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The Mentor Connection: Two Writers Share Books, Inspiration

Hawley fourth grader Brook Smith (left) and Newtown High senior Evelyn Chen

each benefited from their author/editor relationship.

-Bee Photo, Evans

Brook drew this map to accompany her story.

B Y D OROTHY E VANS

Evelyn Chen, 18, is a Newtown High School senior who hopes someday to be a

writer or a teacher.

She spent her fall semester working on an honors mentorship project as part of

a special course for gifted students. The mentorship program was designed

three years ago by high school career counselor Jane McEvoy and middle school

enrichment teacher John Vouros.

Brook Smith, 9, is a fourth grade student at Hawley School who also loves to

read and write.

In fact, Brook is far enough advanced in language arts that her teachers

thought she should meet with Newtown Middle School Discovery Class teacher

Sally Harris once a week, where she would be encouraged to use her

imagination.

Mrs Harris, who works closely with Mr Vouros, realized that Brook would

benefit from an association with another student who loved writing but was a

little older and farther along in her skills - someone like Evelyn Chen.

It didn't take long for the three enrichment teachers to make the perfect

match, bringing the two girls together for a weekly writing seminar.

"I helped Brook with her stories and did some editing," Evelyn said.

"When I wanted to go on and on, she helped me get to the ending," Brook said,

adding, "we also swapped books that we liked."

The result of their successful collaboration was the following tale, which

Brook wrote and Evelyn typed.

Pam, This story might be nice in a shaded box

My Adventures

By Brooke Smith

Click! The rusty door closed. I stepped into my world: the library! My brown

hair swung from side to side as I jumped into a fuzzy green chair. I had just

picked out one of (what I think is) the greatest books of all time: Wild

Magic. I opened the book and started to read until all of the story spilled

out onto my lap. With Diane and her horse "Cloud," I set out into her world.

Suddenly, I felt a clumsy tap on my shoulder. I turned to find a little man in

a hot green suit with silver fasteners. My eyes bulged. The little man pointed

to a thick blue book with tiny stars printed on the spine, I walked over to

it, too afraid to do anything else.

As I touched the book, the man disappeared. The title read, My Adventures. But

when I opened it, nothing was printed inside. I flipped through the pages, but

with no luck. I walked over to the librarian, only to find that I wasn't in

the library anymore.

With the glossy sand glistening and the ocean's waves roaring, I knew I was on

a beach. I turned around to find a palm tree with fuzzy coconut shells way on

top. I decided to go exploring.

Halfway across the bank was a little village, actually, a very funny little

village, for the houses were made of sugar cubes!

I still had the blue book from the library in my hand. I opened it to find

that what had happened to me so far was printed in that very book!

A little man appeared, kind of like the one in the library. He had a pink

woolly hat on and a plaid scarf. It amazed me that he could get so bundled up

in the summertime!

"Is it spring yet?" asked the little old man.

"Uhhh, well I guess so, but I - I thought it was summertime."

"Oh! Good gracious me!" He threw off his pink woolly hat and his plaid scarf

and underneath he wore a pair of Hawaiian pants and a shirt, with a lei around

his neck.

"Get ready to limbo!" The man tore off a branch from the bamboo tree, hooked

it between two trees, and started singing, "Ta! Ta! Ta! Ta! Taaa! Taaaaa! Ta!

Ta! Ta! Ta! Taa! Taaaaa!"

"Umm, excuse me, I... uh, wanted to know where I am, and what I'm doing here."

The man stopped his limboing.

"You are on the other side of the rainbow!" He pulled a large map out of his

trouser pocket. "X marks the spot!"

"You mean, I'm on the - I'm in the future?"

"Exactamundo!" (He started to limbo again.)

"But what about the why I'm here?"

"Because of your great ability, you have been brought here to live until you

become an expert."

He paused.

"And then you'll go to the greater world where you'll live forever."

He pulled his hand out of his shorts and looked at his golden wrist watch.

"4:27! Tea-time!"

All of a sudden, a crowd of people ran as fast as they could into a giant

sugar cube building. I went along with the little man until I figured out that

they were all going to tea-time.

Inside the building was a long narrow passage which led out into a grand and

glorious hall. The walls were covered with pressed flowers letting off a

dreamy smell. A huge marble table lay in the center, with delicate china that

had glossy blue flowers printed on the sides. A giant teapot lay in the middle

of the table; as the people sat down, the teapot stood up and went over to

fill their cups!

The milk and sugar bowls were doing the same thing, except that they bowed

after filling up a cup. As soon as I lifted my teacup to my lips, I heard a

loud, shaky rumbling. The teapot fell over on its back and all the tea spilled

out. But all the people went on like nothing was happening. Finally the

rumbling stopped. The teapot stood up and people left the monstrous tea party.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" I screamed.

"Oh, just Mancoron, the dragon," answered the man.

"And by the way, my name is Alex, just in case you wanted to know."

I cleared my throat.

"What is the dragon doing? " I asked in a softer tone of voice.

"It is a long story, but I will tell you. Once, long ago, there was a dragon

named Malla. She was beautiful and slender, and a very gentle dragon. One day

she was sent to mortal land and when she passed over the rainbow a witch

spotted her. The witch was afraid that the dragon would destroy her land, so

she trapped Malla on an uninhabited island. She made the island go to

different places to pick up certain people that she didn't like.

"Malla found a way to escape through a secret tunnel, but discovered that she

had had a baby and couldn't bring it with her because the passage wasn't big

enough to fit both of them. She flew half a mile into the tunnel and then the

witch drowned poor Malla in the deepest ocean. Her son grew up on the island

with the people the island picked up as its guardians.

"They all thought that some day they could get the information from the witch

to be free again. But their luck ran out when they found that the witch had

died and the information had gone with her. The dragon was so angry that he

escaped like his mother, and he got caught on another island called Demon's

Swoop.

"Well, the evil witch had died, but nothing had happened to her little girl

Moniqua. She loved her mother and decided to cast a spell on the dragon, like

her mother had taught her. Moniqua looked exactly like her mother, with

beautiful blond hair, dull gray eyes and green lips."

"Green lips!" I said, interrupting Alex.

"Yes," said Alex. "Anything different from mortal world is over the rainbow.

That ol' witch came from immortal land.

"Now, on with the story. She cast a spell on the baby dragon so that he would

sleep forever. And what you just heard was his snoring!"

Alex finished licking up the last of the tea in his cup.

"And we named him Mancoron," he added.

"Is there anything I could do?"

"Ahh, no one can ever wake up the dragon. You see, he loves sugar and no one

has sugar but....,"

My eyes started to twinkle, and Alex knew what I was thinking automatically.

"Oh, no! Oh, no! No way Jose! (As you mortals say.)"

"ROAR"

"The dragon has awakened!" shouted Alex.

"The dragon has awakened! You were right - he awoke from the smell of sugar!

Oh, thank you for your love, girl of mortal land! Good bye! Bye! Bye! Bye!

Bye!"

"Wake up! Wake up!" My eyes opened with a start. My friend Diana was shaking

my shoulders. I was on the ground in front of the librarian's desk.

"I was so scared! I came into the library to see you knocked out on the

floor!" Diana said. "You mean I'm alive?" I asked, staggering to a chair. "Of

course! Now come on - to bed with you."

I limped across the library and heard a little voice saying, "Bye!"