Show & Tell ~ Holden's Novel

Holden has shared the first chapter of his Book Arts Bash entry from last year with us.

Holden was one of six finalists in his category, 7th to 9th grade Novel Excerpts. The neat thing about the Book Arts Bash is that the final rounds were all judged by industry professionals. Holden's entry was judged by Daniel Lazar, a senior literary agent at Writer's House in NYC.

Excerpt From:
Speed Limit: 60 Minutes an Hour
by Holden M.
 
“The Time Traveler vanished three years ago. And as far as anyone knows now, he has never returned.”

Danny closed the book slowly, and there was the usual moment while everyone just sat silently, holding on to the last words of another great book as long as they could. Which is a while. So this probably would be a good place to introduce myself.

My name is Connor Essex. I’m about average height for an 11-year old. Unfortunately, I’m 13 years old. No one really seems to realize, but it stinks being small, with people always assuming I’m younger than I really am, and not being able to challenge kids my own age in basketball. I have hazelish-bluish eyes and poofy, out-of-control brown hair that sometimes looks like a dead rodent. My mother says one day I’ll be considered cute and girls will want to take me to the movies. I don’t believe her. The last time I even spoke to an unrelated teenage female was to ask her to stop kicking my chair on a plane flight I took last spring.

Another thing to remember about me is that I love books. Any kind of book: comedy, sci-fi, mystery, even old westerns and short stories. I go to the library in Gloucester Point, Virginia, my hometown, so often that the librarians know me by name. In fact, I like books so much, I started a book club for other homeschooled kids in my neighborhood about a year and a half ago. The only kid to join was an 11-year old named Danny Palmer who had just moved down here from Massachusetts. He lives only two houses down from me, so we can have our meetings often. Now I can see him going to the movies in a few years... Read the rest of chapter 1.