It is the year 2029, and there is a little girl named Coco. Coco has a little brother named George. They both live in Toronto with their parents on the 50th floor of their floating apartment. Coco is in grade 5 and George is in grade 2.

Both the siblings are about to go to bed . . . BUT WAIT!

George has a question: “What can’t robots do?” he asks his sister Coco.

“Go to bed, George!” whispers Coco.

Suddenly, the question strikes Coco too!

“Hmm . . .what can’t robots do?” she wonders to herself.

The question whirls in Coco’s mind for a bit. She tries to ignore it, BUT IT KEEPS COMING BACK! Oh no! What can poor Coco do? She can’t seem to close her eyes. She keeps wondering.

Then Coco hears a familiar voice. “Coco! Wake up! You are going to be late for school!” It is Coco’s mother. “George has already left for school! Get up now!”

“Wait . . . GEORGE ALREADY LEFT FOR SCHOOL?” Coco yells.

She quickly jumps out of bed, brushes her teeth, and gets ready for school. Coco rushes down the apartment stairs. When she reaches the bottom, she hops on her bike and starts pedaling as fast as she can.

Suddenly Coco sees something strange. It is her favourite candy shop-lollie house. They are closing down because the robots aren’t working and they don’t have enough money to get a new one. Coco feels sad. She wishes that she could do something to help.

Coco quickly reaches school. Her teacher, Ms. Bettersmith, is waiting for her.

“Coco! Why are you so late today? You normally come on time,” asks Ms. Bettersmith.

“Sorry, Ms. Bettersmith. I was wondering what robots can’t do,” replies Coco.

“Hmm . . . good question, Coco. Probably learning?” says Ms. Bettersmith.

Coco and Ms. Bettersmith quickly rush to the classroom. Ms. Better-Smith gets some supplies for today’s lesson.

“Okay, class, today Coco has a question: What can’t robots do?”

“I know!” shouts a familiar voice. It is Coco’s brother, George.

“Yes, George,” replies Ms. Bettersmith.

“Ask questions! Robots can’t ask questions! They just do what they are told!” says George.

“Hmm . . . I don’t think so George. Coco! What do you think?” says Ms. Bettersmith.

“Maybe emotions? If they don’t work they don’t cry?” replies Coco.

“You are right! If you are feeling sad, robots can’t make you happy,” says Ms. Bettersmith.

Coco goes silent for a minute. “Robots don’t have emotions. Maybe they can’t feel others’ emotions. We humans can feel each other’s emotions, like if I feel sad, my brother will too.”

“Good job, Coco! You figured out the answer to your question!” replies Ms. Bettersmith.

RIIIIINNGGG! the school bell buzzes. “School’s over, students! Bye!” says Ms. Bettersmith.

Coco rides her bike back home with George. Coco is in a good mood, a REALLY good mood.

Hi! Welcome to Scarborough! Scarborough is an amazing city in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It may have some little problems… like missing children. And dogs and cats going missing too. But I am gonna tell you about the beauty of it!

Scarborough has a neighbourhood called Galloway. The neighbourhood roads are Overture, Celeste, Morningside, Galloway, Pilot, Lawrence, Orton Park, and Kingston! Kingston Road is a very busy road. It has McDonald’s, Krispy Kreme, Tim Hortons, and a plaza. Out of those, McDonald’s is the best. I like the McFlurries, nuggets, and fries. One time, my two-year-old sister, Sacred, asked to use my mom’s phone. She tried to order a Happy Meal with four-piece chicken nuggets, apple slices, and chocolate milk. She almost ordered it, but it didn’t work.

I went to kindergarten at Galloway Road Public School. I still go there. At lunch one time a teacher told me to clean up, and I said “I don’t care!” 

And then there was the juicebox  incident…I had a juicebox for snack, and it wouldn’t open. I squeezed it so hard it exploded all over a student who was next to me.

One last story from kindergarten: I was in senior kindergarten and my sister was in junior kinder-garten and there was an assembly. The caretaker award was “kindness and caring.” I thought I was gonna win it, but my sister won it instead! I started crying, but the teachers came over and said I would win an award next time. And I did. I won an award for “honesty” the next March. Even though I won the honesty award, I still lie.

Morningside is like the end of the neighbourhood, and if you go down you end up in Malvern. Morningside also has a forest. I used to take walks there, but after the coyotes came, I stopped walking there. The funny thing is, my teacher said, “We’re going to take a forest walk there.” My mom said the forest is dangerous, and that if we take a walk there, we’re going to need my dad, my big cousins, and my uncle, in case any coyotes or dangerous animals show up.

Lawrence is a part of the neighbourhood that has a daycare called Centre of Early Learning. Orton Park is a road that has an Express gas station and apartments. Malvern is a neighbourhood that is close to STC (Scarborough Town Center). Malvern has a playground and many houses and a mall. Malvern also has a library with a summer camp in it. I went to the summer camp. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like playing dodgeball there. There was a girl I hit with the ball. I told her she was out, but she didn’t even leave the court.

Last but not least is STC: it’s a mall and it has a movie theatre in it. I saw It and It 2 there. I liked It 2 better. I liked it because Pennywise is just being funny. I don’t like the back-in-the-day It from 1999—Pennywise looked like a regular clown, for kids.

Right beside STC is the YMCA, a place where you can learn how to swim and play basketball and soccer.

I like the mall. There are lots of foods, clothes, and accessories. The mall is the end of Scarborough. Beyond that is the highway.

That’s all of the beauty. I hope you liked this city!

Once upon a time there was lovely place called Candy Land. Candy Land was full of lollipops, chocolate gumdrops, ginger bread, and cotton candy. It was very colourful, full of reds, blues, pinks, and purples.

In Candy Land there lived three very special animals called unicorns. There were two adult unicorns and one baby unicorn. The adults were white and pink with purple hair, and the baby unicorn was born with red hair. The adults could fly, poop rainbows, and poop candy, and all three could only be found in Candy Land.

One day, a strange girl walked into Candy Land. Her name was Candy Witch. She had blue and purple hair and wore a blue and pink dress with shorts. She wanted to take all the candy in Candy Land. But without candy, Candy Land started dying!

So the unicorns walked around Candy Land looking for Candy Witch’s hideout so they could try to stop her. They found a door, walked in, and saw all the candy. They took the candy and everything and returned it to where it belonged. Everything went back to normal and they had a big, big party. But the witch came to the party and took the unicorns’ friend, Gabby.

The next day the unicorns went looking for their friend. They went to the Candy Kingdom to ask for help to find the witch and get things to trade for their friend. The Candy Kingdom gave them five gold chocolate bars to trade with the witch.

The unicorns got to Candy Witch’s hideout to get their friend back out. They traded the chocolate bars, and the witch returned their friend. Candy Land was safe again, and they had another big, big party

Once upon a time, a kid was born with special pants that gave him superpowers. That kid became the greatest hero, Pantsman, who used his power selflessly to help people in need. He often got attacked by people who wanted to steal his pants. One day, he met his match, Shirtgirl, a girl born with a shirt who liked Pantsman.But then Shirtgirl decided that she would be a villain and try to kill Pantsman.

Pantsman’s abilities were stronger, so he could easily defeat Shirtgirl. But Shirtgirl wasn’t done yet.

She had powerful backup goons to keep her safe while she healed. When she was done healing, she was distracted by a fly, so Pantsman hurried and stole her shirt. Pantsman then became 2,000 times stronger. Shirtgirl got scared and gave up. Wow, Pantsman once again saved the day.

Then another villain came along named Gloveboy. Gloveboy was a lot stronger than Pantsman. When Pantsman heard about Gloveboy, he jumped into action and tried to find him and take him down. Then Gloveboy rose up and revealed himself to Pantsman so that Pantsman could fight him.

Pantsman never backed down from a fight. So Pantsman fought and fought hard. When Gloveboy was distracted, Pantsman took his gloves and became so powerful that he got badly injured.

So Pantsman had to run, but he would come back, once he could control his power.

Cruel! Dangerous! Bad! Prideful! Do you know who this is? The Dragon Fly! He is the king of an island who has beaten and killed all the people who went against him.  He destroyed the rich, the poor, all the people in between, and even the most ferocious creatures. He can breathe fire and is very strong and powerful. The best thing is that he has night vision and can handle extreme heat. He could fly too.

One awful thing that Dragon Fly did was to a man who came to him from outside the island and asked his name. Dragon Fly killed the man because he said that if a man does not know the king’s name they will be killed. The island where Dragon Fly lives has a forest that is filled with dinosaurs, trees, plants, insects, and rodents. But all these animals must do what Dragon Fly says.

One day while he was sleeping, he heard someone say that he needed to challenge him. Dragon Fly jumped out of his bed and went outside to challenge the person or animal, but he saw another dragon! It was Dragon Fly’s long lost sibling, and he heard that Dragon Fly is cruel, so he believed he should be king instead.

They fought for hours. His brother had water powers. He could boost water from his body, but Dragon Fly did not like cold things, especially water. When his brother did the water boost, he ran away. He could not be seen anywhere because the water scared him away.

The brother’s name was Infinite Fly. Infinite Fly became the king after Dragon Fly ran away.  Dragon Fly was always warned by his family and friends that pride always comes before a fall, but he killed the people who said that. He even killed his father and mother.

Years later, after the fight, Dragon Fly came to the castle and asked Infinite Fly to forgive him. Infinite  Fly agreed and forgave Dragon Fly.

You’re always there for me
even when my pink clothes are all over the floor,
with my pink strawberry gum
popping in class.
I’ll always be there for you,
like how you are always there for me.
Mom, I want you to know I love you forever,
like how bees are addicted to summer flowers.

Today is Friday October 23, 2020

It has been almost five years without seeing my dad and my brother. Hopefully when COVID-19 gets a little better I will get to see them. Everything has shut down in Lebanon with all the COVID cases, so it slowed down the paperwork and my brother and dad have not gotten their passports yet.

My mom, my sister, and I moved to Canada because we thought it would be a good place for me and my sister to learn. I was five years old and my sister was twenty-one. At first, before we moved here, I was excited because I was very young and I barely understood anything. I was looking forward to seeing my cousin and making new friends. A few months after we arrived in Canada we thought it would be nice if we were able to live here, so we started our papers.

The week before our flight, me and my family were sitting down and eating dinner. We were talking about how we feel about coming to Canada and I remember when I said I am happy because I get to make new friends and see what it’s like to be on a plane for the first time and see what Canada actually looks like in real life.

We had to take a flight to France then to Canada so it was pretty cool. When we arrived at the airport in Canada, all I saw was my aunt, cousins, and grandma waiting for us. When we came to my cousin’s house I saw a bunch of snow, which was pretty weird because in Lebanon it doesn’t snow.

When I moved to Canada I didn’t think I would miss my dad and brother that much. Now that I think of it I’m pretty brave—I may not show it, but I am. I may not show that I miss my family, but I really do. I’m always thinking about when they come to Canada and live with us and what we’re gonna do. I would like to go and visit Niagara Falls so I can show them how beautiful the view is from there.

My birthday is January 6th, which isn’t that far away from now. I am hoping for a birthday present that my dad and brother will be here by then. It would make me, mom, and sister very happy, and it would be less stressful for my mom.

I’m very grateful for everything, especially for all my friends who have helped me through-out everything that I have been through. Sometimes when I think about it, I think I have bad luck, but who knows, maybe something bad would have happened if we rushed everything so that my dad and brother came to Canada.

A few months before we came, my uncle from my dad’s side passed away. After I found out I was pretty sad because we were very close—he was like my best friend. He was a very sweet, tall man.

Every time I went to my uncle’s house he used to give me a lot of snacks and money. On my birthdays he would be the one that would host a birthday party for me and get me cake.

If I had a chance to bring someone back to life, I would bring my uncle back, but sadly that is impossible. A few months later, we received plane tickets for my mom, my sister, and I to go to Canada and visit my aunt and grandma. Since we hadn’t seen them in a long time we decided to take that chance and go. The trip helped me forget about a lot of things, my aunt passing, my uncle passing and my grandma and grandpa on my dad’s side.

It was an ordinary day for Liam until he went on a walk on the beach side, and he spotted a shark tooth. Fascinated by the tooth, Liam went home to investigate the tooth. But as soon as Liam picked up the tooth, the tooth started glowing in his hand. Liam, being terrified and yet so fascinated by the glowing tooth, went home to study it.

At home Liam just stared at the tooth before his pet goldfish Goldy interrupted him. Goldy turned to Liam and said, “Liam, you found the Magical Tooth!”

“Ahhhhhhhh!” said Liam with a stunned face.

Goldy replied, “Liam, calm down. You found the Magical Tooth. It gives you the ability to talk to sea animals and the ability to breathe under water too!”

After a hot minute Liam finally replied, “Wait. So you’re telling me this is not a dream. ’Cause this feels like a dream. Wait! What if we’re both dead and fish could talk to humans?! Because you know… we’re dead!”

Without hesitation Goldy splashed water on Liam and shot back, “Liam! This is not a dream! Now will you just pull yourself together?!”

Hours went by and Goldy was telling/warning Liam about some merpeople in the water seeking humankind help for their crisis. Liam was hearing that these merpeople were suffering from pollution.

“You’re the only one who can help them, Liam. I’ve been watching your kind soul, and you’re perfect for the job!”

“Wait. Me! I’m perfect for the job? I could barely get past grade 12 and I’m perfect to go underwater or something and save a bunch of people with scaly tails that are suffering from pollution?!” Liam shot back in shock.

“Yeah pretty much,” Goldy said.

So after a long decision Liam made up his mind to go on this quest. With a big breath Liam jumped into the water and went scavenging for these so called “merpeople.” But it didn’t take long for Liam to start running out of breath. With his last breath he remembered what Goldy told him: about being able to breathe underwater. A big smile plastered across Liam’s face. He didn’t need to tell himself twice to start breathing underwater. Breath after breath, Liam was swimming deeper and deeper into the ocean. After a while, Liam started to see something blurry in the midst of the ocean. So he started to think to himself: “What is that? Is it a fish? A shark! A dolphin? But wait, it looks part human and part fish. Wait, is that a mermaid?!” All of a sudden a beautiful, and yet majestic creature came out of the depths of the ocean. A mermaid!

After what seemed like a millennium, Liam managed to find a solution that actually worked and saved the merpeople and their home. But Liam asked the ruler of the merpeople (Mermaida) how he was going to be alive in the real world? Wouldn’t everyone he knew be dead because he’d been underwater for about a millennium? But the merpeople said that the time was different underwater than it was on land (the time was magical too). So after Liam got out of the water, he kept the shark tooth as a token (gift) to remember the merpeople, and maybe he might just pay them a visit.

Confident Lee was the kindest boy. Almost everyone loved him. Until Mr. Dummling stole all his love. Everyone hated Confident Lee for two days. After that, he had a plan: he would steal all the love back. During the night, when everyone was sleeping, he stole all the love back. And he lived happily ever after.

Once there was a boy named Nathan and he was walking through a pumpkin patch. He saw an old abandoned laboratory. Nathan was very curious, so he went inside. As he walked through the laboratory he saw lots of strange radioactive food. Nathan felt his tummy start growling because he was so hungry. He saw a pie and on the label it said fruit pumpkin pie. Nathan thought this was strange, but because he was so hungry he took a bite.

All of a sudden Nathan felt his tummy rumbling and his skin was starting to turn green. Nathan shouted, “What is happening to me?” He was transformed into a pumpkin face. He was so freaked out!

Pumpkin Face ran into the forest crying because he didn’t know how he was going to change himself back to a boy again. While he was walking, a little dog ran up to him. The dog could talk.

“Who are you?” asked the dog

“I’m Pumpkin Face, who are you?”

“I’m Jack.”

Jack asked Pumpkin Face why he was crying. Pumpkin Face told Jack the story of what happened to him in the laboratory.

Jack felt so sorry for him he said, “Don’t worry, I will be your friend. Maybe we can find a way to turn you back into a boy.”

After that Pumpkin Face and Jack became friends! Pumpkin Face brought Jack home with him because Jack lost his family and he had been wandering around in the forest because he got lost.

Pumpkin Face showed Jack what his favourite game was, which was Call of Duty. He tried to teach Jack, but all Jack wanted to do was play fetch and all Pumpkin Face wanted to do was play Call of Duty, but the two really enjoyed having each other’s company. Sometimes Pumpkin Face would ride his bike with Jack in the basket in front and they explored along the bike path and even flew their Dorito-shaped kite in the park.

One day Pumpkin Face and Jack were riding on the bike path near Pumpkin Face’s house. While they were riding, they saw a shiny box. When they approached the box they saw that there was a shiny stone inside, and the cover of the box said, Whoever touches this stone will be granted one wish.

Pumpkin Face quickly grabbed the treasure and he and Jack rode home. They race up to the Pumpkins Face’s room. Pumpkin Face asked Jack what he should do. Jack looked at him and said, “Whatever is in your heart.”

Pumpkin Face closed his eyes and touched the stone. All of a sudden there was a bright light and a loud bang. When Pumpkin Face looked at his hands he could see that he was human. What he wanted to happen had happened. Pumpkin Face was a human again and his name was Nathan.

On Eid day, my family and I all went to the mosque for Eid prayer. Fatima and Imran and I also got so many chocolates because the mosque was giving chocolates and candy. Next, we came home and Imran and Fatima were all playing with balloons and their new toys. After we all ate, my mom and my elder sister, Kahdja, got some rasmalai and she also got some other yummy treats and my mom made some biryani, some salad, and some lemonade. For Fatima and Imran, she also made some chocolate milk. We also got some ladoo.

We all went to our cousins’ houses and had more fun. My mom brought some dresses and some abayas and nekaps for all of the other girls. My dad got some thupi and some jubba for all the other men and also my sister’s husband. Everyone was having so much fun! After we all had so much fun and so much food, my tummy was full and I went home and went to bed.

After one hour, I woke up and my sister was going to stay because it was Eid, so I slept on the couch because my tummy was so full. Then after one hour, I woke up and my sister was going to stay with us for two more days because Eid is for three days.

After that I slept with Imran and my sister slept with Fatima in another room and Daddy and Mommy were also sleeping. In the morning, we woke up and for breakfast I had lachi and paratha. Then we went to the 130 park and we all had so much fun playing at the park. There were about 20 people with us at the park and three cars. Of course there would have to be three cars if there were 20 people. Among the 20 people, there were my sister, me, Mom, Dad, Imran, Fatima, and all of my cousins and their parents. I also invited some of my friends on Eid day so they also came with us to the park.

I came to 360 on the first day
Didn’t know what to do and my teacher said, “Hey!”
“We’re gonna write stories all the time
And we’re gonna write raps with some awesome lines
We’re gonna write stories with rhyme and time
And right here, gonna rhyme time with lime.”
And the title is called 360 Rap
It’s the program where we have a map
The other day we added stars
We had a fun time with the earth and Mars
I came to 360 on the second day
I know what happens now, I was here yesterday
We started writing stories ‘bout a monster called Wreck
Then I called my friend and I sent him a text
The question was how are you doing?
Something bad happened and we are suing
Wreck showed up and smashed the window
And then turned into a flamingo
He went back to his human form
And played a song with his new horn
I went outside to play with my friends
And this is where our journey ends