Kalpana was sweating.

She could feel a bead of moisture trickle slowly down her lower back as she watched all the

other kids in her class scribbling furiously, filling up their papers with glorious tales of what they did on their summer vacations.

Her own paper lay on her desk, a pristine white canvas untouched by ink.

What could I possibly write about, she fretted, her panic increasing by the second as she watched the timer on the board count down. Kalpana could tell that Mrs. Campbell was the kind of

teacher who would make them all share what they had written, which would be pretty hard to do with nothing but empty space on her paper.

Not for the first time, Kalpana cursed her family’s rotten luck. First her dad lost his job last May, then the water heater and the washing machine needed to be replaced. There was simply no money for any kind of vacation or summer fun. Kalpana had tried hard to hide her disappointment from her parents all summer, but now she was really wallowing in the self-pity that had been brewing for months.

She glanced up from her still blank paper. Five minutes left. Kalpana’s eyes darted around the room again, looking for something – anything – to spark an idea. There was the calendar. The homework board. A bookshelf. Art supplies. Wait! The bookshelf!

Kalpana grinned. She picked up her pencil. She knew exactly what to write about.

In what seemed like no time at all, Mrs. Campbell was calling for the class’s attention. Kalpana scribbled her last sentence, putting extra flourish into her final exclamation point. Then she listened attentively to her peer’s tales of summer road trips, cruises, and visits to amusement parks. Soon, Mrs. Campbell was saying, “Alright, Kalpana, you’re next. What did you do on

your summer vacation?”

Kalpana took a deep breath. Then, in her best story-teller voice, she started to read.

“This summer, I went on an African safari, and saw gazelles grazing in the tall grass. I saw hippos bathing in a desert oasis and lions lurking in the shrubs.”

She glanced up and saw twenty pairs of wide eyes staring back at her. Her riveted audience spurred her on. She continued reading, gaining momentum and confidence.

“I climbed the Eiffel Tower and learned how to bake flaky French pastries that practically melt in your mouth. I saw the aurora borealis sparkle and dance across the Alaskan sky and hiked across a frozen glacier. I went deep-sea diving and swam with stingrays in warm tropical waters. I learned how to draw henna designs and –

“You’re such a liar!” cried an indignant Annie Hogan from the front row. “You didn’t go to any of those places or do any of those things!”

“I flew on a rocket to Mars!” Kalpana continued forcefully. “You did not!”

“Annie – ” began Mrs. Campbell, but Kalpana cut her off. “I did go to all those places!” she insisted.

“How?” Carlos asked in an awestruck whisper.

Kalpana reached into her backpack. “With this!” she exclaimed.

Kalpana whipped out something small and rectangular, holding it up for the whole class to see. She grinned as her classmates beheld it in all its glory:

A library card.

– Theresa Chuntz

Author’s Note: “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” aims to remind readers of the magic and power of books. Students so often lose interest in reading by the time they get to middle or high school, making it all the more important for teachers to reignite their imaginations and help them recapture the magic of the written word.