
by Sally Phillips
Californians don’t need to be told that it can get hot in California. Really hot. The highest temperature ever recorded here was 134 degrees. Although it might not always reach these extreme temperatures, but when it’s hot and dry, it’s even more important to make sure you are looking after your body and giving it what it needs to keep cool.

by Sharon Tucker
For me, like most of us, it began in 2003 with publication of The Davinci Code. Brown had previously published books in the genre, but he was not well-known and then came the media frenzy prior to DVC’s debut. Readers were titillated with the novel’s focus on religious and artistic controversies. We were also promised a breakneck dash through exciting cities in Europe just ahead of the police–and even a sinister albino hit man. Add a clear, uncluttered prose style and Bingo!

by Ron Van Sweringen
Manny D’Angelo, dropped the air mattress on the roof. A pillow followed on top of the mattress. “Hot as heck,” he groaned, his fifteen year-old body reflected in the moonlight, naked except for his jeans. He looked over the edge of the roof, five stories down to Demato Street, in the center of Little Italy. People were resting on their front stoops and he could hear faint radio music wafting on the hot sultry air. “One hundred and one,” he recalled the weather man saying that day, “and more expected tomorrow.”

by Valley Teens
These poems were written by local teens who won our November poetry contest. There is quite a variety and this time we even have a winner from Parlier! The contest is open to anyone age 14-19 in the Kings River area.