Hi.
It's August, which means the stores already have the back to school stuff out, which should be illegal. This month we asked you about the worst summer jobs you ever had and WOW. Also we have a poem from our youngest writer ever and a story I wrote at the pool. Enjoy what's left of summer. ~Anjali

Worst Summer Jobs: You Told Us

• "I dressed up as a hot dog outside a hot dog stand. In July. The costume had no air holes, just a face hole." ~ Reuben, 17, Florida
• "Detasseling corn. That's all I'm going to say." ~ Molly, 16, Iowa
• "I babysat twins who figured out how to lock me out of the house on the first day." ~ Tamsin, 14, California
• "Picking up golf balls at the driving range in the little cage cart. People aim at you. On purpose." ~ Luis, 16, Arizona
• "Folding sweaters at the mall. You fold one, somebody unfolds it, you fold it again. It never ends. It's like a Greek myth." ~ Bea, our own co-editor

Fireflies
by Jonah, 13, Kansas

My sister catches them in a jar
and I make her let them go.
She says they like it in there.
I say how do you know.
She says look, they're still blinking.
I say that's what you'd do too
if you were trying to tell somebody
something.

Lifeguard Chair
a very short story by Anjali

From the tall white chair at the town pool, Deepa could see everything. She could see the little kids in the shallow end pretending they weren't about to splash somebody. She could see the moms on the lounge chairs reading the same magazine. She could see Mr. Olsen, who swam exactly forty laps every day at noon and never once looked up.

She could not see herself, which was the point. Up there, in the red suit with the whistle, she wasn't anybody's daughter or anybody's lab partner. She was the chair.

On the last day of August, Mr. Olsen swam thirty-nine laps and stopped. He hung on the wall in the deep end and looked up at her for the first time all summer.

"You were very good at that," he said. "I never had to worry once."

Then he swam the fortieth lap, and got out, and went home, and the pool closed the next week, and she never found out his first name. She thinks about it more than she expected to.

Book Report (but fun): Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
by Bea

My little brother made me read the first one and then I stole the second one from him. It's Harry's second year at Hogwarts, the wizard school, and somebody is attacking students and leaving creepy messages on the walls. Harry and Ron get to school in a flying car, which is the best idea anybody has ever had. There's a house-elf named Dobby who keeps "helping" Harry and making everything worse. Hermione is still the smartest person in every room.

It's supposed to be a kids' book, but I stayed up till 2 a.m. finishing it and so did my mom. The third one is supposed to come out here in September. My brother and I are already fighting about who reads it first. 4 1/2 out of 5 lockers. (Half a locker off for the spiders. You'll see.)