Category: Junior Literary

Have you ever had a sleepover that lasted for an entire week? Well I have. Way back in second grade, 11 years ago, my best friend Dannica was in the middle of moving houses so she came to stay with me at my house for a week. It was the best week ever. We had so much fun. She even brought her dog Rosie. I remember when she first arrived, the first thing we did was set up Rosie’s little pen thingy and instead of putting her in the pen, we put her on the kitchen table. I should probably also mention that Rosie was a teacup chihuahua so she fit on the table perfectly. When we brought Rosie outside to go to the bathroom, we had to bring her on a leash because she was so small she would fit right through the fence boards. At the time, the two dogs my family already owned, Clouseau and Mai-Tai, would always go to the bathroom in this one spot in the yard which ended up killing all the grass in that one spot. Mai-Tai had an excuse. She was blind so she didn’t want to go far in the yard. I think. I don’t really remember, it’s been a while. Clouseau was just a lazy, raggedy old dog so he would go to the bathroom in that one spot and then dart off running across the yard. After a while, my dad had enough of the dead grass and got some grass patch thingies from the hardware store to put down. The dogs killed them. Next he got more grass patches and he also got some little fencing. He did all of this before Dannica and her mom were staying with us but that’s not the point. The point is, there was a little fenced in space small enough for Rosie to not escape and to go to the bathroom but there was one problem. Dogs weren’t allowed in it. I of course ignored that and told Dannica to put Rosie in the little fenced in grassed area. As we went back inside and I thought we got away with it, we walked into the living room and my dad had called me back into the kitchen. I had been caught.

While Dannica was staying at my house I had this huge dry erase board that you would see at a school on the wall. My mom brought it home one day from god knows where. I loved it. Dannica and I had fun using it to practice our spelling words every night when my dad would call them out to us. We would sit on little plastic stools and swap out our markers for a new color for every word.

When it finally came time for Dannica and her mom to leave, Dannica and I were so sad. We had so much fun together. We loved being able to be in the same class together at school and then being able to go home together afterwards. It was all so much fun.

For those of you who think soulmates are lovers, they may be. But they can also be your best friends. I’m very lucky to have met Dannica in 1st grade and to still be friends with her and I hope we will remain friends for the rest of our lives.

So, I’m sure a lot of you write Figure Poetry, or whatever it’s called where you write a poem that looks like what it’s describing. Well for this week’s post, I wanted to share a tip, or a time saver if you will, that could help with whatever you’re trying to write your poem as. 

Below is an example of what I’ve written before using this trick.

This poem is about how the moon. She wishes she would be pulled down into the arms of her lover. The way I got the figure of the poem was really simple and I’ll explain the process in just a few steps.  By the way, I forgot to mention that this is for Google Docs. I’m not sure how to do it for other typing programs. 

So first. You’ll want to decide what you want your poem to resemble. 

For instance, I chose a simple shape, the moon.
(More complex shapes may be harder to write). 

Once you’ve picked your idea, go to Google or some other search engine and look up images of that.

Once you’ve found your perfect image, drag it to your desktop on your computer from the search engine. Your image should now be on your desktop home screen. 

From there, you open Google Docs and create a new document.
Drag the image you selected earlier onto the new document. 

Once you have your image on your new document, you’ll click the image, outlining it in a blue rectangle, bringing up a few options near the bottom of the picture. Among the options you will see a Behind text option. You’ll click that first. (This puts the image behind the words which  you’ll be typing later)

Then once You’ve applied that option, you’ll go back and click the three dots option that was just beside it. A group of options will appear, you’ll click on the Adjustments Option, (second to last.) Then a bar will slide out from the right-hand side of your screen.

A number of sliding bars will appear, you’ll want to focus on the Opacity section. 

Bring the opacity slider to the left, (this affects the image visibility.) Make sure the image is just barely visible.  Then you’ll click off the adjustments area and begin writing. It will take a few tries to get the wording perfectly aligned with the barely visible image, but it will work eventually.
You’ll have to use space, enter, and tab, to get on the right lines.

Once you’ve finished writing your masterpiece, simply click the image, and either drag it off the piece of paper, or click backspace on your keyboard to delete it.   

And there you go, a perfect figure poem.  I hope this helps! 

Do you remember back in like 2019 when on TikTok there was that sound that went like, “ayo best friend check”? Well I just randomly remembered that. Anyway this time I’m writing about one of my friends who doesn’t get enough credit. His name is Aiden. We go way back. We go so far back that my other best friend, Ava, who I’ve been friends with for 10 years gets jealous because I’ve been friends with Aiden for longer.

I should probably start off with how we met but honestly, the story starts waaayy before that. Years ago our dads met in school and quickly became friends. Luckily they stayed friends throughout the years and as life went on and they got married, they were still friends. Aiden’s dad, Mr. Rich and my dad had grown up in New Orleans, Louisiana. After getting married and having kids, my dad moved with our family to Gulfport, Mississippi and Mr. Rich moved with his family to I think Daphne, Alabama. Even though we were an entire state away, we still made time to visit each other. Aiden and I were always stuck to each other like glue because we got along so well and we were only a few months apart.

One of my favorite memories of visiting Aiden was when I was about 5 years old, we were over at Aiden’s house visiting and I was chasing him through his house. As we were running through his dining room I suddenly stopped and asked him what was on the kitchen table. It was this weird brown miniature house with candy and white frosting all over it. I had never seen one before. He told me it was a gingerbread house. That was the day I learned what a gingerbread house was.

Sadly, Aiden and I lost contact for about six years and our families didn’t visit each other at all during those times but recently over the summer we reconnected. I had learned that Aiden and his family had moved to New Orleans and he had learned that my parents had started getting a divorce. We’ve seen each other two more times since the summer but it still hasn’t been enough to fully reconnect. However, what I will say is that when Aiden and I saw each other for the first time in six years over the summer, it was so freaking awkward. After a bit of talking it was like we had spent no time apart. Now we text every couple of days to check in with each other and make sure we’re doing ok.

For those of you who are reading this, please check in with your friends. Especially long distance friends. Don’t let yourself go too long without talking to your friends. Even if your only form of communication is by mailing letters, do it. Don’t let anything get in the way of your friendship.

From ants trekking across the ground, to the fish swimming in the abyss, to the birds soaring through the sky, the world around us is full of life. However, living in a world with cars and houses, sometimes its easy to forget that. I used to look at common birds and think nothing of it, but now I can’t help but get elated upon seeing them. I wonder what their lives are like. What has the crow outside done today? Did the stray dogs in the parking lot sleep well? Did the frog on the rock see anything interesting?

This type of thinking has given me a whole new appreciation of the world and its inhabitants. I’ve had many small encounters with creatures that remain fresh in my mind today, and though these encounters might not mean much in the grand scheme of things, they feel special to me. Today, I want to share some of these moments! Unfortunately I only have pictures for one, but I’ll put it in!

Late Night Doe of Early Morning

I’ve never considered myself a light sleeper, but its occurred to me that I probably am. Recently I awoke from slumber at 3:20 AM, the sound of crunching leaves reaching my ears. At first I didn’t want to get up, but then my brain hit me with the, “What if it’s a cool animal?” And I cannot argue with that. I stood up faster than I ever have, sleepily-but-also-somehow-very-wide-awakenly moving aside the white curtains blocking my view, and lo and behold, there was a brown doe standing in the moonlight. I didn’t know what she was doing here, especially since I live right next to a loud workshop and neighborhood, but she was unbothered. I don’t know if she even noticed me. I watched her walk to the front of my house with effortless elegance. After writing what I saw down, I went back to sleep.

I wonder what that deer was doing there? I don’t know what she could have gained from walking through my yard. Whatever her reason, I hope she’s doing well.

Light Searching Luna Moth

Bonk, bonk, bonk. Reading in my bed at night, I hear it. Bonk, bonk, bonk. One of my cats is suspiciously staring at the window by my corner lamp. BONK, BONK, BONK. The noise was so loud it was honestly a bit frightening at first. What gargantuan bug could be smacking against my window so fiercely? I had to know. And I also had to keep my cat from terrifying the thing. Sorry, Sophie. She was transported out of the room before I looked to see what it was.

It was glorious. Amazing. Entrancing.

It was a MOTH. A luna moth, to be precise! Though one of its swallowtails appeared to be missing, it seemed to be flying fine, though it was mostly bonking on my window to get to my lamp. I was absolutely amazed with this moth. It was was so fuzzy, so absolutely huge, green, and it was a moth! I immediately told everyone in the house that there was a luna moth, and me and my sibling watched it on its quest for light. I was honestly a bit worried it would hurt itself, but it landed on the side of the window eventually.  Sadly, but also thankfully, it realized it could not reach the light. It flew off into the night to hopefully chase other dreams, like safely landing on outdoor lights that aren’t heated and are 100% safe for moths.

Bouncing Bunches of Tiny Frogs

In the spring and summer, my yard bursts to life…

…With frogs. Toads? Every toad is a frog, but not every frog is a toad.

In any case, my yard becomes overrun with this teeny-tiny brown frogs, small enough to fit on my fingertips. They hop around in huge numbers doing frog activities. I love them so much, but they make me so scared for them. I watch my every step like a hawk and spend a moment making sure the coast is clear before pulling down the trash can. May the frogs be prosperous!

Opossum Apparition

Yet another encounter in front of my bedroom window, and another result of hearing crinkling leaves. I don’t remember the exact time, but I believe it was somewhere around 5:00-6:00 when I woke up to hear crunching leaves. I walked over to the curtains and pulled them aside, seeing a huge opossum. Opossums are so cute, cool, and also dangerous, and though I knew what they looked like, I had never seen one in person. I didn’t know they were so huge! I watched its tail sway back and forth as it rounded the corner, and to be completely honest, I almost gaslighted myself into thinking it wasn’t real. If I hadn’t told anyone else about it, I probably wouldn’t even be telling this story now. Many, many nights later, me and my sibling discovered an opossum digging through are trash. It was ferocious as it was adorable, and I wonder if  it was the same one as before. I hope they’re living their best life(s).

What’s up everybody? So, for as long as I can remember I’ve always wanted a dog, and like most kids who want pets my parents told me no. Even with getting told no every time I asked anytime it came up, I asked them for a dog. Mainly a husky. I always and I still want one, but this blog isn’t about huskies but about the cutest little dogs I’ve ever seen.  

  This little Cutie is a Cavoodle. Cavoodles are adorable crossbreeds of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and Poodles, with soft coats and big eyes. These cuties are the most adorable dogs you’ll ever meet. They are very popular in Australia, where they are known as Cavoodles, but also have other names like Cavapoo and Cavadoodle. They are gentle, friendly, and eager to please, making them great companions for families, children, and other pets.  

They are highly trainable and smart, inheriting the intelligence of the Poodle and the affection of the Cavalier. They come in various colors and sizes, depending on the parent breeds, but usually have a medium-length muzzle and brown eyes.

Their fur is soft, and they don’t really shed as much as other dogs. So, they make the perfect pet for everyone even those with allergies. These little cuties are just the most precious dogs in the whole world. Who can say no to a face like that.

  These qualities make Cavoodles not just cute but also wonderful pets, providing joy, and companionship to their owners. Their cuteness isn’t just skin deep it’s a reflection on their lovable personalities and the happiness they bring into the lives of those lucky enough to have them as furry family members. That’s why when I get my own apartment or house, I plan to get one of these furry little guys. I don’t know how yet but I am determined to have one.  

                                                         Hello fellow peers! 

  Have you ever come across one of those Tik Toks or YouTube shorts that bring up past games or shows from your childhood that you’ve forgotten about?  Yes?  Well, me too.  So, for this post I want to see if I can invoke some nostalgia for you and see if you remember any of these shows.  If you don’t; it’s okay, if you do; you can come cry in the corner with me as you reflect on how far you’ve grown. It has happened to me plenty of times (kidding, I don’t cry in corners) I’m also ranking them 1-10 to see which ones I should’ve remembered the most.    

          6/10 Foster Home for Imaginary Friends 

This show itself was on Boomerang, which was the channel after Cartoon Network, but I don’t remember what they call it.   It was one of those shows that just popped up on the TV one day and you accidentally start watching it.  I personally didn’t forget about it, but my sister did, and she was so hurt when she realized that other people in our generation might not recognize this anymore.  It was about a boy whose imaginary friend took him on adventures in a house full of abandoned imaginary friends who now need homes.  It’s a 6 because I didn’t just really find it entertaining.   

                    5/10 Read Between the Lions

  I didn’t recognize this show at all until I watched an episode of it with my niece and nephew.  But this show right here, I was like when was I so young?   You all might not remember until you’ve watched an episode of it, but it’s the one when that puppet man is getting rhyming words out of his long pants.  His name was smarty pants.  Anyway, it’s a 5/10 because it was educational. 

                               7/10   Oobi

I really hope y’all remember this.  This show was so funny and cute as a child. Don’t ask me how I feel about it now because it be looking creepy but when I was a baby, I wanted to use my hands and be one of those characters so badly.  This brings me to those days during the Summer when I woke the whole family up pretending to be one of these arms.   The googly eyes though, look how they’re on the hands.  It’s so adorable.   It’s a 7/10 because it was really cutesy and now it’s kind of weird.   We watched people talking and moving their arms like they were their own individual person.   How? 

                                 9/10 Jack’s Big Music Show      

 I’m sorry but this show made me cry so hard.  This is one of those memories that’s in the back of your head scratching the surface faintly.  I remembered this out of the blue one day and I could not think of the name.  I spent about 2 hours searching for different ways to find out the name, and I was getting angry because Google wasn’t googling.   When I finally figured it out, I got so sad watching the ending of the show.  You should all go watch it, the lights turning off in the treehouse were making my heart ache.  

                             10/10 Tuff Puppy 

  Tuff Puppy was the best.  The cat spy was awesome and inspiring to me as a younger girl.  I could just not believe it at all.  I was like, wow couldn’t believe it.  Then the episodes were comical and intriguing.  I watched one episode and remembered how the rat made me really like cheese but now I don’t obsess over it like I used to when I was younger.  But I appreciated how it started the phase of me enjoying cheese.  

                   10/10 Ni Hao, Kai-Lan 

    I don’t have anything to say exactly about this, just that it was awesome. I remember the dragons looking more bigger and 4D, but I don’t know, maybe that’s just how it looked to mini me.  But the show was fun and pretty, it mostly gets a 10/10 because I don’t remember any bad aspects of the show. 

                 Honorable Mentions: 

I apologize in advance for another band recommendation post. I did this one last minute and I’ve been wanting to do this band for a while. 

McCafferty, founded by Nick Hartkop, is another Indie-Rock band that I’m obsessed with. They are somewhat notorious for breaking up though. Through my research I could never find a specific number, but I know for sure that they’ve gone through over two or three breakups, maybe more. 

With Nick Hartkop as the Guitarist. And fun fact most of their early songs were don’t by Nick with an acoustic guitar. I’m pretty sure he’s using more electric now, but he was really good on the acoustic. 

And I think it’s cool that his best friend and wife Emily Hartkop is on the bass. Throughout all the breakups of this band the two people who never left were Nick and Emily. 

McCafferty’s album Beachboy has to be one of my favorite albums they’ve released. Nick is the vocalist in every one of their songs, to the best of my knowledge, And I love his lyrics. Their style seems unique and new. But over all their albums the same voice with the same emotions stays the same. Which I really enjoy. Nick’s voice is perfect for what he’s singing. While researching this band, I could never find proof of who writes the lyrics of the band, but I’m more than sure its Nick.  

Beachboy has over 10 songs, lasting exactly 29m and 9s. I can’t stress how meaningful the lyrics for his songs are. They all seem like personal stories, and I think that’s what makes them so extraordinary. In my opinion, the best types of song come from personal experiences of Growing up, grief and friends.
And that’s exactly what McCafferty sings about in almost every song. 

This album is just, amazing. There are about 33 songs on this playlist lasting over, 1 hour 36 minutes. And the lyrics for this album are really good. But this isn’t the album that hits the hardest. I’ll get to that in a moment. I forgot to mention but that little number under the album, the (26/33) that’s the rank, The way I rank albums is the total of liked songs over the total amount of songs.

Now lets get to the most meaningful album they’ve released. 
With a total of just 8 songs. stretching just under 30 minutes. 
One of their recent albums. 

This album is one of the most emotional in my opinion. 
There’s a song that really hits home with me which is “Yours, Mine, Hours.”
Personally, one of my favorite songs. (I have a long list of Favorite things)
If you plan on checking out the song the part at the time stamp 2:00-3:00 is something that hits hard, I don’t have the words to explain it the best I can, but it’s just some amazing lyrics. 
But this album is really amazing, if you were to check out any of these albums, I’d recommend this one.  (or the beachboy album)

Overall McCafferty is a homerun. One of my top three bands, and I’d Highly Recommend them. And I apologize for doing another band post. I’ll try and think of something different for next week’s post. Keep it new. 
Or not because I’ve been wanting to do a post about another band I’ve had in mind, called “Violent Dawn”. They’re a small band with less than 100 listeners a month. So, I wanted to give them what little publicity I can give them.

From vampires to witches, demons to ghosts, Halloween is packed with all sorts of spooky stuff. All of which is old as probably not Hell, but yknow, a couple hundred years old. Or just like 90 years. But hey, I got a little bit of information and free time to kill.

The mummy is much older than Halloween, the earliest ones dated back to around 5,000 years, and then raided by British archaeologists and stored somewhere in a museum. So how did they become staples of Halloween? They don’t have major costumes, there’s no name attached to them, and yet they’re one of the main centerpieces of Halloween monsters.
So how did it get there? I actually looked into it (just for this blog specifically.)
Excerpted from, Halloween Monsters: Mummies, Abigail Owen states, “In 1903 Bram Stoker (of Dracula fame), wrote The Jewel of the Seven Stars, a first-person narrative of a young man pulled into an archaeologist’s plot to revive Queen Tera, an ancient Egyptian mummy.”

So 1903 was the first major example of a mummy being a monster. Cool! It also aligns with a lot of pop culture depictions of mummies, of a guy in an explorer’s hat exploring a mummy’s crypt.

29 years later, the Mummy idea would be face greater publicity with the release of the 1932 movie The Mummy by Boris Karloff where a team of British archaeologists discover the mummified remains of an ancient Egyptian prince. It actually looks like it has a lot more plot than that, the mummy returns to life by reading his “ancient scroll aloud” and disguises himself as a richman ala Frankenstein, but the production was a hit, thus solidifying mummies into the Halloween monster lexicon and most probably where you got it from, Halloween merchandise. (I swear there’s gotta be a catalog for these things.)

(Sheet) Ghosts

Now, I am not able to succinctly pin down “ghosts.” I can tell you that much, especially in a six hundred word cap. However the idea of sheet ghosts are interesting. This one’s a bit macabre, but you’re literary art students.

Before coffins, the dead were wrapped in burial shrouds, or from poorer families, their sheets from their deathbed. This goes back to the 1300s, where ghosts were often skeletons draped in their shrouds. Ghosts were thus often connotated of being draped or clothed in white, so much so people were mistaken for a ghost or shot at because of it.

This depiction of ghosts made its way into the theatre and Victorian photography, where often to imitate ghosts people were dressed in white garbs from head to toe. By now, bedsheet ghosts were less of a scary omen and more of a laugh, but what really changed and cemented that idea was children’s programming. I’ve actually seen a couple of these myself, The Lonesome Ghosts from the Mickey Mouse cartoons, Scooby Doo and The Phantom Ghost, along with Casper. By now, ghosts are more prominently portrayed as clips. Little pieces of the living that are no longer preserved and will disappear in front of you.

So yeah!

sources are Halloween Monsters: Mummies by Abigail Owen and Why Ghosts Wear White Sheets (And Other Spectral Silliness) by Rae Alexandra

Like most weeks, going through any possible options I might have for my blog I was stuck with not much to talk about. I keep finding that I never have the right things happen to me for this, or I guess “bloggable” things. Everything that has been happening with me lately has either been too personal to blog about, or not interesting enough. I can never find that good balance between the two, it can feel like such a chore sometimes so for this week I decided to share a small excerpt from a project that I am working on.

Grease plagued the nostrils of the two EMT workers when they entered Jolly’s that evening. It was a staple of Bennings, one of the only fast food places that they had. Having a minute population of just over four-thousand people, Bennings was invisible in the eyes of big corporations, and they were aware of it. 

“Alright sir that will be $11.94,” the teenage cashier stammered, attempting to speak in a chipper tone. 

“Bullshit $11.94, it was $7.50 when I came into this dump last week.” the EMT sputtered.

“Sir, with all due respect I am seventeen years old. I barely have any control in my own job, let alone what your two burgers cost you. You can take it or leave it, I really couldn’t care less.”

“You-” the EMT swiftly being interrupted by his coworker.

“We don’t have time for this Otto”

“John I swear to god if you don’t-”

“I’ll pay,” John said, pulling out a crumpled twenty dollar bill from his jacket pocket.This wasn’t the first time that John had to stop one of Otto’s confrontations from progressing. However John with a towering stature of 6 ‘3 and wide muscular build it wouldn’t have been a very grueling task to break up and situation that might’ve progressed.  

“Would you like to sign up for our awards program, or round up to help contribute to Saint Patricks Children’s Hospita-” He was interrupted by a now apparent scowl that sat on Otto’s face. The wrinkles on his forehead speaking words louder than anything that left the confines of his lips.

The ringing of the cash register echoed throughout the empty establishment, Jolly’s was what John would categorize as a “graveyard restaurant.” An establishment littered with black and white photos of Jolly’s from decades prior as an attempt to hold on to its former glory. Now just a shell of itself.  

If it wasn’t for the constant humming of rain upon the tin roof the restaurant would have been plagued with silence. “Hey Joe can I get two number fives ple-.” The cashier, interrupted with a sudden boom of thunder, fell back. It was as if the thunder had cascaded down from the clouds and behind the counter. It was an odd type of thunder, it wasn’t the kind of thunder that one would hear at the start of a storm, but the kind that one might hear at its climax. 

“Anything new and exciting going on?” John asked casually as he began to flip through his phone. Its small black stature sitting insignificantly within the confines of John’s large palm. However all that this statement was met with was a dismissive chuckle on Otto’s behalf.

The storm continued to roar outside as both men awkwardly scooted into the red and white synthetic leather booth. Jolly’s windows began to vibrate, water cascading down its unwashed exterior, the clouds that were once a light gray now became to stain a deep ashen gray. The sun had begun its descent as they waited impatiently for their food to arrive.