We are proud to present the latest installment of our Field Trip Book of the Month series: a tale from our Storytelling & Bookmaking Field Trip written by the students of ICEF Vista Elementary Academy.

Ms. Batshoun’s second graders spent the morning with us brainstorming, writing, editing, and publishing their very own book – of one kid’s dream to be a ninja master and one turtle’s actorial aspirations – as a part of 826LA’s Field Trips program. 

Among these second grade authors were several students who participate in our After School Tutoring program. The field trip gave them a chance to see a place they were familiar in a new light, as the writing lab they visit twice a week magically transformed into the prestigious Barnacle & Barnacle Publishers. We are still fielding questions from them about the eponymous founders who live upstairs!

A huge thank you to our awesome volunteers for making this particular Field Trip so much fun: Casey Shubin, Epiphany Hulburd, Lauren E. Smith, Kerstin Zilm, and Eian Peters.

And now, onto the story! 

Once upon a time, there was a tall and a little bit wide eight-year-old ninja named Alex. He had a black mohawk and a pet turtle named Rosie. She was smaller than a book, wore make-up, and had a half purple, half light blue shell.

Alex lived in a ninja village where his parents dreamt that he would one day save the village. Rosie dreamt of being free so she could become an actress.

The ninja village was a place where all the buildings were made out of books. In the village, Alex’s father, Mike, was the blacksmith. As long as he had his pile of iron, he could make things out of metal like swords and horse shoes.

One day, this pile of iron was stolen! Alex quickly set out to find the robbers. He let Rosie know, “If you help me find the iron thieves, I will set you free to become a great actress.”

They saw by the camera footage that someone or something had taken the iron, but it was too dark to make out who it was. But Rosie said, “I saw where the thieves went. They went underground by an elevator in a cave outside the village.”

They went to the elevator but it was super secure, and they couldn’t get the doors to open. Rosie said, “How are w

He jumped, turned in the air, and powerfully kicked the doors open.

Suddenly, an alarm loudly rang out. Alex shouted, “What!? That doesn’t even make sense!” Just then, Rosie tripped and fell down a dark hole in the cave.

With a thud, she shrieked, “Ah! Help Me! Woah…” Alex jumped down to check out where she went. The hole led to a secret underground laboratory!

As they were exploring the lab, they saw the pile of iron on a table! Both exclaimed, “We finally found the missing pile of iron!”

Just then, a girl walked out of the shadows. Rosie and Alex asked, “Who are you?”

Angrily, she replied, ” My name’s Izzy. I took this iron because I needed to build a train track for my brother for his birthday, but nobody would share with me.”

Alex asked, “Why didn’t you just ask my dad? He would have given you some. He’s a nice guy!”

Suddenly, the ninja squad came and placed Izzy under arrest for taking the iron.

Dun dun dun…

And that’s their cliffhanger! Students took over from there and wrote their own endings.

Angelica wrote an ending filled with amazing dialogue:

“Then Alex said to his dad, ‘Stop! She is my friend. ‘ Now she was not arrested anymore. Then Alex said to his pet, ‘You are free and you can be an actor now. ‘ Rosie was so happy and then his dad said, ‘You are a master of karate now,’ and Alex started to cry with joy. Then he became friends with Izzy. His turtle and his dad became friends. His mom said, ‘Where were you? Look at this pretty girl.’ Alex said, ‘She is my friend.’ Then Alex’s mom said, ‘She is my friend too.'”

Crystal came up with a great solution in her ending:

“But then Alex said, ‘Stop!’ to the police and then the police stopped and then Alex and the policed talked. Izzy was not arrested and she borrowed some iron and got a new home and she got a very brand new job from Mike the Blacksmith!