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Monster Lab: A Creative Writing Workshop for New Orleans Youths with Big Class by: Brenda McNary, volunteer

Monday, November 25, 2013

Monster Lab: The Team

• Big Class’s mission is to cultivate and support the voices of New Orleans’ young writers

• Brenda McNary is a young professional in New Orleans who volunteered as project leader

• Additional volunteers included: Alex Jennings, Logan Napoli, Barbara Crumm, and Charlotte Houser

• 9 New Orleans kids between the ages of 8-14 participated


Monster Lab: The ProjectTo inspire students to write creative stories around

Halloween time, Monster Lab was a three-day workshop where students explored the theme of monsters through

writing projects, craft projects, and art.

Student projects were included in the official Journal of the International Society of Monster Experts.

(a fictional group we created for the workshop)


What We Accomplished!

Unique monster characters, and fun masks!



Project-based creative writing activities that engaged and inspired kids and volunteers

“I loved hearing the endless flow of creativity that streamed from the kids when creating their own monsters’ stories. It really told a story as well of the kids inner desire or maybe fears and whimsical daydreaming.” Volunteer Logan Napoli



THE JOURNAL OF THE

VOLUME 38

ISSUE 1

NEW ORLEANS

EDITION

A special issue of the Journal of the International Society of

Monster Expertsfeaturing stories and artwork by

Monster Lab writers!

Students took home copies of the journal to show off their published

work to parents and friends.


Ongoing Work With Big Class

• Brenda McNary and other team members plan to continue volunteering at Big Class workshops and after school Open Studio


Why Monster Lab Should Win The Challenge!

• Big Class is currently seeking funding to improve its studio space, purchase necessary supplies, and fund future programming

• Big Class is the only organization offering project-based creative writing programming and workshops to New Orleans schools and students free of charge

• More information about Big Class, workshops and publications can be found at www.bigclass.org


http://www.bigclass.org

http://www.bigclass.org

The Journal of The

Volume 38

Issue 1

New OrleaNs

editiON

This book belongs to:

__________________________________________________

(clearly print your name and favorite monster here)

The Journal of The

Volume 38

Issue 1

neW orleans eDITIon

monster Documentation by

otto Benischek

shraivell Brown

hector Campbell

Jamal Cook

marina Davis

D’andre Johnson

Corey marshall

Jaheim marshall

alaila Young

eDITorBrenda mcnary

DesIGner Doug Keller

PhoToGraPhYlogan napoli

monsTer laB assITanTs B.a. Crumm, Charlotte hauser, alex Jennings, logan napoli

The Journal of The inTernaTional

SocieTy of MonSTer experTS

Volume 38Issue 1

neW orleans eDITIon

a Big Class publication all rights reserved 2013

Printed at The Big Class studio in Press street headquarters

october 31, 2013new orleans, la

special thanks to sasha marshall and laura stein

T a B l eof

C o n T e n T s

GreennoDaYa...................................6

TeeTheler...........................................8

hoT heaD...........................................10

ZZZZaZZZZ!........................................12

DJ mCfurrY........................................14

The unKnoWn CreaTure..........16

hulKfranK.......................................18

JaK. e. fooKomer...........................20

ePonIne..............................................22

monsTer ParTY...............................25

THE JOURNAL OF THEINTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF MONSTER EXPERTS

6

GreennoDaYa

height: Variable (she can turn very big,

and then turn very small)

Weight: 3 pounds, maybe

physical Description: Green hair, white

shirt with blood on it, and she’s green

habitat: haunted house in a lost city

Geographic range: Worldwide

Diet: Blood and veins from a person

activities: scares people and when people stand

up she says “boo” and they fall back

Does not like: she don’t like when they discover

the lost city and when they throw foam at her.

additional information: someone threw paint

on her and she turned into fragile pieces.

7

VOLUME 38 ISSUE 1NEW ORLEANS EDITION

GreennoDaYa anD GIrl I’m laDY franKensTeIn

By alaila Young

one day I saw two monsters. one of the monster’s names was Greenno-

daya and the other’s name was Girl I’m lady frankenstein. Both of them

was hunting people who sleep with their eyes open. They liked to eat veins

and blood from humans. They also like to scare people. They will pop you

if you’re not scared!

When it’s morning time they go back to the lost city and cook

veins and blood. They had bats around their house and they’re so mean

they don’t want anyone to discover the lost city because they’re worried

someone would figure out their weakness.

one day a scientist found their weakness. It was pizza. he

brought pizza with him and gave it to the girls and they said “let’s give it a

try.” Then they died and never returned again.


8

TeeTheler

height: 4100 feet

Weight: huge

physical Description: made of brick to

keep the fire in

habitat: Woods and underground

Geographic range: asia

Diet: ribs. he grills them on his body with his

fire.

activities: swimming in volcanoes.

Does not like: liquid

additional information: friends with hot

head.

9


sWImmInG WITh monsTers

By Corey marshall

I was hiking and saw hot head and Teetheler. They were jumping in a

volcano. Teetheler dove first. Teetheler kicked hot head. he flew out of

the volcano and he saw a monster named scull screamer who takes souls

from people. Teetheler was surprised. scull screamer screamed and saw

Teetheler, and then they all went swimming.


10

hoT heaD

height: 200 feet tall

Weight: 3 tons

physical Description: Giant skull on fire,

suit made of metal because his body is on

fire, that’s why it’s made out of metal

habitat: The woods

Geographic range: asia

Diet: Tropical fruits with grilled fish

activities: Because he is on fire he likes to swim

in a volcano

Does not like: Water or anything that is liquid

additional information: he was friends with

Teetheler until Teetheler pushed him into a

volcano full of acid

11


The TIme When I saW four monsTers

By hector Campbell

When I was in the woods of asia I had a glance in my eye. It was two

monsters. I named them hot head and skull screamer. It was 1999. It was

night time. I was eight and I had a couple sodas.

anyway, hot head was 200 feet tall and he had a metal suit. scull scream-

er had really really sharp teeth and green scales. hot head had sixteen

flames in his head and he had coal in his core.

Then I jumped on top of a canyon and I saw them really really

close up. It was the super Bowl with the eagles versus the ravens. so I

made the best ravens and eagles jersey that I could make.

Then I saw another two monsters. Their names were eye Brawl

and Tree rex. Tree rex had wooden horns on top of his head. eye Brawl

had an eye stuck to his head and he can attach and re-attach his eyeball on

top of his head and it can shoot lazer beams. so skull screamer, hot head,

eye Brawl, and Tree rex could transform into vehicles like trucks and cars.

They all protected me from bullies and I became a superstar.


12

ZZZZaZZZZ!

height: 2,000 feet

Weight: 1,000,000 pounds

physical Description: Black, no feet, his

nose is 1,000,000,000 feet long! his teeth go

down to the earth.

habitat: he’s an alien in space.

Geographic range: In space

Diet: he eats poo and drinks toilet water.

activities: he takes a bath with toilet water.

Does not like: When people say hello he cries.

additional information: he eats his boogers.

13


D’anDre anD ZZZZaZZZZ!By D’andre Johnson

one day I was in the dark in the streets. I saw a big creature. “he is big-

ger than the clouds!” I said. his nose was 1,000000000 feet long. “I’m out

of here,” I said. so I tried to pass him. he checked me.

I was in so much pain, I said “oww!” so he said “do you want

to be my friend?” I said, “I have no monster friends but I will be your

friend. I will be the only one who has a monster friend!” so him and I said

“yaaaaaaaaaaaaa….”


14

DJ mCfurrY

height: 5’11

Weight: 185 pounds

physical Description: It is covered in fur.

It has a long tail and sharp teeth.

habitat: Bushes in the woods.

Geographic range: Temperate zone.

Diet: People soup. fried people. People with

cheese.

activities: loves to howl. likes to DJ.

Does not like: People kicking his bush during

sleep time.

additional information: he can’t say allitera-

tion. he works at Burger King. he scratches

scary music.

15


You WonDer WhaT You maY see In The WooDs

By Jamal Cook

I was just walking in the woods (which seems weird for an eleven-year-

old to do) when I saw a weird thing in the shadows of the trees. “man I

should go back to the camp site,” I said. I heard a howl. I was so scared

I almost peed on myself. I started to walk backward until I crashed into

something. I almost screamed. I turned from my back (I really wish I

hadn’t). he was short and muscular.

“What up yo. I’m DJ mcfurry in the house,” he said. I looked at

him stupid. “Dude, aren’t you supposed to be terrorizing me or some-

thing,” I asked. *GasP* “That is a vicious stereotype,” he said. I seriously

felt stupid for being scared of him. I walked to the camp site and went

back to sleep.


16

The unKnoWn CreaTure

height: 30 feet

Weight: 1000 pounds

physical Description: he’s half dragon and

half horse. he has one horn that’s gold and

one horn that is silver.

habitat: Woods

Geographic range: new Jersey, england, and

Italy.

Diet: sheep.

activities: Destroy villages.

Does not like: Poo

17


The unKnoWn CreaTure anD oTTo

By otto Benischek

I went to england but I encountered a terrible horror in a naval shipyard.

It lurks like a shadow. The unknown Creature was standing there waiting

for me. he chased me into the woods. he flew behind me. It was night-

time. You can always see his sword gleaming through. he has a gold horn

in his head. he has two horns- one’s silver and one’s gold.

I time traveled to 1941 in england on a navy shipyard. my job

was to untie ropes for the boats. I was in my 20s. It was a cold and snowy

winter. The unknown Creature was still around.

one day I was untying ropes when The unknown Creature

popped out! I grabbed my camera and took a picture while I could. It

died after I took a picture of it. It doesn’t like flash cameras. I think it was

blinded by the light and when it fell, it got stabbed by its sword. I went

back to the time machine and I went back to today.


18

hulKfranK

height: 10 feet

Weight: 990 pounds

physical Description: his face is weird,

big eyes, small sharp teeth, pointy nose.

Black chest, very shiny. stomach is hairy

and bloated. Back is hairy, spine sticks

out. Bloody and goopy. legs are very long,

hairy, and watery. feet are really skinny

and stinky and his toes have long nails. he

has green curly hair.

habitat: People’s basements

Geographic range: China

Diet: Goats, birds, worms, roaches, chickens,

and spinach

activities: Comes out at night and scares people

out of their beds.

Does not like: ham, snow, sunlight, cars and

streets, people vomit.the lost city and when they

throw foam at him. he also doesn’t like shadow

puppets. They scare him.

19


When JaheIm meT hulKfranKBy Jaheim marshall

W hen I first met hulkfrank I said “are you my monster?” and he said

“yes.” he said “I don’t know anyone else. Can you help me?” I said “do

you wanna go check out my monster van?” he said “yes!” so we got to

the monster van and then ate monster ice cream and monster candy. so

then he got out of the van and said “I’m sleepy but I don’t have anywhere

to stay.” so I asked him did he wanna stay with me. he said yes! so on

the way to my house my neighbor made him mad so he shot fire at him.

he set his house on fire. When I came out to see what happened I was

shocked, and passed out! Then I woke up and he was gone. never to be

seen again!


20

JaK. e. fooKomer

height: 6’9

Weight: 156 pounds

physical Description: half human, slob,

brown face, slimey, razor sharp teeth, green

skin, small feet, wears a suit

habitat: old house. It is abandoned and

filled with dead cats.

Geographic range: 1736 George street in new

orleans

Diet: Worms and snails

activities: likes to cook the worms crispy. eats

the snails raw

Does not like: Does not like the sun because it

hurts his eyes.

21


Worms! Worms! Worms!By shraivell Brown

It was a long way from home. I kept hearing something by my side.

Then when I turned he was there. I was very shocked. he kept scream-

ing “Worms! Worms! Worms!” his back was green slime and brown hair,

and he wore a suit. he was 6’9 and 156 pounds. When I ran from him I

went in the old house, which was abandoned. There were a lot of dead cats

everywhere. I realized that the address was 1736 George street. all I saw

were crispy worms and raw snails.


22

ePonIne

height: 5 feet 5 inches

Weight: 126 pounds

physical Description: she wears a mardi

Gras mask that has bullet holes in it that

never stop bleeding. she has green eyes

and black hair.

habitat: In my backyard

Geographic range: new orleans

Diet: Drinks lemonade

activities: likes to read. Prunes the lemon tree

in the backyard.

Does not like: any other juices (besides

lemonade)

additional information: she’s only funny to

children and nice ladies. she does not like guys.

she will trip or slap them.

23


mY fIrsT enCounTer WITh ePonIne

By marina Davis

I had just woken up from a noise that sounded like sobbing. I walked

downstairs afraid of what I might see. once I reached the bottom I saw a

transparent figure staring not at me but possibly through me. I was para-

lyzed with fear as she reached out her hand towards my face and whispered

an odd name that sounded french. Then she suddenly drew her hand

back. I just stared, jaw on the floor, until I snapped back into reality. as I

stared in her direction I could see bullet holes in her pale face and on her

dress. These holes seemed to ooze blood continuously. I was disgusted but

curious, as much as I was scared. she started crying dark wet sticky tears

of blood. Then she had started to become more solid and I felt ashamed, as

though I was a murderer, though I didn’t know exactly why.

she stumbled back one step and turned to go. I reached out to

stop her but then drew back my hand just as she had. not knowing why, I

felt like I had to watch her. she pointed towards outside and went through

(continued on next page)


24

the door. I followed her. I had hesitated to follow her, but something con-

vinced me to continue out to open the door. When I had gone outside and

I caught up with her, she was standing over the lemon tree and was pointing

down at the roots. as quickly as she had appeared, she was gone. I stood in

place shocked and unsure that I was not crazy.

as I returned to sleep in my room I still didn’t know if I believed I had seen a

ghost. Before I went to bed, I wrote in my journal “dig up lemon tree soon.”

I then went to bed to burrow under the covers to think, or not to think, more

like it.

The next day, my uncle visited for breakfast and told us of a young

girl who was killed during a storm, while hiding beneath a citrus tree for

shelter. she had been found there by thieves who had just killed her entire

family while she watched. I thought clearly that she was still under the lemon

tree. my mom served lemonade.

(continued from previous page)

monsTer ParTY!By The monster lab researchers

It was an all out monster party. DJ mcfurry was scratching records. also skull screamer, Tree

rex, hot head and eyebrawl were there. The unknown creature was there and his shiny horns were

the disco ball. Greenadaya was there running people over with her car. eponine the monster was

also at the party but she was in the bathroom the whole time. Jak e. fookomer and hulk frank

were sitting at the VIP table and eating people, worms, roaches, spinach. They didn’t want anybody

else to sit with them. Teetheler and hot head weren’t talking to each other. Girl I’m lady franken-

stein arrived at the party and she and Greenadaya were talking to each other and smashing people.

There were a lot of great snacks at the monster party. There was eyeball soup, there were

fried people, there was blood punch. There were also cracker eyeball soups.

The unknown Creature’s cousin the new Jersey devil was invited to the party. When he

got there, he didn’t want to stay, but the other monsters told him he had to stay for at least 2 hours

because it is a monster party. If you are a monster, you have to stay. If you are a human, you better

watch out.

DJ mcfurry announced it was time to play the monster freeze Tag game. There were

two teams of five monsters each. The zombies couldn’t walk because their legs would fall off. The

unknown creature started to play but then decided to fly! he got in a dogfight with the new Jersey

devil. The other monsters started dancing. skull screamer, Tree rex, hot head and eyebrawl were

strutting around showing everybody their muscles!

Then the monsters decided to have a dance contest. a dance crew of four monsters

decided to do the harlem shake, it was skull screamer, Tree rex, hot head and eyebrawl. The

Death Crew dance crew ruled the dance party. There was a prize of $1,000 to the monsters who are

the best dancers. The judges were Drew Brees, Jay Z (with a swollen lip because he was rapping too

much), and the miami heat players. each dance crew has its own unique dance moves. The dance

moves were back flips, stomping, hand stands. Greenadaya danced to Beyonce and michael Jack-

son, she did back flips, and splits, and she knows all of the dance moves to the songs. The unknown

(continued on next page)

creature doesn’t like dancing, so he continued to fly with his friend. The Death Crew dance crew

won the dance contest.

The monsters ate all of the food at the monster party. It was getting late and they ran out

of food. DJ mcfurry asked the monsters to save him some food, but they didn’t. Then DJ mcfurry

got mad. he stormed out, turned off the music, and said: “I’m not DJing your party anymore. That’s

what you get. I’ve been DJing this party for 14 hours and now I’m leaving.” he asked frankenstein

to DJ but something went horribly wrong. frankenstein put on the headphones and he heard the

two different songs in the headphones and he was upset and threw the DJ set on the ground. The

other monsters saw what happened and they all said, “We miss DJ mcfurry.”

DJ mcfurry decided he didn’t have anything better to do, so he came back to the party.

all of the monsters said “Yay!” DJ mcfurry saw that his DJ set was broken and confronted franken-

stein. frankenstein gave him 50 monster dollars to get a new monster DJ set. It took him four hours

to buy the DJ set and get it set up.

The other monsters were playing monster checkers while they waited. frankenstein was

a monster checker master because he was cheating.

once the DJ set was ready, DJ mcfurry got up and said “ohhh yeah y’all. It’s time for the

party!!!” at this point, the monsters had been at the party for 14 hours. This was the first monster

party they ever had.

Then the zombies arrived. They said, “we came here to dance!” When one of the zombies

tried to do a michael Jackson dance, his arm fell off. he said, “I meant to do that.” The dance judges

decided the Death Crew were still the best dancers. Then the zombies tried to sing, but their lips

fell off. Greenadaya and I’m lady frankenstein were singing a Beyonce song, and then they started

to rip the zombies – “You tried to dance but your arms fell off!” The zombies said, “This is totally

embarrassing, we need to get out of here.”

at the end of the monster party, the monsters decided to go home. The monsters got

monster cake – it had eyeball icing and fur. They also had butter-blood ice cream and tongue

daiquiris. I’m lady frankenstein decided to sing and she sounded like an alien. The monsters all

went back to the underworld to have an 18 hour after party, except for the unknown Creature, he

went back to england. Then they all did the harlem shake.

(continued from previous page)

The enD(or is it)

To learn more about Big Class, our publications, and how to get involved, visit

www.bigclass.org.

The Journal of The International Society of Monster Experts Volume 38, Issue 1, New

Orleans Edition was researched, written, and illustrated

by new orleans writers ages 7-11 in the Big Class studio at 3718 st. Claude

avenue during Monster Lab, a Big Class workshop, october 28-30, 2013.

Big Class’s mission is to cultivate and support the voices of new orleans’

young writers through creative collaborations with

schools and communities.

Education

N:a big class-1916