Samantha's+Stories



=**ABOUT ME**= Hi my name is Samantha. I live in New Jersey and I am in 7th grade. Here are some quick facts about me.
 * 1) My favorite color is pink.
 * 2) I have one dog, one cat and two hamsters
 * 3) I love to read and relax
 * 4) I like to write short stories
 * 5) I love to work with animals
 * 6) I love cheerleading, singing, and dancing

The New Surprises One day Sasha was walking home from school. Normally her mom was home to allow her in, but today her mom had a meeting in Jersey City. She had to use a key to get in. As she searched for the keys, she soon discovered she left the keys on the kitchen table. Since she left the keys in side, she had to use the back door. Sasha was startled to see that her back door was open. What’s going on here? she wondered. Should I go in or should I wait until dad comes home? Sasha thought. Then Sasha thought to herself, “Dad won’t be home until 5:30! Which is in two hours! Then she made the brave decision to go inside and check her house out. She cautiously went inside and looked around. Pillows were all torn apart on the floor and the food in the bottom cabinet was all eaten up. She saw mud stains on her white carpet. Then she heard a weird noise. It sounded like growling and barking. She went downstairs into her living room and the got closer. She couldn’t figure out where the noises where coming from. Finally she found a cardboard box stuffed in a corner behind her couch. The she lifted the box up and saw a caramel colored dog and a mocha colored dog. She called up her mom to tell her about what was going on. Her mom said to keep the dogs where they were and not to touch them. Her mom said she was leaving work early to come home. When Sasha’s mom came home she looked at the dogs to see if they have name tags, but the dogs didn’t. So, she decided to make flyers. She took pictures and made a lot flyers and put them all around the town. So they waited for a phone call. A long time had passed and no one had called. “Mom can we keep the dogs, we have had them for over 2 weeks?” Sasha asked. “No we can’t! These are someone else’s dogs Sasha please just believe that their rightful owner will call.” Sasha’s mother said. “ But mom lets just keep them! Their rightful owner would have known they were missing. Their rightful owner would have already called! Why mom? WHY?” Sasha pleaded. “SASHA! Stop that yelling! I will think about keeping the dogs ok?!? Maybe… if the owner doesn’t call within a week we can keep them.” Sasha’s mom said. One week later to that day, Sasha came running down the stairs “MOM, MOM, MOM, MOM! TODAY IS THE DAY! TODAY IS THE DAY I GET TO KEEP THE DOGGIES!” Sasha screamed. Sasha’s mom said “Remember Sasha we can keep them after 5 o’clock today." The next day Sasha was so excited she got to keep the dogs. She walked down stairs and looked at the box the puppies had been sleeping in. They weren’t in the box. Sasha looked at the clock. It was 7:45. Sasha was going to be late for school so she drank a yogurt drink, got dressed and ran to school. “Mom where are the dogs? They weren’t in the box this morning?’ Sasha asked her mom in a vicious voice. “Honey, first of all don’t talk to me like that. Second just go home into your room I am sure they are there.”, Said Sasha’s mom in a suspiciously nice voice. “Fine I will come home but I am going straight to my room and not coming out "till dinner.”, screamed Sasha ask she hung up her cell phone. Sasha walked into the house, and like she promised, went straight to her room. Sasha was surprised to see banners and posters that said congrats Sasha! Then she saw a enormous poster that had a picture of the two dogs and it said “Hi Sasha! Thanks for keeping us! “Oh my gosh! NO WAY NO WAY NO WAY!” screamed Sasha. Sasha found herself keeping the two cute dogs. She decided to name them Terry and Sugar. She went to the local pet store and bought all the supplies she needed to keep the doggies. Her mom told her about all the responsibilities she needs to have to keep not one, but TWO dogs. Sasha understood every word that came out if her mother’s mouth. Sasha went home to see her very first pets. Sasha always took care of the two dogs and always gave them love. Sugar and Terry loved having an owner that loved them. Sasha loved have two wonderful dogs that she could have fun with and here starts a new friendship.

** The End **

** ﻿ ** 3 Newton Pl. Wharton, NJ 07885 March 1, 2011

Mr. Bocchino 137 East Central Av. Wharton, NJ 07885

Dear Mr. Bocchino,

Do you want your students to have fun in their Language Arts Literacy Class? Of course you do! They want to read fun and exciting books! It would be a terrible shame to get rid of such a magnificent, wondrous book. It was amazing! “Walk Two Moons” should be kept in the curriculum because of the level of understanding, the style of writing and the relations to the characters. The level of understanding really effects how you enjoy the book. The older you are the more you will take pleasure in this book. I read “Walk Two Moons” when I was in fourth grade and the book really didn’t catch my attention. I couldn’t comprehend all the important details and that made the book terrible. I didn’t understand what some of the things meant. For example in the story it says “//You can’t keep the birds of sadness from flying over our head, but you can keep them from nesting in your hair.”// Little kids will take this literally. They will probably think that birds are going to make a nest in your head. We matured so now we know what figurative language is and we know that the sayings aren’t always literal. Next, is the style of writing. In seventh grade we now know all the kinds of figurative language. We have the knowledge to interpret all the sayings quotes, metaphors and similes. Now that we know all the styles of writing we can really think about what the book is trying to tell us. For example, the book says “Don’t judge a man ‘till you walk two moons in his moccasins.” Instead of saying don’t judge a book by its cover, Sharon completely changes the saying. She makes us stop and think to see what that really means. In fourth grade I would think you are really walking in someone else’s moccasins. After reading this story, I know that it means don’t judge someone until you walk in their shoes and see what they are going through. Also the style of writing is very mature. It talks about death and other really sad things. When we read it three years ago a lot of children didn’t seem to care. When we read it this year we had a lot of connections and learned that others feel the same way as you do. Finally are the relations to the characters. I really like this book because I can relate to Sal and Phoebe. I like how we can relate to her feelings. Sal says she misses her mother and that’s because her mother passed away. Now that we are older we all have a family member that has passed away and really miss. We all go through the jealousy that Sal has of Phoebe because her mother returned. We all get jealous sometimes. In the story Sal and Ben kiss. Now it doesn’t seem to be an issue. When you’re little you think that boys/girls have “cooties.” We didn’t like the book because it had to do with cooties. Now that we really connected with the book we really liked it. When you read a book that you can’t really connect with you don’t really like it. So when we read this book all of us really wanted to keep reading. We never wanted to stop reading! In conclusion, “Walk Two Moons” should be kept in the curriculum because we can understand it better, we like the style of writing and we can relate to the characters. If you want the seventh grade to be happy, you would keep this book.

Respectfully,

Samantha ]