CBI would like to throw a spotlight on some special events which have taken place recently as part of the national Children's Book Festival programme. First up is a joint venture between CBI and Roscommon Libraries with generous support from the ICLA, which saw author Conor Kostick running creative writing workshops with students in Abbey National School and Convent National School. Conor was based in Roscommon Town for five days, during which time he worked with 6th class students to create some brilliant stories.
A special thanks to Carolyn Tunney, Richie Farrell, Meliosa Moran and all the other staff of Roscommon Library for their assistance in making this project such a success.
Some of the students who took part in the residency programme have been kind enough to let us publish some of their wonderful work which you can see below - Happy Reading and congratulations to everyone involved!
Maurice Buckley
Abbey National School (6th class)
A Fixed Mistake
It was an average day in the town of Summerville. Aaron was at home with his dad doing his homework. Aaron was a smart kid and was very good at his school work. Aaron was getting ready to go play with his friends, Killian and Ian, when the door bell rang.
'I'll get it,' said Aaron, expecting that it was Ian and Killian. Aaron opened the door to find Sergeant Tom Bailey.
Tom never liked Aaron. Aaron was good in school but still often got in trouble. Tom Bailey was a tall man and very unfit. He wore this blue coat and grey pants. Tom is a scary man.
'May I help you sergeant?' said Aaron.
'Aaron,' he said in a deep voice, 'you are the prime suspect in the Vaughan Farm robbery.'
'Me? I've never even been inside Vaughan Farm,' said Aaron.
'Well, there's been eyewitnesses that you have been hanging around the farm the past few days,' said Tom.
'Ya, but ...'
'No buts. We'll have to bring you to the station and question you.'
Tom brought Aaron to the station and questioned him. Aaron didn't sound like he was lying so Tom let him go.
Aaron ran to Ian's house, confused about what just happened. Aaron explained to his friends to the last detail what happened.
'Who was the eye witness?' Kilian asked.
'He didn't say,' muttered Aaron.
'Wait, you said you definitely weren't around there? Then whoever was there looked like you, so let's find the eyewitness and get details on who was there,' explained Kilian.
'But we don't know who the eyewitness is,' said Aaron.
'There's bound to be a file saying who it is in the police station,' exclaimed Ian.
'Isn't Michael Collins working in the police station for work experience? Let's go and try to convince him to get the name,' said Aaron.
Aaron, Ian and Killian went to Michael's house and convinced him to sneak out the file. The next day Michael came to Aaron's house and gave them the file.
'OK, it says here that it was Delores McNamare, a neighbour to Vaughan Farm,' explained Ian. 'Let's go!'
The three of them hoped on their bikes and rode to Delores's home and knocked on the door. Delores answered and explained that the boy always hung around the big oak tree. They went over to the oak tree and found a coupon to Fred's Delhi on Mainstreet.
'Whoever works at Fred's Delhi must have seen him.' Said Killian.
'Then I guess we're going to Fred's Delhi.'
The shop clerk told them that this guy who looks identical to Aaron came everyday at 5.30. They waited until 5.30 and saw a kid identical to Aaron walk in and buy a roll and leave.
'We better follow him,' said Aaron.
They were right on his tail and followed him to a barn.
'This must be where he stays,' said Killian.
They sneaked inside and found the stolen goods.
'Hey! You made a big mistake following me here,' roared the mysterious boy.
They ran like there was no tomorrow, the boy chasing after them but they managed to escape him. They found Sergeant Tom and brought him to the barn and Tom arrested the boy.
'As much as it pains me to say it, I was wrong,' muttered Tom.
Aaron was proved innocent and all was right.
Lucy Gannon
Convent National School (6th Class)
Me!!
I am Nicola, a rich girl from a wealthy background but the best is yet to come. I had always wanted to go to boarding school and as my mother had left when I was small and my dad was a work-a-holic it fitted perfectly with both of them. I only had vague images of my mum that were slowly fading. I always wondered what my mother was like. Anytime I asked my dad he either blanked me or changed the subject.
So I started to pack, it literally took me a non-stop week. I had no really major friends except for Alison who was on holidays, she doesn't know I'm leaving yet. Everyone was really jealous or only wanted to be my friend because of my stuff. So I had no one to help me pack. Before I knew it, I was in London. My dad flew over with me. I said my goodbyes and I headed in but there was something weird about the place. It was freakishly quiet. I was show do my room by this woman, or should I say, old hag. She was dressed in this seventeenth century dress with a really bad perm and she had the most manly voice ever.
I was given the most awful uniform and the worst thing is it must be worn on weekdays. All I can say is the two p's, plaid and polyester. H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E. I was told by my Principle I would be treated with the highest of quality and respect. As if the place wasn't bad enough. But it was about to get worse. I opened the door and there were three other girls in my room. I screamed so loud. There was one girl with blonde hair, her name was Stacy. Another was tall with red hair, her name was jenny, and the other one, with black hair, Clare, she looked alright. I don't think they liked me that much or else they didn't want me in their room or they were jealous. They were best friends so it was alright, but for me it was hard.
I may get everything I want but I certainly wasn't posh. I was a person who liked to have fun. It wasn't my fault my daddy liked spoiling me. I was just three days in and I was really homesick and the last time I shopped was on the plane on their shopping mags. The girls in my room said there was a town outing once every two semesters. Which for once offered a bit of hope. This was coming up at the end of the month. If I had known you weren't allowed out, I would never have even thought to come.
Later that day at lunch I found out I was in a boarding school full of rich, posh, snobby kids. After lunch I immediately rang daddy, but he said he paid for six years in advance. So I was stuck in what Id call hell. I wrote a list of how I could get myself out of here, some of them were ...
1. Set fire to the place.
2. Catch rats, cockroaches and anything gross and place them in the kitchen and call the health board.
More things were like, runaway, pretend to get kidnapped, or hire a physic or brainwash them, or run like hell and never turn back. But I knew I couldn't do anything and anything I could do wouldn't be good enough for having it shut down.
A couple of days ago our phones were confiscated, the girls said they are given to us for an hour on Saturday. Really, this place just gets worse and worse. I hadn't called my friends and family in days. I thought they were taken off us for the year but then I found they were not. I screamed with excitement when I found out. I figured these girls were actually quite cool when they went and took the Principle's son J's phone.
'Genius', I exclaimed. We rang everyone and then slipped it back in his room.
Before I knew it was dinner and I was starving. Every class has a class leader, then you have head class leader, who everybody hates. Today at dinner, the Principle's son, who never gets in trouble, pushed the head class leader's head in her dinner. The whole school was in fits laughing. I even saw a giggle out of the Principle.
Soon it was time for the baths and showers. It was so much fun we overflowed the bath with bubbles. We ruined the bathrooms. Now we're banned from using bubbles.
So tomorrow's the school outing. I cant wait because the school dance is coming up and I really need a cute outfit.
It's the day of the town outing and something really weird happened. I was in the computer room emailing my friends when Stacey came down to tell me the bus had arrived. So I went running outside. We arrived in town and we went to this cute vintage store, we got all these really cute outfits for the dance. When we got home I went straight to the laundry room. When I arrived back to our bedroom, all the girls were giggling and laughing and trying to hold it in. I didn't know why but I was soon to find out.
Someone decided to spread a rumour, that I was the daughter of that old hag. It turns out her name was Henrietta. After days of questions and answers, I found out it was the Principle's soon, J, who started it. I just wondered. Why? Why? Why? Like always the mean Principle didn't care because he was her son. I guess my friends were giggling because they believed the horrible lies. Like who would believe I was the daughter of an old hag!
Truth be told, the truth was soon to come out. We were waiting for my dad to arrive from America to tell me some big news. I really wondered why it was so BIG!!!!!
It was cleared up earlier that week, that the old hag, her name was Henrietta, wasn't my mother. What I don't get is, why they thought she was my mother, because I told them my mother left when I was small.
It was the day my dad was arriving. So I got into a really nice sophisticated outfit. I was so excited. I was determined to get out of here. Even though I quite liked it here, I missed home and my friends. The really weird thing was, I even missed the girls who were mean to me.
So, we were in the office waiting for my dad to arrive. It was so quiet, all I could hear was the tick tock from the clock. For some odd reason the Principle's son was in the room too.
My father arrived, I ran and hugged him.
'I can't believe you are really here,' I exclaimed.
My father and the Principle (Ms. Gannon) just looked at each other and then just let out a little laugh. We went straight into the office and sat down. Ms. Gannon and dad were looking at me and J. They decided to break the news to us quick. They started talking ...
***
Ms. Gannon, her name was Gillian. She was my mother and J, her son, was my twin. The reason my mother left me was because she got an amazing job offer, in a boarding school. Then she took J and dad kept me. They always planned that I would go to England and I decided that is where I wanted to go. We had a lot of catching up to do but now we all live in England. In one year I become the Principle of the school and J plans to live in America. As for mum and dad, they planned to buy a house in Ireland and live there for many years to come.
Caoimhe McStay
Convent National School (6th Class)
A Hedgehog's Life
The Wise Owl told me that some humans say it's a dog's life but for me it's a hedgehog's life. Well you see I am a hedgehog and up until recently Harry (my brother who is also a hedgehog) and I decided we were sick of the forest (where we were born and now live with all the other hedgehogs) and wanted to go exploring and find some humans.
The only thing we know about humans is from Wise Owl and he told us that humans live in special places called cities and towns. He told us they have these things called a religion where they worship some God and they meet at some place once a week to worship Him together.
So Harry and I agreed we wanted to find a human and figure out more about it. So last week Harry and I went on an adventure to the human worlds (that they call towns and cities).
Harry and I had been walking for hours and our paws were sore. Harry had told me he couldn't feel his paws and I was starting to agree with him. On our travels through the cold, dark forest we saw strange animals and weird berries. As we got closer to the edge of the forest there were these weird pieces of paper that read: 'Snickers'; 'Mars Delight'; 'Galaxy'; 'Walkers Cheese and Onion'; and loads more weird containers and papers.
When we arrived in the human world surprisingly it wasn't hard to find the place where they meet once a week to worship their God and their religion and all that stuff that Wise Owl tol us. But the first thing we noticed was the ‘aroma'. That beautiful ‘aroma'.
The place where they meet was much smaller than I expected. Don't get me wrong, it was big, but I had thought it would be bigger. On the roof of this building was a big, massive, ‘M'. It looked like arched doors. The ‘M' was bright yellow. The doors were red with yellow handles. The building was red, yellow and blue. There were big black containers around the back (bins). There were humans coming from all directions. They were going in through doors and humans coming out through doors.
They were driving in one side of the building. Then they spoke through a speaker and drove over to a window to collect something in a white bag and drove out the other side. They were coming from all directions. I was too scared to go near anything or anyone in case I got knocked down or squashed. Humans lived life completely differently to us hedgehogs.
Harry started to walk around the back, I ran to catch up with him.
'Harry, where are you going?' I asked. He didn't answer. He seemed to be hypnotised or something. But then he did something really weird, he jumped into a big container containing loads of cartons and cardboard, but the strangest thing was that everything read 'McDonalds'. Maybe this was the name of their religion. Harry had seemed to come out of his trance and was now eating all the stuff in these black containers. He kept telling me to come in that the food was great. I really wanted to but something told me it was a bad idea.
I was right because about ten minutes later Harry came out of the black container with a smaller container on his head that read 'McDonalds ... McFlurrys'. Harry said he couldn't get it off his head. So he asked me to help him get it off. I pulled and pulled and pulled, but it wouldn't come off. What would we do? What would I do? if we didn't get it off Harry would starve to death.
I started to cry. I didn't want my brother to die. I'd miss him. I loved him. He was my brother. Harry asked me what was wrong. I told him I couldn't get it off.
Then Harry started to cry. I then decided I had to be brave. After all, I was Harry's big brother. Then I explained to Harry that I would go ask Wise Owl what to do. Harry then asked what would happen to him. I told him to stay put and that I would hurry.
I started running towards the forest. This journey was completely different to the one before. I didn't even have time to think. I just ran as fast as I could.
In another few minutes I was talking to Wise Owl. Wise Owl told me that there was a farm a few miles ahead. Then he me that goats eat EVERYTHING.
So I started my journey up to the farm. It was a long journey. By the time I got there night had fallen. I was too tired to look for the goat so I slept in a cardboard box for the night but I didn't get much sleep. All I could think about was Harry. I kept thinking something would happen to him while I was at the farm.
I woke early the next morning so I could start my search for a goat. I asked a cow if he had seen a goat, but he hadn't. I asked a bull, a sheep, a cat, a dog and even a little baby chick. But no one had seen one. Just as I was about to give up I heard a loud noise coming from the barn. It sounded like a goat. So I ran as fast as I ever had before. When I arrived at the barn, there I saw a goat.
When I explained what happened and asked if he would help he said he would be more than happy to help me. So there I was on my way back to 'McDonalds' walking with the goat.
On our way to 'McDonalds' I started talking to the goat.
I said, 'thanks for helping me. You are so very kind.'
Then he said, 'no problem. I don't mind.'
Then I said, 'oh, I forgot to tell you, my name's Henry.'
Then he told me his name was Gary.
It took us forever to get there. I was so tired and the whole way there I could not stop thinking about Harry.
When we arrived we went around the back. Then Gary and I saw Harry running around with a McDonalds ... McFlurrys' container on his head. I ran over to him.
'Harry, Harry, I'm back and I brought a goat. His name is Gary.'
Then Harry said, 'please Gary help me get this thing off my head. I'm sooooo hungry.'
So Gary started to eat the container off Harry's head. After no time it was gone. So then harry and I said thank you and Gary the Goat left.
Then I gave Harry a very big hug.
'I missed you,' he said to me.
And I said, 'I missed you too.'
The the two of us set off on our journey to the forest and we decided we would never leave the forest again and that even if the forest is boring sometimes, it's still our 'home sweet home'.
Roísín Finan
Convent National School (6th Class)
When life hands you lemons - make lemonade!
It was one of those lazy Saturday mornings. It was winter and it was cold an frosty outside. I was lying on my bed, listening to my iPod. My mind started to wander, I thought of passing my grade 8 exam in piano. My rickety old electric piano had seen better days. Madison my younger sister, who is eight years old, had shortened its life by a zillion years since she took up piano lessons! Honestly, she's the worst person I've ever heard playing the piano. Mum says she'll come good in the end, but I don't think so!
'Gina, time for your music lesson,' my mum yelled. Ugh, can't she just leave me alone for five minutes!
'Coming mum,' I shouted. I took the earphones out of my ears and put on my jacket. I raced downstairs, grabbed my bag and threw my piano books in it and put it around my shoulder. I called in to mum. 'I'm off.'
As I cycled my way to Ms. Giblin's house for my piano lessons, my hair swished and swashed in the cool morning breeze. As I passed my school I got shivers down my spine. It's not that I didn't really like the school, the teachers were OK, it's just the loneliness that I wasn't fond of, although I have go used to it now. I wish for once I could be one of the gang. I left my bike at the side of Ms. Giblin's house and knocked on the door.
'Come in dear,' Ms. Giblin called.
I let myself in and went to the piano room. She had the best piano I've ever seen. It was a grand piano and she said that it was passed down for generations. She said it was one of those real old ones worth about one million Euro! So I had the great honour of playing on it.
Ms. Giblin was my best friend; she was an old lady who only lived down the road from me. She taught me piano every Saturday morning and after my lesson we would have lemonade and cake and talk about lots of things and I would tell her all my problems and she would always have great advice. She told me about her life; she came from a rich family. When she was younger, she lived in a big posh mansion that her mother inherited from her mother. Ms. Giblin only had one sister, her name was Karen and she lived in her mother's holiday house that she inherited from her mother. She said when her and Karen were small they would love coming down here. Ms. Giblin often mentioned she missed her sister with her living half across the country. She never married; the love of her life Danny (he was a lawyer) died in 1968 when he was only 30 years old. He died of a heart attack. She showed me pictures of him; he was handsome in an old fashioned way.
I could see a glass of lemonade and a slice of Ms. Giblin's homemake Madeira cake on top of the piano for after my lesson. Ms. Giblin made the best Madeira cake in the world!
'Hurry up dear, today we have to get through Beethoven's Fifth Symphony,' Ms. Giblin informed me. I sat down on the piano chair and started to play the notes.
After my lesson was over I went straight for the Madeira cake and lemonade. Mmmm it tasted so good.
'So, how's school?' Ms. Giblin questioned?
'School's ... well, um, school.' I replied.
'Still no progress huh?'
'Nope,' I groaned.
'Don't worry dear, it will pan out in the end.'
Ms. Giblin always had these funny little phrases that I loved. My favourite one is: when life hands you lemons - make lemonade! It helped me in situations to keep going and make fun out of life! After we had finished our cake and lemonade, I headed off on my bike again past the local supermarket, Mrs. Beehives's sweet shop, and then the school, although this time I thought positive and said everything will be OK and everything will pan out in the end and it made me smile.
When I got inside, it was cosy and warm. Mum was busying around the kitchen making her Christmas fruitcake and Madison was helping her. Matt was lying on the couch watching TV guarding the remote as usual! I went into the study where dad was sorting out paperwork, Madison and I were really hoping for a dog this Christmas and we had planned that I would hint out to dad ...
'Hi dad, nice tie,' I commented.
'Thanks Gina, but I'm kind of busy right now.' He always says that.
'Dad, you know with mum busy working all day and you working all day, I get pretty lonely around here, you know I could use a little friend around, a little friend now and I mean little.'
I tried to sound cool and relaxed about it.
'Gina, you mother and I have already said we will think about the dog, OK?'
'OK,' I said, walking out of the room. Madison and I had already decided what puppy we wanted: a miniature Yorkshire terrier.
It was Monday morning and another plain day at school. The teacher was on about some 1916 falling, or was it rising? Hmmm ... I'm not sure, I was daydreaming as usual. I watched X factor last night and I was dreaming what it would be like to win the X factor, I was singing my favourite song up on stage and everybody was cheering and clapping.
'Ms. Johnson, you're not daydreaming again are you?'
I quickly same back down to earth, 'no Miss,' I quickly put in.
At lunch I went over to these girls that I often talked to.
'Hi guys.' I spoke.
'Hey Gina,' a girl called Rachel said.
She was nice enough, although I never really knew her. I got through the day better than I expected, I hung out with that gang and after I had told a few jokes and told them about myself they seemed to like me, but I wasn't sure, some days were great, I would get in with these really cool bunch of girls and the next day it was like they didn't know me, so I was going to have to wait and see. When school ended I went to collect Madison out of her class and we walked home. We talked about names for our dream puppy.
'What about Pepper?' I suggested.
'No, that's too silly,' Madison answered.
We suggested names all the way home and we never agreed on one. We decided to think about it tomorrow.
It was Saturday again, I had taken my piano grade 8 exam on Thursday and was waiting for the results, I got up early because it was promised snow today and I wanted to make a snowman before I went to piano. I went over to my window and I could see a carpet of snow, glistening and glowing. Snowflakes fell from the sky as they landed softly and whitened the roof and ground. I quickly put on my warm boots and my scarf and hat. I raced downstairs grabbed da carrot and ran outside. I rolled, patted and shaped my snowman. I stuck a carrot in the middle of his round frosty face and went around collecting some stones for his eyes and mouth. After his face was done, I stuck two twigs on each side of him for arms. I named him squiggles. After I had made my snowman and had a snowball fight with the car (which was now absolutely covered in snow) I got a bit hungry so I went inside to eat breakfast. I had a boiled egg, toast and a glass of orange juice.
I just ha time to catch a quick episode of Home and Away and then I had to get on my bike for piano. When I got to Ms. Giblin's house I parked my bike outside and I tried to open the door but it wasn't open. I decided to let myself in, since I knew where the key was. I entered the piano room, I could see my lemonade and Madeira cake ready for me on top of the piano. Ms. Giblin didn't seem to be in and then I saw her car pulling in the driveway. I wonder why she was out, she never went out before my piano lesson. She came in looking very pleased.
'Why are you looking so happy,' I asked.
'I've got some good news.'
'What good news?'
'You've passed your grade 8 exam, so when I got the news I went out to Mrs. Beehives's sweet store and got a bag of your favourite sweets and a few little extras for a party,' exclaimed Ms. Giblin. I don't think I've ever seen Ms. Giblin so happy.
So we ate and laughed and joked about silly things. We had the best time ever. I asked Ms. Giblin did she have any ideas for a name for our future puppy, she suggested Topper (that was her dog's name back when she was younger). After a long chat I told her I had to head off, but mum had asked me to invite her to Christmas dinner next week. She agreed and I set off.
It was Christmas morning. I got up really excited. I ran in to Madison who was still asleep and roared 'it's Christmas, it's Christmas, hurry up, c'mon.'
Madison woke and jumped out of bed. We ran downstairs and there was mum sitting on the chair with a tiny little miniature Yorkshire terrier in her hands. Madison and I were speechless, mum smiled.
'Merry Christmas girls.'
Mum was busy preparing Christmas dinner and Madison and I were embraced with our new little puppy. She was so cute, we played loads of games with her. Matt wasn't too bothered with her, he was more involved with his new electric guitar. Soon Ms. Giblin arrived for dinner, she really loved our new puppy, we still hadn't come up with a name for her and we spent over and hour searching through name books and looking up on the internet for names.
Dinner was delicious. I had double of everything; it was the best Christmas ever. That week at school was great, that gang I told you about were really nice to me and we had loads of fun and I think I might have some friends. I even invited the gang around to mine to see my new puppy one day. It was the first time in a year since I had people over. They all loved my dog. We still couldn't come up with a name for her though. It was Friday night and the phone rang, I was watching TV and my little puppy was asleep on my lap. Dad answered the phone, he didn't seem too pleased with it. He whispered something to mum, mum suddenly looked very sad, nearly like she she was about to cry. Dad came up to me and he said, 'Gina, we've got some bad news.'
The funeral was small, just my family, Ms. Giblin's sister and her two nieces and brother-in-law and a few old ladies from the neighbourhood. I couldn't believe that my best friend was lying in that coffin. Losing someone you love is one of the hardest things in this world. At school I couldn't stop thinking of Ms. Giblin, mum had said she died peacefully, peacefully, peacefully, what does peacefully mean exactly? No death is peaceful. I was in my room one day when mum called me downstairs. It had been two weeks since the funeral.
'Gina, that was Ms. Giblin's solicitor on the phone, he wants us to come to a meeting tomorrow to discuss Ms. Giblin's will,' mum said.
What? Why did I have to go there? I had nothing to do with Ms. Giblin's will.
We pulled into some big office complex and mum and dad brought me up into this room which looked dull, plain and depressing.
'Hello Gina, nice to meet you, I'm Mr. Parkston. I'm sure you've ment Ms. Giblin's sister Karen, please take a seat,' the solicitor told us.
I went over to the seat and my parents sat either side of me. The solicitor started to read out what Ms. Giblin had left to her relations and friends.
'To my sister I leave my house and my belongings, to my lovely two nieces I leave 3,000 Euro for their future. To my best and talented friend Gina I leave my piano and 1,000 Euro for her future.'
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Ms. Giblin had left me her piano that she had inherited from her mother!
Madison, Matt and I brought Topper for a walk. We had named our dog after Ms. Giblin's. We went to visit Ms. Giblin's house. When I got in I went to the piano, I rubbed my hand along it, discovering every bit of it. I could see something taped to the back of the piano. I pulled it off from the back. It had my name on the envelope. I quickly tore the seal off and read what the letter had said.
'Gina, you brought me so much joy into my life. If you're reading this then I guess I have passed on. Don't worry Gina you will be fine without me. I'm sure God just needed a music teacher to teach the angels to sing. You're such a clever girl and don't let anyone ever doubt you of that. You will go far in life and you will always have a friend. Remember Gina if life hands you lemons - make lemonade!
'Love you always, Ms. Giblin.'