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“Writing Barefoot” is the product of a creative writing workshop for young people, aged 8-12, held at the Dansville Public Library this summer, from August 2nd to August 7th. Participants were led through a variety of creative writing activities by local teacher and writer Dan Folts. Funding for the project was provided by the Genesee Valley Council on the Arts through the Decentralization Grants from the New York State Council on the Arts. The list below represents the contents of the print publication. Just click on the work to read an online version and click on the icon or audio link to listen to an mp3 of the participant reading his/her own work. Enjoy! |
| Poetry | |
| Name | Title |
| Mora Jane Mundt | 72 Purple Turtles |
| Cassie Suydom | The Flowers |
| Meghan Maker | Tacos |
| Nathan Gibson | I went to bed |
| Evyn Meldrum | The Family Poem |
| Erin Maker | I like |
| Skylor Meldrum | I eat spaghetti |
| Prince Horsted | The Mad Mom |
| Addie Kelly | There was a picnic |
| Short Fiction | |
| Name | Title |
| Prince Horsted | The Haunted House |
| Skylor Meldrum | The Doughnut Brothers |
| Nathan Gibson | The Lamp |
| Erin Maker | Peanut |
| Addie Kelly | It was fall. |
| Meghan Maker | Samuel Rogers |
| Evyn Meldrum | The Fishy |
| Mora Jane Mundt | Lania Saves the Library |
Poetry
72 Purple Turtles audio By Mora Jane Mundt 72 turtles walked up to me I thought they were purple but maybe it was me They started going somewhere maybe to the sea, one stayed here and I kept her for me. Back to Top The Flowers By Cassie Suydam The sun is orange the daisies are white The trees are green with a little sunlight. The tulips are pink with a little twinkle and the soul is brown with a little seed the roses are red with a little poem the violets are blue with a little soul the flowers are pretty just because of a little seed. Back to Top Tacos audio By Meghan Maker Tacos Tacos Tacos Filled with juicy meat They are so good and tasty I just want to eat Filled with cheese and lettuce Salsa,Sour Cream Please let me eat them or else I’ll scream Back to Top I went to bed audio By Nathan Gibson I went to bed and I bumped my head. The color of my bed is red. The End Back to Top The Family Poem audio By Evyn Meldrum My mom eats with her feet. My dad fusses with his busses. My Brother yells at my mother. My sister drives far with her car. My thing likes to sing. I eat Cheetos with my cousin Burrito. I swim with my cousin Tim. I talk when I walk. The End Back to Top I like audio By Erin Maker I like Cats They eat rats Kittens are cute My cat ate my boot Peanut is cool And isn’t a fool I like the mall the building is tall They sell cool hats They also sell rats. It’s yellow it’s bright In a circular shape It raps around something It’s not one of a kind We need air because air is air. Back to Top I eat spaghetti audio By Skylor Meldrum I eat spaghetti I throw confetti with my friend Betty She likes pie She calls me Sky She doesn’t lie I say hi She says bye That’s spaghetti with Betty. Back to Top The Mad Mom audio By Prince Horsted I met Zack’s mom She’s not very nice She gave us some food Tasted like rice. Back to Top There was a picnic By Addie Kelly There was picnic with too many ants They even stole my Grandma’s underpants Even though we had a load of food, the ants covered it with goo. They made us not want to eat. I got mad and squished them with my feet. That was the end of the ants, so my Grandma got new underpants. Back to Top Short Fiction The Haunted House audio By Prince Horsted
One day there was a very bad thunderstorm a kid named Chris was stuck by lightning and then he could run faster than a car going 200 mph and was able to shoot lighting and had the powers to summon thunderstorms. He had finally gotten a superpower like everybody else in his family. He called himself Electric Man.
But then he knew he had to stop his nemesis from ruling the world. So he ran to his lair and tried to catch him but he was too fast. Finally he found out he was using a teleport machine. He tried to destroy it but his powers bounded off of it. Then he found out he had made it out of rubber but then he called his family and all together with fire, lighting, water, and air, they broke the machine and put DR. CRAZY behind bars. THE END FIN Back to Top The Doughnut Brothers audio By Skylor Meldrum One day the Jonas Brothers were recording their new song “Fly with Me.” Then an evil villain came in with a box of doughnuts and what looked like a water gun .He shoved a doughnut in the gun and a weird green fizzy liquid in the gun also. Then he shot the Jonas Brothers and they turned into doughnuts. The evil villain dashed away quicker than you can even blink!
Kevin was covered with sprinkles, Nick was jelly filled and Joe was glazed. The odd thing was they still had eyes, noses, mouths, legs and arms. They had to find the villain before 9:30 PM. That is when the interview was for “POP STAR” magazine. Right now it was 8:00 AM. Big Rob (the body guard) almost ate them until they started singing, “I’m slipping in to Big Rob’s mouth.“ Then Big Rob took them out of his mouth and said, “Sorry guys.”
Big Rob called the police and they were there in a blink of an eye looking for the villain. They were searching from 8:15AM to 8:30PM. The police still could not find him. Then they saw a sign that said “FREE DOUGHNUTS AND MYSTERIOUS GREEN LIQUID.”
“I have a feeling he is in that room.” Joe said.
“WOW, you are so smart” Nick said sarcastically.
So they looked inside and the villain was standing right in front of the door holding an other water gun that said “REVERSE” on it. Big Rob walked in grabbed the gun and walked out the door quietly. There was a very long silent pause. The police were still standing there and they walked over to the villain and said “You are under arrest.” (The famous police words.)
Then the policeman said, “What is your name.”
The villain replied “Mark, or Dr. Evil.”
They handcuffed him and he went to jail. Big Rob came in still silent and shot them back to normal. The reverse gun actually worked! They were in time for the interview too! THE END! Back to Top The Lamp audio By Nathan Gibson The lamp has a light bulb. It stands on the floor. It lights. One day it wasn’t working. Then it said “help”. A guy came and got a new light bulb in it. Then it was working. The End Back to Top Peanut audio By Erin Maker Peanut is a gray tiger cat. She’s really fat, but she wasn’t when my sister first got her so she named her Peanut. Peanut doesn’t like staying home, she wanders Mt.Morris and is a dumpster cat. It’s weird, there is another cat in Mt.Morris that looks identical to Peanut. Peanut is awesome. What's interesting about her is that she doesn’t like getting on peoples laps. She loves being petted. If Peanut wants to be petted she makes puppy dog eyes! It’s really cute. The problem is she lives with my sister Justine in Mt.Morris. I love Peanut. Back to Top It was fall. By Addie Kelly It was fall. The leaves were falling and the wind was blowing. Many animals were growing their winter coats. But hunters were getting reading to capture nice animals and to hang them on their walls. In the woods was a bear family. The family was a mother black bear and two cubs. They lived in a leftover cave from another animal. Insid was a bed of moss, grass, dirt, and leaves. The bears snuggled in there together every night.
Right now the three were looking for any kind of food possible to store for the winter. The first baby bear was a girl; her name was Hollow. She was aggressive but skinny because she was a picky eater. She was born with six toes on one of her feet. The other cub was a boy. His name was Bluebear. He ate a lot of food but was very lazy. He got very nervous when he sees things he’s never seen before. The mother bear was born in the zoo and got let go into the wild to live on her own. She has a scar under her eye from a car accident.
When the bears were done, they made their nest even bigger and then fell asleep in it. The next morning was the first day of winter. The hunters were out. Every move the bears made had to be a careful one. They all had to stay close together. The mother bear hid her cubs in a bush and yelled at them to stay there while she went to go hunt for food. When the mother left, the cubs snuggled together. Hollow sensed someone was near when she heard a twig snap. The leaves rustled in the bush and Bluebear was gone. Back to Top Samuel Rogers audio By Meghan Maker There once was a man named Samuel Rogers. He was born around the year 1904. Many people born around the same are dead or on the verge of death. Samuel is not a normal 105 year-old. He can remember everything. From what he had for breakfast the day the Great Depression started to the fact that he wore a black shirt the day the Vietnam War ended. There’s no sign of him stopping anytime soon. His health is as perfect as his memory. The great thing about his memory is that he is helping historians figure out events from our history. Samuel has already helped them figure out many soldiers names and has drawn many detailed pictures of events like the making of the Erie Canal and some early machines from the Industrial Revolution. One of Samuels’s favorite memories is when he visited the White House five years ago. He enjoyed telling President Bush about when he visited Ronald Reagan on one of his movie sets and watching the news when JFK was assassinated. Samuel is planning on writing a book and if it gets published he will get a Guinness World Record for the oldest author.
Samuel sure has a gift. Back to Top The Fishy audio By Evyn Meldrum My Grandma’s house is big, white, and has three floors. She lives on Loon Lake. She has lots of loons on the lake. They are brown, white, and they stick there heads in the water. There is sounds of water splashing against the wall.
One day, a big, I mean big, fish jumped out of the water and Jett was in the lake so he ran out of the lake as fast as he could. So I grabbed my brothers hand. I got him out of the water. When I got him out of the water he was breathing very heavy.
“Why was there a big fish in the water?” said Jett.
“I do not know why.” I said.
The fish’s colors were brown, white, blue, red, and yellow. The fish’s length was 400ft. long and 200ft. wide. Bigger than me. It eats 50 times a day. The thing you or me did not know that the fishy was nice. He gave us a long ride on him. The End Back to Top Lania Saves the Library audio By Mora Jane Mundt One day I was playing in the back yard. Then my Mom yelled out “Lania, would you like to come up in the attic and look around?”
“Sure Mom, I’ll be right in!”
I jumped off the swing set and ran as fast as I could into the house. Upstairs, up the attic stairs.
“I’m here, Mom,” I said, right away, gasping for air.
“Oh my. I’m sorry, pumpkin, I’ve got to make dinner. Come on, you can help me and we’ll come right back up here tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay, Mom.”
Me and Mom when downstairs.
“Okay honey, can you get the potatoes out of the refrigerator please?”
“Yes, Mom. Here you go.”
“Thank you.”
Mom started chopping the potatoes into little pieces, while I dropped one by one into the boiling water pot.
Then the phone rang.
“You keep on going Lania.”
Plop, plop.
“Hello? What?! Oh my, Lania, the library next door is closing down.”
“Why? It makes no sense.”
“They have to, Lania.”
“But they can’t!”
“Yes, they can.”
Then I went in my bedroom and layed on the bed, thinking. They can’t do this, there has to be some proof. I looked out the window, Dad’s home!
“Dad’s home! Yay! Mom, can Dad take me up to the attic?”
“Sure, as long as it is okay with him.”
“Thank you, Mom!”
I dashed outside to the driveway to ask Dad.
“Da—d, caaan yoou please go to the attic with meee?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, but I can’t. I had a long day at work.”
“Oh, okay,” I said sadly.
Then Mom yelled, “Dinner’s done!”
I walked inside slowly. I sat down at the dining room table. Mom put dinner on the table. Dad and Mom sat down.
“Hah,” I said as I pushed and scrambled my food around.
Mom said, “Honey, I know you’re upset about the library, but you need to eat your dinner.”
“Wait, what about the library?” Dad said.
“Oh, right, the library is closing down.”
“They don’t have to, do they?”
“Yes, they do, sadly.”
“Mom, I’m full.”
“Alright then, head upstairs to go to bed, it’s 8:00.”
I walked upstairs, still sad. I layed in bed for an hour, thinking about the library.
“That’s enough,” I said, “I’m going in the attic!”
I grabbed my flashlight off my bedside table. I tiptoed up the attic stairs. I looked on the shelves. What is that? Hah! It was a mini-model of the library. I carefully slid it off the shelf. Then a paper floated back and forth down to the ground. I grabbed it in the air. It read:
This library, named Dansville Public Library, is an official historical landmark by the United States of America. This building is safe by law to stay up no matter if death, or fire. Some part of the building is always visible.
“Hah! I’m going to tell Mom!”
Maybe I, Lania May Mundt, will be the one to save the library! Wow! I ran downstairs still being careful with the note and model.
“Mom! Mom!”
“Shhh, honey, calm down.”
“They can’t close the library. I went in the attic and…”
“You what?!”
“That doesn’t matter. I found this model of the library…”
“How does thi—“
“Wait. And a note… just read it…”
“Oh, you’re right.”
I had a big grin on my face when she said that. The moment of glory was over.
“We have to get this to the mayor right away.”
“Mayor, sir, we have a note that says you can’t close the library. Just read it…”
“Oh, you’re right. Let’s go and get this official.”
Yes! I said in my head.
We talked to the construction worker.
“You’re right, the closing is OFF!”
“Yah! Yah! Yah!”
And who would have thought that Lania May Mundt would be the one to save the Dansville Public Library?
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Last Modified: August 20, 2009
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