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A World Without Circles
by Paige G.
age 9, grade 4, George Martin School, Mrs. Kellogg's class,
Seekonk, Massachusetts, U.S.
Emily couldn't take it anymore. This was getting boring with no one to talk to. She leaned over to the side and whispered into her best friend Sarah's ear, "Snap out of it! You've looked dazed for the last few minutes."
Sarah didn't make any response whatsoever. Then she suddenly jerked back to reality as Mr. Pen, the bus driver, started to speak over the speakers that belonged to the elementary school bus, that right then was taking them home.
Fifth-graders in the way back quiet down. At this Sarah groaned.
"Great," said Emily. "You've snapped out of it. What were you thinking of anyway?"
Sarah answered, "When Mr. Pen's voice came over the speakers I was thinking of the fact that we have to wait a whole year before we can sit in the way back."
Emily grinned then said, "No, I mean before that." Then Sarah explained to her that she was thinking about circles. She said she found circles were confusing. "They don't have vertices or edges. They don't have anything. But yet they're there. I can feel them. I can touch them even if they don't have anything that every other shape has. They almost don't exist but yet they do.... Oh it's all just very confusing."
As Sarah brooded she fingered her star bracelet then suddenly cried out in disappointment, "Oh. I just wish circles didn't exist at all!"
As soon as Sarah finished that sentence she felt a jolt then another jolt that sent her flying into the seat in front of her. She then turned to ask Emily if she knew what was wrong with the bus but she never did ask her that question. For as she turned to her she screamed. "You - you have a triangular head!" Sarah finally managed to gasp.
"I know," Emily said very casually, "and you have a square head."
Sarah leaned back in her seat and waited to wake up and get out of this strange nightmare. However, she never did wake up, and when the bus stopped at her house she decided it was best to open her eyes and get off the bus, just in case she really was awake. Sarah opened her eyes very slowly and with great reluctance, scared of what she might see next. She hurried off the bus and ran to the front door of her house. Oh! how she couldn't wait to get inside where everything would be normal and just the same as it always had been.
"Mother, I'm home!" Sarah shouted.
And maybe her voice showed a little too much excitement about being home because her mother said, "What fun thing did you do in school today?"
"Nothing," Sarah responded, following her mother's voice which she guessed was coming from the living room.
Sarah turned into the living room and she almost cried. Suddenly her dream of everything being all right at home was beginning to swiftly fade away. There in front of her was her mother with a pentagon shaped head and behind her the no-longer-circle-shaped clock was gone. In its place was a square shaped clock.
Sarah turned around, not wanting to take any more in. She walked down the hall to her room as thoughts swirled around her head. Why were circles changing shape? Did it have anything to do with what she said on the bus, "Oh I just wish circles didn't exist at all."? Probably... She turned her now flower shaped door knob and entered the room.
A week later Sarah was lying in her bed, asleep, when she was awakened by a cold draft in her room. With a great struggle Sarah opened her eyes. The first thing she noticed was that the window was open. The second thing she noticed was a gold ball floating in mid-air in the center of her room. The ball was giving of a bright light, kind of like a star.
Sarah gasped, "You're a circle. How can that be?!"
Then the least expected thing happened. "There used to be many of us, us circles," the ball said.
Sarah wanted to ask a billion questions all at once but she decided not to. Instead she decided to ask a billion questions one at a time.
"The reason all the circles disappeared was because I wished they would, right?"
The ball responded, "Correct."
"But how? People just don't wish something and then it happens."
"But you can wish things on stars and they can happen."
"Yeah, but it was during the daytime when I wished circles would disappear."
The ball responded, "Simple. You were wearing a star bracelet." Silence.
Then Sarah asked eagerly, "So all I have to do is to wish all the circles back?"
"Pretty much."
Sarah jumped out of bed and started running toward her star bracelet. But the ball's voice stopped her halfway across the room, "But you can't do it tonight because all of the stars in the sky will be confused about what star you are wishing your wish on. In order for the wish to be undone, you must unwish from the same source you asked the wish from."
Then the ball seemed to dissolve and there was no longer any light in the room. After a while Sarah finally fell asleep, and in the morning as soon as she woke up she ran over to the star bracelet and unwished her wish. Then all the circle things appeared and Sarah smiled with relief.
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A World Without Circles
by Kyle G.
age 8, grade 3, George Martin School, Mrs. Kellogg's class,
Seekonk, Massachusetts, U.S.
One day I tripped over a little soccer ball, when I was running away from my friend John. He quickly came over to me. He asked, "Are you okay?"
Answering, I said, "I don't think so, I can't move my leg."
He looked at the twisted position of my left leg and said, "Let me get your mom." He ran into the house and came out with my worried-looking mom.
She asked me, "Do you want me to call Dr. Resophcy?"
I answered, my face twisted in grim pain, "Yes, as quickly as you can." John helped me up and led me inside.
My mom was at the phone. She got off the phone and said to John, "Will you help him to the car?"
"Sure," said John.
When we got out of the hospital my mom said to me, "Do you want to go to the general store?"
I said, "Yes," and we went to the general store. There I threw a penny in the wishing well and whispered, "I hope there are no more circles like the soccer ball."
Suddenly in a flash everything turned into a square or a hexagon. The clocks stopped working 'cause they didn't have the right-shaped gears. My friend John and my mom had square eyes. Amazingly, the other people didn't seem to notice that their friends had square heads.
Turning to my mom I said, "Errr...can we leave this square place?" She gave me a funny look, but she still said yes.
When we got home I limped into my room and groaned. I looked: my wheels on my hard built planes and cars were all square. The nice gold watch was not moving because the gears were square.
I screamed, "That cost me 200 dollars!"
My mom rushed in. She said, "AAhhhh, what happened?"
I said, "Mom, don't you notice that all of the circles are squares and hexagons, or am I the only one the world?" I added, "Sports, clocks, the wheel, and people sailing are all gone!"
"Honey, you need to calm down, everything's fine."
I yelled at her, "No, hexagon-head, the earth is flat, and our hill is gone."
Then she got mad. "Broken leg or not, you, young man, won't call me hexagon-head, or at that you need to really calm down." Luckily she calmed down. "Well, maybe the pain upset you. Why don't you read a nice book, to calm down?" she said.
"Whatever, Mom, can you just get outta my room?"
She looked hurt but went out without saying anything. I sighed and sank onto my bed. I couldnt... ohh... I looked in the mirror and, well, all my features were square. I looked out the window for comfort, then, "Ohh no, the sun is a shaped like a tent. Man oh man, I guess I should never wish for something or it might come true and blue!" I yelled at myself.
My mom came in. "Stop screaming, I know it hurts but the sun is a circle. Just go to bed honey." Then she said, "NOW."
I slowly climbed into bed, thinking, "I'm probably going to see octagon wheels on the car tomorrow."
I got out of bed the next morning and felt sad. I was in pain and everything. Nothing was a circle. But I thought, "Well, maybe we should go back to the general store." I told my mom that I wanted to go to the general store.
She said, "All right, want Adam to come with us since he asked if he could come over?"
I shrugged and said, "I'd like that." Then I remembered the tires on the car would be square, so it would take a while to get there.
My mom walked out of my room, got the keys and said, "Come here."
I walked out of my bedroom and ran to the car. I got in knowing that we would have to walk, but as I started to go in the car she said, "Wait, we will have to walk, because the car won't go anywhere." So we walked to Adam's house, then luckily since the general store was close we managed to get there in no time.
Adam said to me, "Why go to the general store?"
I shrugged (again) and said, "I want to see if they have anything new."
"Obviously," said Adam then he added, "But what?"
I said in a frustrated voice, "Anything good." He was silent.
As soon as we got to the general store I rushed to the wishing well and threw in a square coin. I said, "I wish that there are circles again, and my leg is healed."
It happened. My leg felt fine and everything was a circle again. I yelled, "Yeah."
My mom said, "We're leaving." We went back home and everything was back to normal.
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A World Without Circles
by Vivian P.
age 10, grade 5, Hop Brook School, Mrs. Raff's class,
Naugatuck, Connecticut, U.S.
A world without circles,
How dull life would be.
No globes and no doodads,
In which involve me!
No wheels on a car,
Or golfing today.
In fact, without balls,
There willbe no play.
No sinks or cups,
So say goodbye to hiccups.
No bubbles or buns,
Without circles there will be no sun.
No cookies,
No clocks,
Without circles,
There will be no locks.
No coins,
No more bread.
Without circles
We won't have a head!
So look at the world around us,
And be thankful for what you've got.
Because in a world without circles,
We don't have a lot!
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Michael's Grandmother
by Laura Cahill
age 11, grade 5, Corkscrew Elementary School, Ms. Boxell's class,
Naples, Florida, U.S.
Michael's grandmother blew out the candle as she tucked him into his bed late one night. "Tell me a story, Grandma," said Michael, and he yawned.
His grandmother wrinkled up her brow as she thought of a good story to tell Michael. "Ahh..." she said. "I will tell you the story that I remember from when I was a little girl, as little as you, Michael." And her story began:
"When I was 4 years old, my mother began to tell me about her days in kindergarten. We went to the store and my mother bought me new black shoes, shiny as diamonds, and a red dress. I was very excited to go to school and when the last days of summer came, I could hardly go to sleep at night. As my mother and I walked hand in hand up to the classroom, I had a feeling of butterflies in my tummy. We met my teacher Miss Hart and I said goodbye to my mother. Miss Hart guided me down a row of desks and I took a seat.
'All right class, take out your reading books,' said Miss Hart, and we all took out our leatherbound books - they even smelled new - and we turned to page one. I was so happy, until I looked down at the letters all a blur in front of my eyes. Miss Hart called on everyone to read a page, and when the time came for me to read, I just sat there, not understanding, confused.
"The rest of the school years went by and I was slow, never really knowing how to read, until fifth grade." Michael's grandmother adjusted the shawl around her neck, and Michael nestled deeper into the covers, and she continued her story. "In the fifth grade my teacher was Mr. Phil and everyone said he was a strict old man, but I just thought he was strange, always with a glint in his eyes.
"One crisp winter afternoon, I was walking home from school, trying to make sense of the things I had just learned in class, when a pleasent scent filled the air. I was so intrigued I followed it. The smell led me to a cart in the park selling cookies. The baker was standing there muttering under his breath, staring down at his cooking tray. On the tray were peanut butter fudge cookies in the shape of a square. The center of each cookie was caving in. 'Oh, I can not believe this, my cookies can not be baked when they are shaped like bricks!' He shook his head and consulted his recipe. I shrugged and continued to walk home.
"On the sidewalk a woman with a briefcase was talking to a police officer. Her shiny red car was stopped next to her and she was saying angrily, 'I am going to be sooo late for my meeting with my boss! Oh, I don't know what happened! My car just stopped and I got out and the tires were sguare!' And then I realized her tires were the shape of squares.
"That night my mother called me into the kitchen to help her set the dishes. Plate for mother, plate for father, plate for me, I almost dumped a plate of steaming hot pasta on the tile when I saw the plates too were in the shape of a box. Something mysterious was going on.
"The next morning as the bell rang for morning recess, Mr. Phil asked me if he could have a word with me. 'Beth, I have to ask you if you will help me with a favor.' His eyes turned even brighter. 'It will require a lot of knowledge,' he said.
"I thought and then replied, 'Mr.Phil, I would be honored to help you, but I am a slow learner who scarcely knows how to read, let alone think quickly.'
"Mr. Phil ignored that comment with a wave of his hand. 'Beth, I see in you something that you don't see in yourself. You have great potential. Now let's get to work. Morning recess is only fifteen minutes, you know.' That morning Mr. Phil explained to me how the twining of the atoms of a regular circle had come... undone, you could say. Matter and the objects on Earth were unable to hold the shape of a circle any longer. He said, in order to restore the shape of a circle, we must break the new code of the twining of the atoms.
"Meanwhile, all over the world, the news went on about bubbles, balls, the sun and everything else circular you can imagine taking square form. But what amazed me above all was that for once in my life, I understood. It took four months, one week and three days until we found the way to break the code. I was walking to the drugstore to buy my mother some milk, when a group of young boys playing baseball hit a ball next to me on the road. It was a sphere shape. A shape I had been longing to see. I grabbed the ball and ran home without even getting my mother's milk.
"That following day I showed the ball to Mr. Phil who then broke the code. Now the question was, how do we insert it into the other circlular things? Mr. Phil went into the supply closet and took out a dusty old square globe. With a syringe, he inserted an atom from the ball into the globe. Suddenly, the globe began to change form and shift its shape. Seconds later it transformed shape from a square into the form of a circle.
"That evening after dinner, I sat down on the couch to watch the news with my father. 'Late breaking news! Circles return to planet Earth. After circles have been gone so long, are they coming back?' I didn't need to hear any more. What an accomplishment!
"The next year Mr. Phil quit his job at my school and became a scientist at the most esteemed science lab in the nation. Later, he went on to win the Nobel Prize for finding a species of fish that was thought to be extinct. I watched him accept that award, his eyes still shining.
"Oh my gosh, Michael, you must go to sleep. Do you know how late it is? It is way past your bedtime!" She looked over and saw Michael fast asleep. As the clock struck midnight, Michael's grandmother chuckled to herself. She knew hardly anyone would know that she and Mr. Phil had saved everyone from a world forever without circles.
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The World Without Circles
by Jason LePage
age 9, grade 4, George Martin School, Mrs. Kellogg's class,
Seekonk, Massachusetts, U.S.
Joe woke up one day. He looked at the sun. He thought, why isn't the sun round? It looks like a triangle. Then he walked downstairs and looked at the light bulb. He realized the light bulb was a rectangle, not a circle. Joe went to eat breakfast. Joe realized his Cheerios were square. He didn't mind. So he ate his Cheerios. (He called them Squareios). Then Joe went to play basketball. Wow, he thought, the ball, net, and rim were all squares. He just played then went inside. He watched the baseball game on TV but the ball, the players' hats, and the soda cups were in the shape of octagons. Now he could say this is a world without circles.
After the game ended he ate lunch. Joe had pizza. The pizza was not round. It was in the shape of a hexagon. Joe ate 3 slices. Then his friends came over to his house to play with him. They played video games, had ice cream, and watched more TV. Then when all 3 of them looked at each other they screamed. They finally realized their heads were shaped liked rectangles, their eyes like triangles, and Tom's glasses were shaped like octagons. (Tom was Joe's friend). All 3 of them went upstairs and looked at everything that was supposed to be a circle. Joe's car had hexagon-shaped wheels. His bike wheels were the same shape as the car tires.
It was getting late. Joe's friends went home. He was afraid that something else he would really need would be a different shape. When he went in the shower the soap hurt his body because it was square. He hated that. Joe went to his room to play with his toys. He knew his yo-yo would be a different shape. And it was. Joe finally went to bed.
The next morning he looked at the sun when he woke up. It was a circle. The light bulb was a circle, too. So were his Cheerios and the clock and the tires on the car. Everything that wasn't a circle yesterday was a circle today. Then Joe finally realized it was a dream that everything that was supposed to a circle wasn't a circle.
Now Joe was happy knowing that everything was normal again. And now he could live his life normally.
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The Wishing Helmet
by Amelia H.
age 15, grade 10,
Howick College, Mr. Thompson's class
Auckland, New Zealand
Once upon a time in a world full of different shapes and sizes there lived a young boy named Richy. Richy was a very naughty and foolish boy and one day he used these talents to get himself into a lot of trouble including changing his whole world. One day when Richy went for a walk in the woods he stumbled along the strangest thing, an oval wishing helmet with two wishes that he could grant. Very suprised Richy put on this helmet and started wishing. Being foolish he did not read the warning side and the "please do not wish these following wishes" bit underneath.
His first wish was for a giant dragon with gold and green scales and a dangerous pointy tail. "Poof!" It then appeared right in front of him then flew off.
"Hey!" said Richy. "Come back dragon!" Dumb wishing helmet, it's all your fault, he thought to himself.
He grabbed the wishing helmet off his head and threw it in the lake. When arriving back home, Richy went straight home and sulked on his bed. Eventually he fell alsleep, not knowing what trouble he had caused throughout the world.
"Richy, wake up quickly!" His mother called. "There is a package for you." He opened it waiting to see what it was, and when he found out he nearly died! It was the helmet with a note inside of it. The note reading the following:
"Dear Richy,
This is a message from the magic helmet. You have betrayed the power of this magic gift so you must be punished. The dragon will disappear I promise, but your whole world will become a world WITHOUT CIRCLES FOREVER!!!!
The curse of this helmet can not be broken. Maybe this will help you Richy to behave yourself.
From the helmet........."
Richy fainted.
When he woke up he saw his mother and father's square bodies and heads, saw triangle balloons and oblong clocks. All the circles in the world had disappeared!!!!
His mother drove Richy to his school on her square tyres. Everywhere he went there were no circles. He hated it!!!!
After one whole year of a world without circles, Richy went for a walk in the same woods and stood on the spot the helmet had been. "I'M SORRY!" he weeped. "I'LL NEVER BE NAUGHTY AGAIN, I PROMISE! PLEASE FORGIVE ME, HELMET!"
He collapsed on the ground and sobbed.
Just then a square ladybug came and fluttered on his hand. "Why can't you be a circle?" he said. Just then the magic helmet floated down from above and he then remembered something very important. He had two wishes to make, and only one had been granted. He closed his teary eyes and wished for a world with circles.
When he opened his eyes to a circle yellow sun he smiled a happy grin and then ran home. His mum and dad were back to normal and the tyres on his mum's car were back to normal too.
For just saying sorry out of his heart Richy changed the world and himself. This is a story telling young boys and girls to watch themselves and never misbehave or you might have to deal with a world without circles or even worse.
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A World Without Circles
by Dan Olarte
age 11, grade 5, George Martin School, Mrs. Kellogg's class,
Seekonk, Massachusetts, U.S.
If we lived in a world without circles many, many things wouldn't work or would have to be changed.
If circles did not exist it would be hard for people to read and write. It would be hard for teachers to teach kids about anything because it would be hard to read, write, and to do math. The letter o would not exist so how could you write good or monkey or people? The number 0 would not exist either so you couldn't write 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, and so on. It would also be very hard for tellers who work at the bank because they work with so many numbers and 0 wouldn't exist.
Most machines we use every day wouldn't work at all if there were no circles. Many machines have gears inside them that turn to do their job. So without circles many machines wouldn't work. Many people rely on machines. How would you tell time or drive to work? Even the simplest machines need gears to work and if there were no circles there would be no gears.
A lot of food is shaped in circles, but people could shape them differently. But things like meatballs and cookies would be hard to shape in a square. A lot of fruits and vegetables are shaped in spheres and a sphere is a 3D circle so many fruits and vegetables would be shaped weird. I don't think that a fruit from a tree could grow into a triangle or a square naturally. So a lot of food would be kind of shaped weirdly.
One of the most famous inventions in the history of man wouldn't exist, the wheel. Cars, skateboards, bikes, and many other ways of transportation wouldn't work. A car with square wheels wouldn't go very fast, but cars wouldn't even start because like I said before a car would need gears to work and gears are circles. Airplanes and space shuttles wouldn't be able to land safely because they wouldn't have landing wheels. So many ways of transportation and joy riding wouldn't exist.
Other things would be shaped differently like the moon and glasses. Drinking glasses would change. It would be hard for a triangle cup to stand and hard to drink from a square. Sports balls would also change. Could you imagine playing basketball with a square ball? Clothes would look different too because there would have to be square buttons and polk-a-dot shirts wouldn't exist.
Without circles history would be changed. Millions of things wouldn't work and would be changed. There are probably many circle shaped things I don't even know about that would have to change. Therefore, I think the world needs circles. Speaking of the world, the world would have to be a triangle or a square and you really could fall off. The Americas might not have been found if the world was square because Christopher Columbus would have fallen off and died. So the world really needs circles.
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A World Without Circles
by Holly Shillan
age 8, grade 2, George Martin School, Mrs. Kellogg's class,
Seekonk, Massachusetts, U.S.
This morning I woke up to a trianglular sun. I thought that was strange. So I got up and got dressed. After that I made my bed. When I put my stuffed animals on my bed I noticed that my teddy bear's eyes were square. I was very curious. I ran downstairs to eat breakfast.
When I got downstairs, I looked at my dad and saw that his glasses were square. I said to my dad, "Dad, your glasses are square."
He just said, "Oh, Holly, stop fooling around and get ready for school."
"But, Dad, if you don't believe me, look in the mirror."
My dad looked into the mirror and ran over to my mom and said, "Honey, why are my glasses square?"
"I don't know." Mom opened up the curtain on the kitchen window. When she looked up she saw the trianglular sun. "Oh, my," she said. "The sun is a triangle."
My dad looked and giggled. Then he said, "Oh, my. It's like a world without circles."
"Hmmm," I said. When I sat down to eat my parents didn't say anything. It was then I noticed that my Cheerios were square. I didn't bother to tell my parents. They thought this was just some big joke. But I didn't think it was a joke. I thought it was serious. So I just ate my Cheerios. I ran upstairs and got my jacket and backpack and ran out the door.
I walked to the bus stop and told my friends Bridget and Timothy all about what had been going on. Then when we were on the bus I told them about what my dad said about today being like a world without circles. They thought it was serious, too.
When we got to school the globe in the classroom was an oval and the clock was a hexagon. Then I noticed that since today was the 30th, the 0 on the 30 was a triangle. I didn't bother to tell my teacher. She probably would think it was a big joke, too. So through the whole day I just did my work.
When the bell rang to go home, I ran to the bus. Then I noticed that the wheels on he bus were also the shape of a hexagon. When Timothy, Bridget, and I got on the bus I said, "I can't believe that I didn't notice that the wheels were hexagon before."
Timothy said, "It doesn't matter when you noticed it as long as you notice it. Just wait until tomorrow."
Then it was my stop. I said good-bye and ran home. When I got home I did my homework and ate dinner. Then I went to bed. When I woke up everything that was a circle was a circle again. It was like magic, I said.
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A World Without Circles!
by Kathrine G.
age 10, grade 5, 13th and Union School, Mrs. Soltysik's class,
Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S.
It was another boring afternoon at my house (like always). I was sitting at the dining room table doing the same old math homework. My class had to work on a three-page math assignment including figuring out different radii, diameters, and circumferences of all types of circles. But when I really actually looked at my homework, my mind went wild! How was I going to figure this all out?!?!
I should haave also been ashamed of myself. I wasn't really listening at all to Mrs. Soltysik, my fifth grade teacher, during math class. I couldn't even ask my parents for help because they always think I'm a straight A student. I JUST WISH THE WORLD DIDN'T HAVE ANY CIRCLES AT ALL!!! Maybe I was being a little sarcastic, but I really wished the world didn't have circles.
Then I thought I would make a HUGE list of all the things that would be great in a world without circles.
I wouldn't get this math homework, for instance, but I would probably have to work on another math assignment that would be even HARDER!!! There also wouldn't be any wheels and the world wouldn't have any transportation at all! (maybe a little if someone came up with it) People would have to walk to every single place they would want to go! Most countries would have to decrease in size just so people could get around easier and if they didn't, my family would have to walk all the way to California for vacation! I alkso would never get to see the world.
The alphabet would be smaller because most letters have a circle in them. People would probably have to make a whole new alphabet just because the world didn't have any circles. Numbers would also only start from one and end at nine because before one is zero and zero is mostly like a circle. After nine comes ten and ten has a zero in it. After nine, no one would know where to count! People would have to make whole new numbers, which would take such a long time, I couldn't even imagine when they would finish!
There are billions, trillions, maybe even more things that have at least one circle in them! If there weren't any circles, most of those things wouldn't be here now! For instance, foods the world has known would be really different and I couldn't stand having my pepperoni triangular! Parts that we have on our bodies would look really strange and I definintely do not want rectangular shaped eyes! If our luck doesn't change, our earth might even become SQUARE!
I stopped and thought for a moment. It's pretty hard to imagine our world without circles. Mostly everything would be different. So I would just stick to the really hard math homework and listen to Mrs. Soltysik for once. After a little thinking, I really think circles are one of the best shapes in the world! But now I have to figure out the area and perimeter of these squares and rectangles. This is so hard!!!!
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