Point of View Practice

Ana entered the classroom and walked toward Elvis's cage, just like she did every morning. She liked to start her day by greeting her furry friend. This morning, however, the guinea pig wasn’t in his cage like he normally was. “Miss Connor, have you seen Elvis?”

“We need to discuss this when everyone arrives. It seems as though Elvis has decided to go exploring. He was in his cage when I left school last night, but when I arrived this morning, he was nowhere to be found,” replied Miss Connor. Ana gasped. “We have to find him right away!

“Hooray!” Beth cheered. She had found her name in the column labeled Mr. Rink. She breathed a sigh of relief. She had been hoping all summer that she would be placed in Mr. Rink’s fifth grade classroom. Every kid knew that he was the fun teacher.

“Oh, no. I have Mrs. Burke,” Angela whispered. She felt sick to her stomach. This isn’t fair! she thought. School is easy for Beth, and then she gets the good teacher! This is going to be a horrible year- even worse than last year! I hate school!

Beth spotted Angela’s name in Mrs. Burke’s column. Her feeling of joy vanished. How could she celebrate when her best friend was feeling so down?

“I do it,” pouted two-year-old Tatum. We don’t have time for this! Tara screamed inside her head. This was one of those times that Tara wished her mother was still alive. Her mom would know what to do with Tatum. Tears welled up in Tara’s eyes. She missed her mom so much. “Come on, Tate.” Tara tried to keep her voice calm. “Just let me zip your coat for you. We are going to be late. Dad has to get to work, and I have to get to school.” “NO!” yelled Tatum, pulling at her zipper. “I do it myself!”

The phone rang.

“Hello?” I answered.

“May I speak to Kevin Partel?” the male voice asked.

“I am Kevin,” I replied. I didn’t recognize this person’s voice. I wondered why he was calling me.

“Hi, Kevin. This is Paul Adams from Channel 7 News. I have exciting news for you! Do you remember entering the ‘My Favorite Teacher’ essay contest last month? Well, you won!”

“Really?!” I asked, stunned. I had never won anything in my life!

Chapter 2

If that’s what she wants, then that’s what she’ll get! thought Jack. He couldn’t believe that his little sister was whining because his allowance was more than hers. I have to do way more chores than she does. Let her do my jobs for a week. She’ll be begging to return to her life of leisure!

Chapter 3

If that’s what he wants, then that’s what he’ll get! thought Mia. She was tired of hearing her brother complain about how she didn’t have to do anything. I do tons of chores around this house, and I never get paid a dime!

Your legs are burning when you finally reach the top of the hill. You turn around and look down. Suddenly, it doesn’t seem like such a good idea to skateboard down the steep slope.

“I don’t know about this,” you say breathlessly.

“What’s wrong? You chickening out?” your best friend teases. An image of your mom appears in your mind, and she’s giving you that look- the one with her hands on her hips, her head tilted to the side, and a stern look on her face.

My best friend, Rachel, let out a piercing scream that rattled my eardrums. “What was that?”

“It had to have been a ghost!” John squeaked. “Let’s get out of here! You know that we aren’t supposed to be on this property. The ghost of Old Man Walker is trying to tell us to leave him alone!”

“Calm down,” I said, my voice cracking. “There’s no such thing as ghosts.” My heart was about to leap out of my chest, though. I wasn’t going to admit it to my friends, but I had seen the shadowy figure and felt the tingle on the back of my neck, too!