My daddy is a mountain. He’s tall, wide, and can’t nothing move him! We play “bit-ball.” It’s like football, but I’m the ball! The only time Daddy is serious is when he first comes home from work. He’s been working in construction since before I was born. He says he does twice the work, yet gets half the pay. He starts swearing and Mama makes us leave the room. Then when we come back a little later, he’s not mad anymore. I’m not sure what made him feel better, but I think it’s my mama. She always knows how to cheer everyone up.

We have a few friends on the block we hang with, but Ty says we’d have a lot more if Mama weren’t so uppity. He can’t say that to her face because she’d take a switch to his behind real fast. I guess it’s true—Mama can be uppity. But she’s not mean or anything. She just acts different than the rest of the people around here.

She hides money in a big metal coffee can and puts it under the sink. I know lots of moms who do that. But they usually save extra money for stuff like a nice dress or maybe perfume. But for Mama, that’s her book money. Sometimes she takes a little of the grocery money just to buy a book. She has a library card but says it’s not the same thing. She says some books become part of your soul, and what sense does it make to give back a piece of your soul?

My mama is as serious about books as my friends’ moms are about church. She says, “Everyone in the projects is quick to hop a train, looking for a way out. There ain’t but two stops on that train: coffin or prison. Not my babies.” So she makes us read every day. And if the book is hard for us, she makes us read it to her out loud and go over it until we understand.

We hated it at first, but now it’s not so bad. Ty loves the books about race cars, and I love the fantasy ones. My favorite one is The Lord of The Rings. It took a lot longer to read it, but it was so good! We had a homework assignment last week from my English teacher, Mrs. Nelson. We were supposed to write about our environment. I asked and she said I could make it a fantasy, so I did:

Dragon’s Teeth

North of New York City there sits a small kingdom called Heirloom. The people there live in crumbling towers held together with straw and bubblegum. The people nicknamed the towers “Knot-Ah” because “not a thing” works the way it should. The elevators don’t move, the heater is busted, and the water is brown.