• Sarah's Page II

  What else can you expect in Sarah's Page II?

  • Instant Messenger intrigue

  • Sarah's mom learns how to email

  • Anonymous gifts in Sarah's tack trunk

  • Mom and Dad and Katie visit Michigan



  • Sarah's Page Trivia

  • Read Section 1: Pages 1-13. Through June 17.

  • Read Section 2: Pages 13-26. Through June 26.

  • Read Section 3: Pages 26-37. Through July 4.

  • Read Section 4: Pages 37-50. Through July 6.

  • Read Section 5: Pages 50 to end.
Our Kidsreads.com mailbox always is filled with letters from you asking us to put a complete book online. Last month an author named Anna Murray approached us and offered to do this with her book --- SARAH'S PAGE. After reading it we knew it would be the perfect book to share with you.

Sarah is one very cool kid from New York. During a hurricane, her family's beach home is destroyed and she is thrown from a horse giving her a concussion. With all the stress Sarah's family is under, her sister's house in rural Michigan seemed a good place for her to recover. At least it did to her parents and her sister. To Sarah, it is like being sent to a completely foreign land. While she is there she sends email to a friend back in the city describing her new world --- and, yes, bemoans the fact that she misses life in the city. In fact, the entire book is written as an email journal, which we know you can relate to. What makes the book a bit different is that many of the experiences Sarah refers to in the book, are also featured in detail on the website SarahsPage.com.

From December 12th through January 16th we will put up new sections of the book every Wednesday. Don't worry if your vacation plans or school schedule keep you from reading along. You will be able to go back and read the sections that you missed.

On January 23rd, we will give you a sneak preview of SARAH'S PAGE II, scheduled to be published next Fall!

Sounds fun, right? If you enjoy what you read, why not email this page to a friend? See details on this page.

Sarah's Page II

Hi everyone. I know, I KNOW. It's been a long time. I guess nobody in the email GALAXY has been luckier than me, Sarah of www.sarahspage.com. I mean, I started out last summer with ONE email buddy--Katie--and a Web site. And I ended up with all of YOU as email pals. You would not BELIEVE what my contact list looks like with all you guys on it. Connectivity is RAD. That’s all I’m saying.

And, I mean, not to start off my new book being SAPPY or anything. But to everyone who’s emailed me--I want to say THANKS 1.0e6 (a million ;) ).

Ellie just groaned at me. She HATES sappiness. You guys remember Ellie. She says hi too.

So I know all of you have been DYING to know what happened to me since my last book. Okay could I HAVE a bigger ego? I mean I'm sure you're not DYING to know. But maybe you're a LITTLE curious. Well, I'm going to tell you either way. This is email, after all. You guys know the gig. If you don't want to hear from me, just put REMOVE in the reply line.

Station Break:

Okay, those of you who are reading this electronically will have already noticed my AWESOME new interface. It combines email AND my Web site. SO when you see the :) symbol, just check over THERE--> It’s filled with cool illustrations and urls and stuff. Reading the old fashioned way (paper)? You guys should check the Web site for all the :) stuff.

Get it? Got it? Good.

Back to Our Show:

ANY-way, as I think you all have PROBABLY guessed--I stayed in Michigan with Amy and Jeff. Mom and Dad are still in New York--more about them later. For those of you who want the BRIEF down-low on how a New York kid like me got out HERE to rural Reed Lake, Michigan...:)

If you want FULL scoop, you should buy (the awesome, funny, inspiring, well written) Book I. :)

So, I’m going to SCHOOL out here. I was really worried about the school thing--I gotta tell you. Changing schools when you're going into sophomore year could NOT be worse, RIGHT?

But waitwaitwait! Amy was always trying to tell me that Michigan isn’t COMPLETELY lame and that maybe I would LIKE going to school here and stuff. She’d go on about how the school has an equestrian club. And I’m like SURE. I GUESS they have an equestrian club. This is the boonies. Everyone has a horse in the BACKYARD. What else are they gonna DO?

Okay, secretly, I was kinda psyched about the equestrian club. But I didn’t tell AMY that. Generally speaking, I was PRETTY skeptical about the whole school-in-Michigan scenario.

But here is the THING--the school I am going to just got a HUMUNGO technology grant!!!!! Can you BELIEVE IT?????

Here’s how it happened:

You know all those dudes in Silicone Valley who are basically OUR age and have made a gabillion dollars in technology? Well I guess that they all have HUGE guilt complexes. A lot of them are like, "Jeez. I can’t just KEEP all this money. I gotta save the rainforests, or the spotted owls or the whales or something. I gotta give this money AWAY."

I myself would pile it all in a swimming pool and roll around in it naked. But that‘s just me.

So anyways these dudes are totally guilt-ridden and are giving away buckets of money. And guess what! One of their FAVORITE causes is EDUCATION. And guess what-what? Their FAVORITE way to support education is to give money to totally remote under-funded RURAL schools like--

Dum roll please--

REED LAKE HIGH SCHOOL

For real! At the end of last year they announced that Reed Lake High School, which has only 250 kids or something, was going to get ONE GABILLION DOLLARS from this guilt-ridden GEEK.

Whatta windfall! Up till now Amy tells me, Reed Lake had only ONE computer and it was a Commodore J or something. And now they are getting dozens and dozens of computers and a super fast Internet hook-up and awesome gadgets and etc. The story was in the state and local papers. The whole community is like--RIGHT ON!

And here’s ANOTHER thing: the school is ALSO getting a new principal to deal with all the new technology. The OLD principal was this fat fuddy-duddy guy--just putting in his time till retirement. You know the type.

All summer Amy tried to hide how much she HATED this dude. I guess she didn’t want me to get all bummed about having to go to school here. So she would be in the middle of a TIRADE to Jeff about what a dufus-butt this guy is when I would walk in. She would come to a screeching halt and switch the topic. THEN she would make a point like 5 minutes later about how she really LOVES teaching at Reed Lake. That’s Amy. Subtle.

But the fat fuddy-duddy guy heard about the technology grant and was like, "WHOA dude! I can’t stay here. I’m AFRAID of technology! I’d better RETIRE." And he did. Amy says some other old stick-in-the-mud teachers did too. And they took the Commodore with them.

All summer everyone in the coffee shop and the barbershop and the feed store have been talking about the changes at the high school. People are super excited about the new principal. They found this guy who was a total Silicone Valley techno-geek. I guess he made a bunch of money and had a guilt complex too. So after he finished inventing stuff and making money and living a comfortable life, he decided to go into education. Now he can spend the rest of his life being abused by a bunch of kids.

Hey man--to each his own or whatever.

All month there’s been BANGING and RIPPING and HAULING and SAWING at the school. They’re getting things TOTALLY WIRED.

Last, but not least: HERE IS THE MOST EXCITING THING:

All of the kids get laptops! I am SO SERIOUS. And we also get Palm Pilots and an e-book, which I have no idea what it is but which I guess I will find out next week. J

The one thing that I’m KIND of concerned about is going to a school where my SISTER teaches. It could be like going to school with a built-in parental SPY. The good news is Amy teaches 9th-grade English, so it’s not like she’s going to be MY teacher or anything. But still. How am I going to complain to Mom that a teacher is so unfair when all Amy has to do is open her big YAP and say, "Well I know so and so and I don’t think they would ever..." blahbadi-blah-blah-blah.

Okay, secretly, for the next week or so with the new school and all, I am GLAD that Amy is going to be there. But after THAT, it’s back to normal--we’ll act like REAL sisters who don’t like each other at all.

I have TONS more to tell everyone, but I have to go spend some time with Ellie. She’s gonna be pretty bummed when I head off to school next week.

She doesn’t know what’s coming.

S.

PS--I forgot to tell you all. Traverse is doing great! I’ve been telling him how he needs to focus on being in an equestrian club. He doesn’t really seem to get it. Amy says the kids in the club can keep their horses at a barn right NEXT to the school. I guess there’s kind of a student horse co-op thing going on just down the road. Isn’t that COOL??

Later,

s

© 1998 Sleeping Bear Press. Used with permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.

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