We dedicate this anthology to the Slemp Foundation and the Appalachian Writing Project. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be authors!

Mrs. Gilly and Mrs. McCarty have appreciated the privilege and enjoyment of teaching this talented group of students!

Driftwood Island

by: Noah Belcher, Brooklyn Gilliam, Elijah Anderson, and Lily Blevins

Many years ago, a plane carrying Keith, his dog Spike, and his friends Penny and Krystal crashed in the ocean near a deserted island. They were flying from Texas to Nassau, Bahamas for summer vacation. Suddenly, the plane’s engines started to sputter. “I think we’re out of fuel!” cried Krystal. “We’re all going to die!” shouted Penny. Keith, who was the pilot, said, “I can land this plane, no problem, even without fuel.”

The plane landed as smoothly as possible into the Atlantic Ocean.  Everyone survived and swam to shore. “Is everyone ok?” Keith yelled, as he looked at his friends and Spike, who were wet, sea-weed covered, and totally exhausted. Keith called Spike and noticed that he had a fish hanging off his fur, still alive. Then they were spotted by an evil looking pirate named One-Eye Charles. He was carrying a treasure chest full of gold and jewels and...SKULLS!. “What are you looking at and why are you here?” asked One-Eye. "Maybe you'd like to be part of my skull collection!"

“Run everybody!” Penny cried. “Follow me! I know where we can hide!” Keith shouted. “You’ll never catch us One-Eye!” Krystal yelled. The group ran as fast as they could and hid near the entrance of a cave. Keith and Spike hid behind a bush just outside the cave to serve as a look-out. One-Eye Charles’ parrot, Patchy, soared overhead looking for them. When Spike spotted Patchy, he started to bark to alert everyone. However, this gave the whole group away and One-Eye found them and tied them up to a tree. The dog was free and Keith said, “Go find help, boy! Look for a plane or a boat to rescue us!”  But help did not come.  

Jailbreak!

Jailbreak!

Then One-Eye Charles made Keith, Penny and Krystal his slaves. He made them clean his ship, The Jackdaw, from top to bottom. When they were on the ship overnight and tied up, Spike came and got them free with his teeth. When they got out of the chains, Patchy alerted One-Eye Charles squawking, “Jailbreak! Jailbreak!”  

Keith, Penny and Krystal found a chest full of weapons on the deck to arm themselves for battle. They ran after One-Eye and fought until dawn.

They finally beat One-Eye Charles and he became a ghost pirate. One-Eye sailed away on The Jackdaw to look for more slaves. 

Keith, Penny, Krystal, and Spike built a boat out of driftwood and began their journey back to Texas. They were picked up by a cruise ship where they happily enjoyed the rest of their vacation. When they told the people what happened, no one believed their outrageous tale.,

Thanks for the ride!

Volcano on the Farm

By: Ethan Smith, Savana Parsons, Kade Bowman, & Abby Jackson

Once upon a time, there was a Bloggs family. Jenny Bloggs had a husband, Jasper, and a son named Jasper Jr. They lived on a farm in Mexico where they grew crops which they sold for a living.  One morning, at five o’clock, they woke up to a loud rumbling noise. Jenny looked outside to see a ruined farm. She sadly saw a huge volcano in her backyard which had spread red hot lava across their farm. She yelled, “Jasper, come quickly! Our farm has been ruined!”

“Come quickly, there’s a volcano on our farm!”

Mud flowed from the volcano, or was it chocolate milk?  Soon after, all kinds of candy came bursting from the opening such as Hershey bars, M&Ms, Skittles, and Kit Kats! 

She called 911 and soon, the police and fire departments came. They couldn’t believe their eyes! The Bloggs’ farm was ruined!

The firemen sprayed gallons of water trying to put out the volcano.  “How many gallons of water will this take!” The firemen shouted.

The police called a team of geologists to come and check that the volcano was spewing out candy. They did lots of taste testing and guess what! It was!

Ashley from the Daily Mexico News asked, “How do you feel about this gigantic volcano on your farm?” “Kind of sad, because our crops are destroyed,” Mr. Bloggs said. “We’re going to have to move to New Orleans so that I can find another job.” “It’s horrible!” Mrs. Bloggs cried. “Now that we don’t have any more crops, we’re poor! We’re all going to starve!” 

“I know what we can do!” said Jasper Jr. “We could use the candy from the volcano for our new crops!” Everyone loved this idea so much that they all did the “Conga” dance.

The Bloggs family decided to start a tourist attraction with a restaurant and candy shop where they’d sell the mysterious candy the volcano made. People came from near and far to enjoy The Bloggs Family Candy Farm.

Sweet!

One hot day in a Japanese jungle, Boo-Cat, Kaylee, Blackstone, and Hero-Brian looked around and spotted a tall jungle temple built from ancient, weathered dark gray stone.

“Hey dudes, let’s go inside to look for treasure!” exclaimed Hero-Brian. The rest of the group yelled, “Let’s go!”

The Mysterious Temple

By: Landon Spain, Luke Lane, Kayleigh Summers, & Emma Lester