Exciting, Fun Stories is a collection of adventure stories for children, teens, and adults. Each story is entertaining and meaningful to the reader.
Further, The Preface is for parents, teens and adults with information about the reasons for writing these stories. Included in the Preface is an autobiography of the author in poetry and an article related to the author's childhood memories of life while living in a "frontier type" environment in Texas.
PREFACE Why I Write Children's Literature About Me in Poetry Great Grandma's House Contents Exciting, Fun Stories and Poetry for Young Folks Ricky Rabbit’s Special Day.......33 Bobby and Pete Pigeon ...........41 Fun for Fran.............................44 I Don’t Want to Go to Church....47 Granny Will Understand ...........49 The Animals and the Witches....54 Exciting, Fun Stories for Middle Grade Boys and Girls The Contest.............................59 The Hunt .................................62 Princess Desarae ....................65 Special Shopping Trip ...............70 Leeta, Jungle Girl .....................74 Jessie, the Newsboy .................91 Adventure in the Afternoon..........98 Frisky.....................................104 A Wonderful Day .....................109 Jake’s Bad Day ......................112 Waiting for My Report Card ......116 A Ghostly Visitor......................121 The Canyon of the Full Moon.....126 Exciting Stories for Junior High School Readers The Accident ...........................135 My Understanding Brother ........138 Danny’s Lucky Day ..................143 Babysitting for Mom..................146 Confessions of a Misfit..............151 Who, Me, an Altar Girl?.............155 Almost Fifteen..........................161 (and) Almost Fifteen..................167 The Alpha Delta Pledges ..........173 Friends and Me........................179 Waiting for My Report Card At our school, the postman delivers report cards to a student’s home. This means a student can never be sure when his report card will arrive. And—if that student is dreading the arrival of his report card—well, I guess by now, you know that student was me—Nate Nelson. At the end of my long, school year, I was looking forward to a fun, summer vacation skateboarding, roller-blading, playing soccer with the guys,—but now, I had both good news and badnews. The good news was—Mr. Stafford said I was being promoted, but the bad news was—I didn’t know my grades. Well, I had an idea most of my marks were pretty good, but I was really worried about my math grade. Like most parents, Mom and Dad are happy when I work hard and bring home good marks,—and you know how they feel if I bring home a bad mark—which hasn’t happened too often, I’m relieved to say. Math has always been difficult for me, and this last report period it was very hard. Truthfully, though, I hadn’t studied as much as I should have. In fact, a few of my math test scores were poor. Although I did extra credit work, I still didn’t know whether I could hope for a satisfactory grade. Even the day school ended, Mr. Stafford didn’t give me a hint. And it was either a tutor or a remedial math class in summer school, if I brought home less than an average gradein math. On Friday morning, a week later, I thought I was doomed when Mom drove up from shopping at the market, just as I was walking to the mailbox. “Don’t bother getting the mail, Mom,” I called. But she stopped beside the box and reached in. Fear gripped my stomach. “Any news, Mom?” I asked,trying to act calm, but my mouth felt like it was stuffed with dry cotton. “No, Nate, just some bills,” Mom replied. I breathed a sigh of relief. But there was tomorrow. All the rest of the day I kept asking myself, would I be grounded? Would I pass my classes? What would my teachers say about me? Would they really tell my parents EVERYTHING? How could I go through this torture another day? In a moment of foolish humor, I thought about calling thepost office and disguising my voice as the principal. I could say there’d been a computer error and all the report cards had to be returned to school immediately. Would that work? No, not too cool, Nate. Get real! Saturday morning, I felt the same sick feeling all over again. I just knew my report card was coming today. I dragged myself from my room to the kitchen. Mom was preparing breakfast and Dad was reading the paper. “Dad, will you always love me, no matter what?” I asked. “Sure, son,” he replied. “How about you, Mom?” “Yes, of course, Nate. Why are you asking us this dear?” “I just had to know,” I replied sadly. I went to the mailbox with my SPORTS NEWS magazine and decided to sit there and wait for the mailman. Finally, I glimpsed the mail truck. I stood up, but Mom was coming to get the mail, so I sat back down on the grass and pretended to read my magazine. Mom sorted through the mail as the truck drove away, and then I heard her tear and almost rip an envelope open. My heart pounded crazily. I wanted to jump up and run away while Mom scanned my report card. At that moment it was so quiet, there didn’t seem to be a sound anywhere. Finally Mom looked up and said, “Nate,come inside the house, please.” This is it! I knew it. My life was over. No more fun, ever. As we entered the house, Mom found Dad in the living room. “Would you like to see Nate’s report card?” Mom asked, with a serious look on her face as she handed Dad my report card. “Yes,” Dad said. I knew my judgment was near. I’d earned a bad mark in math. “Hmm,” Dad said. “Nate, your math grade—,” “I know, Dad,” I interrupted, rushing on, “I should have studied harder. I shouldn’t have waited until the last minute to study for my math tests—I’m sorry I—.” My voice was getting quaky. “But, Nate,” Dad said, smiling. "You have a satisfactory grade in math. That’s good! Mom and I know you’ve been worried about your grade.” “Satisfactory?” I asked. Mom nodded and patted me on the shoulder. “And Mr. Stafford writes that you’ve tried very hard the last month or so. You have an Excellent mark in Effort.” “Really?” I grinned and blinked hard. “He did say instead of a remedial math class in summer school, you could do some review work. He has some practice work sheets for you if I’ll come and pick them up. Or would you rather go to summer school?” “No, Mom, I’d rather do the practice sheets,” I said quickly. “Your other classes show strong marks,” Dad said, “Take a look.” He gave me my report card. “And you have good marks in Effort and Citizenship.” Wow! What a surprise! I felt like a heavy weight had been taken from my shoulders as I reviewed my final grades. “I’m proud of you, Nate,” Dad said, shaking my hand. “Thanks, Dad,” I said. “I think I’ll call, Andy now and find out about his grades. I know they’re really good because he’s a great student.” “Well, we’re proud of YOUR grades, Nate, dear.” Mom said, smiling. Bursting with happiness, I dashed out of the room to the telephone. My life was suddenly wonderful! “When school starts in the fall, I’m going to really study and work hard,” I promised myself as I dialed Andy’s number. “I don’t want to ever go through this kind of awful stress again!”
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