JULIE ANN STEVENS

My 12-year-old niece wrote:  “the sound of a baby sniffing like a bunny in a garden full of its favorite vegetables.”

Her English teacher crossed it out and “babies crying, people laughing and music playing overhead” was what was read to me as a guest in her classroom on “Grand People Day.”

After the formal reading she told me how much she loved her original metaphor and peeled back a page to show me her handwritten first draft where the baby was sniffing like a bunny and popcorn smelled like it wanted to fly.

She beamed right past the teacher’s red pen on the page.  I want to be more like her!