Kids' holiday stories are judged by McKissacks

Popular St. Louis kids' book authors Patricia and Fred McKissack gave kids at Brittany Woods Middle School a simple task: Write a story about a religious holiday.

The McKissacks then offered critiques on the writing by way of a closed-circuit video conference with the eighth graders.

The writing assignment was simple, but there was a lot of variety in the stories. Entries talked about several different holidays. Some stories were factual. Some were fiction.

This article is about three Brittany Woods kids whose work was interesting to the McKissacks. (To read their stories, just click here.)

Fourteen-year-old Jessica Jackson wrote about Kwanzaa. That's a relatively new African-American holiday. Her story sounds as if it happened in her family. But, she made that up.

Thirteen-year-old Amina Larara and 14-year-old Bashir Kalayeh got attention from the McKissacks even though English is their third language. Bashir's story had a trick ending.

The McKissacks had given the kids tips on how to write an interesting story. They talked about doing research, finding a good story idea, making characters human, having action and having an interesting setting.

Patricia McKissack told of one of her early books. It was about a person she knew. But, she said kids she was teaching told her the book was "boring." After re-reading it, she agreed. She said her book was full of facts but "I hadn't told a good story,"

Jessica decided to write about Kwanzaa because her birthday (December 27) happens on the second day of that week-long holiday. The holiday was established in 1966 by activist scholar Maulana Karenga.

He wanted to help focus African-Americans on seven principles he thought would strengthen the family and community.

Jessica said her family doesn't participate in Kwanzaa. "But, we talk about it and I had books about it at home," she said.

After looking up information, she said she needed to find a way to make the story more than just facts. She said, "I knew kids look up to their grandma and like her to tell interesting stories."

Therefore, she told her story as if her grandma was deciding the family should start to participate in Kwanzaa. "But, I made up the grandma," she said.

Jessica said she likes writing and reading. "I like mysteries and try to figure out what's going to happen at the end," she said. She hasn't decided on a career yet.

Amina Larara

Amina is a Muslim so she decided to write about Ramadan, the Muslim religious holiday.

Being from Algeria, Amina's first two languages were Arabic and French. She said, "English is tough but I have fun learning it."

Amina said she learned facts about Ramadan from talking to her parents. She said, if she had that assignment again, she'd write about the Chinese New Year. "I like to learn about different religions," she said.

She wants to be a veterinarian when she gets older. "I'd like to work with wild animals if I could," she added.

Bashir Kalayeh

Bashir is another student who has English as a third language. He's from Iran and Farsi is his first language. He also knows German.

He didn't pick his family's religious holiday for his story. He picked Christmas. "I've known about Christmas since I was born. It was on TV all the time," he said.

His story deals with an immigrant family that just moved to America. The kids want to have an American Christmas. The father doesn't have enough money to buy presents. But, when the kids get up on Christmas morning, both they and their parents have lots of presents waiting.

His surprise ending has Santa bringing the presents. Asked if he believes in Santa, Bashir said "No." He was then asked, if Santa didn't bring the presents, who did? "I think a friend did," he said.

Bashir said he like to read. And, after this writing assignment, he now "watches what the author does with his writing."

Asked about his future career, Bashir said he'd like to be a lawyer.