Sparkplug 9 would like to congratulate Gabrielle Renee Koetsier, age 8, on winning the prestigious Scholastic Canada Lucky’s Magic Treehouse Be An Author Contest!
One of only 10 recipients in Canada, Gabrielle (who recently turned 9) received a Magic Tree House Bookshelf Collection complete with 28 books from this favourite series and a treehouse bookshelf to store them in, pictured below:
Unfortunately, Scholastic has prematurely deleted the contest page from its website, but a Google cache is still available here.
Asked about her future prospects, Ms. Koetsier says she expects to win the Booker Prize next year, the Newbery medal after that, and, as an encore – sort of like the cherry on top of the most perfect desert imaginable, a Nobel Prize for literature.
Read on to see one of Gabrielle’s seminal achievements in literature.
Solar System at Sunset
By: Gabrielle Koetsier (Grade 3)
Jack and Annie had just eaten supper. They asked if they could go in the woods. They were allowed.
Jack said, I wonder where we’re going now!? They climbed up the ladder and into the treehouse. They saw a book about space and said “I wish we could go there,” and the wind started to blow. The treehouse was spinning. Then everything was still. Absolutely still. They opened their eyes.
They were in a huge spaceship approaching the moon. Annie shouted “Quick, steer it away! We’re going to crash!” But Jack quickly steered the spaceship away and they were safe.
They travelled for a distance, and then noticed Mercury, that tiny, hot planet without any moons.
“Let’s turn around and tour the Solar System! Not many people get to do that,” said Annie. Next they saw beautiful Venus, with swirling clouds, a deathly atmosphere, and a melt-metal hot surface.
“What’s an atmosphere?” asked Jack. Annie looked in the book. It said “An atmosphere is a blanket of various gasses surrounding a star, planet, or moon.”
Soon they came to beautiful, watery, wet, and living Earth and its companion, the dead, cold, dusty and rocky moon. Here’s our home!” they declared.
Pretty soon they came to Mars, the Red Planet, with its moons, Phobos and Deimos. “Mars’ moons look like big potatoes� said Annie. “Look at all the asteroids!� cried Jack. “They look like more potatoes,� said Annie. “Some asteroids even have tiny moons,� said Jack.
“Look, there’s Jupiter!� exclaimed Annie. It’s the biggest planet in the Solar System!� Then they saw the Galilean Moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede (the biggest moon in the Solar System) and Callisto. “Cool, the biggest planet in the Solar System has the biggest moon in the Solar System!�
“Hey, look, there’s Saturn!� said Jack. “It and its rings and moons make it look beautiful� said Annie. “It has about 31 moons!� said Jack.
“Let’s hurry up and get to Uranus. “Look, it spins on its side!� said Jack. “It has 15 moons,� said Annie. “When do we get to Neptune?� asked Jack. “Looks like . . . now!� answered Annie. “There is the Great Dark Spot!� cried Jack. “Look at Neptune’s dark, thin rings,� said Annie.
“Where is Pluto?� asked Annie. “Hey, Pluto’s coming up ahead!� said Annie. “Pluto is a tiny planet with one moon called Charon,� said Jack. “So is this the end of the Solar System?� asked Annie. “I don’t know,� said Jack. “Let’s keep going and see so we don’t miss anything,� said Annie.
After a while, they saw lots of icy rocks. “What are they?� they asked. The book said “The belt of icy rocks beyond Pluto is called the Kuiper Belt. Beyond is a comet cloud called the Oort Cloud. This is the end of the Solar System.� Before long, they were out of the Kuiper Belt. Soon, they were in the Oort Cloud.
“Well, I guess it’s time to start heading back,� said Jack. “Yeah, that was a great tour of the Solar System,� said Annie. “Next time I want to take a tour of the Milky Way!� “It sure was a really good trip� said Jack.
“It’ll be a really, really, really, really, long trip back!� said Annie.
The End
*Don’t miss Jack and Annie’s next trip . . . “The Milky Way at Midday!”
Note:
Prolific author Gabrielle Koetsier also has a promising career in illustration. She created this depiction of the Solar System to accompany her story:
Thanks, Daddy!