SO-Katrina+K.

Hi! My name is Katrina, I am 12 years old, and I am a sixth grader at South Middle School. My fave color is turquoise! I have a brother that is 15 years old, my parents rock, and I have a German Shepherd who is 3 years old. I was born in Colorado but I live in Eau Claire, and we still go there a lot. Places I have been are Colorado, California, Minnesota, Florida, and Nevada. My favorite place is the San Francisco area of California though because that's where my cousins live and we go there almost every summer. My favorite sports are basketball, softball, and volleyball. I am on a traveoing basketball and softball team. In my spare I love to hang out with my friends and make videos and talk, talk, and talk! As you can see I am very active and love sports. I would love to tell you the names of all of my friends but I don't want to make you stay here your whole day!! In the summer I like to hang out with my friends or go swimming. During the summer my family and I go to our camping ground up north in northern Wisconsin, and sometimes I can take a friend up with us. The movies that I like are __Twilight__, __1408__, and probably others but i don't remember the rest; haha that is so me! My friends say that i laugh a lot and that I make weird faces sometimes. My favorite TV reality shows are What Not To Wear, and American Idol (Go Danny, Allison, Kris, and Adam)! I like other TV shows too, but it would take too long to name all of them!! I enjoy reading also. My absolute favorite series is the Twilight Series!!! I also like the books Kira Kira, Out of the Dust, My Side of the Mountain, and Princess Academy. My absolute fave songs are The Remedy and Crush! There are also like, a ton more though. Some of my favorite singers are Jason Mraz, David Archuleta, Taylor Swift, and a lot more. Other than that I really hope that you enjoy my story!! Please comment!

Anna’s house stood on Sunshine Lane in Sunshine Grove. My friends, Jenny, Brittany, Gabby, Anna, Kayla, and I live in this neighborhood. We all think it is splendid that we are fortunate enough to live in the (sorry, it’s just the truth) best neighborhood in the world! Jenny, Kayla, and I live on Sunray Street, while Brittany, Gabby, and Anna live on Sunshine Lane. Anna's house has cream colored window shutters with stone siding, and you could say that it is one of the bigger homes on Sunshine Lane. Not the house you would expect a crime to occur, right? Well, you're wrong. It happened one weekend night when our group was at Anna's house for a sleepover. The six of us had just arrived at the slumber party and we were putting our sleepover "gear" into Anna's bedroom. As everyone was organizing, arranging, and deciding where girls were going to sleep, each girl held their pillow above their head to make sure we had our pillows //this time//. (At the last party a girl lost her pillow, I'm not saying any names, and it got pretty serious.) Other than pillows, everyone brought different variations of sleeping bags, assorted pajamas ranging from purple silk pants and shirts, fuzzy monkey p.j.'s, to good old pajama bottoms and a tank top. We even brought an arrangement of makeup for the makeovers. Every girl brought her favorite pair of slippers. No one could help but to be envious of Jenny's light brown fluffy Ugg slippers. She was very protective of her expensive birthday present, so none of us even thought to put them out of place when she put them under the bed, making certain none of us could ruin them by accident. To give you a better picture of the whole incident, I am going to explain what everyone looks like. My friends and I are all 13 years old and are in 7th grade. I, Missy Walters, am a brunette with not one freckle across my face. I play soccer, and I have tan skin even though summer is three months away. Gabby and Brittney are both blondes, and also the best of friends; they do everything together. Both have a few freckles spread across their noses, and have been doing gymnastics since pre-school. Now, Jenny is a mix I guess you could say, of me and the two "twins", Gabby and Brittney. She is a chestnut brunette with blue eyes and the faintest amount of freckles on her cheeks. Kayla has brown hair with dozens of natural, golden blonde high lights, no freckles, and she loves fashion (as you can assume, she is the one with the purple silk pants and shirt). My best friend in the whole entire world is Anna. Anna has blonde hair and green eyes, and also has a rounded chin and big, puppy-dog eyes. Anna's bedroom is purple with matching green curtains and bedspread. On the wall farthest away from the door was her purple and green polka-dotted desk (you could say that Anna's mom, Mrs. Larson, was a "matching freak"). We spread our possessions around Anna's immense room, with me sleeping next to Anna on the right side of the bed on the floor. In the middle of the rest of our group of friends Anna and I will sleep, and everyone else will be sleeping around us. My friends and I always start our famous slumber parties with doing skits and acting them out as best as we can. Followed by the pillow fights. This particular pillow fight is where the mystery part of our story begins. The “battle” was going great until it was time for dinner. “The Pizza Hut Guy just dropped off the pizza and Mom is done with the cookies, but pretend that you guys are surprised, so I guess that dinner’s ready,” called Anna’s sister Emily. Emily looked exactly like Anna; if Emily wasn't 16 and was the same age as Anna, they could have easily been mistaken for twins. She seemed like she was hoping that she hadn’t been the one who had to serve us, since everyone knew that Mrs. Larson was probably waiting in the kitchen to shock us with the “unexpected” sweets, and that Mr. Larson was watching the football game on the TV downstairs. It was completely obvious that she would rather be texting her newest boyfriend or blabbing and yapping in her room with her absolute BFF ( __B__est __F__riend __F__orever) Mandy, who was also sleeping over but was waiting in the kitchen because she loves to cook. Anna replied to her sister, “Oh, Mom is feeling creative and sneaky tonight. Maybe if we’re lucky we can go rent some more movies, since she is usually easier to persuade into buying us things when she is feeling like she wants to try something new. But don’t ask me why. Missy, you would probably be able to figure out why it seems that she acts like that way usually when she is feeling creative and sneaky.” “And why is that?” asked Jenny. “Well one time when Missy came over to my house, someone stole my cookie.” Emily’s face turned red as Anna paused to look at her. “And Missy was able to figure out the mystery as if she was a pro. I guess she has a hidden talent!” Now it was my turn to go crimson. All of us girls turned to look at Emily. “What? I dropped mine that day, and I got jealous of her because that was supposed to be my lunch! Besides, what else do you expect of a ten-year old?” Emily tried to explain. “Uh-huh, sure, we won’t make you give us a further explanation since that’s probably the best you can do at lying,” Kayla teased Emily. “OK we are coming, we have to practice our surprised faces first," I explained. Then when we were done practicing, we made our way to the kitchen where Mrs. Larson was waiting with a big plate of cookies thinking that she had actually shocked us. But Anna said, "Mom, we could smell the cookies in the oven across the hall. I have to admit though, these are really good!" Anna's Mom was very proud. Dinner was the classic festivity chow: Two different pizzas, one with just cheese and one vegetarian pizza, choices of Pepsi or Sierra Mist, the cookies that Mrs. Larson made, and we munched on caramel corn and got the pop corn ready for when the movies would be watched. After dinner we all went to the bathroom to brush our teeth even though later we would be watching movies and chomping on pop corn. We took our slippers off before entering Anna’s bathroom because that way we wouldn’t have to worry about taking them off by our sleeping bags and losing them somewhere in the mess of sheets. Later when we were done brushing we got into our sleeping bags, got the pop corn from Anna’s desk, and started the movies. We started with "Hairspray", and most of us either watched intently or talked to each other the entire time. At 10:05, in the middle of the movie, Jenny got up to go to the bathroom. A moment later a loud sob came from the bathroom. Jenny came out with the most accusatory look on her face that everyone cringed as she came out. “Someone took them!” she cried put to us. “Took what?” Anna, Brittney, Gabby, Kayla, and I asked frantically since everyone knew that when Jenny was unhappy, everyone suffered. “My slippers, their gone! They were right here next to everyone else’s and mine are the only ones that are missing!” explained the furious Jenny. “Sounds like we have a mystery on our hands,” Anna said proudly as she turned to me, “Good thing I know a good detective.” I started with the basics: looking for clues. Fortunately there was a clue that made it easier to eliminate suspects. But unfortunately, it was our only clue. The clue was a piece of chewed fuzz that Jenny identified as a bit off her slippers. So with this as our only clue, we went to work searching for possible suspects. There was Mr. Nosey which was Emily’s pet rabbit, and the only other suspect we could figure would be able to accomplish this task was Hammy, Anna’s pet hamster. Anna remembered that Mr. Nosey’s cage had been securely tight, and he looked like he there was a hint of fullness from maybe possibly eating Jenny’s missing slippers. Hammy’s cage was surprisingly loose, and that was extremely suspicious. After inspecting the area around his cage, we found about ten different pieces of lightly brown colored fuzz. What solved this case was that it under the wood shavings there was a quite large lump that he had been laying on. I thought that this must be the "victims" of the crime and therefore the mystery was solved. We went to the kitchen for a mid-night snack to celebrate the clear victory.
 * Slippers Have Gone Missing**
 * By: Katrina Kitzmann**

**Questions for Peer Reviewers**
(Think in terms of questions you would like to ask the author.)

1. Think of plot—is it original? (If an adaptation, is it creative or interesting to you?) What suggestions do you have for the author(s)?

2. Think about problems that the characters face. Are there complications that add enough suspense, tension, or interest? Is there a climax that satisfies you? Is the resolution satisfying? What could be added or changed?

3. Think of characterization—are the characters life-like? Are characters likable and enjoyable? Do we get a good sense of character from many of these: description, dialogue, narrator's opinion, discussion from other characters, the character’s own actions?

4. Think of imagery and details. Do they help you //see// and //hear// and //experience// the story? What details would you like to see in the next revision of the story?

5. What areas of the story need the most improvement? What suggestions do you have for the author?