Lily Deng, 7th Grade

The Struggle

The process of making my book was the most intriguing experience. The first step was to choose an idea for my story. I had a hard time because I had writer's block at the time and didn't know what to write. The topic was family heritage and I decided to write about my parents' lives in China. After many free writes I chose to write my story about what I heard from my sisters about my father's life of hardshipsin China. I talked to my sisters more about my father's past and collected random pieces of important moments. I then talked to my father about his life. Since he isn't very comfortable telling any of his young children his traumatizing memories, he didn't really want to talk about it.

I found that mixing the paints was fun. It was cool to see how different sources from nature could be used to make paint. When I actually started to paint my book I was really scared that I would get my book damaged. My first stroke was nerve-wracking because I didn't exactly follow up to the pencil lines. However, I played along with it and went with the flow.

The day my teachers informed me that my book had been selected, I could not believe it. I had to sit down. When I went home that day to give my parents that news, my father couldn't believe that I wrote a story about him and that it had won a prize. Now that I have had some time to think, I am excited and nervous about everyone seeing my book at the Morgan Museum ceremony.

Lily Deng, 7th Grade
IS 61Q: The Leonaro da Vinci Middle School
Clare Stokolosa, Teacher:
Jessica Femiani, Teacher
Lisa Kaplan, Teacher
Joseph Lisa, Principal