Would You Like to Be a Cryonaut?

In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, four old friends who have wasted their lives are given water from the supposed Fountain of Youth. After they drink the water, the three men begin to fight over the woman, whom they all had fancied in their youth, and in their tussling, they knock over the vase with the precious water.

Dr. Heidegger learns his lesson. He is finished with trying to make people young again, but the three old folks come away from the experiment with a different idea. They want to travel to Florida to drink from the original Fountain of Youth. You can read the whole clever story here.

By the way, I’ve drunk from the Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine, Florida. The water tastes like it has sulfur in it (stinky-egg scent). And I can assure you that it has not worked.

Nathaniel Hawthorne never could have imagined a real company that freezes people to somehow revive them later. Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona, freezes bodies in the hopes of

Write about the Impossible in a Sci-Fi Story

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

Jules Verne, considered one of the fathers of science-fiction (sci-fi), liked to write about going places people couldn’t actually go to or had not been before.

He wrote about exploring the core of the earth in Journey to the Center of the Earth. His fantastic tale 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea takes readers deep, deep into the ocean in a submarine, a fairly new invention. From the Earth to the Moon shoots adventurers to the moon in a metal rocket long before space travel had been invented.

Sci-fi writers like to

What Is Freedom?

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

Melba was fifteen years old when she was chased by men who wanted to hang her. It was the first day of racial integration in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957, and fighting for her life was just the first of her year of torture at the hands of students, parents, teachers, and members of the town.

Tortured

And when I say torture, I mean

A Time Capsule

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

If you had been alive during the time of the American Revolutionary War and had the chance to secrete something for others to discover centuries later, what would you have put into your box?

It turns out that two famous men from that period created a time capsule and placed it inside one of the cornerstones of the Massachusetts State House in Boston in 1795, and the box was recently found. You can read more about how it was found here.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, was honored to open this special time capsule to find out what was in it. Here’s a list of items found in the brass box:

Describe Characters by Their Clothing

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

In a story, clothing can be the author’s way of telling us what kind of character we’re reading about.

What are they wearing?

Judging real people by their clothing might not be too smart, but authors rely on readers to judge characters based on their characters’ clothing.

For instance, someone in a black leather jacket with a skull embroidered on the back and chains hanging from a pants pocket is going to be very different from someone in a light aqua-colored jacket carrying an umbrella with pink flowers on it. We make assumptions of people according to their appearance.

Should He Be Arrested . . . Again?

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

So, Roger gets arrested over 20 years ago for grand theft, but he serves only five months of his five-and-a-half-year sentence. Why?

Because he escapes.

And now, a fugitive from the law for 22 years, he is found in a neighboring state, living with his wife who has brain cancer. And he’s arrested again.

Jennifer Mayfield, who took care of Roger’s wife for a few months, thought it was strange that Roger didn’t have a driver’s license or a bank account, but now she understands why.

Do You Have a Dream? Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, let’s get to know King’s most famous speech a little better.

To hear the audio and read the transcript of “I Have a Dream,” click here. To view the speech on YouTube, click here.

This moving speech was originally given August 28, 1963, in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C. As Martin Luther King spoke of freedom for all Americans, regardless of their color, the statue of the Great Emancipator Abraham Lincoln was seated behind him. This gave even more meaning to King’s powerful speech.

What was King’s dream?

Letters from Jail: Apostle Paul and Martin Luther King Jr.

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

Jail probably isn’t the optimal location from which to pen a letter. If I were to write one from jail, it would probably say, “Get me out of here!”

Paul’s Message

However, Apostle Paul writes from jail often and exudes no panic. In Philippians, while chained in a Roman prison, Paul tells the believers in Philippi to rejoice. He doesn’t throw it off as an aside; in fact, he uses the words “joy” or “rejoice” at least twelve times. At one point, he even

Dylan Thomas: His Christmas Memories and Yours

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

What is your favorite Christmas memory?

Dylan Thomas, a famous poet and author, wrote about his Christmas memories in the memoir essay “A Child’s Christmas in Wales,” in which he remembers friends, toys, hijinks, relatives, and traditions of his childhood. His love of words and of the language makes this memoir a delight to read.

Excerpt

Below is an excerpt from it; you can read the whole memoir here and watch a televised rendition of it on YouTube here. For an extra-special treat, listen to the late Dylan Thomas reading his memoir here in his Welsh accent.
Here’s the excerpt from “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”:

The Christmas Account from a New Perspective

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

You are probably very familiar with the accounts of Jesus’ birth found in Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2:40. They are written in the omniscient point of view. That is, the writers tell us everything about everyone.

What if you read the account from the perspective of one of the Magi? Would the story be filled with curiosity and longing? What if the account were written by the wicked King Herod? How angry would he be that he missed his chance to kill the Christ Child?

Would You Like to Be a Cryonaut?

Write about the Impossible in a Sci-Fi Story

What Is Freedom?

Tortured

A Time Capsule

Describe Characters by Their Clothing

What are they wearing?

Should He Be Arrested . . . Again?

Do You Have a Dream? Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.

What was King’s dream?

Letters from Jail: Apostle Paul and Martin Luther King Jr.

Paul’s Message

Dylan Thomas: His Christmas Memories and Yours

Excerpt

The Christmas Account from a New Perspective

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