LJ Idol Topic #10: Icarus

Jan 18, 2011 23:54

Dear Sarah,

Hello. My name is Vicki and I am nine years old. It is nice to meet you. We are all very eggs  exited excited that Mrs. M. is going into space.  Of course we are all sad that Mrs. I. is not going with her but Mrs. I said she likes Mrs. M. a lot.  We are also very happy that Mrs. M agreed to let us be pen pals.

Let me tell you a little about me. I live with my mom and dad and my brother and a rabbit named Booties. He is named Booties because he is all black with white feet.  I play soccer and I am going to play Little League in the spring, too.  I have a lot of My Little Ponies and my favorite one is Twilight.  I like to read.  My favorite book is Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson even though it is very sad.  What is your favorite book?  I also like Thundercats, too.

Please write back soon.

From,

Vicki

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Dear Vicki,

Hello!  We got our penpal letters today.  It is nice to meet you, too!  I am fifteen years old. I babysit for a girl who is nine, too.  We are all really excited about Mrs. M. going to space.  Today we got pictures of her in a NASA uniform.  NASA is the name of the space program that is sending Mrs. M. into space.

I don't think I ever read Bridge to Terabithia, but I really liked Jacob Have I Loved, which is also by Ms. Paterson.  Have you read that one?

I play on the Junior Varsity girl's softball team here, so we will have something in common!  I live with my mom and dad and two sisters. We have three cats: Cocoa, Moose, and Nutty.

Is your class studying astronomy?  We are learning a lot about space since Mrs. M. was selected for the space program. Science isn't really my thing, though. I'm more into History and Music.

Love,

Sarah

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Dear Sarah,

Thank you very much for your letter.  I drew you a rocketship on the back of the paper. I hope you like it.  Fifteen is really old.  Do you have a boyfriend?

I tried to read Jacob Have I Loved but it had a lot of love stuff in it and I still don't like boys. Some of the girls in my class like boys, though.  They might like it. I am one of the best readers in the class.  I am in the top reading group.  I also like history.  We are studying the history of Russia.  Mrs. I. polled the class on where our families were from and the most kids were from Russia so that is where we are learning about.  It is really interesting. We learned about serfs which are kind of like Russian slaves and about the Czar Nicholas who Mrs. I. says was sort of a dumb bunny.

We are learning more about space now! We learned what NASA was, too, but I already knew because of your letter.

Please write again soon.

From,

Vicki

**********

Dear Vicki,

The Challenger launch is really soon! We got to watch Mrs. M. on TV talking about her training to be an astronaut.  Isn't it cool?  By the time we're grown-ups, lots of ordinary people will probably get to go to space! There might even be flights to the moon like regular tourist travel.

We learned about Russia in school, too.  Did you know that Russia is now part of a country called the Soviet Union?  A lot of our space exploration is because we have been competing with the Soviet Union to build the best spaceships.  If it wasn't for that competition, we might never have gone to the moon, and we might not have spaceships like the Challenger today.

I read Bridge to Terabithia!  I would have really liked it when I was your age. It was really sad, though!  It sort of reminded me of space exploration, with the kids exploring a whole new universe.

Oh, and as for your question, I don't have a boyfriend but there is a boy that I like.  Shh! It's a secret!

Talk to you soon,

Sarah

**********

Dear Sarah,

My mom took me to the science museum and guess what I got? I got Space Ice Cream. It is what the Astronauts really eat in space. It it really dry and sort of tastes like flavored styrofoam. I think it would be neat to be an astronaut but I don't think I would like the food. I am a very picky eater. My mom says I would just have to get used to it if I went to space, but I don't even like cheese.

We learned a little bit about the Soviet Union.  We learned about how after World War II, the US and Russia The Soviet Union divided up Germany.

I still don't like boys but I hope the boy you like likes you back.

I think this is my last letter before the space shuttle launches. I counted the days and I think you will get this one before the launch but I will probably not get one from you before that. We are going to all miss class and they are putting a big TV in the auditorium so we can all watch Mrs. M and the other astronauts go into space. I get to write about it for the school newspaper, East Side World.

Good luck to Mrs. M.!  I will send you a copy of my article for the paper.

Write back soon.

From,

Vicki

**********

Dear Sarah,

We all went to the auditorium to watch the Challenger launch like I told you we were going to.  We watched the space shuttle go up in the air and they said something about how it had a perfect Y-cloud.  Then it looked like there were fireworks, and I thought it was really pretty, but all the teachers got really upset.  It took a little while for them to explain that the space ship had blown up instead of going through the atmosphere like it should have.   They said there was a screw that wasn't checked before liftoff. I really wish they had checked that screw.

I am really sorry about Mrs. M.  We are all really sorry about Mrs. M.  Our school is going to send your school a present to help remember her.  We are going to vote on what to send in every class.

I hope you are okay.  My mom says that Mrs. M. was already really close to Heaven so she must be there now.

Love,

Vicki

When I was in elementary school, one of my teachers was a finalist in the NASA search for a teacher to go to space.  Ultimately, they picked Christa McAuliffe.  My teacher and Mrs. McAuliffe arranged for our class and her high school students to write letters to each other over the course of the year.  Ultimately, Mrs. McAuliffe died in the Challenger disaster as the students in my class watched on the television in our auditorium.  Understandably, our pen pals didn't write after that.  The original letters are long-gone; these ones were recreated from memory, with some personal details changed.  The content of the letters, however, reflects what I remember as closely as possible.

nonfiction, lj idol season 7

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