名稱：tent trouble times two
內容簡介：
Dear Arizona,
　 I’m bad at making things. The beaded jewelry I created fell apart, the dollhouse I built collapsed, and the model car I made doesn’t go. Nothing ever comes out looking right. What am I doing wrong?
　 —T. Wrecks-a-Lot

Dear Wrecks,
　 I was kind of like you. I loved making stuff, but my end results were not what you’d call picture-perfect. I used to get frustrated about this until I figured out what I was doing wrong. The light bulb finally came on for me during a camping trip.

My whole family, my best friend Ollie, and Ollie’s very cool grandmother all decided to go camping together. I’d been to camp before, but I’d never actually been camping (you know, with tents and stuff ), so I was pretty excited. We drove to this beautiful place called Redwood National Park.

Tex and Indi, my younger brother and sister, had the job of unpacking boxes while my parents set up our tent. Ollie and I had the job of setting up the tent for Ollie and his grandmother.

It turned out that Tex and Indi had the way-easier job.

“Setting up the tent is one of the most important parts of camping,” Ollie’s grandmother said. “You two are old enough to read the directions and put it together, right?”

“No problem, Abuela,” said Ollie. (Abuela means Grandma in Spanish, and Ollie and I both call her that.)

“Absolutely!” I agreed.

“Good,” she said. “While you do that, I’m going to gather some firewood so that we can cook our dinner tonight.”

And off she went.

Ollie and I dumped everything out of the tent bag.

“Wow, there sure are a lot of parts to this tent!” said Ollie.

“You can say that again!” I said.

“Wow, there sure are a lot of parts to this tent!” Ollie repeated.

“Very funny,” I said, frowning at the heap of tent stuff.

Ollie laughed. “Oh, come on. Where’s your sense of humor?”

“I think I lost it in this gigantic pile of tent pieces,” I answered. “How in the world are we ever going to fit all these parts together?”

Ollie picked up two short poles and held them up to his face.

“Cool tusks! I’m a walrus. No wait—,” he said, holding one of the poles up to his forehead. “I’m a unicorn!”

“I hate to disappoint you,” I told Ollie. “But I really don’t think that there are any walruses or unicorns in Redwood National Park. Now, let’s figure this out.”

I grabbed two bars, fitted them together, then slid them through some loops in the tent fabric. “Hmmm,” I said. “I must be a natural at putting tents together! That was kind of easy.”

“Exactly!” said Ollie.

“How hard can it be?” Well, we definitely found out the answer to that question.

The more we fitted the poles and other tent pieces together, the crazier our contraption looked.

By the time we finished (about five million hours later), it was tough to say which looked worse— the tent, or Ollie and me!

“Hello, campers,” sang Ollie’s grandmother as she walked toward us with an armload of wood. When she saw our creation, she nearly dropped the wood. “My goodness! What an interesting tent you’ve made.”

Ollie groaned. “I think we need a new tent, Abuela,” he said. “You know, the modern kind that just snaps together and goes right up!”

“Nonsense,” she said. “This old tent still has plenty of good years in it. It’s easy to put up if you just follow the directions.”

As soon as Abuela said the word directions, Ollie and I gave each other a guilty look. We hadn’t even opened them!

Abuela chuckled. She found the directions, which were hiding beneath some tent pieces that we hadn’t used, and handed them to us. “Here you go. There’s still plenty of time. Good luck.”

Whistling, she carried the firewood over to the cooking area.

It took Ollie and me about half an hour to take our creation apart, and about ten minutes to put the tent together the right way—following the directions!

So, dear Wrecks, that was the day I learned the trick to building things so that they won’t fall apart.

If you’re like me, you probably get excited and like to dive right in when making a project. But trust me, you’ll be much happier in the end if you take the time to follow the directions, step by step.

And with crafty projects like jewelry, dollhouses, and model cars, you can always add your own creative touches later on!

Ciao for now,

Arizona