Natalie's Notebook: Stories from the Heart

By Natalie Kwong

From Natalie Kwong's actual notebooks are poems, short stories, projects, abandoned ideas, and other assorted pieces written from when she was eight to eleven year old. Published when she was 11-years-old in 5th grade, this book shows Natalie's journey in the early ages of her true passion-- writing.

Stories include:
~Sunny Side Up-- tales about beloved chickens while growing up in a suburban town
~Fly-- the imaginative short story about a bird flying solo
~How to Change the World-- inspiring advice and sayings

...and more

• Language: English
• Publisher: Natalie Kwong
• Release date: Jan 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310042317

Natalie Kwong

Hi, I'm a self-published 13-year-old author. I love reading, writing (of course (: ), drawing, running, hanging with friends, and photography. I finished my first, book, "Natalie's Notebook: Stories from the Heart" when I was 11 in 5th grade. I am currently working on my second book, "Shattered: Book One in the Horizon of Nature Trilogy". I write books for tweens/young teens.

Book preview

Natalie’s Notebook: Stories from the Heart

Copyright 2012 Natalie Kwong

Published by Natalie Kwong

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Earth Poems

Iris Island

Summer Swimming

The Forest of Five

Where the Unicorns Roam

StarCloud

Sunset Beach- The Journal Entries

Into the Blue Fire

The Life of Prey

Island Write

Sunny Side Up

Ten

How to Change the World

Where I’m From

A Blossom of Hope

Fly

About Natalie Kwong

Other Books by Natalie Kwong

Connect with Natalie Kwong

Acknowledgements

There are so many people that I have to thank for their encouragement and help. I know that most people say this, but this is really true: I couldn’t have gotten this far without you.

My mom and dad

Kelley, my older sister

Mrs. Dietler, my 5th grade teacher

Mrs. Martin, my 4th grade teacher

Mrs. Beem, my 3rd grade teacher

Mrs. Burgess, my 2nd grade teacher

Mrs. Herrmann, my 1st grade teacher

Aaron Yuen and Nona Mock Wyman, my two reviewers

See how the image above is centered? I centered it by clicking once on the image, and then clicking to Change Styles. Then I clicked once on my custom style called Centeredtext, which applied that style to the image. This is the best method of centering the images in your book. Learn more about images in the Smashwords Style Guide.

Introduction

Dear Reader,

Thank you for picking up this book! Wow, I can still not believe how lucky I am to publish my very own book, and hope that everyone can follow his or her dreams as easily as I am. I cannot thank my family enough (who is also on my acknowledgements) for helping me get this far, with everything they did for me. THANK YOU!

Also, I would like to say (or more like write) a few more things about this book. No actual changes to the stories have been made, with the exception of spelling, punctuation, and grammar. After all, it wouldn’t be my actual notebook if it had been edited!

I have loved going around my house and collecting binders, notebooks, folders, and files on the computer to put together this book. It is interesting how this is made up of other abandoned books, finished short stories, poems, and projects.

As you may know, I was an eleven year-old fifth grader at the time I put together this book, so please bear with me if there are any too long, too short, or too dramatic stories. I had struggled through these problems when I was writing them, but decided it is what it is, and let’s just make the most of it. Actually, I have enjoyed reading my flaws, and seeing my writing improve over the years. It’s amazing that I’ve even kept these writing projects, let alone turning them into something more than some old stories that I was too lazy

to finish.

Anyways, I hope that you enjoy reading this book as much as I have loved putting it together. Thank you for taking your time to even read this far, which is that, much closer to reaching my dream of becoming a famous author.

Best Wishes,

Natalie Kwong

Earth Poems

Date: October 2008

Age: 8 years old

Author’s Note: You know those times you’re just so inspired you just have to write? These are some of those moments.

Nature’s Night

When the wind wisps away,

The fog floats up to the sky,

Clearing for a sprinkle of sunlight

Dreamy Day

For the moment of music,

Last twinkle of twilight,

Leads to a graceful, gleaming moon

Forest Flowers

Sprouting from the ground as seeds,

Growing beautiful, colorful blooming blossoms and buds,

Under the shade of the shadowy and sunny trees

Iris Island

Date: 2009

Age: 8 or 9

Author’s Note: I used to have a huge obsession over unicorns. This is inspired by that obsession, and a poetic picture book’s pattern that I used for this one.

Have you ever heard of Iris Island?

It’s a magical place with sparkling gold stone,

Every now and then where unicorns roam,

Dipping their horns in the purest silver waterfalls

Then galloping away when the ocean calls

Leaving behind glowing sapphire jewels,

Letting them sink in the clear crystal pools.

Have you ever heard of Iris Island?

That tropical place where flowers are every shade of hue

The lightest yellow to navy blue,

There’s nothing you have seen quite like this in the past,

At twilight these plants seem to be the last

These unique flowers have petals the shape of a tusk,

A wild thing like this should be hidden until dusk,

In the morning all these colorful flowers sprout in the light,

Some of them are really small but most are bright

Summer Swimming

Date: 2009

Age: 8

Authors Note: I wrote this for a contest online. I didn’t win, but that doesn’t really matter, I got another thing instead: a memory I can keep forever.

My favorite summer memory was learning to snorkel in my swimming pool. It was really fun because when I go underwater I see all this sparkling light on the steps of the pool all the way down to the bottom. Plus I got to stay underwater as long as I want.

I feel like a dolphin gliding through the crystal clear water. As I swim I imagine that I’m next to a coral reef, but I can’t go too deep because my snorkel will get water in it. Although this story would be much better if it had a manatee in it. I just love manatees!

Too bad I can’t go to the deep end of my swimming pool yet. When I come up from the water I see my sister swimming back from the deep end. No fair! I lift off my snorkeling mask and swim to the steps of the pool to get out. I take my snorkeling things off and put on my diving goggles. I’m ready to jump into the cool pool.

Splash! I just jumped off the edge of the pool and I open my eyes underwater and I see all these bubbles around me coming up to the top of the pool. As they fade away I see a familiar sparkling light on the steps. I swim to the top to breathe. Remember I don’t have my snorkeling stuff on.

I feel two rings around my eyes from the goggles. I swim to the edge of the pool again to get my snorkel, when I got my snorkel on I went back underwater. Now the sparkling light has faded from the water because the sun was just starting to set and the sky was full of yellows, pinks, a little red and blue. Also just the slightest bit of purple.

Now the pool was getting cooler and my mom called out for dinner. After that I got out to dry off. I hoped that I could go in the pool again for a night swim. That was one of my best memories I could think of about my summer. I just love swimming!

The Forest Family of Five

Date: November 2, 2009

Age: 9

Author’s Note: I had started this story based off my family (I am Violet). Although this is short, I felt like this was one worth sharing. Oh, and the ages are not the actual ages of my family.

Over the mountains, deep in the evergreen smelling pine forest, there was a family of five. And here are the family members: Fern, the mother, age 45. Oak, the