"Rachel's Journal"

Hi Everyone!!! I am so excited! I am publishing a book I wrote! It is called "Rachel’s Journal". It is about a girl named Rachel Plaffadora Tawg (I came up with this name all by myself!). I started when I was 8 in December of 2016. I really finished it in February, 2017. We are publishing it now though. It is mostly based on my life, at school and at home, though some of the things are completely different from my life. I sometimes base some parts off of my friends, school, family, or events.

My friend Weronika, who lives in Poland told me her friend Aleksandra (Ola for short) was a great artist. She sent me some of her drawings, and I agreed to make Ola the illustrator of "Rachel’s Journal". Now I have an illustrator in Poland!

One of Aleksandra Makarczyk's Illustrations

The book is available to buy on Amazon in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. It should be available in America in a few more days. I am super excited!

I am working on book 2 of Rachel’s Journal. I am also writing another series, kind of based on the Pegasus series by Kate O’Hearn. I am not sure if I would want to try to publish that one though. Before I wrote "Rachel’s Journal", I was working on a book called "Hannah Windson and the Magical Teacher". It wasn’t that good though. It was mostly inspired by J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and Hogwarts. I also had worked on a book called "Life of a Kindergartner". It was about how kindergartners think and how they act. I now most likely won’t continue it because I don’t remember what it was like to be in kindergarten.

Here is a small sample of the my book. I hope you will like it!

Just to prepare you, you may start to think that my life is very boring and not worth all the writing, but… You’ll be surprised! Just please, don’t stop reading yet.

My name is Rachel Plaffadora Tawg. I hate my first, last and middle names, not necessarily in that order. And I know, you don’t have to say it, but I do know that you think my names are weird. I wanted my first name to be something a bit fancier like Elizabeth, or Nicole, or Diana. Rachel isn’t bad but you know how most Rachaels are spelled with an ael at the end. And for my middle name, it’s way too long and even I couldn’t pronounce it until 1st grade. I don’t even know how my parents came up with it.

Once in 2nd grade I made the mistake of telling Samantha Dockers (who was my best friend at the time) my middle name. A day later the whole class knew. They teased me by saying that it was too long, it was ugly, or that whoever came up with it must have been having a really bad day. I went home crying. The next morning my parents had to force me to go to school. During lunch, a girl, who everyone calls Crybaby Ella, took the empty seat next to me.

“You know, last year Samantha told everyone my secret,” she said, staring at her tray. She never looks anyone in the eye. She almost never talks. “Her mom is always gossiping, my mommy said. Maybe that is why she also enjoys it,” she added.

Later that day I came up to Samantha and said, “I thought I could trust you.”

“Well, you thought wrong,” she replied with an evil grin.

So that shows why I hate my middle name. Now for my last name, it is just too odd. Rachel Tawg sounds so plain, if you ask me. My not-so-awesome initials are R.P.T. , which aren’t nearly as awesome as something like L.U.V. I know a girl whose full name is Lisa Unga Vankola. She keeps bragging about how her initials spell the word “love” in a cute way. There is nothing to brag about when your initials are R.P.T., that’s for sure. But I guess I should be glad that at least my initials don’t spell D.I.E. or R.I.P.

Green Gables garden fairies

Do you believe in fairies? I do. Mostly because I am one. I am a garden fairy. You probably won't be able to see me, but I live in the elegant, romantic woods of Lover’s Lane, on Prince Edward Island, Canada. It is by Green Gables in Cavendish. I love listening to all the families, children, friends and couples laugh and talk while they walk. It makes me want to join the conversation too. Typically I go and sit by the stream and waterfall. You might not notice it, since it could be small to you, more like a small slope of water. When I sit, I think about how lucky I am, to have the big woods of Lover’s Lane. I pity you humans. I wish you would be able to explore all the woods with me, in my way.

 I watch all of my brothers and sisters and friends and family either sleeping on a big fluffy and hairy flower or fluttering around the flowers and talking in the stream with friends.

  I fly over the the orchards filled with flowers. They are called Forget-Me-Nots, and I know I’ll never forget them. Will you? There are so many, and so magnificent. I like pressing my nose into the blue flowers. They smell wonderful. I have smelled them many times before but every time they smell different, and sweeter. No one ever gets tired of the scent.

   A few of my best friends, Casey, Dellana and Parral joined me by the flowers yesterday. “Want to come to the buds with us?" asked Dellana. The warm spring breeze blew her long golden brown hair gently. I accepted, of course. Every spring, we go to look at the buds of the tree and what other else we can find.

When we flew out of the forest, Parral  spotted a fallen tree stump. We flew in to take a closer look. We landed and walked in though a small gap. It was a big brown cave. Soon after we were ready to go out again. We casually went on a fly, which is basically a walk or hike for you people. We saw a few crowns of ferns, as we fairies call it. Parral, Casey, Dellana and I all took turns being the queen in the ferns. As we flew on Casey saw some trees with a few pink flowers just starting to bloom. There were other purple flowers there too, and dandelions.

   I now hope that if you didn’t before, you will now believe in fairies. Just because you might not be able to see us, it doesn't mean we are not there.

Forget-Me-Nots

Stream

Fairy seat

Budding flowers

Fairy cave

The Crown of Ferns

Pictures taken by Nadia kaNADIA

The Lion King on Broadway

Last Sunday I went to see "The Lion King" on Broadway for my 9th birthday. It was AWESOME!!! In "The Circle of Life", all different animals came on stage: elephants, zebras, antelopes, cheetahs, birds and other animals. Tshidi Manye, who played the Rafiki has an incredible voice!

Photo courtesy of www.broadway.com

While she was singing, the sun started rising in the background and it looked like a scene from the African savanna. Some animals, including an adult elephant and a baby one, came on stage by walking down the aisles. It was beautiful! And for "One by One" some of the singers were in the audience swinging long poles with a bird on top. My mom even cried a few times because it was so emotional. It really was. Her favorite songs are "They Live in You" and "He Lives in You". My favorite character was Zazu (maybe because I played Zazu a few weeks ago and knew the lines) played by Cameron Pow.

Photo courtesy of www.broadway.com

He said some very funny lines that were not in the movie. For instance when "I Just Can’t Wait To Be King" started, they closed the curtains and he was the only actor you could see, he said “These curtains look like my shower curtains from Ikea.” 😆

But the person who I think projected the best and acted the best overall was Scar who was played by Gareth Saxe. You could really feel it when he talked.

Photo courtesy of www.broadway.com

I liked the setup for the hyenas’ place. It looked very authentic and it even gave me the creeps because it looked so real. I was so sad when the show was over. If you ever have a chance to see this show, you really should. The tickets are expensive, but it’s totally worth it. Trust me. The best birthday gift ever!

Photo courtesy of www.broadway.com

Photo courtesy of www.broadway.com

Photo courtesy of www.broadway.com

Here is a great video to watch: Circle of Life 360º

My birthday is coming up!

My 9th birthday is only a few days away. Usually my mom decorates our dining room for my birthday. It is always the theme of my party for that year and every year I am very excited to see all the decorations when I wake up in the morning.

When I was turning 7, the theme was "Frozen". I loved "Frozen" back then and I even ended up dressing up as Elsa for Halloween.

Then for my 8th birthday last year, I had a safari themed birthday party. It was super special and all my guest received nice goodie bags with a plush giraffe and zebra popcorn. I know some of my friends still enjoy the giraffes they got from me.

But this year we are doing something completely different. I’m not going to have decorations or a party because guess what! I’m going to see "The Lion King" on Broadway in New York City instead!!! I am soooo excited!!!

In November I was in "The Lion King Kids" in the C.A.S.T. theater production. I got the part of Zazu. I loved performing on stage! I know the Broadway show will be so much better though! I can't wait!

While in New York City I’m also going to the American Girl doll store with my doll whose name is Katie. It will be a big day for me and Katie and I will tell you all about it.

My werewolf story

A few weeks ago my teacher took me out of science class to tell me how great my writing was for the test we had taken. We had to write it a special way. It had to be a personal narrative. First we had to start with a sound effect or question to start our introduction paragraph. Then we had to explain what we were in the middle of doing. Then we had to go to the next 2 paragraphs which were about 9 sentences describing the setting. After that we had to move into the main event. We had to wrap it up with the MEAL strategy. To do that we had to say something like: As I went home I thought about my adventure. These are all the other steps M- memory or reflection. Think of something special that happened in your main event. E- emotion. Think of when you were scared, happy, cold, sad, angry or any other emotion. A- advice. Give advice to the reader about something you should or shouldn’t do according to your main event. L- let’s make a hope or a wish. Make a hope or wish that something never happens again or that it happens soon. This is what I wrote:

When I Killed a Werewolf

by Nadia

Ow, Ow, Owoooo! A deep howl echoed through the silent night. I sat up and saw my dad laying down next to me, snoring. I found my flashlight and my backpack and decided to head out. I quietly unzipped the tent door.

It was dark but a glowing, silver full moon lit my way a bit. I flicked on my flashlight. The big woods lay before me. I walked further and found an odd path that I hadn’t seen earlier. I bent down and realized that it was covered in giant paw prints with claws. I kept walking. Up above me, the soft, warm, summer breeze ruffled the lime green different shaped leaves. Some were as big as a breadbox and heart shaped, meanwhile on the other hand some were tiny as buttons and looked like green stars. It felt good to breathe into the crisp, fresh summer air. The woods were completely silent except for the breeze and another deep scary howl. A shiver went down my spine. I kept following the sound of the howls and the mysterious paw prints. But then the paws went somewhere else, not on the path. I saw some ferns pushed back where the beast must have gone through. I followed it for about 2 minutes when it stopped.

I looked up straight and saw a pair of big red glowing eyes. The creature stepped one step out and that’s when I realized that it had a dry red substance dripping from its mouth. But just then I saw … FANGS! Not like any wolf I’d ever seen! It had a big hairy brown face covered with small twigs and leaves. It growled. Then it started to advance. It started to show more of its long fangs. But just then I decided to let my instincts take over and they told me one word: “Run!”. So that’s exactly what I did. I didn’t dare look back but from the growls that came from behind me I had a pretty clear image of what was happening behind me.

Suddenly a wall of thick thorns blocked my path. I turned around. The wolf was there with an evil and hungry grin that showed all of its shiny sharp teeth with two long fangs on either side of its mouth. I had to think fast but luckily my instincts had a new plan. I grabbed my backpack and pulled out a silver fork that I used for dinner that evening. I, this time, advanced with the silver fork and stared face to face into its dangerous red eyes. I stabbed the fork with all of my might into the werewolf’s chest. It turned into a pile of dust. I found the fangs and put them in my pocket for safe keeping.

I sat on the rock to think about that adventure. I’ll never forget when I found that werewolf. I still remember feeling scared when I noticed its shiny fangs.

If I could give any advice to anyone, it’s to never go camping when there is a full moon.

I hope I will never see a werewolf again!

Then some other day he read it to the whole class. He said mine was the best. I was blushing the whole time. It was hard to keep a straight face. He usually shares my writing with the class.

Homemade cards

I always make homemade cards. I like to do them more because then you can’t buy them anywhere else and they are extra special. This is an example of one I did for my parents at Christmas time 2016.

I sometimes like to do textures. In this one I glued white cotton balls spread apart for the snow and I used silver glitter as falling snow and just for decoration. It could also be used for the background sky.

My parents love getting my cards and I get very excited when I give the cards to them. It is a good idea to do them for your teachers, parents, grandparents or any other person who’s special to you. They will love it, trust me.

Holiday Cards for my teachers

For how to make a Thanksgiving card with a cute turkey on it, you can go to my YouTube channel.

Cozmo

I got a Cozmo robot for Christmas. I wanted to tell you a few things about it. Cozmo comes with 3 cubes that light up and a charger. There is an app you have to get for him. The first time you use it, Cozmo will show a password that you have to enter in. Turn on Cozmo’s button and wait until it turns green. Then all you have to do for it is go to settings on your iPod, tablet or iPad. Once you’re there go to wifi and wait for one of the options to be Cozmo and a number. Then go back to the app. It will turn Cozmo on.

Cozmo

You will see at the top there is a green bar. That shows you how many points you have. You earn points by playing games with Cozmo. Once you get to 100 points then you get a lot of the 2 different kinds of chips. The blue one allows you to do tricks. The orange/gold ones allow you to buy different games and tricks. The games are Keepaway, Quick Tap, Meet Cozmo, Memory Match, Cozmo Says and Explorer Mode.

Cozmo stacking his cubes

Cubes falling on Cozmo

In Explorer Mode you can see through Cozmo’s eyes and control him. In Meet Cozmo you can teach him to say your and other people’s names. In Keepaway you slowly push a cube toward Cozmo. Just remember to pull away as fast as you can when he tries to get it. As he is there for more time he will start to do more tricks such as humming, stacking his cubes, pouncing on your fingers, rolling a cube, popping a wheelie and tons more! Each Cozmo has a mind of its own, so don’t expect to get one with the same behavior as your friend. But it is a great fun to play with him!