NANCY LOEWEN
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Tomato Tenacity

4/21/2025

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​Every fall, when I clean up the potted plants on my small deck, I pick all the little green tomatoes, put them in a bowl, and watch as they slowly ripen. I’ve eaten my homegrown cherry tomatoes as late as Christmas Day.  
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​This year I did something different. Instead of picking the tomatoes, I cut off the stems and placed them in water to make a tomato bouquet. One of the stems still had a few blossoms on it. I was touched by the plant’s optimism. It was November, after all.
 
A few weeks later, I was about to discard the stems when I noticed that one stem was starting to develop roots. Sure enough, it was the one with the blossoms. 
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12-2-2024

​I decided to give it a chance. I planted it in a small pot and waited to see what would happen. The lower branches and blossoms quickly dried up, but new leaves started growing from the top. 

Then came danger—spider mites! I had to give up a couple of infested houseplants, but I sprayed the little tomato plant with insecticidal soap and crossed my fingers. For a while I thought it was a lost cause. The leaves withered away. The plant was little more than a bare stalk. 
 
I was about to toss it when I thought I saw something. Wasn’t there a little bit of bright green at the very top? The spot of color was so small it was hard to tell. Once again, I waited to see what would happen.
 
What happened was the little tomato plant grew.
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12-15-2024

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​And grew...
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12-27-2024

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​And grew...
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3-2-2025

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​And grew!
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4-6-2025
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This gangly plant has been a source of delight to me. I tell its story to anyone who comes to visit. I give regular updates to my mom when we talk on the phone.  When I have to leave for more than a few hours, I say loving things to it that are too embarrassing to reveal here.
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4-20-2025


​Over Easter weekend, my improbable tomato plant picked up where it left off last fall. ​It bloomed.
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4-20-2025

​I wish we lived in a nation that cared for its people in the same way I've cared for my tomato plant.
 
Noticing and encouraging signs of growth, no matter how small.
 
Protecting them from harm.
 
Providing them with water, good soil, and plenty of light.
 
Delighting in what they turn out to be, even if they are not what we expect.
 
Valuing them as the gifts that they are.    
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"We've lots to do and a CLUB to grow!"

8/19/2024

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​Our journey with The Everybody Club continues—now with a very fortunate twist! The book has been relaunched by Amicus Ink. Linda and I are thrilled.

How did this come about?

Nearly two years ago, in November 2022, I applied for a short-term copywriting gig with Amicus (located in Mankato and distributed by the Creative Company). I included a variety of EC content in my portfolio. The editor looked the book up on Amazon and had some nice things to say. I was touched that she would take the time to look at EC, and I sent her a PDF so she could see the entire book.

The very next day I received this note:
Thank you so much for sharing!  This is a beautiful book.  Are you and the other creators at all interested in publishing traditionally?  If so, I would love to talk to you about acquiring for our picture book imprint, Amicus Ink. ​

​Mind. Blown.

The day after that, Linda and I met the editor on Zoom.

​And within a couple of weeks, we had a contract. 
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​I have always experienced book publishing as a maddeningly poky business. Delays and disappointments are to be expected. “Better not get your hopes up” is a useful mantra, believe me. But somehow this book effortlessly slipped into a publisher’s hands and is now out in the world in a way we never could ​have accomplished ourselves.

Linda believes that Carissa, her late daughter who inspired the book, has had a hand in all of this.

​I think she’s right. 
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​The Everybody Club at Amicus Ink
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Lucky

12/31/2023

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​My white squirrel died.
 
Of course it wasn’t my white squirrel. It belonged to the neighborhood. And oddly enough, it wasn’t even the first white squirrel—there was another one before it.
 
I live in an 1892 brownstone apartment building in one of the older neighborhoods in St. Paul. When I moved here four years ago, one of the things that charmed me the most was the white squirrel who lived in the ash trees in front of my building. Every time I spotted that bobbing bit of white, I felt that good things were on the way.
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There’s a deck at the back of my building, and even though the light isn’t ideal, I’ve had moderate success growing container plants in my little bit of outdoor space. Maybe because they have to try harder, the cherry tomatoes are especially flavorful. The white squirrel must have thought so, too, because I once caught it sitting on the rail, helping itself to my tomatoes as if they were its birthright. 

 
One day, heading home from a walk, I saw two white blurs ahead of me. The white squirrel sometimes looked like a plastic bag from a distance, so I assumed there were either two plastic bags blowing around or else the white blurs were my squirrel and one bag. I got closer and realized there were actually two white squirrels. Double the luck!
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 The second squirrel started hanging around more often, and if I got close enough I could tell them apart. The original squirrel seemed older, a bit more bedraggled. And soon I didn’t need to be close to tell them apart. The first squirrel showed up one day with half its tail missing. Whenever I saw it, I tried to maintain eye contact. You’re a scrappy one, I thought at it. Good for you.
 
In early spring this year, I got a glimpse of the half-tailed squirrel and was relieved to see that it had made it through the winter. But that one glimpse was all I got. The squirrel never showed up again. I hope it at least got the chance to enjoy a little spring sunshine on its fur.
 
The second squirrel now became the resident squirrel. And occasionally another white squirrel I recognized from my walks dropped by. This third white squirrel had a bristly tail that looked almost like a toilet brush. Its eyes were darker and it wasn’t as shy.
the third white squirrel

I began seeing the resident squirrel more often—in the tree branches in front of my window, along the fenceline across the street, in the shady alcove next to the steps. Sometimes it was in the parking lot. Its flat-footed hop seemed different from that of other squirrels, as if its feet were flippers better suited to water than land.

My mom loved the white squirrels as much as I did. I regularly reported my sightings to her and sent her pictures. When she visited, she stood by my window and watched for white. This past August, I went for a short walk while she waited for me on the bench in front of my building. When I came back, the white squirrel was out and about, giving my mom her own close-up encounter.
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Probably because I always stopped to watch it, the squirrel usually paused for a bit to look back at me. I imagined that it recognized me, that it knew I was a friend.  In mid-November, on a Thursday afternoon, I returned from a walk and there was the squirrel, just a few feet away. We held each other’s gazes longer than we ever had.
 
The following Sunday morning I saw something white and still beneath the ash tree. I knew it wasn’t a plastic bag.
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​My heart sank and I went to the tree with trepidation, not wanting to see what I knew was there. The squirrel didn’t have any visible signs of injury. Its pink eyes were open. It didn’t look particularly peaceful, nor did it look like it had struggled. It just looked gone.

I couldn’t bear the thought of the squirrel being carried away by animals, or remaining there and slowly deteriorating, an object of curiosity and revulsion for passersby. I couldn’t bear the thought of putting it in the dumpster in the alley. I wanted to bury it, but where? I thought about burying it next to the building, but I didn’t have a spade, just a flimsy trowel; and truth be told, I didn’t want my neighbors to wonder about me. And I had to work in the afternoon, so I didn’t have a lot of time to figure this out.

 
My kindhearted friend Sandra gave me my answer. She lives ten minutes away from me and has a house with a yard. She also has a soft spot for animals and has buried a few wild creatures herself. She said I could bury the squirrel beneath her tree. I found a box the right size and lined it with paper towels. With plastic bags on my hands, I placed the squirrel into the box. Its body was already stiff.
 
Sandra had the spade ready and a spot picked out when I arrived. We dug the hole, then opened the box to say goodbye and to give the squirrel a parting gift of cornflakes and pistachios. We placed the box into the ground, covered it with dirt, and marked the spot with pieces of blue pottery. I went on with my day.
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​Six weeks have now passed, and every time I leave my building, I am still keenly aware of the white squirrel’s absence. Those glimmers of delight that punctuated my comings and goings are gone. I keep hoping that the third white squirrel will move into my neighborhood, but so far I’ve only seen it once, blocks away.
 
I’ve been trying to figure out why these white squirrels have meant so much to me. I haven't come up with an answer. All I know is that they did. 
 
For Christmas this year, I bought my mom and me tiny figurines of a white squirrel. I placed mine by a pair of Christmas tree candles that my mom made years ago. The figurines are a bit too cute to convey the spirit of the squirrels, but at least they will provide us with a reminder. We will remember that upwelling of gladness that we experienced so often during these past few years. And we will feel lucky.
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An (Arctic) Blast from the Past

12/22/2022

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 As I write this, we’re on the brink of a widespread winter storm warning. Here in St. Paul, the temperature today has ranged from -5 to -13, and the wind is expected to pick up, creating blizzard conditions and dangerously low windchills. Across the country, weather forecasters have been calling this the coldest Christmas in roughly 40 years.

Thirty-nine years ago, almost to the day, I was stranded in my car during a similar blizzard. I learned a little something about cold and wind—and also about warmth and love.
 
Here’s a piece I wrote as an undergrad at Mankato State University. It was published in Muse, the student literary magazine. And here is the coat in the story. In all of my moves since then, I’ve always kept it tucked away in the back of my closet. It’s a little moth-eaten by now, but I have no plans to discard it. 

And now I think I need to call my mom. Read the piece and you'll know why. :)

​You can access the PDF here 
or keep reading below. (Sorry about the blurry type; I think it's a Weebly thing.)
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Winter 1986
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Down and Through

10/18/2022

4 Comments

 
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​A few weeks ago, I dug out my dad’s old paper cutter. I was getting ready for an Everybody Club event and I needed to cut up cardstock into rectangles for kids to turn into popsicle pennants. It was at the bottom of my closet beneath a pair of boots, the blade taped tightly to the base. I’m not sure when I claimed it, but it must have been after my parents had moved off the farm and into a house in town. By then, Alzheimer’s was casting an ever-darkening shadow in my dad’s mind. He would have had no need for the paper cutter.
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I’d last used the cutter with laminated vocabulary words and other visuals when I was working as a preschool tutor for Reading Corps several years ago. I remember feeling a delightful sense of teacherly industriousness as I prepared my lessons. I adored the inexpensive laminator I’d picked up at Aldi’s; I loved watching as my flimsy printouts turned stiff and shiny. And the paper cutter never failed me. Slice. Slice. Slice.
 
My dad passed away shortly after my service with Reading Corps ended. This time, when I brought out the paper cutter, my thoughts went back to my own childhood: my dad in the basement, the paper cutter on top of our small pool table, and that distinctive metallic sound as the blade came down and through, down and through. What did he need to cut? He directed the choir and served on the music committee at church, so most likely it had something to do with music. I knew I wasn’t to touch the paper cutter myself. I might hurt myself. It was dangerous. When I watched him make cut after cut, I was awestruck. My dad could do dangerous things. He was precise, deliberate, as he was in all he did—the careful upkeep of the farm equipment, the expertly trimmed trees in the grove, the ledger books that didn’t miss a single transaction.​
My rectangles piled up. How I wished I could have shared the journey of The Everybody Club with my dad. He would have embraced the message wholeheartedly. He would have been proud of me—not just for making the book, but for helping my friend find a way to celebrate her daughter’s life. For a little while, the paper cutter brought me back to him, and him to me, and we stood there at my kitchen counter, cutting those rectangles together. ​
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LAST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN giveaway

5/2/2022

7 Comments

 
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Win a hardcover copy
of The LAST Day of Kindergarten!
​
To enter, leave a comment on this blog. Tell me something your child, your students, or you yourself learned during this kindergarten school year. It can be a few words or few paragraphs, whatever you like. (Be sure to check back to see what others have shared!)

On May 13 I will randomly pick an entry and email the winner to get mailing instructions. 

​Congrats to all graduating kindergartners and their people!


YOU DID IT! :)
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Digging Deeper

4/28/2022

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In 2019 and 2020, I taught a few semesters of creative writing at Hennepin Technical College. The best part of the job was being witness to my students' growth. For some students, that growth went beyond a new understanding of elements like plot or description. They learned that the very process of writing can be transformative. 

One student in particular discovered that writing can heal: "It helps you dig deeper within yourself," she told me. She continued to write after the class ended and has sent me some of her work from time to time. With her permission, I'm posting a couple of pieces here. They deal with sexual assault and its aftermath. Since April is both Sexual Assault Awareness Month and National Poetry Month, I thought this would be a good time to share her work. 


Darling, You’re Not Alone
 
The definition of the word is unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against a person's will or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent because of mental illness, mental deficiency, intoxication, unconsciousness, or deception.
 
There is no word that defines what happens to the survivors when this word is finished. 
 
How an agonizing pain tore my limbs apart piece by piece.
 
How I surveyed each piece of my body from head to toe.
 
How I wondered what made my attacker choose me, when did my words no longer matter.
 
How a world that was so full of bright colors became the same shade of gray.
 
My mind and spirit were shattered as if they were made out of glass. My solid foundation was nothing to this demon that was forced upon me.
 
My body gave up, stopped fighting the war within my mind. My body and I slipped away into a comatose state where I merely existed in the world. I was stuck in a crippling depression, stuck in time. I was standing still on the sidewalk on a busy day in the city, thinking I would rather die.
 
I would lie on my bed covered with several blankets to hide my body away. In my mind I was screaming, but my voice was a whisper lying that I was fine.
 
Bathing became a tortuous event that took all life and energy out of me. I couldn’t erase the unclean feeling. How does one clean something that is not dirty on the outside? I couldn’t stand to be touched, not even by my own hand. How could I be the mother I wanted to be if no one could touch me? My children’s bathtub toys all around the edge of the tub.
 
Somehow when I went to work I would shove it all away--my feelings of shame, disgust, fear, pain, numbness, anger, confusion, and loss. Others described my strength and courage as amazing, but some days I had no strength or courage at all. I crumpled against the floor where I would lie and cry. I’d let my fear consume me until I couldn't bear it and I would call out for help. The voices on the other end of the line would always greet me with compassion, empathy, and became my light in my darkest moments. It felt like those voices were right next to me, protecting me in my weakened state. Those voices walked me through the hardest parts of processing what had happened to me.
 
Healing from this word is not a straight line like a lot of people picture it. It’s rather a rollercoaster at night. Sometimes you see light and know what is to come. Other times it’s like you went backwards and you're in the dark again. In those dark moments,  I could hear their voice replaying in my head. They encouraged me to keep going but assured me that it was okay to take a rest, too. Giving up, though, wasn’t an option, not if I wanted to get better.
 
Because of them, I found that my voice, too, had strength and power to help myself and others like me.
 
Do not lose hope, for those darker moments do get easier and they come less and less often. Things you felt you lost will come back. But you need to choose to heal.
 
I hope that you hear me when I say that you are not alone in the battle. If you need someone to be your light and voice on the other line, I pray that you reach out. Darling, you're not alone in the battle.
 
Your strength will shine even brighter than before.
 
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Colors
 
You don't understand what you stole
all the beauty in the chaotic world
colors that vibrated with excitement and energy.
The only color I saw was gray.
All I felt was numbness,
walking through life as a zombie
in the moonlit night
in search of the missing part of me.
You thought it'd be gone for a while.
Yet it returned to me,
bloody and bruised from the war within
but stronger than ever.
I will stand tall
head held high
shout at the top of my lungs
demand justice for things you stole.
I won't back down.
I am damaged,
not shattered.
Your actions made me a victim.
I made myself a survivor.
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Way to Go! Student Writing Recognition

2/23/2022

1 Comment

 
I recently had the privilege of visiting with U.S. elementary students living in Europe. I offered them a couple of writing prompts (from my Weird Things collection, of course) and wow, did their imaginations take off! The students whose work is posted here went "above and beyond," according to their teachers. Enjoy!
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The first group of students wrote in response to this snow globe. 

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​Albert, the Albino Penguin

by A

It was a frigid winter night when an egg hatched and out came a penguin.  He was different than others because he was not black and white like the other penguins. He was just white. His parents loved him and thought he was beautiful and special.  They always told him what makes him different makes him special. But he never knew what was special about him. He had no friends at school.  He would get bullied and laughed at because he was different. They called him names like blanco, colorless, pale, and chalk boy.

One day at school there were fliers that said a swimming competition is coming up.  Albert didn’t now how to swim because when he was little he was made fun of at the swimming pools. He went home to eat dinner and his mom and dad saw that he was gloomy. They asked what was wrong and he showed them the flyer.  His dad told him that it’s never too late to learn how to swim.  He said that it would be too hard to learn but his dad told him anything is possible because he is special. Albert practiced everyday and finally he beat his father in a race.  Then his father knew he was ready for the competition.  When they got to the competition they had to line up. The referee blew the whistle and the penguins started swimming.  Albert was in the lead and crossed the finish line first!

His parents were so proud of him.  Everybody came up to him and wanted to talk to him. AFN news wanted to interview him because he won. They wanted to know about his extraordinary life because he was the only white penguin they had ever seen.  They thought he was amazing! The bullies came up to him and felt bad for what they did and apologized. 

​After that day Albert was able to try new things by simply being himself.  He now has many friends who asked him for help with swimming faster.  Now he has the confidence to know that being different makes him special. 
 
The moral:
 Just because you are different it does not mean you are not capable of doing amazing things.


​The Stuck Penguin Breaking Free
by A


One day there lived a little penguin. He was stuck in a globe for as long as he could remember. The little penguin was tired of it. He wanted to see the real world. He would think of the globe as a glass wall stopping him from leaving. It was his dream to get out of the snow globe.

The little penguin would wait for somebody to break the glass so he could break free. But one day, the little penguin had too much anticipation and decided to push the glass. So he pushed and pushed and pushed and before he knew it, the globe was in the air. The globe had finally fallen off the shelf. He did it! He did break free! As the little penguin was falling, he shouted,“Yippie!”

But when the little penguin had finally reached the ground, the globe shattered. The penguin’s smile had turned into a frown. The little penguin had always thought that he would be happy to get out of his globe,and fulfill his dream, but instead he was upset. The little penguin's home had been shattered. The one he grew up in,and the one his dream came true in. The little penguin cried, and cried wishing that he could go back into his memories. But then it happened, a light bulb appeared over his head. The little penguin climbed up the shelf one by one, taking up the snow globe pieces and some glue up the shelf that he had found lying on the ground. When he made it to the top, he stood in the same spot as before and glued the pieces together delicately, so it wouldn’t break again. But, he made sure that there was one piece that could open and close that way he could leave when he wanted. Once it was finished and dried, the little penguin had a happy tear come out of his eye. The little penguin was finally satisfied, happy, and at home.

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​Penguin
​by C


 
I'm a penguin
alone in this globe,
with a lot of snow.
 
I only have one wish.
one wish is all I need.
 
I want to be with the free,
but who needs the free.
 
 All you can see is a special penguin,
 who is happy to be seen.
 
And that special glowing penguin is me
in the globe.
Where I can enjoy being seen.
 


​The Snowglobe
​by C 

 
​White as the moon, I see
Create a storm just for me
See your chin way up high
Looking at the new white sky
The snowflakes fall on your beak
They just seem so tiny and meek
All unique and one of a kind
They fall like the worries in your mind
So graceful and so you
Stand there in the snowglobe is all you do
Stand there in the snowglobe is all you can do
Nothing else in your mind
Like the snowflakes falling from the sky
The snowglobe is your home
The snowglobe is your heart
It breaks, you fall apart


​The Colorless Penguin
​by D


Once upon a time… there was a mini penguin in a snow globe. There were three  kids, a mom, and a dad. They loved the snow globe and always wrote stories  about it and took pictures of it to show their friends. Once the kids got older and  the parents passed away, the snow globe got lost. The people never saw it again,  but once the man unknowingly walked by and accidentally kicked the plug from  the snow globe into the outlet and the snow globe started to glow! The family  never knew the snow globe could glow, but I don’t think they wanted to. Since  the electricity was going into the snow globe, it electrified the penguin, and the  penguin magically came out of the snow globe and came to life. Oh! Did I mention  the penguin is colorless? Well, he is! The penguin wandered around the house  and wandered outside into the snow. He was very happy to find it was not fake  flakes and he made many snow angels, but he blended into the snow. He wanted  to be different, not one color and not white. He wanted to find his colors and go on an adventure! He wandered back into the house where the woman was  making a painting and she splattered paint all over the penguin, but she only got  one side of him. He was so joyful he got some color. He waddled on. After a little  while the penguin reached the man, where he was making a poster to put on the  walls of a school building, but he spilled some glitter on the other side of the  penguin and it stuck to him. The penguin wandered outside and saw a dog  wearing a sweater. The dog shook his fur, and all the fur went on to the little  penguin. The penguin found a little place to rest. He had been working hard all  day and finally had colors, but as the penguin laid down, he noticed that he had gotten some dirt on him. As he lay there, he fell fast asleep. The next day the  penguin was happy with all his colors… blue paint, green glitter, orange fur, and  brown dirt. He started wondering if he had made any friends. While he was  working on finding his colors, he realized that he would be able to try to make  best friends, but the question is, did he make friends? He wanted to know and  was going to find out, so he went back to his original home and when he got there, he saw his owners standing in front of him and remembering how much they  loved the penguin in the snow globe. Soon the penguin found himself in the snow  globe again. Everything went back to normal, but now he was colorful and glowed  from within. From that day on, the family never forgot about the snow globe.  They told stories about the penguin and because they talked about the penguin so much, they became famous. Everyone loved the family and the penguin! They  all lived happily ever after.
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​The Whitest Penguin

by E
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                On a brisk summer day a little penguin named William was getting ready for his first day of school. “Today will be the best day!” exclaimed William as he looked in the mirror and fluffed his all white feathers. “Honey, time for breakfast.” called William’s mom. William came down the stairs with a happy-go-lucky skip, ate breakfast and headed off to school.
               As William was walking to school, he noticed the other penguins staring. When he arrived he walked up the stairs to the courtyard and suddenly BAM! William felt himself on the ground and realised another penguin had tripped him. When he looked up he saw the other penguins pointing and laughing and then he heard them say “Look at all those white feathers, how weird!” William was heartbroken that the other penguins could be so mean.
During school, all William could think about is what had happened in the courtyard that morning. By the end of the day the only thing William could do was put his head down on his desk and wait for the final bell. The more he thought about what had happened the more bitter he became about his all white feather coat.
               As soon as the final bell rang, William stormed off. He headed straight home, swung open the door and stomped up the stairs. Wondering why her happy-go-lucky penguin wasn’t so happy anymore, William’s mother followed him up the stairs. “What’s wrong sweetheart?” asked William’s mom. “All of the other penguins were staring at me! They tripped me! They pointed and laughed at me! All because of my ugly WHITE feathers!” William began to cry and laid his head down in his mother’s lap.
               “Oh my sweet boy.” whispered William’s mom. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with those beautiful white feathers of yours. You are one of a kind but those feathers don’t make you who you are. You are kind, you are loving, you are caring and most of all you are loved.” William slowly lifted his head to look at his mother and said “But Mama the other kids….” and William’s mother quickly said “We are all different, William. We are different in our own way.” William looked at his mother and smiled and said, “You mean everyone is different?” She smiled back at him and said “Yes my sweet boy, we are all different.”
               William enjoyed the rest of the night with his family, went to bed and got up the next morning to get ready for school. He looked in his mirror, fluffed his wonderful white feathers, skipped joyfully down the stairs, ate his breakfast and proudly walked to school. When William got to the stairs, he took a big breath and headed to the courtyard. When he got to the top of the stairs another penguin said “Hi, my name is Emily, do you want to be friends?” William smiled and knew it was going to be a great day!

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​
The Happy Penguin  
by E ​



​Little penguin, was different from the others,
 
His feathers as white as snow

His parents had left him
 
He had no sisters and no brothers,
 
His eyes filled with tears from sadness
 
A long time passed by
 
Days, weeks, months, and years
 
He grew up
 
Got married
 
Had a little penguin of his own
 
He was happy
 
He wished
 
And Wished
 
And Wished
 
That his parents were there,
 
To see his Wife and kid
 
But he was still happy though they were gone
 
His little penguin had grown
 
And was almost leaving
 
And he was still happy
 
It was great that his child had
 
gone to start a life of his own
 
He was so happy for his child
 
He had heard that his wife had died
 
He was so sad and his eyes filled,
 
with tears as if they could fill the ocean 
 
But he had heard on the same day,
 
That his child was getting married
 
And he was still happy……………


​Paisley Penguin
and the Snow Globe Catastrophe

by E
​

           Once upon a time there was a penguin who lived in a snow globe. Her name was Paisley. Paisley loved her snow globe. Paisley always looked out the glass.But on a fine morning she was picked up  by a human. She was scared about leaving the place she had been her whole life. But she was excited about seeing new things. As the human was walking to the car the human dropped paisley’s snow globe! paisley was devastated and scared. The glass was all over the place! But then after dropping the snow globe paisley was amazed and surprised that the human picked up all of the  glass of the Ground her and her shattered snowglobe. When she was fixed she was very happy.           
               Now at a new place her snow globe was different. When she looked out the glass she saw a key. A little human came over and twisted the key then paisley felt her beak move. Then the human exclaimed look mommy the penguin singing. The little human twisted the key looking thing every time paisley stopped singing. The little human did this until it grew dark outside. The next morning she twisted the key looking thing again and she twisted it until it grew dark like she did the before day. The next morning the little human saw the key looking thing fell of! The little human put it on really easily. She could sing again. But the key looking thing kept on falling of. Then one day the taller human wasn't looking where her hands were and she knocked the snow globe over.
           The little human heard the noise and came right over. The little human saw the shattered snow globe and asked if it could be fixed. The taller human said that the snow globe could not be fixed but they can put paisley in a new snow globe like the she was in. Paisley was taken to the same place she was taken before. She was put in a new snow globe. Now her snow globe was not breaking and she sang happily when the little human twisted the key looking thing. She was happy from then on. 

​The End


​The Snowglobe

by I

​  
A thick, powdery layer of snow covered the ground. A frozen lake sat silently. The spindly trees swayed in the early-morning breeze. The sweet song of colorful birds drifted on the wind. It was a calm, peaceful morning. A girl sprang from. She reached for a snowglobe with a penguin in it. She had shelves of snowglobes of snow globes but she loved this one the best. “Annie? Are you up?” her mom called from downstairs. “Yes, one second!” Annie replied as she darted around the room. She pulled on a pink T-shirt, navy leggings, a coral-pink skirt, and her coat. Lastly, she grabbed one polka-dot sock and one striped sock. “Ugh! What are you wearing?” asked her teen-aged sister JJ. “I never dressed like that when I was ten!” she went on. She thought she was so cool in her leather jacket, ripped jeans, and beanie. “Why are you holding a snowglobe? You know that’s not safe with our brother.” Sure enough, a few minutes later, they were dodging foam bullets being fired by her eight-year-old brother, John. Finally, her mom got the bullets and was not happy. “You! Go to your room!” When he didn’t listen she added “NOW!” He started walking glumly upstairs. “Ok, bye!” I said as I ran upstairs, grabbed John, my brother, and we exited the house through the backdoor. “POWERS! HERE I COME!” he yelled, but Annie quickly covered his mouth. “Quiet” she hissed. “Ok,” he whispered back. Annie shook her snowglobe and it glowed brightly. Then the light sank into Annie. “Ok, your turn,” she told him in a hushed tone. He slowly took it, but his hands shook the whole time. He shook it, and finally, it began to glow. The light sank into John too! “Come here,” Annie told him as she put her snowglobe away in her bag.
 
They walked to the coast and Annie began picking up huge rocks. One rock, two rocks, THREE! He walked over but couldn’t pick one up. “Your power must be something else…I know!” Annie exclaimed excitedly. She ran to a massive rock. She picked it up so it was taller. Then she leaned it against the cliff. She climbed onto another rock and leaped onto the tallest one. John followed, but he wasn’t as graceful. “Ok,” Annie said when they both were on top. “We jump on three,” she told him. “What?” She grabbed his hands and said “ONE!” They moved to the edge. “TWO!” They got ready to jump. “THREE!” They leaped off and plummeted toward the jagged rocks below. Suddenly, they lurched to a stop mid-fall. John’s eyes were squeezed shut, but without a doubt, John was making them fly. Slowly, he opened one eye, then the other, and his face lit up. A mischievous grin spread across his face as they shot like a rocket into the clouds. A plane came too close for comfort and John lost his concentration and they fell until Annie grabbed the side of a rock and they were clanging above the razor-sharp rocks below. “That’s enough for today,” said Annie as she flung herself onto the rock and John floated on top. When they got home, Annie whispered into John’s ear. “The snowglobe doesn’t give us our powers, it just shuts them down while we’re at home.” “Cool,” breathed John as they stepped inside their inviting home.
 
The next morning was hard. John ran into Annie’s room as soon as the first sun rays of dawn appeared. When they were ready, they turned their powers on and headed to the town. They helped move trees, fix houses, and pick up litter. “Wow, the park sure looks better without all the trash an-” John was saying when he was cut off by a low rumble that shook the ground. Then, a giant robot broke through the ground. It was shaped like a T-rex and let out a roar so loud they had to cover their ears. A man stepped out of the T-rex’s mouth. He was very tall and herculean, but he was covered from head to toe metal. “Annie Cook! John Cook! Come forth and fight!” the man sneered. They tramped forward, but Annie ripped off one of its legs and used it to battle the robotic tyrant of the dinosaurs. “Fools!” the metal man yelled “I am Metal, you can’t stop me!” Metal pulled out a button and pressed it. When he did, other robots charged rapidly through the park. A pterodactyl flew up after John while Annie was surrounded by rabid-raptor-robots. She grabbed her snowglobe and threw it. The nearest robot lunged to catch it. When it did, it grabbed it and brought it back to Metal! He laughed triumphantly and called his robots back into the T-rex, and he followed. After he was gone, John came down to stand by Annie. His lip was swollen and he was cut up pretty badly. Annie’s leg hurt really bad and she had a gash across her cheek. She checked her bag and saw her magic snowglobe was still there. “A fake, you gave him a fake?” John realized. “My leg hurts, let’s go home,” Annie told him. “That sounds good,” he replied and the two of them limped home.
 
“WHAT HAPPENED!” their mom screamed when they walked in Annie shrugged-then winced. John faked laughing, “Let’s get you to the hospital,” their mother said. When they walked out of the doctor, Annie had stitches and a broken leg, and John had a bandaged wrist and he was holding an ice-pack to his lip. “Wow you two, wow,” their mom said. She held out her phone and the news was on. It showed their whole fight with Metal! She pulled them in for a big hug. “Wow, I am so glad you didn’t die,” JJ told them. “Really?” John and Annie asked in unison. “Really,” she told them. The whole family pulled in for a group hug. Even their dad came and hugged them. “You’re on the news!” he told them. “We know,” everyone told him. “Ha, ha, ha” he laughed and pulled in more. That moment was perfect and nothing less.
 
At home, the family sat down on the couch together to watch the news. The reporter talked about some strange battle in the park. “It was said that a man wearing metal was fighting kids!” the reporter yelled. “Thousands of people are coming to this park to see the dinosaur footprints” the reporter went on. “We love all of you,” their dad said when JJ pulled away. “We love you guys too,” Annie told them. She couldn’t help smiling. 


​The White Penguin

by J
​

Once upon a time there was a colony of penguins. There was a little penguin named Zack that had no black on him. As he grew up he was made fun of at school and he had only one friend, his name was Steve. Steve was a different kind of penguin; he was from a different colony of penguins. He never knew his parents because they had abandoned him when he was a baby. So he was raised by two nice parents Lily and Liam. One day at school Zack and Steve  were going to sit down and eat their lunch the bullies they hated came and sat at the table in front of them. The bullies were really mean and they liked to pick on kids a lot. Especially Zack and Steve. They think the bullies come to support their leader Shifter; he was the meanest kid in school. They also came to bully kids. When Zack and his buddy were going to play. The bullies were cheating when they were playing soccer. They kept making fun of the players. They thought of a really good plan! Then Zack and Steve came and had a little talk with them. Then they ran off the field crying. Wow, I did not think that would work!


​Frozen in Time
by J


​The snow seemed everlasting. It has been seven days and the weather has not been touched. Not a blizzard, just light snowfall. The days got harder, more of a fight for survival. There was a small dinosaur with white, beige and black through the torso to the vertebrae. Some black feathers around the eyes and others running down the arms and the center portion of its tail. The trees around darkened every corner. It was rare for a lot of snow to get through the thick brush. A little teenage dromaeosaurus saw something familiar and hid, crouched behind a thick tree. Snow covering the cold moist mulch.
 
There was a moment of silence then she saw a lone struthiomimus probably separated from its group by an attack by another carnivore. It was walking in a medium sized opening between the snow and the forest. The dromaeosaurus bared it’s claws. The struthiomimus still had not yet seen dromaeosaurus. By the time the struthiomimus noticed the trouble, it was already down to the ground by the great feet of the dromaeosaurid. The feet thumped the struthio to the snow, took a quick deep bite in the long curved neck of the struthiomimus and caused it to weaken. The pupils became smaller and then the eyes were closed. Finally, the dromaeosaurus hungrily started to eat, but in the wild there is always competition. Just a few minutes later something possibly fatal happened. A strange sound startled the feeding dromaeosaurus. It looked around to the abyss of snow covered trees and bushes and saw another dromaeosaurus. Standing… Staring… Stalking…


​The White Penguin

by L

​  
 There was once a white penguin. He was white from head to toe. He was born that way. He was a happy penguin until he started school. All the other little penguins bullied him. A few years passed and he is older now and is in intermediate school, and that's where our story begins…
 
It was the first day of fourth grade and the white penguin walked the arctic streets alone, looking like no other penguin. He could feel all eyes on him.
 
He walked to class and took a seat right next to me. We did some math and then went to lunch and recess. I noticed that the white penguin was swinging on a swing alone.
 
I was going to walk over there to swing but Mack Charter, the biggest bully out there, got there first and started singing the song he sings to all oddballs: “Oddball Oddball, you're so odd, you don’t fit in with any pod!”  Mack then laughed and waddled away.
 
I ran over to the white penguin and sat on a swing to his left. I then said, “ Don’t let him get inside your snowglobe White Penguin. I saw what happened.” He looked me in the eye and then looked at the ground.
 
“My name is Bo,” he said, “not White Penguin.”  “Oh, I’m sorry,” I replied, “my name is Juila.”  “ Don’t I sit next to you in class?” Bo asked. “Yep!” I responded. BBRRRIIINNNGGG!!!! “Oh that's the bell. Come on, friend!” I called, already two steps away from the swings.
 
Bo caught up to me, smiled and said, “ I’ve never had a friend before.” I smiled back and we walked to class together.
 
A couple weeks passed and Bo and I spent all our time together. All was happy until now. Only one word: Mack Charter. He was back. And this time he sang his song to Bo even louder.: “ ODDBALL ODDBALL, YOU’RE SO ODD, YOU DON'T FIT IN WITH ANY POD!!”  But this time, instead of getting upset Bo stood up and said “ You know Mack? I will not let you get inside my snowglobe. I think it is cool that I am different from the rest, and if you don’t see that I feel really bad for you.”
 
I grinned and Mack looked shocked. Then he quickly waddled away. Since then on Bo walked with his beak held high and proud.
 
When I think about him I think of a brave, powerful, kind soul. 
                            The Mighty Bo!


​​Lies of the Penguins
by L


I am a nobody. That is a stone cold fact as hard as Antarctic ice. It is like I don’t exist. Even when I was born, it took the nurses an hour to find me. All the other penguins either don’t realize I’m there or just pretend like I’m not. I have been discriminated against and an object of disgust since I was born.
 
My parents were shocked and ashamed to give birth to a pure white. That’s the proper term but everyone calls them snowy’s. I am the only one in my tribe so my parents are on their own. Each of them are quite respected officials in our tribe, but that just puts all the more shame and disgust on me. 
 
When I was born, everyone was excited, I mean the giving of birth is important. The hunters had come back from the sea and each had lots of fish. My mother was in her cave when she had me and everyone was happy until the nurse showed me to everyone. Nobody could see the baby, until they finally realized that I was a runt, a pure white.
 
Now, it was even more embarrassing and shameful because the Trial of the Moon is about to start where each and every single child at 11 years old was given his job. In my case all runts at the trial of eleven were sentenced to death. It’s not like they chop off your head or anything, but you are banished from the tribe and sent off in the Antarctic wild. They banish us early so we don’t survive long.
 Our entire charter is based on how Thomas Quack the First governed our journey and later our new tribe was to forgive penguins so the persecutors have to be forgiving to stay pure. That's why they let snowy’s stay with our tribe for 11 years. You’re probably wondering who Thomas Quack the first was. He was the penguin who led our people across this barren desert of ice to the valley where we are now. He was also the first Emperor of the tribe and is my great, great, great, great, great grandpa. Although because I am snowy I cannot say that in public.
 
Not to mention that my family’s list of accomplishments include the fact that my parents do hold important government positions as high justices who help guide the emperor to making the right judgements. Yet, if I thought that I could ask them for help, think again. All my Mom or Dad talks about is banishing me and getting the Quack family honor back.
 
My plan is to escape the morning of the Trial so I have some supplies for when I’m in the wilderness. I will find a cave and camp there and sneak in the village and grab the most I can without revealing myself.  I have tunnels that lead to the outskirts of town and to all the alleyways in the town. If I could escape before they
 
“ Roger, get down here or I’ll banish you earlier than the trial next week,” My mom screamed.
 
I ran downstairs and bowed. “Yes guardian.”
 
Yeah it’s sad, that I can’t call her mom, but because I am a snowy, nobody in my family wants to be related to me so I can only call them guardian.
 
“ Get your work done Roger, I might as well get some use out of you while I still can,” she said.
 
…
 
Hours later, I sat lying in my barren room of the twigs I had collected for my nest. I waited for five minutes while I heard my mom stepping into her cave. Then I took out the rocks I had set on a tunnel to my real room. The one I had been building my whole life. It was beautiful with Twigs and snow that was comfortably set around it. I had fish stock piled from dinners, and an ice couch.
 
“Oh, come on.” The couch had shifted to another side of the room again. I walked over put my back against the wall, and
 
“Ahh!” The entire wall clapped behind me as I tumbled down a steep set of stairs. I stopped with a loud thunk at the bottom. After taking a minute to gain my senses I realized I was in a huge cave. It was dark so I ran back and grabbed a light. . After holding it up against the wall I saw drawings.
 
They were penguins obviously, but there was one white mark in the shape of a penguin, and it was leading the way while others were following it! 
 
Yet, the mentors of the young told us that the Whites on the journey to our home had stolen food and the great Thomas Quack the First had graciously let them stay. Thomas had eventually led them to the valley where we are now.
 
I took a closer look at the symbols next to the white figure. Although, as a snowyI shouldn't have any education, our system of language is simple so I have picked it up over the years.
 
“What no, no!” that’s not possible. Thomas Quack the First was snowy!


​The Story of the Cursed Penguin
​by M

 
Sir Robin the penguin has a very sad life. He lives in a snowglobe by himself cursed to stand still and do nothing for an eon. The very story of why he was cursed is too violent for kids, so I will tell you the age-appropriate version of the story.

Fifty-thousand years ago during the Ice Age there was a special penguin named John. John was a special penguin because he excelled at everything from swimming and fishing, to math and science. Nobody messed with him because he was very strong and they knew if they tried to take him, they would get hurt. Over time he got older and only got better and better at things. Eventually, he was an adult and became the leader of the village. He was a strong leader that conquered more land for his tribe and caught so much fish in one area that they had to keep moving to a new place. After a while their tribe was so big and strong every penguin in the world was part of it, and so they built a thriving empire in the middle of the Arctic where it was the coldest. He ruled with a firm but gentle fist and had everything he wanted: gallant and brave soldiers, bright young children at the schools, and a stable economy. Everyone was very rich and happy and this continued for years to come.

“You’re the best, king John. You are even better than a fish sandwich,” his subjects often cheered.
 
After 20 years, John was growing old, and he knew it. He needed to decide who would become the next ruler because he didn’t have any children. After many months of thinking and thoroughly observing, he decided who would be the next king. He decided it would be Robin, his second in command and the general of the army. Robin was very brave and had risked his life many times for the king.

Ten years later John passed away and Robin took the throne. Lots of people were sobbing uncontrollably for weeks about his death. Robin was a very good king and made laws that John had failed to put in place. After about one year, something very unexpected happened. Robin went to the bank overnight, stole all the money, fled into the night, and was never seen again.

Well, there’s actually more to the story than this so let me finish. John, the former king, had set up a security system in case any nasty thieves wanted all the money. The security system was a tripwire, so when you stepped over it a spell was cast on you, turning you into a statue inside a snowglobe and cursed to stay like that forever. The snowglobe is a very terrible fate indeed, because the trapped are fully conscious the whole time and fully aware of what is happening around them but unable to move or speak. When Robin stepped over the tripwire, there was a blinding flash of green light – trapped forever!

​That was the fate that Robin endured and sadly nobody knows what happened to the penguin empire after that.


​Flopp’s Adventure

by N

​
In San Diego Zoo, there was a family of penguins. There was the mom penguin, dad penguin, and their three kids, Flury, Flake, and Flopp. Flopp was the youngest. She always felt left out when her sisters played games. Flury was the oldest, prettiest, and just the best at everything.

One day, Flopp just could not take it anymore. So, she ran away. But, she only got to the end of her cage before she realized it was impossible to escape the complex zoo. Consequently, she told her mom all about it, hoping she would give her advice. Or, better yet, ground Flury and Flake. Mom was no help. Flopp thought long, and hard, and decided to dig a hole.

​Flopp managed to work her way through to her neighbor, Sally, the elephant’s room. Flopp noticed that zookeepers had just painted Sally’s wall. They left an enormous bucket of white paint on the ground, so Flopp jumped in it. She became all white. No one could wash it off. She tried dunking in the water, washing under the hose, and rubbing her feathers. Not even the zookeepers could get it off with a bath. When she gave up on getting it off, she realized that it looked pretty, and so did her sisters. But from that day on, Flopp was even more beautiful than her older sister, Flury, and was never left out again because of her shimmering, gleaming, whiteness.


​Penguin March

by N

Penguins small, big and tall march through wind and snow. Stomping feet shake the ground as the storm rages on.

Penguins slip and slide against the cold ice. They yell and call falling into the sea. They climb to shore squawking as loud as can be.

​The moon shines softly in the sky. The snow begins to fall as the penguins march on through the night. 

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The second group of students wrote in response to this fuzzy, sparkly snowman.

​
​The Snowman
​by E


​Dear old snowman, big and bright you bring to me the morning light. A blanket of snow covers the land but you will always give me a hand. Outside in  the cold snow and ice is oh so bold. Friendly man made of snow I’d like to say, “oh no.” Your melting snowman summmer has come. Don’t cry dear child, I'll be back next winter.
 
​
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wrote this because it reminds me of the snowman my friend and I made back in Alaska.

​ 
​Snow Days
​by E

 
I wake up and see large fluffy flakes. Falling from the sky so beautiful as if they were fake. Bundled up to go out and play. Hat, gloves, and snow pants so warm I stay. I feel the snow melting into my gloves so wet. So focused on playing that I don’t fret. I take time to make a special friend With arms made of snow that stand out straight and don’t bend. Beautiful buttons I use made of pearl. I place on the coat of my little snowgirl. I grab my sled and head for the hill. Zooming down with my friends we laugh and shiver with a chill. Coming inside from the cold  snowy storm I smell the fireplace burning while I get warm. As my snow day ends with the fire warming my toes. I taste creamy hot chocolate with the perfect amount of marshmallows.
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​Pretty Little Snowman
by E 
​

Pretty little snowman, so content in every little way, pretty little snowman, your carrot nose bright orange. Pretty little snowman, your beady little eyes are like black pearls at the bottom of the sea. Pretty little snowman we have to say goodbye but please don't cry, the sun is coming up and you'll just melt away but we’ll see you again next Christmas again we’ll get to play.


​Winter Wonderland

by O

​
The snowman reminded me of the first time it snowed while my family lived here in Germany.

When me and my 7-year-old brother, David, woke up we peeked out the window hoping to find a winter wonderland. Our wishes were granted with a snow covered town. We were so happy to finally have a snow day.
 
Me and David's excitement bubbled up as we watched the snow fall and stick to the ground. We were not allowed to go outside yet because it was still dark out. When it was time to go outside we invited some good friends from the neighborhood to join up in the rolling hills behind the house.
 
Donna, Lilly, and Brenna brought two inner tubes. Two people sat on a single inner tube. I sat with Brenna. Donna and Lilly held my feet so we were connected. We flew down the big hill. Sometimes the inner tubes would spin around. When it would slow down the snow would go down my shirt. We also made a snow fort and a snowman.
 
When we got home we got in dry clothes, made steaming cups of hot chocolate, and settled under the soft fluffy blanket for a movie.

​
​
Falling Snow
by L


​Falling snow from above, people as comfortable as can be.
Happy family time for all for all it shall be, having fun with family
sledding, building a snowman, making hot chocolate and way more.
Happy for me, happy for you and most importantly for all, the holidays give
me a gift of happiness and I hope the holidays give us the best spirit too,
​My holiday is your holiday.


​This student combined prompts and wrote about a snowman AND a penguin!


​A Snowman named Frost
by T


Once there was a snowman named Frost. Frost was a caring snowman. In fact he was the nicest snowman in town.  He was having a normal day when he saw a penguin chick without its mom and dad.  Frost decided to take the little chick home because it wouldn't survive all alone in the wild. Frost brought the chick home and made him a little area with ice slides, igloos, and a pond with fish.  Frost thought the chick needed a friend, so Frost decided that it would be a good idea to open an animal shelter.  Frost made a gigantic shelter for animals, but needed a name for it.  Frost thought about it, then he got an idea. He called it a Zoo because he thought the name was bewildering.
 
Frost started getting animals like penguins, emperor penguins, snow petrels, arctic terns, springtails, arctic foxes, and Brush-tailed penguins because penguins live in the Antarctic. Frost researched what the animals eat and asked other snowmen for donations for the animals. He also let other snowmen come, learn, and see the animals. Frost also put on shows with the first penguin chick that started the whole zoo project.
 
One day it was warm. Frost had to go inside to get cold to stop himself from melting. The next day, it was warm again. Frost was feeding the animals during his lunch break when someone knocked on his door.  Frost opened the door and saw something he had never seen before..  Frost saw a creature that called itself a human. He pondered what the human was doing at his house. The human taught Frost about the seasons.  The human said at one point it will be summer and it will get boiling hot.  All the snowmen will melt during the hotter seasons.  The human also said that he would take care of Frost’s animals when he melts.  Frost agreed to let the human take care of his animals at the shelter on one condition. The  human had to agree to remake Frost every year when it snowed, so he could see his friend the penguin. The human agreed.  Frost melted shortly after. As Frost melted he was afraid that the human wouldn't keep his promise. But he had no choice.
 
Every year, the human recreate Frost.  Frost's bond with the penguin will live forever.  Also, because of Frost, humans make snowmen every year and are able to relish Zoos all over the world.                                                      

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Carissa's Everybody Club

1/17/2022

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by Linda Hayen

​Before I approached Nancy about the Everybody Club book idea, I had found a couple of the original badges that Carissa made years ago.  We used these as inspiration during the process of creating the book.  As we worked on the book off and on from May 2013 until March 2020, more memories about Carissa’s club gradually came back to me. I knew there was more memorabilia somewhere; I just didn’t know where.
​
Then I moved.  And I finally went through all of the boxes of Carissa’s things that had been sitting in the basement for 20 years.  About halfway down a large box of school papers and projects, I found them: Carissa’s original documents for her club.  
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​pin, motto, club colors, flag, membership card, and oath
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club song, badges, and awards
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​Todd's attendance records
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My first thought was that it was unfortunate I had not found these things earlier, but I quickly realized it was all good. In fact, it seemed like a sign from Carissa to keep going. And Nancy was happy and relieved that the book aligned so well with Carissa’s ideas.
​

We hope that the guidelines Carissa made for her own club so long ago will provide inspiration for lots of future Everybody Clubs!
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A New Cover for THE EVERYBODY CLUB

11/10/2021

1 Comment

 
​
​Around the time 
The Everybody Club came out last spring, Linda moved to a new home. In the process of packing, she discovered a treasure trove of her daughter’s writings about the club that was the inspiration for our book. Here, directly from Carissa, is the Everybody Club’s motto:
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​I love that Carissa included the word “learn” in this motto. What a powerful word that is! It suggests growth, openness, positive change.
 
In the process of making The Everybody Club, Linda and I learned a lot. We learned that there can be many solutions to the same problem. We learned that sometimes we had to let things go. We learned that patience is essential. But the most important lesson we learned had to do with the book’s cover.

Almost as soon as the book came out, we realized we’d made a mistake. The white characters were much more prominent than the characters of color—which didn’t represent the theme of the book at all. The excitement of launching 
The Everybody Club was replaced with a heartsick feeling that stayed with me for weeks. 
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How could I have let this happen? (I say “I” and not “we” because I was the one with experience in children’s publishing. This was on me.) While there are no excuses, there are reasons, and I think it’s useful to fully explore those reasons in order to prevent such mistakes in the future.

​First, the main image was pulled from an interior spread that included many characters. In its entirety, the image 
did show diversity, and I must have projected that idea onto the cover image.
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Also, the three white characters in the center of the book represented real people to us. The girl in the center was Carissa, Linda’s daughter, the voice of the book. The boy in the wheelchair was Phil, Linda’s son. The girl in the scarf was Lydia, a friend’s daughter who died of cancer when she was nine years old. We were seeing these characters differently than readers would.
​
​I’m sure that decision fatigue also played a part. We went through so, so many revisions of 
The Everybody Club, feeling our way through the process—not only with creating the book itself but also with the byzantine maze of independent publishing.
 
But if I had done one simple thing, we could have avoided this situation. If I had made a conscious decision to see the cover through the eyes of our readers, all of our readers, I would have seen at a glance that the white faces formed an unbroken arc in the center of the cover, and that’s what the eye was drawn to.
 
I didn’t make that conscious decision, though. I took for granted that I could trust my instincts. In other words…white privilege.
 
White privilege says that a white person can assume that the world is a certain way, that this view is the norm, and that anything else can be measured against it. But, of course, this assumption is unfair, hurtful, and not rooted in reality. White privilege is a distorted lens. I knew that, and I should have consciously, intentionally, mindfully chosen a different lens. I didn’t.
 
Linda and I decided that it was necessary to replace the cover. We wanted to feel good about The Everybody Club, to have a clear conscience and to know in our hearts that we had put in our best effort. It hasn’t been easy. While Yana Zybina, the illustrator, readily agreed to make a new cover illustration, scheduling conflicts and illness caused many delays. Then we faced myriad challenges uploading the revised files to IngramSpark and KDP.
 
But we did it. Here, at long last, is our new cover. 
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I’m sharing our learning experience in the hope that it will do someone, somewhere, some good. We can all learn from each other, whether we are sharing our triumphs or our mistakes.
 
Carissa got it right: Include Everyone, Learn, and You’ll Have Fun.
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    Nancy Loewen author photo

    Nancy Loewen

    is a children's book author, editor, tutor, mom of two adult children and one feisty cat, and collector of weird things.  
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"Books are the plane, and the train, and the road.
They are the destination, ​and the journey. They are home."
​   ​~ Anna Quindlen
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