By and about Strider

One of Strider's final Language Arts projects for the year was to write a story. It could be about anything, and then he was to make it into a book. Here he is showing off the finished result:

And here he is pretending to cry as he reads it... It must be a really touching story!

I copied his story verbatim, errors and all, to save for posterity (in case the fabric-covered cardboard version doesn't last). If anyone has some extra time on their hands to read, or is curious to see how this 9-year-old boy's mind works, here it is. It's called "A Really Great Book" and it's "by Marsh Mellow" (don't ask me):

Growing up, Jon loved football. But his parents hated it. They thought sports a complete waste of time. But every night, Jon would say he’s going outside. He would go 10 thousand cm. away to neighbor’s house and play football.

Eventually, he was really good. And so his friend told him to sign up for the football team. So when he games and practices he told his mom he was going to see the “newest movie.” He was so good, he won tons of trophys in his 1st season!

Buy the he was in high school there was two problems: one his parents were susipishous of him going to a movie every night, and two his started to become fameous, and being in the newspaper.

Jon started getting scholarships. He couldn’t believe his parents haven’t found out it was him. He started telling his mom he was going to hang out with his friend (Rowley).

Jon was now senior and he was picked to go to the all stars. That was a serious problem. The all stars was in California and he lived in Nevada. His friend Rowley said his family would take him. He told his parents that he was having a party at
Rowley’s. He thought it would work because the game was at 7:00 and since
the flight was short, leave for the airport at 1:00 and come back the next day,
they’d only be gon about 23 hours.

After the game Jon got a trophy. This one he decided to keep under his bed. It was a big honor. When Jon back his parents wondered why the “party” took so long. He just said It was fun.

Jon loved the All star game. His team was down by 5 with a second left and they came back and won with a hail mary! Jon thinking about telling his parents. But he fineally decided to tell them when he was in the NFL.

Jon decided to go to University of Arizona. They were
ranked 20th when the season started. They won they’re first game 55 to 0 vs. Harvard. Jon got 7 Td passes and 516 yards! He set a record!

But in game 2, Jon broke his back! He was in the hospiss. He was
born with severe back problems so that’s why he had to go to hospiss. His
parents saw what happened they called him. They were so mad they when he
got out he would have millitary camp as a punishment.

Years later he was one of the best soldiers ever.

Meanwhile, Strider is having a new adventure of his own (hopefully no secret ones like his protagonist was having.) He's joined our neighborhood Swim Team, so each evening, this is the scene as he hops onto his bike and rides off... supposedly to practice! We're looking forward to seeing how his swimming is progressing at the meets coming up...