Little Pear

Little Pear
By Eleanor Frances Lattimore
Report by Jonathan Hinrichs
Little Pear was a little boy who grew up in China. He was always getting into stuff, like mischief. He was the only boy in his family and he had two sisters.

Life in China was different from ours. For example, they shaved off all their hair except for a little bit on top that they grew long. They had fields instead of gardens. There were these trenches that they would flood and that would get more and more water until the vegetables were watered. Also, their beds were made out of bricks with blankets over them. There was just one bed. Under the bed there was fire. They would use the fire to heat themselves at night during the winter. During the day they would eat on top of their bed and cook in the fire.

Little Pear was always getting into mischief. One day he went down to the river. He fell into the river. He got saved by a man who put a long stick out to him and he grabbed it. When he got to shore he went home and all the men had been looking for him. Once Little Pear lit a firecracker and burnt a hole in his jacket. One day he wanted to go to a fair so bad that he hid in the cabbages that were in his father’s wagon so he could go to the fair. When he got to the fair everybody started laughing. His father was mad at first but then he saw everybody else laughing so he started laughing too.

Snow Treasure

Snow Treasure
by Marie McSwigan
Report by J. J. Hinrichs
Peter was a plain boy who lived in Norway, which is in the Arctic Circle, so there was snow, snow, snow almost all year. The children always went sledding, everyday. I’m going to tell you how the children saved their country’s money by hiding it from the Nazis.

Peter’s father was in charge of the bank and the bank had 12 tons of gold. When the Nazis invaded, the Norweigians did not want the Nazis to get the gold. So they hid it in a cave that they had built out of ice blocks. They were trying to get the gold to “The Snake” which was a river that led right to the ocean and was so thin that if you were in an airplane you still couldn’t see it.

The children went sledding every day and the adults thought the children should take the gold because they were not as suspicious. Everyday the children would go to the cave where an old man would place gold onto their sleds. Each brick would weigh 75 pounds. Then they put a burlap sack with some squishy stuff on top and then they’d lay on top and be on their way. It was 12 miles from the cave to the Snake.

They would pass the German camp and there was one mean Nazi ruler who wanted to make Peter his assistant to polish his boots. One day they were hiding the gold and made snowmen on top of the bricks. Then one of them, the captain, was kicking one of the snowmen down. Peter threw a snowball at him before he found the gold brick. They caught Peter and put him in a room. Peter was saved and they were on their way to America. That is the story of Peter and his snow treasure.