The Book, by Daphne Uhl

Heidi, Jared and Sam moved into a house in the middle of nowhere. They’re not happy about it. So they got all their stuff out of the car. And once they got all their stuff in their rooms, Jared noticed that his book was in the car. So he went out to get it.

Then all of a sudden it started to rain, so he ran to the car. He got inside it, found his book. When he got out of the car he ran and slipped on a patch of mud and his book slid in a very shallow pond. So he got up and walked over and picked up the wet book and went inside and said to everyone “don’t ask” and went upstairs and changed his clothes and dried off his book and went downstairs.

Then all of a sudden a fairy named Tack came and looked at the book and said to himself, “Poor boy. Now whenever he draws something it will come to life.” Then Tack heard footsteps so he hid.

Jared had a pencil. He got his book and started to draw. He drew a dog part lizard. He called it sandspur.

Then Tack screamed and ran to Jared. “What did you do?”

“What do you mean?” said Jared.

“Every time you draw something it comes to life.”

Then a spark came. Sandspur came to life.

Jared said, “How do I get rid of him?”

“I don’t know how but I can show you,” said Tack. So they went to the attic and read papers and found out how to but they need to burn the book.

“Hey there’s a tree that I can cut down.” So they went out and got an axe and cut down the tree in the creepy woods. Then they chopped up the tree and made a fire in the fireplace. Sam came in with Jared’s book. He drew two animals: an ogre and an elf. Jared yelled, “No!”

“What?” said Sam. Heidi ran in the room. “What’s going on?”

“Sam drew in the book.”

“So what? So did I.”

“What?” said Jared.

“Yeah, I drew fairies. So what?”

Then fairies came in the room and blew out the fire. “Oh great. I have to start a new one.” So Jared did start another fire. “Sam give me the book.”

“Why?”

“Just give it to me.”

“OK. Fine. Here.”

Jared got the book and said, “On the count of three I put the book in the fire. OK. 1, 2, 3.” Jared put the book in the fire and it turned to ashes. All the ogres and fairies and sandspur are gone and the kids live happily, no fairy life.

The End.

  • Daphne Uhl is a student in Missy Hoover’s fourth-grade class at Woodland School in rural Streator, IL. She is the second-place winner of the 2016 Sarah & Katy and the Book of Blank Essay Contest.