LAND OF MAGNOLIA - HONORABLE MENTION - Hannah Bailey, Barbara Connelly

Over the next few weeks I will share with you the stories and projects of the winners in the LAND OF MAGNOLIA contest.
Our first HONORABLE Mention story was written by our youngest contestant Hannah Bailey. She and her Grandma, Barbara Connelly worked on it together.  I asked Hannah to share a little something about herself.

My name is Hannah and I'm 12 years old.  I'm in 7th grade and I love to stamp!!!!!!   I live in South Carolina; I have a mom, a dad, and a brother(14).  At my middle school, my mom and I started a card club.  We have so much fun, and afterwords, we give the cards away to soldiers, kids in the hospital, and people in nursing homes.  When I stamp and make cards, I love to use Copic Markers!!  They are amazing, and I love them so much!!!! Another thing that I really like to do is knitting and crocheting.  It's really fun and I enjoy sitting in my room crocheting and listening to a radio show called Adventures In Odyssey!  Right now, I'm making a crib blanket for my baby cousin, Charlotte.  Also, as you can probably tell, I really like to write stories.  I always have trouble finding books to read at my age.  Either they are WAY too teenage(vampires and yucky stuff), or too young, so if I want to find the perfect book, I have to create it myself.  Thank you so much Mrs. Diana! 

     A Bake-Off in Magnolia Land


       There is a lovely little town in Scandinavia called Magnolia Land.  And in Magnolia Land lives a sweet young girl named Tilda.


       Tilda sat in her room and watched the sun rise.  When she heard her oven beeping she walked into the kitchen.  Tilda turned the oven off, took the cowberry muffins out, and set them on the counter to cool.  “Tilda, Tilda!  Muffins!”,  she heard her little sister Tingla call out from inside her nursery.  As tired as she was, Tilda got up from where she was resting and picked up Tingla.  “Come on my sweet little ANGEL, you can have one muffin, but no more, OK?”  Tilda said.


        “OK!”  Tingla said excited, but she took two anyway.  “Oh Tingla!  Those were for the meeting today!”  Tilda said, distressed.  “Oops,” giggled Tingla, putting one back.  “What meeting?”  Tingla asked, confused.  “We’re trying to come up with fundraiser ideas for the town!”  Tilda said.  “Can I come?  I want to eat the muffins!” Tingla asked.  “OK,  but maybe it wouldn’t be such a good idea to bring the muffins,” Tilda said thoughtfully.  “Why not?”  Tingla asked.  “Can you keep a secret Tingla?  I’m going to suggest we have a bake off to raise money, and I want to enter my secret recipe for the cowberry muffins.” Tingla looked confused, and wanted to know why the recipe was a secret.  “Well, a long time ago our Mormor# Backstrom created the first cowberry muffin.  She kept it secret for a long time, but finally passed it down through the family to us!  There are lots of other versions of the cowberry muffin, but we think ours is the best!  So do you promise to keep this a secret, Tingla?”  Tingla nodded, and off they went to the meeting.
# Mormor-Swedish word for Grandmother


        As they walked out the door into the SUNSHINE and through the GATE, they took in the beauty of the SNOW-capped mountains in the distance and smelled the fresh pine scent that hung in the air.  Tilda and Tingla took the scenic short cut through the park so they could enjoy the pretty flowers in the GARDEN.  The BUTTERFLIES swarmed around the flowers to gather nectar.


      As Tilda reached the Town Hall, Mayor Edwin came out and greeted them.
 “Come in, come in Tilda.  Everyone is ready to start the meeting!”  They all walked into the room, and sat down next to some of their friends from Magnolia Land.  The discussion turned to fundraising ideas, and Tilda stood up and presented her idea of a bake off.  Everyone seemed enthused by the idea, except for Annika.  Annika was never known as a good baker, and she was hoping for a fishing tournament.  In fact, she had already brought WORMS and fishing tackle for her presentation.  When the vote was taken, the bake off idea won by a land slide!  Everyone was anxious to get home and fine tune their special family recipes.


        The weeks passed with everyone in Magnolia Land baking up a storm!  There were cakes and cookies of every kind and lots of pies, too.  PUMPKIN pies seemed to be the favorite choice of many of the bakers, but there were even some savory recipes being tested.  MUSHROOM Quiche was Annika’s mother’s special recipe but Annika, not being a great baker, had never had much luck with it.  But she was giving it her best try this time and was hoping to take home a ribbon for her entry.


       Finally the day of the bake off arrived.  All the townspeople were there, many of them carrying their entries into the contest.  Alf and Alva greeted everyone at the door of the Town Hall and sold them ballots to vote for their favorite recipe.  Poor Rufus had to wait outside.  No dogs allowed!!


        The baked entries lined the table along one wall and what entries they were!  It was certainly going to be hard to pick a winner, thought Mayor Edwin to himself.  He called everyone to order and suggested that they begin tasting all the goodies, then the votes would be cast.  Tilda and Tingla waited anxiously, watching everyone’s face as they bit into the cowberry muffins.  Finally, there were only crumbs left and Mayor Edwin, Alf and Alva counted the ballots.  And the winner was…



THE END