budding author

max won honorable mention in prose for his grade in a county-wide contest for a story he wrote and his teacher submitted for consideration....he was so excited! we got an invitation in the mail (always exciting for him to get mail) to come to the reception in honor of the winners. so of course we went. it was a big night for him. not only did he get a medal and a book that contained his story (among others), they had fruit trays there and he got a plate loaded with strawberries. i think he'd have gone just for that. (if you know max, you know he can't pass up fruit.) he was so happy with himself and his medal that he came to the breakfast table adorned with it and carrying his book.

here's his story:

the bee that couldn't buzz
by max creasy

one day a bee names james was born without his buzz. he had a stinger,
head, wings and stripes, but no buzz! all the other baby bees had a buzz except
for james! a few years later, it was time for bee pre-school. james didn't want
to go because he thought all the other bees would laugh at him, but he had to go
anyway. just as james thought, all the other bees laughed at him except for one.
his name was terry. james wondered why terry didn't laugh at him so at snack
time james asked terry why he didn't laugh at him. terry said, "i know what it
feels like to be laughed at because i have older brothers and sisters." "i'm
sorry." "so do you want to be friends?" "sure." so the two bees became friends
and now terry was going to help james from getting laughed at anymore! terry was
a good friend for helping james and not laughing at him. it was easy getting the
other bees to stop laughing because terry threatened to sting them. a few years
later, in elementary bee school nobody laughed at james anymore because they
remembered what terry said about stinging them. and james and terry lived
happily every after.

the end.