The STEM Detectives

By Lena Bowman, Terrell Miller and Kenneth Owens

Some schools boast of famous athletes who once attended. Others boast of movie stars or politicians who once walked the halls. It is even said that some schools have ghosts. For The STEM Institute of Queens, the claim to fame is an infamous bank robber, who is rumored to have buried money somewhere on the school grounds.

Elijah, Emory, Noe

• Language: English
• Publisher: Purposely Created Publishing Group
• Release date: Aug 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781947054714

Book preview

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Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1

Meet the STEM Detectives

CHAPTER 2

The First Day of School

CHAPTER 3

The Mysterious Case of the Missing Money

CHAPTER 4

Digging Deep

CHAPTER 5

The STEM Underground Explorer

CHAPTER 6

From the Lunchroom to City Hall

CHAPTER 7

Honor Comes to Those Who Wait

CHAPTER 8

The Outcome - A Date with City Hall

About the Authors

Written by

Lena Bowman, Terrell Miller,

and Kenneth Owens

THE STEM DETECTIVES

Copyright © 2017 Youth Writers Challenge

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form by any means, graphics, electronics, or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews, quotes, or references.

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 978-1-947054-41-7

For more information on the

Youth Writers Challenge, please visit our website at

youthwriterschallenge.org

Thank you to the instructors

who helped guide this project, Shelley Buynum-Blow,

Joy Turner, Patricia Harris,

Robyn F. Evans, and Nanette Buchanan

Chapter 1

Meet the STEM Detectives

 Noel Winfrey 

I’m Noel Winfrey. I’m thirteen years old, and I live with my mother, father, two sisters, and dog. My mom always calls me chocolate drop because I am a tall, dark-skinned, curly haired, brown-and-bright-eyed girl. I’m an eighth grader. We recently moved here from Miami, Florida, and boy—it’s been hard. I’ve lived in Florida my entire life. Until now, that is. The worst thing about moving was leaving my best friend, Maria. Maria and I did everything together. Whether baking, singing, or shopping at the mall, we were two peas in a pod. Now, the only way we can talk is by phone. This has been hard on me.

Making the move to New York was rough. It seemed like it took forever. I had to sit in a car with four people and a stinky dog for twenty hours. I mean, the whole car smelled like straight corn chips. Can you imagine? On top of that, my mom wanted me to be positive. I really didn’t know how to be positive in the midst of it all. The only thing that kept me from screaming was thinking about how much baking and cooking I could do once we got to the new house. That’s one thing I could always look forward to—spending time in the kitchen. Whether I’m sad, angry, annoyed, or happy, I love to be in the kitchen. But days like these are when I like to be in the kitchen the most. It helps me forget about all the things I go through, especially moving.

From the bougie town of Miami to the big city of New York, here I am. It just didn’t seem to fit or make sense to me. I understood that my dad’s job needed him at another location, but I still didn’t like it. My father works for the government as a federal policeman. He calls me his little scientist because I am always in the kitchen experimenting with new things. Baking is a science. If you don’t add baking powder to your cake, it won’t rise. If you don’t sift your flour, your cake will be lumpy. When we were traveling to New York, I thought about these kinds of things a lot. I didn’t have much to do in the car, so between thinking of recipes and gasping for air (that dog was funky), I scrolled through Instagram. I saw all of my old friends hanging out at the beach. I wanted to cry. After all, there are no beaches in Queens, New York.

As I rode in the car, I felt like my life was crumbling piece by piece. Nothing seemed to help, so I took a nap. I dreamed that we were moving back to Miami, but by the time I woke up, we were just entering Queens. I sighed