= Partner SitePassages
Ryker Middle School was so small everybody knew everybody there. So when a new boy showed up one Tuesday morning just before the first bell rang, he stood out like a sore thumb. Well, maybe not like a sore thumb. He was too good looking for that. He was more…
Sing a song of sixpence, A pocket full of rye; Four-and-twenty blackbirds Baked in a pie! When the pie was opened The birds began to sing; Was not that a dainty dish To set before the king? The king was in his counting-house, Counting out…
This passage is from the opening of The Fall of the House of Usher. The narrator has just arrived at the home of his childhood friend Roderick Usher. It is a description of Usher’s house. A tarn is a mountain lake. ———————————– Shaking off from my spirit what must have…
In the winter of 1925, the small city of Nome, Alaska faced a dangerous disease outbreak. The medicine they needed was located hundreds of miles away. Teams of sled dogs and their mushers saved the city by transporting the medicine 674 miles through snow and ice. Their heroic effort is…
On rainy days, Juanita liked to climb the attic stairs and play with her stuffed animals under the slanted roof. Here she could hear the drumming sound of the rain. The attic was dim on stormy days, but Juanita thought it was cozy to have only one light bulb to see…
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a successful businessman in Victorian London. This passage is from the beginning of the tale. —————————— The door of Scrooge’s counting-house was open, that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond,…
Melia and her father had just finished building a tree house in the backyard. Melia, an artist, wanted to decorate the walls, and instead of buying things, she decided to make her own art. Melia enjoyed making collages using a combination of photos she had taken and pieces of fabric.…
Peter Pan is the story of the adventures of Wendy, John, and Michael Darling after they meet the flying boy, Peter Pan. Peter teaches them to fly, and they leave the Darling home through an open window. They go with Peter to his home in magical Neverland. Once there, Wendy…
In Shakespeare’s comedy The Merchant of Venice, the merchant Antonio has taken a loan from the money-lender Shylock who dislikes him very much. The terms of the loan say that if Antonio does not pay the loan back on time, Shylock may take a pound of Antonio’s flesh which would…
What common art supply can be found in almost any school in America? If you said crayons, you would be right. Children love making art with the waxy sticks of colors. Let’s take a look at how crayons were invented. Edwin Binney and Harold Smith were business partners. One of…
