Dana Kay Barber/ Abydos Writing Project

This is Jake getting his award and sitting with his teacher Mrs. R. Jake and Allie both have her for Gate 10 and just love her. She reminds lots of Allie Kinder teacher Mrs. Smith so full of life and excitement.



One day back in Feburary I got a call from Jake's teacher and I was afraid of what she was going to tell me. But it was a good call, he got 2nd place in the Dana Kay Barber contest, the Abydos or New Jersery writing contest. There were entries throughout the state of Texas. He placed 2nd in the 2-3 grade prose category. His title was MUD. When I read it the first time I laughed so hard because it helped me understand how his mind works a little bit better. I shared with my family because it was just funny and we all could relate about the mud. He was very excited to go get the award. Luckily the conference was in Dallas this year so we didn't have to travel far.
Here is is entry just as he wrote it. Only students whose teachers are certified in Abydos can enter this competition. The teachers can make no corrections. He typed it also.


I walk out to my grandpa's field. My feet sink into the schematized mud. My cousins and I look farther down the stretch of mud. We plant our feet stiffly into the mud, then take off. The dark sky stilly zooms by us. It feels sticky against my face.I take one last step then jump. I flick my head back just in time to catch my cousins sink into the soft, cool and warm mud before my face hits the mud. I feel it begin to consume my entire body. I swing my head upward until I surface. My cousins are already standing and laughing they look so funny I can't help it I bulge out laughing. Then we lay down into the mud. I sink no lower than my nose. I rest a split second then we decide to get as muddy as we can. We thrash like freaks and make weird comments like we would pop out of the mud and say 'honey I'm home' or stand up and rub mud into our shirts and say 'don't come in I'm in the shower'. Then we find thick mud and cover a stick in it. Then we got big globs of sticky mud and spread it over our heads then I took the stick and told everybody we should scare drivers so we do that but it gets boring because nobody comes so we start to head home. I look up and see my aunt charging us with a metal bat saying,'you come here this instant'. We knew we had done it now. I look at my mom by the house with a hose pouring water in her hand. She signals us to come to her so we do. The water was so cold it felt like ice. I haven't touched mud since but that was a year ago and I am nine so I still have a lot of years to go so. But I can't take the consequences of freezing water.

I have to disagree a though, he has touched mud since many times. Jenni this picture and story are for you because you have lots of mud days ahead of you. Just know that it feels that so good on Cooper and Casons skin and that is why they do it. I think this picture is taken after Cooper saw what his older cousins did the day before.