The Great Chicago Fire

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

By Ryan (Age 10, St. Paul's)

"Ring... ring... ring..." I was woken up by the deafening alarm clock. Before I could leap out of the warm bed, I felt absolutely hot and I smelled a burning smell wafting in the air. My first thought was that I was on fire while my eyes were still closing with exhaustion. But there were disastrous screaming sounds outside my house and my eyes opened with fright and shock.

With a quick leap from my bed, I decided to dart out of my house. But I made a mental note that I wouldn't dash through the door because it was all on FIRE!!! My heart was pounding as fast as a cheetah's. Big sweat beads were trickling down my forehead rapidly, and my entire body was shaking with fear.

Almost feeling helpless, I couldn't believe that Chicago was on fire, because we had just built some buildings. But oh! The buildings were all made of wood. Tears were dropping down from my eyes. Suddenly, a marvelous idea came to my mind. Noticing that there was a fire extinguisher beside the bed, I jumped to it immediately and took it in an instant. I quickly sprayed the oxygen all over the door. Smoke was bursting out and the door was broken. I took the cooking glove from the kitchen and cautiously took away the hot, blasting wood by my door.

A smoky road was in front of me and there were many burning houses which caught my sight. I rushed out of my house and when I wanted to take some food for the disaster, my house made a sudden "KABOOM!" noise. My entire house was blown up and it was broken into pieces. Fortunately, I could escape from the disaster, but looking back at the horrible Chicago, I burst into tears, feeling extremely disappointed.

A Dragon in Hong Kong

By Ryan (Age 10, St. Paul's)

One hundred years ago, in ancient Hong Kong, there lived a boy named Paul. Paul was very interested in dragons because he thought dragons had cool magical powers. Paul loved cooking and helped people cook a lot. He also had an astonishing talent that he could be invisible anytime he wanted by wearing an invisible ring.

But unfortunately, one gloomy night when he was in his car coming home after playing basketball, his car crashed directly into a tree. The icy, damp road of that long winter night made his car lose control and crash. The car was dented and Paul had just passed away from losing too much blood. The next day, his devastated family buried him in the ground beside Repulse Bay.

Two weeks after his death, the residents of Repulse Bay heard a strange sound while they were swimming in the ocean. They saw a glimpse of a shadow of a dragon swooping down from the sky. They were petrified and they told the police what they had just seen.

The next day, a resident saw the dragon again but this time, the dragon muttered in a clear voice "I am going to cook with you and it would become a delicious meal." Then, the dragon grabbed the resident and disappeared!

They arrived at the resident's home and cooked a dinner together. The dragon ordered the resident to wash the food and cook a delicious Japanese meal consisting of tempura, udon, and sushi. The person was shocked and quivered with fright. While he was cooking, he saw that the dragon was eating the seaweed!

From then on, the residents of Repulse Bay who have seen the dragon thought he was as funny as Paul and so they named him after Paul. They called the dragon Poolala. The people were no longer scared of Poolala because they realized the dragon was very kind. Every year, they could see Poolala during our dragon boat race. The dragon will appear to cheer them on. Poolala also likes to swim in the ocean every day. One day, it found a pearl on the sand. It was the King's valuable pearl. So Poolala always kept it carefully in his paw and the pearl always stayed with Poolala.

Now, one hundred years later, Repulse Bay has many beautiful buildings. One of the the buildings was built right near Poolala's home. But the residents told the developers to leave a hole in the building because of the brilliant dragon living near it. They wanted to let him have a hole so he could fly from the mountain to the ocean every day. Tourists come from different countries to sneak a look at the magnificent building of the dragon's home.

Life on Saturn

Life on Saturn
By Ryan (Age 10, St. Paul's)

From my spaceship, I could see Saturn. Saturn looked like a glittery orange-colored sun. There were many moons surrounding it and Saturn people must be gloomy because I saw so many clouds. The Earth was just a dot compared to Saturn. I was excited to see if there was life on Saturn's moons, Titan and Enceladus!

Finally, we landed and I stepped cautiously out of the space ship. I caught a glimpse of a weird creature approaching me. It was a furry, green, monster with sharp eyes! It stomped towards me, looking furious and suddenly, it roared. I saw lights coming and a man with a hat appeared holding a bow and arrow. He just shot the green monster and it fainted.

I was eager to thank him but when I was ready to meet him, he just vanished! I kept walking and I saw many lights shining brightly on us. Then, I saw a spooky house, filled with spider webs and insects. "Eeeeek" creaked the door as I opened it slowly. Then a loud bang! Suddenly, I was trapped inside and I fell into a hole!

"Ahhhhh!!!" I screamed nonstop. Just then, I noticed a big poisonous spider. I tip-toed past him but I caught his attention. I was scared and stepped back and felt the presence of the man with the hat again. He chased the spider and soon, I was safe. He brought me back to his house. I was eager to shake his hand and find out his name. He took off his suit and I realised he was my old friend Sam!

"Sam, what are you doing here on Saturn??" I asked.

To be continued...

My Perfect School -- The Green Sun School

By Ryan (Age 9, St. Paul's Co-ed)

From the outside, The Green Sun School looks like a humongous sun. When you walk towards it, there are two tin cans talking. You can share anything with them. There is a big smile on the sun and on the smile of the sun are two solar panels. You see, the Green Sun School is an environmentally friendly school. Its sun rays are actually windmills! The school is massive and it includes a 50 meter swimming pool, a vast playground, and 90 classrooms.

The Green Sun School, by Ryan

The Green Sun School is different from other schools because not only is the shape and look of our school unique, but also the teachers are more kind, more patient, and more fun. They explain things clearly and they are also kind and fair. The teachers at the Green Sun School are like the teachers at The Kelly Yang Project! I think it is important to have good teachers because it can lead us to be more interested in studying.

The events are better too! Just like at KYP, we will have Spellbulary and the kids will all get super excited! We will also have Sports Day and Swimming Gala (a swimming competition at school). We can do whatever we want in our rest time. The walls of the classroom are actually big fish tanks and there are fish and turtles swimming between each classroom. How fun it is!

Although our school offers traditional subjects like Chinese, English, and Mathematics, it also offers Cooking. This is because cooking is important. When you are in university, you have to cook by yourself. All the students at Green Sun School can cook well.

I think students should come to Green Sun School because it is exciting and creative. If you go to my school, your life and attitude will change!

Shark Attack!

By Ryan (Age 10, St. Paul's Co-Educational College)

A dorsal fin was approaching me. The dorsal fin was grey with spots. A tail was moving from side to side. I noticed it was a shark that had a scar on its head. Its look made me feel petrified and its skin was as thick as a book. Looking down into the water, I saw its eyes were all black and furious-looking, and it paralyzed me.

My heart was pounding faster and faster. Sweat drops were dropping down from my head. Questions suddenly appeared: Can I escape from this? They made me feel dizzy and that was disastrous.

First, I screamed as loud as I could. I hollered, "Go away, you shark!" I was not absolutely sure if it worked or not, but I had to give it a try and I hoped it could succeed.

The shark swung its tail from side to side, sniffing around itself and all of a sudden, his eyes got bigger and bigger. They were wide open. It was like it was extraordinarily angry. It turned around slowly and swam away, flipping its tails from side to side, faster and faster. It seemed it wanted to find someone else instead of me.

I was frozen in the water, not moving a bit. A sigh of relief came and I bellowed, "What an awful day! I hope I can get this experience out of my mind!" I promised I will never go into the water again.