Power of Pen participants excel

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Clinton-Massie Middle School’s Maddie Brausch has written her way into the State Power of the Pen Tournament that will take place at the College of Wooster May 26-27.

Brausch qualified after completing three rounds of rigorous writing during the regional tournament held March 19 at Wyoming Middle School, where 116 seventh-grade and 128 eighth-grade students from 41 schools battled it out by composing creative story lines filled with advanced vocabulary and complex sentence structures that evoked powerful imagery from start to finish.

Brausch earned “Best of Round” recognition during the first round of writing when her composition “The Sky Will Cry for You Also” scored the highest among 116 submissions.

During the final level of competition, Brausch will join 650 writers from over 250 schools throughout the state of Ohio, all of whom are determined to demonstrate their excellence in writing and are vying for the trophies, savings bonds, cash prizes and college scholarships valued at more than $24,000.

She faced some stiff competition before advancing to the state level as several Clinton County students were also yielding powerful pens.

Representing Blanchester Local Schools during the regional competition were Blanchester seventh-grader Alex Sutherland and eighth-graders Lilly Brown and Alexis Davis.

Brausch’s Clinton-Massie teammates included seventh-graders Barek Bennett, Abby George and Abby Schneider and eighth-graders Amelia Binau, Ben Ryan, Wesley Vert, Savannah Henderson and Ally Wellman.

During the Sweepstakes Competition that ranks schools based on the accumulated individual points acquired throughout the three rounds of writing for both the seventh- and eighth-grade divisions, the CM team earned the ranking of ninth out of 41 schools.

Representing East Clinton were seventh-grader Van Frye and eighth-graders Jessica Allbright, Ariona Fair, Noah Pattan and Ethan Reedy.

Representing Wilmington were eighth graders Sophia Agee, Josie Nichols and Chloe Williams.

Information for this article was provided by Diana Miller, who coordinates communications for several area schools.

Maddie Brausch
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2016/05/web1_Maddie-Brausch-POP-State-2015-16.jpgMaddie Brausch

By Diana Miller

For The News Journal

‘The Sky Will Cry For You Also’

Elizabeth Sinacome fumed — steam blowing out from her ears. Her plump face was tomato red as she stormed through the mucky streets of London, England. Fine carriages with rich ladies and gentlemen passed her on the cobblestone road.

Clouds rolled through the gray sky, ringing with songs of rain to come, but Elizabeth took none of this as she burst through the wooden doors of the press building. Early 20th-century London was not a kind place.

Inside the brick building, a tall skinny man leaned against the reddish-brown wall, smoke billowing from his cigar. He wore a black suit and tie, and on top of his lazy, uncaring head was a gray newsies hat.

It was obvious to Elizabeth that he was a paper boy. Marching towards him, she left steam in her wake, still pouring out her anger from her ears. “Where is your boss?” Elizabeth demanded, stomping her foot.

“He’s up in his office,” the boy said lazily, removing the cigar from his mouth. Pushing past the boy, the furious woman nearly ran through the wall in her haste.

Pushing open the first door to the right, she flew into Mr. Johnson Duncan’s office. The newspaper publisher looked up from his long desk, which was piled high with papers, annoyance flicking in his brown eyes.

“Why the bloody hell did you say it was John Dalton?” Elizabeth shouted, thrusting a newspaper in Johnson’s face.

“I’m the one who did all the work! I! Me! I discovered the proton! A great discovery on the atom! John Dalton failed so many many times!” Elizabeth’s breath was coming out in gasps.

Mr. Duncan wasn’t showing any emotion on his wrinkled face. Standing up from his cushioned chair he walked slowly around his desk, stopping in front of Elizabeth.

“My dear Miss Sinacome, how nice it is to see you again,” he said nasally. “I must admit; I was rather excited with your discovery but no one would believe it. Do you know why?” he asked.

“Why?” Elizabeth said stiffly.

“Because Miss. Sinacome, of one certain fact: you are a lady, and women don’t do that type of work. So, to make the paper sell, I had to change up the story. Good day, madame.”

With these last words, he grabbed Elizabeth’s arm with a tight, hard grip and escorted her to the door, opening it with his free hand.

“You can’t …” Elizabeth was cut off as Johnson slammed the door with a WHAM!, “do that to me.”

Elizabeth sank to the floor in defeat, the brick wall scratching her back.

“I can’t be replaced like that.”

Sobs wracked her body, and she buried her face in her hands as tears streamed down her face like a cascading waterfall.

“Noooo.” Rain lightly pounded the roof as if the sky was crying for her.

Maddie Brausch is a seventh-grade student attending Clinton-Massie Middle School. The story “The Sky Will Cry for You Also” qualified her to compete in the State Power of the Pen Competition May 12 at the College of Wooster.

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