Black River Trading Co. P.O. Box 7, Oxford, Michigan 48371 USA Phone: 248-628-2986 Fax: 248-628-6422
The Write Stuff:
Author Jane Briggs-Bunting visits schools around the country with her "dog and pony" show, "The Write Stuff®." Her assembly style program is a highly interactive with students. She explains the process she uses to create her stories.
She also runs writing workshops with small groups of students. The ideal workshops run over a two-day period though she also offers afternoon and morning mini-workshops. For further information, fees and available dates, e-mail her at jane@whoopforjoy.com.
November 8 and 9, 1999
Thunder Bay Junior High School
Humpty Dumpty news lead:
Who- Humpty Dumpty
What- fall
When- Sunday
Where- Silverdome-Lions’game
Why- attempted homicide
How- fall-several stories
Suspect- Cadbury bunny
The suspicious plummet of a 300 pound egg onto the artificial turf at the Pontiac Silverdome has baffled police who are interviewing witnesses. The egg was scrambled. Fans tackled a foil-wrapped bunny, captured hopping from the area where the egg splattered.
(Photo by Karen Tetzlaff, Alpena Schools)
Goldilocks news lead:
Who-Gold E. Locks and Bears
What- Breaking and Entering
When- Monday afternoon
Where-Bear’s cottage, Huron National Forest
Why- ???
How- jimmied the lock
Police Tuesday continued their investigation an 11 year old intruder found sleeping in the house when the family returned. An 11 year old child who apparently broke into a remote cottage in a bear infested section of the Hurin National Forest may be a girl reported missing by her parents Sunday.
Hinks Elementary School
Humpty Dumpty news lead:
Who-Humpty Dumpty
What- bleacher
Where- Silverdome
When- Sunday
Why- ??
How- police job
The shattered relatives of Humpty Dumpty raised questions Tuesday on the facts surrounding the fatal shattering incident involving Humpty Dumpty, an Alpena resident, at the Silverdome.
Gold E. Locks news lead:
Who- Gold bears
What- breaking and entering
Where- woods
When- Sunday
Why- ???
How- door open
(Photo by Karen Tetzlaff, Alpena Schools)
Gold E. Locks has done it again! Police think an intruder who was caught napping in a forest cottage may be the culprit behind 15 porridge thefts over the last year.
Beanstalk news lead:
Who- Jack, Giant
What- beans
When- Monday
Where- yard, Garden
Why- tossed
How- magic
Police are investigating the death of a large, unidentified male found sprawled in the garden at Jack’s house under a chopped-down bean stalk.
Besser Elementary School
Gold E. Locks news lead:
Who- Goldi, bears
What- breaking and entering or burglary
When- Monday
Where- house
Why- ??
How- unlocked door
Police Tuesday continued searching for a golden-haired girl found sleeping in a cottage by the surprised owners.
Humpty Dumpty lead:
Who- Humpty Dumpty
What- fell
When- Sunday
Where- Silverdome
Why- ??
How- splatted
Police Tuesday continued their search for evidence into the supposedly accidental plunge that triggered the fatal cracking of Humpty Dumpty’s shell during a concert Sunday.
(Photos by Karen Tetzlaff, Alpena Schools)
Below is a sample of the work of Alpena students from Briggs-Bunting's Spring, 1999 "Write Stuff" workshop.
(Photos highlight the author's May, 1999 two day visit to five Alpena schools.)
with Jane Briggs-Bunting
May 13 and 14, 1999
"Thank goodness, only one more day 'til Friday," said Beth as she stepped off the big yellow school bus as it dropped her off at the driveway.
"I’m home, Mom! Hi, Luke… Ooh, no! Bad dog! How did he get that? Luke!
"Mom! Luke stole my horse toys, and Chance chewed up my favorite one. It looked just like Whoop. It used to any way!"
"Oh, honey, Luke is just a baby. You have to understand. You shouldn’t leave your toys where he can get them."
"I didn’t. I closed my bedroom door before I left, now it’s wide open and look his pacifier’s in there."
"I was looking for that. But, really honey, he’s just a baby. He doesn’t know any better."
"Then why doesn’t he let Chance chew on his toys? He just lets him have mine."
Luke meanwhile was giggling. "Look, Whoopie mine!" said the toddler, twirling the stuffed pony around by one of only two intact legs. He smiled broadly. Then Beth grabbed the remnants of the pony from him and his face screwed up and his mouth puckered as he readied himself to scream. "Maaaaaaammmmmaaaa!" Beth dangled the pacifier in front of him and he grabbed it, shoving it into his mouth. She picked up the other toys, made a face at Luke and Chance who was had transferred his attention to Luke’s toy fire truck.
Beth rolled her eyes and stalked into her bedroom slamming the door shut. "I’m going out to see Whoop!" She changed into her barn clothes, faded blue jeans, brown half boots, a T-shirt. She tied a Wildcats sweatshirt around her waist.
Dressed, Beth headed for the kitchen and out the back door. She grabbed two apples and headed out the door. Chance dropped the truck and tagged along behind her.
"YOU, bad dog! Go home!" Chance wagged his tail, cocked his head to one side, and scrambled after her grabbing her pant leg. "Stop it! You are in the dog house in a major way."
Beth went down to the fence line near the barn, but Whoop wasn’t waiting for her. "Whoop, Whooper Superduper, where are you?"
Still, there was no sign of Whoop. " I hope he’s not sick again," she said out loud.
"You stay here" she ordered Chance as she climbed through the fence rails. Chance wagged his tail, scooted under, and followed her. Beth went into the barn and checked Whoop’s stall, but it was empty. The aging mixed hound dog, Bones was stretched out in the sun in the aisle. He lifted his head, opened one eye, and then flopped his head back down sighing noisily.
Instantly, Chanced pounced, grabbing his leg, growling in play. Bones rolled over and looked at Beth mournfully. "I know, Bones, Chance is a real pain!" Suddenly, Chance wheeled and barked madly at the bales of hay. Cassie hissed at the yapping puppy. Beth heard a strange noise in Whoop’s stall and checked the feed bucket. Glenda the hen looked at her with one beady eye, clucked, and hopped out, her feet on the edge of the pail. There was a brown egg in the bottom of the bucket. "Not again" said Beth. Glenda just clucked and fluttered down to the floor. Chance, abandoning the cat, started chasing Glenda around the barn.
"Chance! No! You are such a bad dog!" Finally, she grabbed him by the collar, took a lead line from the hook and used it as a makeshift leash. Beth locked him in the feed stall. She heard Cassie trapped inside start to hiss. Beth went back in, reached for the cat swelled up to twice her size. Chance wagged his tail so fast his hind end is wiggled back and forth.
"Oh, Cass, come here, I’ll rescue you from that stupid puppy." Cassie jumped on her shoulder, claws out. "Ouch!" The cat jumped off and raced out of the stall. Beth followed her and slammed the stall door, trapping the puppy inside.
Bones opened one eye, observed that the pest, Chance, was locked away, and flopped his head back down to continue his nap. "Good boy, Bones, I’m going out to look for Whoop."
Grabbing a red lead line, Beth went out in the pasture to look for Whoop. She was half way across when she spotted his tail flicking at the far corner of the pasture. "Whoop, what are you doing? I’m home." Whoop turned his head and looked at her, then turned back intent on something else. Coming closer, she saw Whoop was playing with a skinny, shaggy horse, playing halter tag. Whoop grabbed the pony’s halter between his teeth as the pony grabbed his. "Who are you? Where did you come from?" Beth asked the scrawny horse. She clipped the lead line on and tried to lead Whoop away. He dug his hooves in and wouldn’t leave his newfound friend. "Come on, Whoop. Ann wanted me to groom you before she got home. I’ve got my chores to do, too. Besides I want to tell you what Chance did now."
But Whoop refused to move away from the fence, whipping his head around to nip at Beth.
"Stop that," said Beth, jerking lightly on the halter to discip0line the horse. "What’s got into you."
Beth waved her arms at the pony to move him away from the fence. Startled he bolted away. "Hey, leave my horse alone" said a boy running up. "I said, quit it! Leave him alone."
"Then get him out of here. He’s a mess. At least my horse listens," Beth said as she tried to lead Whoop away, tugging at the line. Whoop again refused to budge. The boy grabbed the pony’s halter and led him off. Whoop whinnied, as the pony was lead away. The pony answered back.
Beth took Whoop back to the barn, groomed him, cleaned him up, and fed him an apple when she was finished. "Whoop, you are my best friend, but I think you found someone else."
She finished her barn chores, walked to the house, dragging Chance dancing along nipping at her pant legs with her.
"Mom, you’ll never guess, I met this pathetic looking horse. You can tell he isn’t well cared for, but Whoop’s befriended him then this rude boy came up and yelled at me! Can you believe it? Did those new people move in two farms down? I hope doesn’t catch anything from that horse. I’ll have to tell Ann."
But Beth had too much homework that evening and stayed inside to finish it. Chance stayed with her falling asleep on her foot.
The next day at school before first hour, Beth was talking to her friends about the rude, horrid boy, and his sad excuse for a horse. She looked up and there, in the front of the room, the boy was standing there. "Class," says Ms. May, "I’d like you to meet Jack Brown. He’s a new student at our school. Beth, could you raise your hand? Jack, there’s an empty seat next to Beth, you can sit there. You both have Mrs. Brown for English class next period so Beth I am sure will be happy to take you there. Isn’t that right, Beth?" Beth groaned under her breath and rolled her eyes, "Yes, Ms. May. I’ll do it."
For Beth, the day seemed to go on forever. Jack said very little as she walked with him from class to class. They had identical schedules! She tried to be polite but it was just about impossible. "Where are your from," she asked between classes. She’d learned he’d move with his family from a small town in New York and that he did indeed live down the road from her. "Oh great," she thought to herself, "he’ll probably be on my bus, too. Why me?"
The last straw was when they took the last two seats on the bus and had to sit next to her. Her friends were giggling and she knew they were laughing at her. Beth had to admit that Jack seemed as uncomfortable as she was. Beth and Jack got off at the same stop.
""I guess I’ll see you tomorrow," said Jack gruffly. "This is where the bus picks up in the morning?"
"Right here at 7:22 a.m.," said Beth.
"Got it. See ya…uh, thanks for taking me around today."
Beth rolled her eyes heavenward as she headed up the drive. "Oh, Mom, you’ll never guess. That rude boy with the awful horse is in every one of my classes at school. Ms. May made me take him around all day. It was awful. He sat next to me in every class."
"Now, Beth, I bet he’s a very nice boy. Is he cute? I met his mother today. She said he was very unhappy about moving and leaving his friends behind. Don’t you remember how hard it was to move? Try to be nice to him. By the way, his birthday is coming up and so is yours. Wouldn’t it be a coincidence if you had the same birthday? Wouldn’t that be fun?"
"Mother! No, it would be horrible. And he isn’t cute. I can’t stand him!"
"Ann called, Dr. Smiler’s stopping by this afternoon to give Whoop some shots. She is tied up and asked if you could help Dr. Becker until she gets there while you’re doing your chores."
"I was planning on helping anyway. Hi, Luke, Hi Chance…I hope your were both good boys today?"
Luke was playing with the now mangled fire truck, and Chance was industriously chewing on a knotted rag. Beth quickly changed clothes and raced out to the barn. Dr. Smiler was just pulling up the drive in his green truck as she crawled through the fence.
"Hi, young lady, how are you? Glad to have you as my assistant. Ann said you would help if she wasn’t here."
"She called and left a message for me. I’ll go round Whoop up."
"Where is he? If I recall, he’s usually hanging over the fence waiting for you."
"Now he’s hanging over another fence. Some new people moved in next door. They have this poor horse. Looks like he was mistreated. Whoop’s been playing with him over the fence."
"Yep, I can just his tail switching down there. That must be Fred. I am scheduled to stop by to introduce myself to his owners. A vet friend from New York called to tell me he’d be moving into the area."
"Did he warn you the horse was mistreated. I don’t understand how anyone could be so cruel to a horse. And his owner, Jack, is the rudest boy I’ve ever met."
Dr. Smiler glanced at Beth, "That so?"
"Look what he’s done to his horse."
Dr. Smiler nodded his head towards Jack who was walking towards them. "Is that him?"
"Yep…Jack…hi. This is Dr. Smiler, Whoop’s vet."
"Looks like you’ve got a good start one "Dr. Becker told me what a good job you’d been doing with that horse of yours," said Dr. Smiler. "He suggested I talk with you about some help I need around my farm…"
Jack who’d been frowning, suddenly smiled. "Really? That’s great. I want Fred to make a full recovery, I wasn’t sure what would happen since we moved and all."
"I was going to stop by after I finish up with Whoop just to check him over and introduce myself," said Dr. Smiler. "Whoop’s got quite a story to tell, too. Do you want to help Beth and I out with Whoop? Then we can go over to your barn and check out your fella."
"What happened to him," asked Beth clearly confused. After all hadn’t Jack been the one mistreating the horse?
"Fred is a rescue horse," said Jack.
"What’s a rescue horse?"
"The way it was told to me, and correct me if I’m wrong young man, is that you’d been saving up for a horse to replace one you’d lost to colic. Jack went to a big horse auction and could have had his pick of a number of fine horses. But instead of picking one of the flashy ones, he chose Fred who evidently was about the worst of the lot. He was heading off to slaughter. Been injured and pretty much abandoned. Jack spent most of the money he’d saved to buy a horse nursing this one back to health. My vet friend has been treating Fred, and asked if I’d do likewise when he learned you were moving out my way. Jack was helping him out with chores around the clinic. I was hoping to persuade him to do the same for me.
"From what I understand, Fred’s in a lot better shape than he was though he still has a ways to go. My friend says the credit all goes to Jack," said Dr. Smiler.
"Why did you pick Fred?" asked Beth.
"Because," said Jack, "he needed a home."
"That’s really awesome!" said Beth. She smiled at Jack and he smiled back. Maybe mom was right, she thought to herself. He’s is pretty cute.
Whoop snorted and stomped his feet. And the three turned their attention back to him.
The End
The first Saturday in May dawned crisp and breezy. With only a few puffs of clouds in the sky, it promised to be the perfect day to go for a ride. For Beth, the day was even more perfect since she would be riding for the first time her new pony, Henry.
He had a beautiful reddish brown coat that horse people call chestnut, one white stocking and a star on his forehead. He was a little plump, but Beth absolutely loved him!
She was a little nervous as she and Ann walked their horses down the driveway. Ann gave her an encouraging wink, then signaled Whoop to take the lead. Henry settled in behind looking from right to left his short legs almost trotting in his eagerness to keep up. They had gone about a half a mile down the road when a green mini-van passed them. Suddenly, the door slid open and a black ball of fuzz bounced out on the road. It sat up, shook its head and chased the van as it roared off in a cloud of dust. It was a puppy.
"Come on, Whoop," said Ann as she signaled the thoroughbred into a canter as they chased after the van. Henry took off at a gallop not wanting to be left behind as Beth held on for dear life.
But Ann could not catch the fleeing van, so she reined Whoop in a few yards from the puppy. He turned quickly and started barking at the horses. Whoop pranced sideways and Henry just looked at him.
"Whoa, settle down, boy! It’s OK!" Beth held tightly onto Henry and patted him on the neck to keep him quiet. The puppy, some blood glistening scarlet on his head, sat down and started to howl. Ann dismounted and reached down to pet the puppy, tossing the reins to Beth. "Poor puppy, are you OK?"
"What happened," Beth asked. "Why did those people push him out. Do you think maybe the kids did it and the driver doesn’t know?"
"No, unfortunately, people can be really cruel. They drive unwanted pets out to a rural area like ours as dump them. They figure they can survive on their own or someone, like us, will take them in. That’s what happened with all my cats and dogs. They were all strays," said Ann.
"What are we going to do?" said Beth.
"Well, we can’t leave him here, so let’s take him back to the barn. Do you have a belt?" asked Ann.
"Yes," said Beth.
"Great, we’ll use it for a leash for the puppy." They used the belt as both collar and leash and Ann placed it on the squirmy puppy. Ann lifted the puppy towards Whoop who sidled away. He gave Ann a look that clearly said, "don’t even try".
"Beth, we’ve got two choices. We either walk this fellow home and you take Whoop’s reins and lead him or you can carry the puppy home. Think you and Henry can manage?"
Beth flushed with pride. "Henry’s been really calm so far, I’d like to try.
So Ann lifted the puppy to Beth who placed him on the saddle in front of her with her arm around him. The puppy started to whimper and shiver. "It’s OK. You’ll be all right." Slowly Whoop and Henry with their riders walked back down the road to Ann’s driveway and back past the paddocks to the barn.
While, Henry stood calmly waiting. Ann quickly dismounted, unsaddled Whoop, and let him loose in the paddock where he raced around bucking and kicking. Ann put her saddle and bridle in the tack room, then returned to help. She took the puppy from Beth and waited while Beth dismounted and turned Henry loose with Whoop. Henry seemed to be trotting just a little taller, his neck arched, his head up sniffing the air as if in pride.
"What are we going to do with him? Can we keep him?" asked Beth.
"Well, let’s see how it goes. You have to ask your parents first. For now he can stay in the barn," said Ann. "But first let’s see if he’s injured and we can put some antiseptic on the cut on his head where he’s bleeding. Poor little guy."
Beth took the puppy to an empty stall, got a pail of water, some fresh hay for bedding, and some cat food from Patches. "What kind of dog do you think he is?"
Ann carefully examined the puppy, feeling his legs and paws looking for signs of injury. The puppy licked her hand then started to chew on the cloth she was using to wipe him. "Well, on closer inspection, I’d say he is definitely that not so rare breed of dog called canis mutticus otherwise known as a mutt.
The puppy looked up, wagged his tail once then pounced on the rag. One ear flopped forward, a curly tail wagged in the air. He had short squatty legs, a black nose, and one brown and blue eye. "Let’s call him Muttsie," said Beth.
"Muttsie it is!" said Ann.
Ann and Beth closed the stall door and the puppy looked up and
immediately started to howl. Patches the cat jumped up between the bars in the top half of
the stall and 
stared down at Muttsie. He stopped howling, cocked his
head as he looked at the cat and started barking furiously jumping up and down trying to
reach her. Patches hissed, sliced out at the puppy with her paw, then started licking it.
Beth and Ann rushed back into the barn. "Oh, Muttsie, are you OK?" Beth opened the door and he scooted out between her legs. Patches leapt down and in a blur of fur, swelling two times her normal size, she raced out of the barn, with Muttsie in hot pursuit. "Oh, no, you don’t! Come back here!" Beth yelled.
He stopped cold when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the barn’s resident garter snake, Lightning, slithering along to its hole under the water trough. Muttsie with a yelp followed, banging his nose against the metal sides of the trough. But the snake had vanished beneath it.
Muttsie began digging furiously. Then the pup spotted the specked hen Rosy pecking for bugs in the barnyard and took off after her. With a squawk she went racing across the yard, but Muttsie managed to grab some tail feathers before she flew into the tree clucking indignantly. Beth was in hot pursuit.
Patches went pealing at top speed in a streak out of the barn, rounding the corner. Beth took a flying leap into the mud puddle trying to grab the leash. Patches tore off, leapt between the fence rails and jumped on Henry’s back. Henry started bucking across the paddock and landed near Flossy. Muttsie raced over, barking like mad at this new creature. Flossy just stared at him. Slowly, the barking stopped. Muttsie sat down and started howling.
Quietly, Beth tiptoed up behind him and tried to grab him one more time, but startled, he ran between Flossy’s legs and took off.
His mad dash across the paddock startled Whoop who started racing around the paddock, Henry joined him and even Flossy started kicking up her heels. Rosy fluttered down to the fence rail clucking loudly. It was as if all the barn critters were talking and complaining about the newcomer.
But where had he gone? Beth and Ann looked every where, even back on the road but could not find the puppy. "I guess he’s gone," said Ann almost an hour later.
"What will happen to him. What if he get hurt or injured on the road. He just a puppy." Beth felt tears well in her eyes.
"I’ll get my car, and we’ll go up and down the road looking for him. While I get the key, would you throw some hay into the paddock for the horses and Flossy."
So Beth walked back to the barn to get the hay glancing in to the empty stall. But it wasn’t empty any more.
Muttsie was there, all curled up in a fuzzy black ball sleeping right next to Patches.
All Beth could do was grin.
It was a quiet morning. The sun was just starting to rise. In a flutter of wings, Maude hopped down from a rail in the barn.
Pecking for bugs, she wandered over to Wilbur’s stall only to find the door open and Wilbur gone.
Maude exploded in a series of clucks and raced around the barnyard, waking Tootles. He awoke, instantly alert and barked furiously, racing around chasing the chicken. Then there was a yowl and Neenor stretched up, back arched, tail crooked, from where she had been nestled in a bale of hay
Fred, who had been slumbering upright, woke up and looked around, and stuck his head out the stall. "What’s going on?" Fred whickered.
"Wilbur, Wilbur’s gone" shrieked Maude. "Good riddance!" said Neenor and began licking her paw.
Tootles said, "Come on, Neenor, you know Wilbur’s our responsibility. He’s just a kid."
"Oh, all right, but how do you expect me to find him?" and Neenor started swiping her ear to clean it.
Suddenly, Neenor moves in a streak of black fur and bounced. "Drat!" From under the water trough, Newt Skywalker yelled, "Missed me! If you want to know where the goat went, I know. But if you eat me, I’ll never tell."
Tootles whirled and snapped at Neenor. "Get away from the newt!"
"OK, Neenor’s backed off and I won’t let her past me. Where is he?" asked Tootles.
Newt carefully stuck his snout out from under the trough, looking carefully around. Seeing Neenor was gone, he scampered out, flicked his tail towards the open barn door and said, "He went that a-way."
Tootles dashed out of the barn. Fred said "Whoa, wait for me." Tootles raced back in the barn, put his paws on the stall door and nudged the latch with his nose. Finally, he pulled the latch back. Fred pushed the door open with his neck and walked out.
"OK, we’re ready. Let’s go." Maude fluttered onto Fred’s back, and Newt quickly climbed up a post and jumped onto Fred’s back as well. "Now, Maude, leave him alone," warned Tootles. Fred trotted out of the barn while Tootles raced on ahead, "Come on, Neenor."
"I’m coming" says Neenor. "Look, there! I’ve spotted his tracks."
"We’re off!" said Fred.
With Tootles leading the way, the critter cadre went hurrying after him down the drive.
"Well, he was here," said Neenor, "The geraniums are nibbled down to nothing. Look, he’s left a grass trail. Oh, no, he’s heading into Mr. Oscar’s garden!"
The critter calvacade stopped. "Do we dare go in?" nickered Fred.
"I’ll go," said Newt. "I can make it underground." He hopped onto a fence post and scampered down. Carefully, Newt slithered his way among the broccoli, cabbage, tomato plants and other vegetable and flowers growing in Mr. Oscar’s garden.
"Psst!…..Pssssssssstttttt!!!………PPPPPPPSSSSSSSSTTTTTT!"
"Huh?" said Wilbur looking around.
"Down here you silly kid."
"Newt…how are you doing? What are you doing?"
"Looking for you. We are ALL looking for you!"
Wilbur turns around and sees Fred, Tootles and the rest of the barn critters looking at him over the fence. "Why don’t they come over and join us? The food here is delicious."
"That’s the point. Do you realize you are in Mr. Oscar’s garden?"
Suddenly Wilbur stopped chewing. "You mean that Mr. Oscar?"
"Yep, one and the same. You’d better get out of here before he makes you into a sweater."
"I’m not that kind of a goat," sniffed Wilbur. "But I get your point. It’s just everything looked so green and fresh and the roses smelled so …wonderful and tasty, too. And they were. The pink ones had this wonderful …"
"You are missing the point here, Wilbur. Wax eloquent on the taste later, but it’s time to move."
"I just need to sample these dahlias and I’ll be right there."
"No, NOW! Come on!"
Reluctantly Wilbur turned away from the flowers and headed for the gate where his barnyard buddies waited.
"You’ll never survive kid-hood if you keep this up," scolded Fred.
Tootles started nipping at heels to hurry the group along. "It’s almost sunrise. We’ve got to get back to the barn before anyone suspects what’s happened."
"Maude, can you cover our tracks?" asked Fred as Newt scurried up the fence post and on to his back.
Maude scratched and pecked obliterating their prints.
They all hurried back to the barn and settled in.
A few minutes later, the barn lights came on and Sarah arrived to feed. "How are my good friends today," she asked.
In the distance, they could here Mr. Oscar’s cry of outrage when he came out to his garden.
"Wonder what the racket’s about over there," Sarah said out loud.
Fred nudged Wilbur who stepped on Tootles whose yelp startled Maude who fluttered around waking up Neenor.
"At least for once he can’t accuse any of you."
With that Sarah left the barn so she didn’t quite hear the sigh of relief.
The End
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