We LOVE getting stuff from readers. You can send stories, poems, jokes, book reviews, movie reviews, and pets for Pet of the Month. If you are a kid (12 and under, or 13 if you are nice), you can be in the Gazette! Here are the rules. Please read ALL of them. Matthew didn't read all of them and he had to do his jokes over.

THE RULES

1. Ask your mom or dad FIRST. They have to say it's OK. Have them type a line at the bottom of your e-mail like "It's OK with me," and their name. If there is no grown-up line we can't put it in. Sorry. That's my mom's rule and she is the boss of the computer.

2. Only your first name, your age, and your state. NO last names. NO town. NO school. Not even if your school is really cool. My mom says that is the Internet Rule and it's for everybody's safety, even ours. (That's why it just says Missouri for us.)

3. It has to be YOURS. You have to make it up yourself. Not copied out of a book or a magazine or off the TV. My mom says copying is called plagiarism, which is a big word for cheating. It's OK if your story is a little bit like something else. Just not copied.

4. Nothing mean. No making fun of anybody, no bad words, and nothing too scary for little kids, because some of our readers are 6. A little bit gross is OK for jokes. Matthew says. But not TOO gross. Rachael decides what is too gross.

5. For Pet of the Month, describe your pet REALLY good. We don't have a scanner so we can't put pictures. Tell us what your pet looks like, what it eats, what funny thing it does, and why it should win. All kinds of pets are OK. Even bugs. Jordan says ESPECIALLY bugs, since we are the Lightning Bug Gazette.

6. Get it to us by the 20th of the month if you want to be in the next issue. If you are late you might be in the one after.

7. We might fix your spelling. We won't change your words. Just the spelling. Unless it's on purpose, then tell us.

8. We can't put in everything. If yours isn't in this month, don't be sad! We keep everything in a folder and it might be in the next one.

WHERE TO SEND IT

Put what it is in the subject, like "POEM" or "JOKE" or "PET." Then we know what folder it goes in.

We write back to everybody. It might take a few days because of school. Also because Matthew has soccer.