Winners of the Grade 4 - 7 Story Writing Contest
| First Place | Second Place | Third Place (tie) | Third Place (tie) |

On a long boring night when you have nothing else to do, sit down and read a book and the magic will catch you, like a thick fog on a cold day.

The magic of books is no regular kind of magic. It is a magic that seems to hold your mind and take it to places you have never been. Japan, Africa, Australia, or Brazil, just about anywhere. You feel like you are there with the characters thin or fat, short or tall, you just seem to fit in with them all. Then suddenly you begin to hear their voices, you begin to feel the textures, and smell the food around you.

Then for a while you feel like you are gone to their land and you are one of the characters too. You begin to share their adventures and feel their feelings, you begin to really get into the book. Then you come to the big letters Chapter 12 and you come back to your senses but it is not long before you are caught up in the magic again. Then you are feeling, smelling, and hearing the things in the story again.

And if you don't believe me sit down now and read a book and I guarantee you that you too will be caught up in the magic of books.

I am reading a book and I find myself inside the book. I can see pirates, fairies, and animals that can talk. I am wondering where I am, so I ask one of the animals and he says I am in a place called "reading wonderland". He tells me it is the magical place where people go when they are reading. I think it is just a dream but the animals and fairies tell me it is not. But I find it hard to believe! It must be true because I can see dragons, and even dogs that can talk and they can walk on two legs. They tell me that in this land I can ask for anything and I can get it because this is the land of imagination.

I think that books are great. They are like magic. They can take you anywhere! I have read books that have made me feel happy, sad, excited, scared, wonderful, and sometimes even terrible. I remember when I was very little my Mom and Dad used to read books to me all the time. I felt like I was in the fairytale. But now that I am older and can read books all by myself it is even more fun and more interesting. Whenever I want to, I can take a book and read it.

Another magical thing about books is the more you read the more you learn! ! ! There are more kinds of books than just fairytales. There are books that teach you things and give you information.

So don't just sit there, pick up a book and read it. IT IS MAGICAL!!!

Books are like spells, they have the power to make a person see nothing other then what is going on in the book. Everything going on in the real world disappears as if it had vanished into thin air.

Any kind of book has the power to do this. Well not really the book so much as the writer. From "Mercer Mayer" to "Roald Dahl" their books take you away to the world of make believe, or, sometimes give you the pleasure of playing out a real life story in your head.

Sometimes the books pull you so far into the story that you begin to cry and feel the pain that the characters feel, such as William Shakespear's "Romeo and Juliet", one of the greatest stories of all time.

Books do many other things too. They make you absorb them so you can't let go. They make you fall so far down in the story that you can't get back up. You read and read until the book is finished. Then, the Magic is gone, until you pick up another book.

Books are magical. They can make you laugh and make you cry, sometimes at the same time. The authors of books manage to use their gifts of writing to transport us into a new World, back in time or into the future, or take us on a wild adventure, while in the comfort of your own home. I do not read books, I absorb them. When I read, I lie on my bed or sit in my comfortable living room chair.

There, I open a book and I am travelling back to the eighteen hundreds with Laura Ingalls Wilder. I have been in a hospital room the victim of leukemia with Dawn Rochelle in a book by Lurlene McDaniel. I have baby-sat with the "Babysitters Club," I have watched as a lonely orphan girl named Anne finds peace and love at Green Gables. I have even travelled back to Bible times with Sandy and Dennis in "Many Waters". And, I have been at the Zuckerman's farm with the "Terrific", "Radiant", "Humble" pig Wilbur.

Just by flicking through a magazine or newspaper, I can find out what is happening anywhere in the World.

Books are magical and a lot of fun!!!!!