The 826 Quarterly, Volume 17 - Softcover

Lemony Snicket had an unusual education and a perplexing youth and now endures a despondent adulthood. His previous accounts and research have been collected and published as books, including those in A Series of Unfortunate Events, 13 Words, and The Composer Is Dead.

Emilie Coulson has worked with student writers at 826 Valencia since 2007. She is a teacher and writer, and in her current role as Director of Education, she works with a team of staff and volunteers to deliver free writing programs to Bay Area youth and publish their work in chapbooks, magazines, newspapers, and other publications.

The following excerpt is from a story written for the Story of Me autobiography workshop held in February of 2003. Like all of our workshops, this workshop brought students interested in a particular topic together for a series of classes taught by a talented volunteer teacher with expertise in the area.

That’s a Horse Book of a Different Color
by Carmen DeMartis
Age 13, Alice Fong Middle School

My next obstacle was middle school. Sixth grade came and went. And seventh grade was soon to come. An elite staff of teachers was hired to feed on their new naïve prey: us.

Since we were untrained in the laws of gravity, P.E. homework put our minuscule muscles to the test, while a strict Cantonese/math teacher drilled us on equations, characters, and mental math. At the same time, our Mandarin teacher and language arts/science teacher overloaded our brains with unnecessary facts and conversations. This was the first month of school. I am still shocked at how hard middle school was compared to elementary. We had way more homework and we had at least one test every week! Fortunately, I have finally adapted to the extra periods and the shorter lunch break.

Right now, I am thirteen years old, my lucky number is two, and I have a sad GPA of 3.29. I have two cats and two parents. Also, two good friends and two favorite classes. Two years of studying Mandarin and two rules to follow in life: 1. Always do unto others as you would have others do unto you. 2. Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of being a second-rate version of someone else.
The following poem is from the fall 2012 edition of the annual sixth grade poetry project at James Lick Middle School, when more than 200 sixth graders write poems with tutors from 826 Valencia in their on-campus Writers’ Room.

Love Blah, Blah, Blah
JACKY CARRILLO
Age 12
James Lick Middle School

Love is like pizza.
You add every topping
trying to make your customer happy.
They dislike it
like the smell of a hard rotten egg.
You feel like trash.

Love is like a dream
that turns into a nightmare.
You see everything in the color pink
and you love it.
Then everything turns black and scary.
Then you can never remember how good you felt
before the dream.”

Love is like a roller coaster.
You feel excited on the way up
and terrified on the way back down,
even though you think you have the guts
to go through anything.

Love is like a soda.
You open the can,
it’s full of fizz, and it’s delicious.
After some time,
it tastes plain (like water).

Remember, it isn’t a game.
It’s destiny.
Love can be amazing
depending on who you share it with.