A Christmas Carol ~ Review

‘Christmas is but once a year, Uncle!’  ‘Bah, humbug!’  Do you recognize anything?  I’ve just been to a play adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel, A Christmas Carol.  It’s so marvelous that I have oodles to tell you!

The acting was really superb!  The actors projected their voices so everyone in the room could hear them.  Their tones varied depending on their emotions.  Plus, they were expressive and animated, like the character Fezziwig who was laughing loudly and embracing people.

The special effects were amazing, which either made you feel frightened or giddy.  One frightening part was when Marley’s ghost burst onto the scene through the hidden floor trapdoor, and added to it were a big crash and green smoke.  Nobody was expecting it, so you could hear the audience screaming and gasping in shock.  An act of juxtaposition was the white coloring of Marley’s ghost contrasting with Scrooge’s dark bedchamber.  The last scene made you feel giddy because ‘snow’ was ‘falling’ while all the people in the play were merry, laughing, dancing, and singing.

Last but not least, the costumes actually looked like they were authentic 1800’s clothing.  The rich women wore fancy lace dresses along with fancy lace bonnets topped off with (you guessed it) fancy lace parasols.  Poor women’s outfits were all threadbare and they had thin striped bonnets.  Meanwhile, the wealthy men showed off black, silky top hats that matched the finely made suit and leather shoes.  Poverty-stricken men had woolen clothes, hats, scarves, and mittens.

               “Was the play, ‘Bah, humbug,’” you wonder? Absolutely not!  As I quote from this wonderful play, ‘May we journey through time together!’ with A Christmas Carol.  Bye!!!

Baby, a short story by Jasmine Tran

Baby

By Jasmine Tran

Once upon a time, there lived a 2 year old orphan baby named Cherry-Pie.  She was a very smart baby, for she knew everything.  Cherry-Pie lived at Roseville Orphanage with her baby sisters, Gracie and Josephine, or Jo for short.  Although she had a good life, she craved to have a family.  Cherry-Pie wanted to be loved, embraced, and cared for.  Every day, when people passed by her little room, she said, “Please adopt me.  Please adopt me.”  Cherry-Pie even held up signs that read: Good with animals, Friendly to people, and I’m potty trained.  But no one glanced at her.  To them, she was just another ordinary baby.

  One day, an 18 year old girl named Marcia stopped in front of her room.  Cherry-Pie glanced up hopefully.  She saw her 2 baby sisters with the girl.  “Hi! Hi!” her baby sisters squealed.  “Are you going to get adopted, too,” they asked?   “Maybe,” Cherry-Pie said.  “Marfa-no, I mean Marfa-oh, never mind,” began Gracie.  Jo finished, “-is really nice.  Plus, she’s pretty, smart, and kind.  Marcia doesn’t have any siblings except a crazy baby sister named Annie.”  Marcia looked at Cherry-Pie and asked, “Do you want to get adopted?”  “Yes! Yes!” she exclaimed.  While Marcia filled out the adoption papers for all three babies at the desk, Cherry-Pie crawled around saying her ‘bye-byes’ to the other babies.  She, Gracie and Jo also packed all their belongings into their pink, blue, and green suitcases.  Finally, Marcia finished, and the three babies loaded the suitcases into the trunk and piled into Marcia’s lavender car.  She asked them about their life and other stuff.  Cherry-Pie noted that she was really nice because Marcia didn’t get upset with Gracie like Cherry-Pie did when she tooted and didn’t say excuse me.

  Time passed so quickly that Cherry-Pie didn’t notice Marcia drive into the woods.  But she did hear a crash, loud music, and horrible singing that sounded suspiciously like a baby’s voice.  Suddenly, a door opened out of nowhere, and revealed a very dirty little baby with a crazy look on her face.  Marcia suppressed a sigh, and then turned to Cherry-Pie with a weary smile.  “Are you ready to meet Annie?” she asked.  In Cherry-Pie’s mind, she thought, “No! Annie looks weird and messy.”  Jo pushed her and Gracie out anyway.  They slowly crawled toward Annie.  Annie’s eyes widened with delight.  “Oh!” she gushed.  “Are you my new baby sisters?”  There was silence.  Cherry-Pie stammered, “Uh…yeah?”  Right away, she knew she shouldn’t have said that because Annie started bouncing all over the place and ‘passing gas at the wrong end’ every other second.  Soon, the whole place stunk.  “I think we should probably go inside now,” coughed Marcia.  At the very mention of the word ‘inside’, Annie stopped farting and bouncing.  Her mouth quivered, and her hands balled up into fists.  Cherry-Pie recognized the look on Annie’s face.  It was the face of a baby about to throw a tantrum.

  “Cover your ears!” Cherry-Pie shouted.  The others obeyed, and it was not a minute too soon.  “No! No! No!” Annie shrieked.  She banged the house, kicked the trees, punched the door, and jumped up and down on the grass.  Cherry-Pie shouted, “Please stop this racket, Annie! This is no way to treat your new baby sisters.”  Annie stopped for a moment, tilted her head, considered it in her pea sized brain, and then started the tantrum over again.  Finally, Marcia got Annie to stop by handing her a cookie.  While Annie was slobbering over the cookie, they went inside.  The first thing Cherry-Pie noticed about it was that it was very, very, messy.  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Annie blush while Marcia frowned.  “Annie,” she growled.  “The only reason I’m not dealing with you right now is because the babies are here.  If you do this one more time…”  Marcia let the threat hang in the air while Annie gulped.  She made Annie clean up while Marcia gave the babies a tour of the house.  “It’s a little small, but it’s comfortable.”  “I built it while Annie was being a BIG bother,” she added.

  After Annie finished cleaning up, Marcia made dinner: Tuna sandwiches with sweet strawberries polished off with triple fudge brownies.  “Yummy-yum-yum!” exclaimed a very full Cherry-Pie.  “That was delicious!”  Suddenly, she heard a little groan coming from Gracie.  Cherry-Pie looked over at her, and gasped in astonishment.  She was really, really fat!  Gracie heaved, “I don’t feel-BURP!”  Stink filled the kitchen.  Marcia quickly opened the windows and doors while Annie found some nose plugs and passed them around.  “Oops.”  Apple-Pie blushed while everyone stuffed the nose plugs in their nose. 

All of a sudden, Jo yawned.  “I think it’s time for bed,” Marcia announced.  They cleaned the kitchen and got ready for bed.  As soon as the triplets got into bed, they sleepily said, “I’m glad we were adopted…”  But that’s all they said, for they were fast asleep in their new home.

No Flying in the House -- Book Review

               No Flying in the House is a fiction book by Betty Brock.  When a tiny dog named Gloria arrives at Mrs. Vancourt’s house with a 7 year-old girl named Annabel, Mrs. Vancourt keeps them.  Then one day, an evil cat named Belinda tells Annabel that she is half fairy!  Belinda also tells her Annabel’s fairy mother married a mortal man, and they were banished from the fairy kingdom.  But if Annabel chooses to be a mortal, then her parents can come back.  Between her newly found powers and the freedom of her parents, which one will she choose?  Read this book to find out!

               My favorite part is when Annabel finds out that she is a fairy and flies for the first time.  I like this book a lot, and I recommend it for all people that love fairies and magic.

A book review: Athena the Wise

            Athena the Wise is part of a series called Goddess Girls by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams.  When a new boy named Heracles is admitted to MOA (aka, Mount Olympus Academy), he has to complete 12 difficult labors or else he’ll be kicked out!  Athena’s dad, Zeus, tells her to watch and help Heracles with the labors.  Three of the labors are to defeat a nine-headed Hydra, which is a mythical creature, capture a Cretan bull, and clean out thousands of stalls full of horse poop (blech).  The last labor he completed was to win a strong goddess’s approval.  Athena gave him her approval by weaving two tapestries of Heracles doing all twelve of his labors.  Therefore he joined MOA and became immortal.

Jasmine's Delectable Desserts

I have a new dessert business called “Jasmine’s Delectable Desserts”.  So far, I am baking chocolate-chip banana bread.  (I can make it with or without chocolate chips.)  Later, I am planning to put more desserts on the menu.  The chocolate chip banana bread is very delicious and moist.  I have served my aunts and they agree it’s awesome.  If you want to place an order, put a comment on the comment area below this post!

Writing Drill

Jasmine needed to look at this picture closely, describe it in her own words and draw her own version of it.  Here it is.

Cacti grow near the sandy road.  Tumbleweeds blow this way and that.  Clouds lazily drift by with no sign of rain.  The air is hot and dry without a breeze.  A saloon is closed because there aren’t any people to run it.  Every house is gray because they need a new coat of paint.  Only the heartiest of plants and animals remain.  No sound comes from the saloon, only the occasional chittering and chattering of birds.  The skeletons of unlucky dehydrated cows remain.

Book Review --- "Homeless" by Laurie Anderson

          Homeless is a book that’s part of a series called ‘Wild at Heart’.  The book is about 5 kids who work at a vet’s store.  Sunita is the main character.  A cat named Socrates runs away, leaving Sunita and her friends to worry.  While searching for the cat, the kids stumble upon a cat colony.  People near the cats complain about the noise and mess the cats make.  The people also want to put the cats to sleep.  Will Sunita and her friends find Socrates and save the cat colony?  Or will it be ‘nighty-night cats’ for good?  Read this book to find out!

            Since I’m totally into animals, I love this book.  Homeless is chock-full of suspense, and the characters in it are very daring.

               I recommend this book to kids 8+, because kids 7 and younger might have a hard time reading the words.  For people that like animals and suspense, this is the perfect book for you!