This book was created and published on StoryJumper™

©2010 StoryJumper, Inc.   All rights reserved.

Publish your own children's book: 

www.storyjumper.com

      My   little house   in a   small Farm Town was filled with boxes containing of   all our possessions.  

As I   was putting all of my things in away in the cardboard boxes, I   noticed a small wooden box. 

There was no doubt that it was old and rotten, but   it brought a smile to my   face.

 “Hey Lyndsay! Look what I found!” I yelled across the house to her room. “What do you 

want Mary, I’m busy.” She said, Poking her head in my room. She was my older sister by 

about a year, and she never   let me forget it. “It’s my penny box! I got it when I was 12! 

This things like a box full of memories!” I said excitedly. “Why do I care about some decaying 

box you made 5 years ago?” She asked. “Oh, come on, look at it with me! It will be fun!”I 

pleaded. “ Fine. I don’t have anything better to do. “ She muttered.

 I opened up the ancient box, and saw   12 pennies. Their copper finishes has 

faded of over a period of time but it didn't damage the stories that they made. 

“Ewww. That reeks! It can’t be sanitary.” Lyndsay said. I ignored her,   and ran 

my fingers through the precious   pennies. “This is amazing! I didn't think I still 

had it!” I   said wondrously.I then cautiously picked out a penny marked 2011.

 “Hey, remember 2011!” I exclaimed. “This was the summer that we got our 

dogs, Calvin and   Dixie!” Just then, Calvin our Brittany Spaniel walked slowly 

into the room, and rested his old, gray face on my lap. “Hey buddy” I said 

petting him. “That’s not all that happened that year.” Lyndsay said coldly. “Riley 

died.” I lowered my head at   the thought. Riley was our German Shorthair, the 

same breed as Dixie. He had cancer for about 2 years, and died that summer. 

We had him for almost all my life, and I missed him so much. We cried for days 

after it had happened. “Why are we even doing this? Its just going to make us 

sad.” Lyndsay said. “We’re doing this because it’s fun. Just do it with me. 

Please!” I begged. “Fine. the next one better be happy.” She replied. 

Then, I pulled out a penny labeled 2008. “Hey , remember this year? This was 

good!” I said. “Yah, so good I don’t even remember it.” Lyndsay remarked. “You 

don’t remember? We went to Canada,and   visited the CN tower. The big glass 

floor was so cool!   We were above the entire city ! It was like- 2000 feet high!” I 

said excitedly. “ I guess that was pretty cool” Lyndsay said in defeat. 

        “Okay, you’ve proved your point. Not all of them are sad! Can I go now?” 

she asked. “And go back packing boxes? How boring can you get?” I countered.  

Lyndsay sighed. “Fine, I’ll stay.” She said. “Good. You pick the next one.” I 

insisted. “ Whatever.” She sighed. “Do I have to close my eyes, or say a magic 

word or something?” “Come on, just pick.” I retorted. “2013” she said. 

“That was an exciting year for me!” I said. “It was pretty boring, nothing 

happened.” Lyndsay stated. “Not for you, but I State for my Science Fair project. 

It was so much work.” I said, spreading my arms out for emphasis. “ But it was 

worth it. I got Superior, and won won of the awards.” “To me, it was all boring. 

All I did was wait and wait.” Lyndsay said. “Way to be supportive!” I joked. I 

then reached into the box, but before I could pull one out, mom came in my 

room. 

  “ Why aren’t you packing young lady? The truck is coming in 2 hours, and we 

still have a lot of work to do.” She scolded. I ignored her, and told her all about 

my penny box. “Well that’s great honey, but you really need to start packing.” 

And with that, she left the room. “Okay, next penny is-” But i couldn’t pick 

because Lyndsay had grabbed my hand. “You heard what Mom said. The trucks 

coming soon and we need to start packing. We’ll get in trouble if we don’t.” 

Lyndsay said worriedly. “Come on, just   couple more. she’ll never know! Besides, 

where’s your sense of adventure?” I pressured.   Lyndsay sighed. “Okay, I’ll stay 

with you and your dumb penny box, but if mom comes in I’m saying that you 

made me stay.”

“OK. Oooh, look! 2006! This was our first trip to Disney!” I smiled. “ I have to 

admit, that was pretty fun. I remember how happy I was when I first saw to 

castle and met Cinderella! I was SO starstruck!” Lyndsay giggled. “See, I told 

you this was fun.” I said. “I remembered when Snow White tied my shoe, I 

thought I would faint!” I admitted. 

Lyndsay stuck her hand in the box, and pulled out a penny marked 2002. 

“2002?” I said. “I was one year old! I don't remember anything from that year!” 

I said. “I do. Grandma and Grandpa moved to Arizona.” Lyndsay recalled. They 

have been living in Apache Junction Arizona for quite some time now, and we 

would visit them about every year. “Okay. I do remember some now.” I replied. 

        I then reached into the box and pulled out a penny with the date 2012 on it. “Ugh. 2012.” I grumbled. “I hated that 

year!” 2012 was the year of our house fire.   Lyndsay and I were at school when it happened, and were completely 

clueless until that night. We got a note at school saying that our babysitter would pick us up, and neither of us were sure 

why. We stayed there until late that night until our mom came to pick us. When she told us we weren't going home, I was 

confused. It was late and it was a school night, so where we go but to bed? We then   parked into a hotel, and Mom 

ignored our questioning until we got to our room. We had the hotel suite, and pizza was there so we were happy. It 

wasnt until then our parents told us what happened.

      My mom was out burning trash, and a spark caught on her jacket. She, of course didn’t know, and set it down. She 

went downstairs to do the laundry, and when she came up there were flames engulfing the house.

      Luckily, no one was hurt and all of our pets got out safe, but everything in the house was gone, and we would have 

to rebuild and rebuy everything. We spent about 2 weeks at the hotel, and then found a house to rent. We were all 

excited to be getting out of the cramped hotel room, and couldn’t wait to move in. At first it was cool, but then we loathed 

it.

      The house was literally falling apart, and it smelled like old people. The house had no cable, so we spent the entire 

summer with no T.V.   It seemed like all we did was go shopping for replacement items. It was, no doubt the worst 

summer ever. 

     Construction on the house was slow, and it   was delaying rapidly. I spent all summer just waiting for the house to be 

ready, and finally, just about a week before the new school year, it was ready. Everything was completely new, and it was 

truly our dream house. 

I then   pulled out a penny that had 2014 written on it. I laughed. “2014! 

remember, this is when we learned to ski!” I declared. “You were the worst ones 

in the class!” Lyndsay giggled. It was true, at first I was not so good. All we did 

for the first lesson was learn how to use our skis to climb up a hill, and it wasn’t 

my strong suit. When we were climbing, I kept falling down. When it was my 

turn to demonstrate what I had learned, I slid the hill. I couldn’t stop at all! I 

just sliding, and I had to take of my skis to get up!

      “Oh, and remember the big hill I went down?” I asked. “How could I forget?” 

she said. After a while there, I had been going down little hills with obstacle 

courses on them. After I while I got bored of them so, I decided it was time for 

me to go down the big hill. I was nervous, but then I did it. It was scary, but fun 

at the same time. Though, I forgot to sway from side to side, and just went in an 

extremely fast line that I could not stop! I was heading straight towards a ski 

fence, and when I hit it it bounced me back, making me do a backflip to the 

ground. Luckily, the snow cushioned my fall, and I wasn’t hurt. “I was surprised 

that you didn’t break anything!” Lyndsay exclaimed. “Me too.” I admitted.

You've previewed 15 of 24 pages.

To read more: