Yesterday I was supposed to announce the winner of my
40 Book Give Away Contest.
That did not happen yesterday as I was confused. I needed to find a way to make this contest end on a good note.
See the problem is that I had four entries. That is small(which is not the problem), but I felt bad trying to declare only one winner out of four.
I sorted the books. I organized. I pondered.
I have decided to make them all winners. After all these students found time at the end of the school year when their brains shut down, the thoughts turn to mush, and it is like squeezing blood out of a turnip to get much from them with only a week to go in the school year.
The top three will all receive the same 40 books. The fourth place winner will receive 37 books as I am short on three copies. Regardless they still are earning a hefty prize.
Nothing makes me feel better than delivering 157 books to four outstanding students.
I hope they read and spread the books around so others can enjoy.
Here are the winners and their stories. I would love it if you would take time to read their stories and leave some comments for them. Nothing is better than being appreciated for your work. Especially when you are middle school student who is just begging for summer to begin.
1. Frankie
Title of Story - Idea Room
Four walls. One floor. One hundred and forty-four square feet.
It was a small room containing so much inspiration.
This was where all the ideas came into being. Where all the rampant thoughts arranged themselves into a line; where they aligned. This was the place where the magical contents of a book were created.
This charming, homely place of mystery, where the stars fell from the sapphire sky when it was cold enough. Because of the lack of ceiling, they landed right in the palm of her hand. She would put them in her eyes and bite her lip because it hurt at first. Then, the pain would subside, and she would see the room in a new light. She could see the airplanes passing overhead through her new makeshift spyglasses. The passengers seemed mystified by the spectacle all those miles below. She smiled at them and waved, though they couldn't see her, only the white, topless box in the middle of nowhere.
When they passed, she would blink the stars from her eyes, and dance around the room in a mask. Sometimes it was smiling, if by chance one of the travelers saw her and waved back, but most often it was frowning, for no one knew that she was down here, all alone.
Beside the fishbowl on the table, there was a magnifying glass. This was the only trinket that she had with her when she came to this land of divine guidance. She often looked at her hands through this glass, studying the minuscule crevices and the perplexing shadows. After the stars fell from her eyes, the chill would still linger, and her breath would fog up the lens so she could not see her skin.
The stars would decay when the sun receded into the horizon. They traveled, invisible, back to the moon and left her until the next frost night.
Without the glow from her small tokens, she would have to pull the beaded chain, turning on the series of light bulbs around the room. The white room was illuminated by yellow, and for a moment, all was scared away by the industrial lighting. She would have to lay still, because the ideas were not flooding in anymore. Then, they would pick up as she got used to the light, and she would dance around some more.
Eventually, the lights would wear themselves out. They would begin to dim, and she would steadily stop dancing. She would sink below the table and curl in on herself. The scales on the other side of the room, eternally lopsided and perpetually empty, watched over her with their nonexistence. She would lay in the dark for hours, counting sheep until she ran out. Her humanity got the better of her, and her eyes would shut. She would dream of all the ideas of the patrons of the world, whom she had never met and never would. She dreamt of them living by the mountain that looked like four men, whom many thought about. The Mountain of Rushmore, she thought it was called. She dreamt of them in the land where the Tower of Eiffel stood. All the lovers sent her hopes of going there with someone special. She dreamt of the land lost in time and sand, where the Pyramids of Giza stood, guarded by a creature with the face of a man and the body of a cat. It was all so spectacular that she could hardly stand it, and would wake up almost immediately. The sun would be coming up again. She bid the stars farewell and repeated the cycle like she had since the beginning of time.
2. Olivia
Fred the Sheep
Once upon a time, there was an extremely intellectual sheep named Fred. Fred lived in a magical place named Ontario. Fred loved it in Ontario, but he felt like something was missing. “What is it?” Fred would wonder, “Why do I feel so lonely and incomplete? I live in a wonderful place, with wonderful friends!” Soon, Fred fell into a deep depression. Al l that he was could do was watch Law and Order: SVU (his favorite show) and eat Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. His friends, quickly realizing this obesity-inducing behavior, immediately started him on some anti-depression medication. This made him quit his B&J binge, but he still was in love SVU. Refusing to give it up, his mother confiscated his T.V. Unluckily for Fred, he was still at work being a judge for a local reality show, and his mom also took a sledge hammer to it. Upon arriving at home, Fred discovered his television in ruins and his TiVo deleted. Anger induced Fred as he frantically transformed into a child and threw a fit. His mother, who got tired of fits when he was a toddler, sarcastically mentioned that he should go on Broadway. “Maybe then,” she shrieked, “you can put this diva behavior to good use!” Well, that just sparked and idea in Fred’s simple and little sheep mind. He immediately went on Google and bought some acting books from eBay. He also went out and bought a toupee to cover up the spot of wool that was quickly disappearing from the back of his head. After getting his bags packed and his toupee pinned on, Fred rode his bike to the airport and bought a ticket. A ticket to Los Angeles, that is.
The plane ride to L.A. was uneventful, besides Fred making good use of the vomit bag, and soon the trip was over. As Fred dragged his five duffel bags through LAX, he had stars in his eyes. Literally. Someone had thrown a fistful of glitter in his face, and he glanced over to see who it was. Naturally, the glitter-thrower was Lady Gaga. He should have known by the click-clacking of her seventeen inch heels on the tile flooring. Shooting her a dirty look, Fred dusted his wool off, and was on his way out the door. Heat blasted his face as he squinted his eyes against the smog; it was thick enough to give Fred the image that people were actually walking on clouds. “Wow. They know how to roll in L.A.” he muttered to himself as he strolled to the nearest cab. But confusion overtook him as he tried to tell the cabbie where to go. The driver seemed to have trouble with is Canadian terminology. “I don’t know how far ‘Aboot’ is!” he shouted. Then, as they do in the land of catfights, the rude cabbie pushed Fred out of the cab. As Fred rolled down the highway towards The Hills, he scratched his head in confusion. It was going to be a long vacation if no one understands him. He came to a stop, after bouncing off of a building. Standing up, Fred looked up at the sign. MapleLeaf Acting. Just what he needed; a room full of people with just as nauseating accents as him. Fred skipped through the door and took a seat. After receiving a boat load of paperwork, Fred tackled the mystery of remembering his new Social Security number. Luckily for him, lots of people were eager to get him signed, and the paperwork was soon tossed.
Fred fell in love with the acting business, and was quickly devoted to it. He took every job he could; he even took a job as a backup dancer for the “Walk like an Egyptian” music video. It was a good job, which made every producer in town want Fred. He soon became rich, and proceeded to buy the Justin Bieber franchise. Now, Fred lives happily in his million-dollar home with Megan Fox. He has everything he wants, including the ShakeWeight for Men that he had been lusting over back in Canada. Fred loves his life, and constantly gloats to his ex-friends in Ontario. Now he can eat all the Ben and Jerry’s he wants.
3. Katherine
Jojo the lamb was a very happy lamb. He lived in Egypt by the pyramids. Jojo was tired of life as a boring lamb. He had an idea to do something be big, he wanted to be an actor. So, he flew in a plane to California. He went to Hollywood and found a mystery that he wanted to tried out for. He loved the script, it was based off a Nancy Drew book. Jojo had the acting skill he needed, but he had to be very light. So, he was weighed on a scale and was light enough. Jojo was so happy. To get into character, he carried around a magnifying glass. Jojo was great in the movie and became a world famous movie star.
4. Sami
The burglars were ready to enter the pyramid. They put on their masks and started to sneak over to the pyramid. They went past a flock of sheep, up a mountain, then down a hill. The burglars were about out of breath when they reached they entered the gigantic building. They found some hieroglyphics on the wall, pulled out their magnifying glasses, and translated from their book. ”It said follow the stars!” So they had to get plane tickets. As their bags got weighed on the scale their bags were examined and gold was found so the warning light bulb went off and they were taken to jail. The treasure was never found.
The End ( :
As you probably know, to become an internationally best-selling author, you need to sell three books. This is not an easy task, but once you’ve managed to rack up these three sales, the rest is more or less a done deal.
