By Leila Mirza
Jefferson School
Award: Third Place, Fourth Grade Art
My Grandmother’s Liver Transplant
By Fiona Goldman
Teacher: Barbara Wenger, Jefferson School
Award: Second Place, Fourth Grade Essay
Even if something bad happens to you, it doesn’t mean that you are defeated. My grandma had a liver transplant, and that doesn’t stop her from doing the things that she loves to do.
My grandma was in the hospital for over a month, and she had a lot of tests and medicine. The tests were to find out what was wrong with her liver. Her insides were attacking her liver. The disease is called “Autoimmune Hepatitis”. It is Latin for liver disease. She needed to have a liver transplant because her liver broke down and she turned yellow. Having a liver transplant means that they take out your liver and put in a new one. Her liver came from a dead person.
My family was very worried. My mom went to the hospital almost every day. My grandpa was very worried, too. He was almost always with my grandma. My grandma was unconscious most of the time she was in the hospital.
When my grandma finally got out of the hospital, she had to take medicine and she still has to take many pills every day. They make her shaky. She is not allowed to eat some things. She takes all this medicine so that the same thing doesn’t happen to her new liver, and so that her body gets used to her liver.
My grandma still does almost everything that she used to do before she had the liver transplant. She could not do many things right after the transplant, though. This year, she got a lot stronger. This teaches me that even if your body isn’t strong, you can still try to do what you like to do if your mind is strong.
On the Ledge
By Anna Keaveny
Teacher: Sean Keller, Jefferson School
Award: Second Place, Fourth Grade Poetry
On the wall
Tall, and covered in rocks
Feelings all jumbled, but there
Happy
Fun
Crazy
Nervous
The top, almost there
Looking at something huge, yet feeling tiny
Gripping, climbing
Pushing up
Going up
Going higher
Clutching a rock
Pushing up with a foot
Clutching another
Pushing up again
Then, there !
Scared, yet excited
Clambering
Frightened
So high up!
Below, everything so tiny
Then help
A calm hand reaching down
Over the wall! Accomplished!
No longer scared, feeling instead, powerful!
Untitled
Ethiopian American
By Natnael Worku
Teacher: Olivia Sanders, John Muir School
Award: First Place, Fourth Grade Essay
I woke up to the smell of bean stew. The sun poured through the beautiful sand-made plexiglass. Suddenly, I just knew this was going to be an amazing day. I had only been in Ethiopia for a few weeks and they were pretty good. I came out the door of my personal quiet safe space and shouted, “Good morning everybody!” Nahom and Phoeben were not early birds at all. Usually I wasn’t either but I had a good feeling about this day, yet I didn’t know what it meant. Suddenly I looked up and saw my uncle standing up with a knife. My face dropped in astonishment.
“What’s that for?” I asked in horror! My uncle looked at me and grinned. I came outside to the driveway and saw my dad holding a poor defenseless sheep to the concrete and saw my uncle with the knife again. I immediately knew what the knife was for. He was going to kill the sheep. I saw him starting with the legs. “Bahhhhhhhhh!” the sheep shouted.
I ran all the way back to my room without looking back. I calmed myself down and just like that I was relaxed and felt that I could do anything. When I walked out of my room, I smelled this beautiful vanilla scent coming from the kitchen. Then we all went to dinner at the huge brown dining table. Nahom and Phoeben were so hungry; their mouths were watering like crazy! We blessed our food and ate.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the killing scene today, but I let it go. After that mouthwatering meal, my tummy was steaming hot for bed. I closed my eyes, forgot about the murder, and went to sleep faster than you can say pizza.
Greetings
By Leila Mirza
Teacher: Sean Keller, Jefferson School
Award: First Place, Fourth Grade Poetry
Just two hours
Feels like forever
Wondering what Nonna is doing
Soon passing the familiar tow bridge
Almost there
Turning onto Niagara Street
Wearing Santa hats
Approaching the turquoise house
Sprinting to the door
Super anxious
But more excited
I knock and wait
I hear footsteps
I know that it is Nonna
The door opens
Nonna comes out
She is smiling
Greetings