“All our class must hand in compositions tomorrow. We must write 12 linesat least. But I can never write one. I'll have to go to school without acomposition, for I won't copy one from a book, or ask you or papa to write onefor me.”

    “That's right,” said her mother. “You'll be happier with a poorcomposition, if it's your own, than with a fine one written by somebody else.But cheer up. Run into the garden and play. I'll call you in half an hour.Don't think about your composition now. Just have a good time.”

It seemed just a few minutes to Susie before she heard her mother calling her. She wentinto the house immediately — her hands full of sweet flowers, and her face redwith exercise.

Then her mother asked her to sit by the window with a nice piece ofpaper and a pencil, and write something about what she could see. “Never mindyour composition; do this to please me, and we'll talk about that later.”

    Although Susie thought her mother's request was strange, she knew shealways had a good reason for everything she did. So she did as her motherrequested.

    As she looked out, she first saw the western sky and some bright, sunsetclouds. “Oh, mother, what a sunset!”

“Don't talk. Just write.”

The pencil began moving rapidly across the paper. She wrote about the sunsetclouds, the look of the distant hills, the streets, the river, the garden withits flowers, and the birds flying past the window. She forgot all about theterrible composition!

    Just as she had reached the bottom of the page, hermother came in and said with a smile, “Well, Susie, how does that compositioncome on?”

   “Composition! You told me not to think about it, and I've never thoughtof it once. I've had such a nice time writing about what I could see from thewindow.”

    Mrs. Smith took the paper and read what Susie had written. She said,“There, Susie, that's a very nice composition,really.”

   “A composition! Is that a composition?”Susie asked in surprise.

   “Yes, my dear, and a very good one, too, if we find a title for it,”replied her mother. Then she added, “I'm sure it will please your teacher, asit does me. You see, it's easy enough to write a composition if you have anything interesting to write about.”

Pablo Picasso was born in Spain in 1881. His father was a painter and art teacher who gave his son the first lesson in drawing. He won a prize — “Science and Charity” for his first important painting when he was only fifteen. He studied in several cities in Spain. But there was no one to teach him all that he wanted to know. When he was nineteen, he visited Paris.

Paris was then the center of the world for artists. Everything that was new and exciting in the world of paintings seemed to happen there. When he was twenty-three, Picasso moved there to live and lived in France for the rest of his life.

    When he was over ninety, this great painter still lived his life like a young man. He was still looking for new ideas and new ways to use his artistic materials.

    When he died in 1973, he was ninety-one years old.

    Esperanza lives in a poor Latino(拉丁美洲人) neighborhood in Chicago, .America. She dreams of having her own house one day. Her parents told her that when they moved from their last house, they would have a new' and shiny(亮闪闪的) house. But the house is small and old.

    Many people live in Mango Street in a big old house. Esperanza lives behind it with her family. A lot of the people who have come from Mexico don't speak English. Many miss their home country. Esperanza understands their sadness, but she also feels at home in America. She is an American, but her roots(根) will always be Latino,

    Esperanza is young. Like her friends, she has to grow up fast. She is stuck between being a girl and being a woman. In the poor and dangerous area where she lives, this is difficult for her. Mexican people usually live in a close neighborhood. This means that people live packed(挤塞的) in together. Everyone knows everyone else. So Esperanza knows other older girls that do things she is not comfortable doing. It is just a fact of her life.

    But Esperanza has good friends too. She becomes friends with two sisters named Lucy and Rachel. They ride bikes and have adventures together. Esperanza is also friends with a girl named Alicia. Alicia is afraid of the rats in her apartment. She shares her poems with Esperanza.

Birthday cards and parties are always the most popular ways for children to celebrate their birthdays, but not for Logan Brown in the US. He has serious autism. He can't talk and doesn't have any friends. According to his mother Catherine, he stopped getting birthday cards and having parties years ago. This year was Logan's 12th birthday. His mother loved him and wanted him to have a great birthday, just like other children. She asked Facebook (a website) for help, inviting friends and strangers to send her son cards for his 12th birthday. In Catherine's Facebook post, she wrote, "Will you write Happy Birthday Logan一from

your friend-in Washington，Hawaii …? Help us celebrate Logan's birthday!"

    Then the Browns were excited to receive more than 3,000 birthday cards from all over the world. When one police officer read Catherine's Facebook post, he decided to organize a surprise party for Logan at a local restaurant. On that day, many policemen took part in the party and gave the little boy a birthday cake and some other gifts. "We couldn't let Logan's birthday pass without anything special for him," said the police officer.

    With the help of his mother and the Internet, Logan had a special birthday.