PW #208: Middle Grade Contemporary: SNOW DAY

Manuscript Status: Finished

Mentor: Lisa Lewis Tyre
Mentee: David Swindler
Title: SNOW DAY
Category/Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary
Word Count: 40,000

Pitch:

There are 38 kid-rumored ways to make it snow, and D.C. has two weeks to try them all.  If one works: the elusive snow day!  If not, an avalanche of a bully named Bosley wins a bet that neither can afford to lose.

Excerpt:

I couldn’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve wanted to slap a stamp on my little brother’s butt and ship him off to China.  The latest reason, his goofy crush on that batty new girl who wore mismatched shoes.  It’s pathetic.  She’s with me in fifth and he’s back in Miss Lisa’s first grade class for droolers and bed wetters.

The twerp skipped his way to the bus stop while I willed him to slip on a patch of ice.  No luck.  He rounded the corner and vanished.  By the time I saw him again, he and his love interest were shrieking over her phone.

“What?” I asked.

She smiled.  “Oh, nothing.”

“What do you mean ‘nothing’? What happened?”

“Promise you won’t get mad or jelly?”

“Just tell me,” I said.

Her hand was on her hip.  “That wasn’t an answer.”

I ground my teeth.  “OK, fine, I won’t get mad.”

“Or?”

My shoulders slumped.  “Or jelly.”

“Ok,” she said, “that was from my BFF back home.  Guess what they have today!”

“Don’t say it.”

She squealed and jumped and made me sick all at once.  “A snow day!”

The runt screamed.  “So awesome!”

“I know, right?”  Then her tone changed as she turned and studied my face.  “See, you look mad and jelly.”

“Mad?  Because they get to stay home and sled and play all day while we suffer through another excellent day of math and spelling and “Gassy” Ron dropping silent bombs around the hallway?  Totally fair.  Completely fine with it.”