Genre: Grade level

SEBASTIAN B

Meerkats are small mammals of the mongoose family and live in the Kalahari Desert in Africa. Their height is about 30cm long, their tails are about 20cm, and they weigh approximately 4 kilograms. Meerkats are also called suricates. Meerkats have brown, gray, or orange fur and they have closeable ears. These small animals have four Read more…

JING-WEI L

Crane’s The Third Violet is essentially a love story between an artist and a girl with a higher social status than he. Situated in a peaceful rural area where vacationers can enjoy hikes in the woods and picnics near streams and rivers, The Third Violet has been criticized as a work that is confusing, and too short, and “were it not for the dog and one or two touches of nature, we would not like it at all” (unsigned). This speaks volumes about the critic’s opinion on this particular story. He or she plainly disliked it.

GRACE G

Because Weiland and Wilsey wanted personal stories about experiences with the state, Smith tells about this one illegal adventure to the island she had with her father. She talks about swimming off a boat to the island, which was trespassing and completely forbidden. Not only were they breaking the law, but they ended up encountering a group of sharks, all gathered under their boat. During the time on Ni’ihau, they beachcombed together, finding human bones. The hundred-year-old skulls they found lying around on the beach under the sand were forbidden to be touched because “To touch a bone, especially a Hawaii’an one, disturbs its mana, the life force Hawaiians believe inhabits all things.”

JING WEI L

Untitled       The flowers cried sadly While their friends the trees died, Screaming in agony, Wounded by human pride.   For though no man could hear The grief of those so near Their hearts were filled with guilt For killing those nature built.  

OSCAR S

The River of Life     “Bilbo used to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary.”        Frodo, The Fellowship of the Ring       Bilbo Baggins had a very consistent way of life, but when Gandalf Read more…