Soleil's Writing Portfolio

Current Publishing 

During our poetry unit, we had the privilege to collaborate with graphic design students from the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Each graphic designer set out to design forms and distribute our poems in unique ways that addressed the central message of each poem. Below you can see my poem’s design by Kennedy. Enjoy! 

Previous Publishings

As a class we recently finished reading the Gold Cadillac by Mildred D. Taylor. This book tells the story of a Black family during the 1950’s during the civil rights movement. These diaries were written by students from the perspective of one member of this family, either ‘lois, the youngest daughter, father, or mother as the family faces discrimination, segregation, and racism. 

I had no idea the first summer that I ever went to Camp Maranatha in New Hampshire would change my life forever. We packed our bags the same way we always did when we took a trip. I grabbed my Ana and Elsa's big purple and blue suitcase. I packed it up with a lot of clothes, stuffies, my toothbrush, and soap. I was really excited so I packed another bag too!  When I was done I dragged both my bags and my blanket down my long hallway past the big bathroom, past my parent’s room, past my little brother’s room, past my older brothers room,  then down my stairs, through my dining room, past my little bathroom, and out the door and then I stuffed them in the back of our silver van. 

My dad said, “Princess, what are you moving away?” 

Then I said, “Well no, a girl just needs her stuff.” 

We drove for 2 hours and it felt like forever!!! 

We kept chanting “ARE WE THERE YET ARE WE THERE YET!” My Abuelo was saying “shh” because it was hurting his ears. 

When we finally got there we drove up this veeeery steep hill to get to the parking lot. Right away, I saw a huge sandbox that was not a sandbox, it just looked like one, it was actually a gaga pit! There were two small sandboxes near the left of it, a big net behind it and I saw a pretty big playground with a tire swing on the right of it, AND next to the playground was the best thing ever it was was a small red barn!!!  

As soon as I saw the barn my heart beated really fast and I said, ’ooooo’’ because I saw a sheep outside the barn and I did not expect animals at Camp.  So I said to myself, “I love animals and I have to see them!!!!’’  

After we parked in the empty parking lot next to the basketball hoop I got out of the van and looked around more. There were about 15 bikes with helmets on the handlebars, and scooters too. 

 It was a quiet sunny day and a good day to play with animals. I asked my parents if I could go see the barn. They said “ sure’’. Then there was a sign that said ‘’Children need a parent’’ so my dad took me. Next, as we walked in, I saw chickens, a big bunny’s, an alpaca, goats, and a sheep. That was our first time there and I spent as much time in the barn as I could, BUT this year was my favorite because there were the newborn baby bunnies. They were sooooooooo small and fluffy and so cute! I wanted to play with them but it was a hot sunny day and I was going to the pond. We got to swim there and come back to see the bunnies later. After the pond I took a shower then I Had dinner. It was good and the food was fresh and hot!! They always have a lot of food at camp!!! Before we went back up to the summit for His Club I begged my mom to take me back to the barn.

 “Please ples ples ples!!!!!” I said repeatedly. “I want to see the bunnies.” After asking about 100 times she FINALLY took me and I finally got to see the baby bunnies again.

We were in there for a while and we took turns holding and cuddling with each of them one by one!!!! They love when we hold them in our hands close to our hearts because it makes them feel warm and comforted.  When I hold them I feel very calm and relaxed and comforted too. Every time we held one of them we named them. 

Two of the brown girls were a coffee color so I called one “Coffee” and the other “Cafe”. The rest of the brown ones were darker brown,  so I called some ‘’Brownie’’, ‘’Choclit’’ and ‘’Fugacil’. Also, the white ones we called  ‘’Snowball’’ and ‘’Snow.’’ They were all soft!!!   One of them did not have any ears. It looks like a hamster so I called it  “Hammy” and gave it extra love. Oh and did I say,  there were about 20 or 30 altogether!!!!?

Afterwards, we had to go up to the summit,  but I wasn't ready to. I only got to stay for 10 minutes! I had fun with the bunnies, but I had to go to His Club.  I left, and I kissed them all good nite.

 In the morning we had to leave our room and go to breakfast. After eating pancakes, strawberries and whipped cream, I was still feeling a little sad thinking about leaving.

 I was outside with my friend Sophia, and ran across the parking lot toward the barn to say, “goodbye” to the bunnies. 

My dad was outside of the bunnies stall with my brother talking to Hershey the lama and it was so funny because he giggled after he heard me say “goodbye bunnies” and that made me upset, so I came out and said “why are you laughing I said” and he said, “What do you mean goodbye? Soleil we are leaving in 4 days!” I put my hand on my head and sighed in relief “ahh! that is a relief!!” Then we all laughed. 

Then I went back to the bunnies stall and called them very joyfully,” bunnies bunnies!! I said, “ I am not leaving yet,woohoo!!!!!!!!”  I was so happy. I kept jumping up and down and kept saying “I am not leaving!!!” 

My friend “said don’t jump so much or you will scare them to deth” 

So I stopped jumping and picked up two of the bunnies at the same time and lifted them in my hands and kissed them.Then I put them down and picked up two more and kissed them. I kept doing that until I kissed them all. I played with them until I had to go up to the summit. I felt really happy with them. That is why I wanted to write about them!!!!! Animals make me happy but Baby bunnies really make me happy. They mean a lot to me. I mean a LOT!!!!!!!!! 

THE SURPRISE OF MY LIFE!

One day before school started I went on a family trip to Connecticut. It was a dim, wet afternoon and we were getting a desk for school. When we were driving I put my window down and a warm, wet breeze hit me in  the face. It felt so relaxing. As soon as we got the desk I could hear a whistle and see leaves spinning in the air. Then it started to rain so much. I saw a green leaf hit my window, so I put my hand out and got the leaf. It was wet and slimy! Ugh! I shook it and got it in my brother's eyes. “Yuck!” he said.  We were supposed to go to the park, but my dad called his cousin instead and asked, “Can we come for a visit?”  The rain started to come down very hard, there was no way we could go play outside!!! 

We went to Hartford to see our premos (that means cousins in Spanish). When we finally got there, I saw that  I had another prema I never met before. She was a pretty older girl with long curly hair and chinke green eyes. I thought I only had a few little cousins, so I was a little confused. I was also a little nervous, but she called me over and said, “Do  you want to play with me?” I said ,“Yes.” and I went with her.

I have 3 boring and annoying brothers, so I was happy to have a girl to do girl stuff with. We went to play together while our dads were talking. The first thing she did was show me all her unicorns. Then she showed me her mom's stuff too. There was makeup, baby stuff, there was a zebra too! After that, we started to  play with the other toys that she had. One of her unicorns was so fluffy that I wanted to pass out on it! The rest were not so fluffy, but they were cute.  Kiki and I played dress up . I tried on all of her clothes from when she was little AND she gave me some to take home! She put some of her mom's makeup on us, until my mom made me take it off. It was fun! We were princesses. Then we  went into the small dusty room, with a lot of windows, where there were big, black bags of her old toys, clothes and a lot of colorful eye shadow and other makeup. She gave me a brown skin brat doll that has red lipstick on her big lips, and a LOL doll with pink hair that comes off. While we were playing I asked,”Were you adopted?” I asked her that because I had never met her before. She said, “No?” With a confused face. “But I never saw you before,” I said.  “When my mom left, I went to stay with my Godmother so that's why you didn't see me before when you were here.”  Then we just started playing again. When we were about to leave I felt very emotional. I tried to hold back my tears. Then her abuela came to the rescue. (Abuela means grandmother in spanish.) She came home and wanted to talk to us so we got to stay longer. We got to watch tv in her bedroom. It was freezing because the ac was on hi. We talked and played more. Kiana is my favorite because she is sweet, kind, funny, and loud too just like me. Spending the day with Kiki was the most fun that I ever had in my life!!!!!! When it was the middle of the night and we had to go home, Kiki told me to look at the moon when I missed her, but that made me more sad! I cried as we drove home in the dark and I looked at the moon.  I cried until I went to sleep, and then I cried more when I woke up at home. I love Kiki so much. Thank God I met her!!!! I still miss her a lot and I have to wait until Christmas to see her again. Soooooo, I will just keep looking at the moon until then.