The Adventures of Sally and Evan: a Pop-Up Book by Ashley

The Adventures of Sally and Evan: a Pop-Up Book by Ashley - March 2018 Scholarship Essay

A second grader has more hope in them than most of the people I know. By the time they will have reached second grade, they will know their numbers and their ABC's because they're a big kid now and they know that stuff. They don't know that the world can be messy and cruel. They love recess and art class and playing with their best friends. School is just something that happens in the middle of all that.

You can't lecture to a second grader. By the time you will have reached the one minute mark, they will be in another world. That's why you have to do it in story version. My preferred version is a pop-up book because no one can hate a pop-up book.

It will follow a girl named Sally as she grows up. She has a big brother named Evan. Her brother is a big kid. He has to wake up really early to go to school. He loves to play soccer and he plays the tuba in the band! Sally doesn't get to spend much time with him anymore because he has so much homework to do. It makes Sally sad because she can't play with him. He is about to go to college and that means that he won't be around anymore. That makes Sally even sadder. But sometimes when she does get to talk to him, he tells her all of these wonderful stories. He tells her about what the world is made of. He says it's made of "atoms", and she doesn't understand but it makes him very happy. He tells her that he is going to study atoms in college to change the world. Sally will miss him, but she knows that learning makes him happy, so when she grows old, she'll get to learn just like him.

By then, these kids will be so interested that they will have absorbed the meaning that learning will make them happy. If that doesn't work, kids also like to hear that learning more will make them more money, so that's a good backup plan. Pop-up books and cash, what could go wrong?