Strawberry Kiwi

Our story-

Theme: Overcoming your fears

Story Outline: A little boy and a girl (twins) are scared of the dark. Then, they have a “Big Nightmare” where the monsters in the dream turn out to be really nice, and give the kids candy (the twins have the same dream). After that, it is Halloween, and with their friends, they go to a haunted house. Their friends are really scared, because it is all dark inside and there might be monster, but the twins aren’t. When the monsters come out of the dark to say hi, the friends are scared, but the twins tell them that the monsters are really nice, and aren’t scary. At the end, all of the kids have a fun party with the monsters.

Characters: Pam and Sam are twins. They are nice kids and, once they overcome their fear of the dark, they help their friends out too. At the end, all of the kids know that the dark isn’t scary.
Susan, Lisa, and Bill are all friends of the twins. They are scared of the dark too, but overcome their fear.
There are 3 monsters that the kids all meet. They are extremely kind, help the kids out, and give them candy. At the end of the story, they even have a party with the kids.

Setting: The story starts at the twins’ house. They have the dream in their room. Then they go to a haunted house, which is really dark. The party is at the haunted house.

Mood: The mood is scary when the kids are in the haunted house, and at the beginning of the twins’ nightmare. During the party and the part of the dream where they realize that monsters aren’t scary, the mood is light and happy.

My Role: In this project, my roles are the director and a writer. I will help coordinate the illustrations are the text to fit together for the story, and help things run smoothly. As a writer, I will work on writing the text part of our story, and work with the rest of the group to finish our story.

Visit the webpages of the other people in my group:
Que Pasa, Nothing is Impossible, My Soul , Life on the Prairie

These are 6 main things you need to know to write a good children’s story:

Theme
- Don’t blurt out your theme
- Avoid preaching
- Keep the theme positive

Plot
- If writing realistic fiction, the lessons learned or growth of main characters convey the theme
- Conflict should have increasing dramatic tension, then a climax near the end, and then resolve
- Move the plot forward with action and events

Story Structure
- Start right away with action at the beginning of your story, and finish promptly
- In a picture book, keep the action in chronological order
- Use only one character’s point of view to tell the story, to keep it simpler

Characters
- The main character should be someone the reader can identify or sympathize with
- Identify characters with only a few details, like a physical trait, instead of a complete description
- Know your characters well before you start writing your story

Setting
- Set the story in a place or time that will be interesting or familiar to your readers

Style and Tone
- Write simply and directly
- Use as much dialog as possible
- Avoid big sections with narration and especially description

To have a good children’s story, it is good to have well developed themes, interesting plots, memorable characters, well-chosen settings, and an attractive style.

- I enjoy reading fiction books. I like realistic fiction/stories about people who are close to my age. I also like reading mysteries.
- Two issues that I am interested in are global warming (sort of) and finding some way to have less school!
- My favorite types of writing assignements are freewrites, where you get to write anything you want. Usually for those I make up stories, which I have fun doing.
- I think that I might work well with this student because we share some of the same opinions, and they seem like a fun person.

1. Kino won the lottery, but what was the price he had to pay for such luck?

In The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, Kino wins a lottery of sorts when he finds the pearl. The book is the story that Kino has to pay for this. The first example of Kino paying for his good fortune is when the doctor poisons his son for the money. Since Kino is now a rich man, the doctor knows he can be paid for “treating” Kino’s son. Kino’s suspicion is obvious when “…Kino was suspicious, and he could not take his eyes from the doctor’s open bag, and from the bottle of white powder there.” This quote shows that Kino suspects that the white powder given to his son is actually a poison. A second example where Kino is shown paying for his good fortune is when someone cuts a hole in the bottom of his boat that cannot be fixed. Kino discovers this “…when the light broke through again he saw that a great hole had been knocked in the bottom.” This is especially terrible for Kino because his boat is the main way that he makes a living, and he knows no trade other than pearl diving, for which a boat is needed. In the end, Kino would have been better off if he had never found the pearl.

In chapters 5 and 6 of The Pearl, Kino and Juana realize that they can never go back to living the same way as before they found the pearl. Juana tries to throw the pearl back into the sea, because she knows that it is harming her family, but Kino finds her and takes the pearl before she can get rid of it. They cannot go back to the “old life” because Kino has killed someone, a hole has been made in their boat, and their house is burnt to ashes. They decide to flee the village without telling anyone where they are going or how they will get there. They leave in the middle of the night, and the next day Kino learns that trackers are following them. He is certain that they will be found, but the trackers pass by their hiding spot without finding them. Kino is thinks that the trackers will come back and find them, so he tells Juana to take the baby and return to the village and let him deal with the trackers and the pearl alone, since he can travel faster alone. She refuses, so they go to the mountains to hide. There they see the trackers. Two are sleeping and the third, keeping watch, has a rifle. Kino decides that the only way they will survive is if he kills the one with the rifle. He succeeds, and shoots the tracker. In the process he accidentally shoots his son. Kino and Juana return to the village, disgraced, and the villagers look on in silence as Kino throws the pearl back to sea.

Summary: The article “8 Lottery Winners Who Lost Their Millions” is an article that is sad, but true, about how many people who win the lottery don’t know what to do with their money, and up bankrupt because of foolish things. As it turns out, most people who do actually win the lottery are the worst for it, and wish it had never happened. People don’t usually know how to deal with getting a huge sum of money, and sometimes think are millionaires, when they have won $1 million and are getting it in chunks of $ 5,000 a year. They spend more money then actually have, and fall deeply into debt.

Connection: When Kino finds the pearl, it is kind of like winning the lottery. Like the people in the article, he does not really know how to handle this amount of money, and plans on buying all sorts of things without really knowing how much his pearl is worth ( how much money he really has). He actually ends up the worse for having found this pearl. When, in chapter 3, the doctor tries to kill Kino’s innocent son just for some of the money from the pearl, it is somewhat like one of the characters in the article whose brother hires a hit man to kill him, just for the lottery money. Just like most of the lottery winners from the article, Kinos regrets having ever found the pearl, and wishes that it had never happened.