river hates being stopped”(p.121) and “It’s like the old story about the beautiful flower hiding the snake: when you’re drawn to the lovliness, the snake strikes, killing you.” Overall, The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung is a very good work of historical fiction.

OK. This year each of us wrote a book about someone we know immigrating to America. I wrote about my grandma. She came to America from India in 1946 when she was 9. Her parents were Presbyterian missionaries who were from America, so she was actually American. It was very interesting and fun to write. It was also very hard to write our own oral history book. We had to do many steps including transcribing an interview we did with the person, editing, revising, and illustrating. Overall, it was a fun project.

Hi! This year everyone in our class gets their very own blog! Hooray! We were each assigned one of last year’s student blogs to read and to get ideas for writing style for our own blogs. Mine was c15jg. I noticed:

-c15jg wrote a lot of different things, including book reviews and stories.

-c15jg here and there used pictures, drawings and numbers.

-c15jg wrote about every week or so.

-c15jg always got very good comments.

-my favorite blog post from c15jg is The Miracle. I like it because it is a really great story.

Thanks for reading!

-c16rb