Checkers is a
Feline cat.
He’s black and white,
And that is that.
His coat has squares
Of different shades.
He likes to play
Games like charades,
But he’s really best
At games on a board.
He’s cuter than cute
And so adored.
He’ll win your pieces
From the game,
And to be sure
Chess is not the same.
He’ll jump over you,
Or he’ll go askew.
Then he will have won
Out of the blue.
Don’t be fooled!
He’s not just a cat,
But a master mind
That wears a checkered hat!
Copyright 2021 Jennifer Waters
LOGLINE
An adorable freckled-faced girl becomes an actress when she wins a photo contest and her picture appears on a cereal box, giving her more nickels than ever in her bank account!
PITCH
Pumpernickel has more freckles than a Dalmatian, and they are about to make her some nickels in her bank account. Thinking that she is cuter than Thomas Jefferson, she imagines her face on a nickel. With a similar notion, she dreams of being on the Puffs Cereal Box and enters their contest for her face to be featured on the product for an entire month. After thinking she lost the contest, she finds her face on the grocery store shelf and decides her career as an actress has just begun.
SYNOPSIS
Pumpernickel doesn’t have a dime to her name, at least according to her father. What if she had a nickel for every freckle on her face? Eight-year-old Pumpernickel has more freckles than spots on a Dalmatian. Her nose and cheeks are full of tiny curious dots the color of sweet rye bread. Pumpernickel wonders: If she gets more freckles, does it mean she will get more nickels? Pumpernickel’s mom warns her that it doesn’t necessarily work that way. Freckles and money are not related.
Despite her mother’s advice, Pumpernickel dreams of being on a cereal box, where everyone can see her freckles. If a famous photographer saw how darn cute she is, then the whole world just might want to give her nickels for her freckles. She thinks she is cuter than President Thomas Jefferson on nickels, and her house is cozier than Monticello. Pumpernickel holds up the Puffs Cereal box to her mom, pointing out the adorable smiling girl with braids featured on it. Don’t look too closely, but there’s a contest on the cereal box to have a winning picture featured on it for a whole month, Pumpernickel’s father says, rolling his eyes and biting his lip. He’s sure that she probably never would want to enter the contest. Of course, Pumpernickel decides that she is not only going to enter the contest but is also going to win it. She runs to get the family camera. She promptly smiles as big as she can, and her dad snaps pictures of Pumpernickel one after the other.
Months later, when Pumpernickel has almost despaired at being featured on the Puffs Cereal box, she wanders through the grocery store with her mom. For weeks, she has been lamenting not hearing a word from the Puffs Cereal contest. Then, as she reaches for her favorite cereal, she notices a familiar face. It's her face! She made it to the big time. The nickels are going to start rolling in now. Pumpernickel’s mom stares in disbelief at the cereal box. Her mother says she’s going to tell her father to open a bank account just for Pumpernickel when she gets home. The money from the contest can pay for Pumpernickel’s college tuition. Her mother doesn’t want her daughter to waste any nickels. In the grocery store aisle, Pumpernickel proclaims that she’s going to be an actress. She runs through the store with the cereal box, showing everyone her picture. She hands out Puffs Cereal to the customers in the aisles and in the cash register lines. This is just the beginning of Pumpernickel’s freckles making the world smile!
Copyright 2022 Jennifer Waters
LOGLINE
When a little girl’s mother dies of cancer, a Christmas reindeer makes the world a brighter place.
PITCH
As a copywriter for Chicago’s Montgomery Ward, Robert May drafts an original Christmas story about a reindeer. In the wake of the Great Depression, he tries to write something hopeful with holiday cheer. Although his boss is wary of a story about a “shiny” red-nosed reindeer named Rudolph, Robert’s daughter, Barbara, is comforted through the tale when her mother dies of cancer. In time, the story becomes a best seller, and it’s even adapted into a very famous Christmas song and franchise.
SYNOPSIS
In 1939, when Robert May, a Montgomery Ward copywriter, decides to write a poem about a reindeer with a shiny nose, he hopes the world will become a brighter place. Many families could still feel the effects of the Great Depression. Instead of making the annual coloring book, Robert drafts an original Christmas story about an animal. After all, his daughter, Barbara, loves reindeer, especially with Santa Claus and his sleigh. Although Sewell Avery, CEO of Montgomery Ward, is doubtful that the poem about a reindeer is the best idea, he approves Robert to write the piece. With the original name Rudolph, Robert sets off on brainstorming for the story. Coming home from work that evening, Robert wishes for more for his family than the tiny, unkept two-bedroom Chicago apartment. He checks on his bedridden wife, who had been suffering from cancer for the past two years. He explains he’s been working on his poem about Rudolph the reindeer all day again. His wife hopes his writing is a big hit with the shoppers, and his daughter runs to him to hear the latest version of the story. Although his daughter Barbara is sad that her mother is sick, she finds joy in her father’s reindeer story.
As Robert reads to his daughter at bedtime about a reindeer named Rudolph with a very shiny nose, she falls asleep. Later in the week, Mr. Avery agrees to consider drawings of Rudolph from Denver Gillan from the company art department. Robert tells Mr. Avery that he’ll spend the whole weekend at the zoo with Denver, researching the attributes of deer to create Rudolph. When Saturday morning comes, Barbara goes with her father and the artist to the zoo to make drawings of deer. Unfortunately, Barbara’s mother is too sick to accompany them. The next week, Robert sits at his desk, scribbling on pads of paper and throwing them in the trash can. As he stares out the window, he cannot see through a thick fog from Lake Michigan. He realizes that Rudolph’s nose can shine like a spotlight through the fog on Christmas Eve, so Santa can make his deliveries. While at work, when the phone rings, and Robert hears his wife’s mother on the phone, he feels sick to his stomach. He sobs on the way to the hospital, trying to figure out how to tell his daughter that her mother has passed away. When he tells his daughter that her mother has died, she cries and cries and collapses in his arms, kicking and yelling.
After his wife’s funeral, Mr. Avery suggests that Robert doesn’t have to finish the Rudolph poem. Robert insists on finishing it. He wants to finish the story for Barbara. After a few more weeks of writing, Robert bursts through his apartment door one evening and announces he has finished the story about Rudolph. His daughter is so pleased and thinks her mother would enjoy the story. By Christmas, 2.4 million copies of the poem are distributed to Montgomery Ward shoppers to great success. Rudolph is almost as famous as Santa Claus, making the world a little brighter after all.
Copyright 2022 Jennifer Waters
LOGLINE
A high school choir dances the ballet at Christmas, and everyone sings hallelujah!
PITCH
The Hallelujah Chorus meets The Nutcracker at Head of the Class Middle School. When student Elvis Drummer joins the school chorus in hopes of starting a music career like Elvis Presley, the students plot against their teacher to save themselves from the public humiliation of dancing the ballet at the holiday concert.
SYNOPSIS
This year is about to be different at Head of the Class Middle School in Hoboken, New Jersey. Elvis Drummer, named after the king of rock’n’roll Elvis Presley, is joining the choir in hopes of starting a music career. Little does he know that choirmaster Forte Piper plans to combine singing with ballet in the annual Christmas concert: The Hallelujah Chorus meets The Nutcracker. Mr. Piper is famous for popping candy canes into the mouths of students if they are caught talking in the middle of choir practice. He keeps a handful of candy canes with him at all times, ready for anyone babbling. In case he needs to pull someone off stage, he uses a shepherd’s crook, which looks like a huge candy cane. During the first choir practice, Elvis is frightened at the thought of the entire school seeing him embarrass himself in a ballet-chorus routine. Elvis and his soloist friends, Griff Gig, Amanda Sonatina, and Vicki Viola, each got candy canes popped in their mouths for complaining to Mr. Piper about dancing the ballet. Despite their complaints, Mr. Piper says they are starting their first vocal-ballet practice the next day. He asks them to come prepared, wearing leotards and tutus.
In attempt to protect their reputations, Elvis and his three soloist friends pass the word to the rest of the chorus members to go along with Mr. Piper’s choir practice until the December 14, the night before the holiday performance. Then, they devise a plan to distract Mr. Piper by pretending that Griff goes missing. They want to lock him in the closet with Griff until the performance is finished. Almost every day until then, Mr. Piper charges the students to do pirouettes, and the students wish they had signed up for band or orchestra, where they could at least practice a musical talent. Finally, when performance night arrives, Mr. Piper is tricked into looking for Griff in the music closet, and Elvis happens to close the door behind him. Elvis explains to the crowd that Mr. Piper went missing, but the choir will sing on. He performs his own rendition of “Blue Christmas.”
After several holiday selections, Mr. Piper shuts off the electricity from the circuit breaker box inside the closet. The auditorium goes black, and Amanda rushes to let Mr. Piper and Griff out of the closet. Mr. Piper appears on stage in a tizzy in his leotard. The audience laughs as though it is a joke. And so it is, but it is also the best choral performance in the history of Head of the Class Middle School. Mr. Piper insists the students perform the finale as scheduled, singing The Hallelujah Chorus with The Nutcracker ballet moves. Elvis is mortified, but the crowd goes wild with cheers. All he wants to do is sing, sing, sing!
Copyright 2022 Jennifer Waters
LOGLINE
When a woodcutter’s daughter gives the Christ Child her bed on Christmas Eve, she will never forget him.
PITCH
A little child visits a woodcutter’s home in France on Christmas Eve. After being welcomed by the family to warm himself at their hearth, Marie, the woodcutter’s daughter, offers the child her bed for the night. After a restless night’s sleep, Marie and her brother Valentine find the little child—who reveals himself as the Christ Child—singing with angels. The child then plants a fir branch that bursts forth into the first Christmas tree, and he disappears. The woodcutter’s children promise to remember the visitation of the Christ Child, even if no one else ever believes them.
SYNOPSIS
A little child freezing in the cold on Christmas Eve knocks on the ice-and-snow-covered kitchen window of the home of a poor woodcutter in Fourcès, a small town in France. Marie, the woodcutter’s 10-year-old daughter thinks that the boy has lost his way. Valentine, 12, the woodcutter’s only son, invites the child to sit by the fire. The wife of the woodcutter warms the last of their vegetable supper stew for the boy. The boy thanks the family and nibbles on day-old bread from their table. The mother pours the child the last of their milk from the icebox.
Then, Marie insists that the little child sleep in her bed for Christmas Eve night. Instead, she will sleep on the kitchen bench made by her father. As the family settles into their beds, Marie has difficulty falling to sleep. She watches the snow out the window as a star shoots into the distant night sky. She finally drifts to sleep, only to be awakened by music. Marie asks if anyone hears the singing and the harps and wonders if she is having a dream. Valentine slips into the kitchen to peer through the window, and the children realize they have been visited by angels who are dressed in silver robes with golden harps and lutes. While the cherubim and seraphim sing, a group of child-like angels gather beside them also appearing in silver robes. Then, Marie and Valentine turn to see the little child standing next to them in a golden robe and crown. He opens the front door of the poor woodcutter’s home in the breaking dawn and dances and sings with the angels. Amidst the excitement, the woodcutter and his wife hurry to the front porch with his rifle.
After realizing they are in the presence of the Christ Child and angels, the woodcutter and his wife fall to their knees in reverence. The angels and the Christ Child continue to sing and dance on the early Christmas morning in the French countryside. Marie, Valentine, and their parents join in the celebration and make merry music. Then, the Christ Child breaks a main branch of a nearby fir tree from its trunk. He plants the bough of this fir tree deep into the ground and says it will be the first Christmas tree. The fir branch bursts forth into the sky and grows into a full fir tree, decorated with golden apples, silver nuts, and wooden toys. The Christ Child disappears into the early morning air. Marie and Valentine take the gifts from the tree and deliver them to the other homes in the town. They keep their favorite gifts for themselves. Marie tells her brother that they must never forget the Christ Child, even if no one believes them. Marie says that she knows that the Christ Child is real because she gave him her bed for the night, and the bench was very hard. To this day, children everywhere decorate Christmas trees in honor of the little child and remember the faithfulness of the woodcutter and his family.
Copyright 2022 Jennifer Waters
LOGLINE
A wedding cake baker puts magical romantic fortunes in Christmas crackers and finds lasting love for himself and everyone else.
PITCH
Tom Smith gets more than he bargained for when his own magical love fortunes enchant a longtime customer in his wedding cake shop into falling in love with him. After reading the fortune in her Christmas noisemaker, she wants to marry him and eat wedding cake for the rest of her life. His wedding cake shop becomes known as a place where romantic messages for his customers prove true. His Christmas crackers are a worldwide phenomenon!
SYNOPSIS
Tom Smith, a wedding cake baker from Clerkenwell, London, loves Christmas crackers. His wedding cakes sit delicately in his shop window on fine china, decorated with colorful icing. Waiting for his own true love, he just keeps baking wedding cakes. In the year 1847, he introduces his crackers, which crackle like logs put on a fire in a twist of paper. Then one day, an elegant customer walks in the shop and announces that she has found a wedding cake for when she gets married. Mr. Smith asks when the wedding date is, so that the cake is finished on time. She explains that she’s not engaged yet, but she will be very soon when she finds the right man.
Then, she inquires as to the noisemakers in his shop, and Mr. Smith explains that those are his Christmas crackers, where he put magical love fortunes that come true every time. Believing that she needs all the love messages that she can get, she grabs a handful. Mr. Smith says he’s considering putting sweets, jewelry, and small toys in some of them. He thinks that expanding the merchandise might increase business. She opens her first cracker with a pop. Reading the love note in her Christmas cracker, the brunette woman gasps and looks up at Mr. Smith. She whispers out loud: “You’ve just met your true love.” Mr. Smith stammers and scratches his head. Before Mr. Smith could say anything else, Charlotte Thompson, a woman he has known since childhood, throws her arms around him and kisses him. She asks him to marry her, and she says that she’ll take every wedding cake in his shop for the rest of her life. He thinks her behavior is outrageous, and it must be Christmas magic from the fortunes.
At first, Mr. Smith tries to fight back, but after a moment, he figures there is no use in fighting with a gorgeous woman who loves his sweets. Christmas crackers! Mr. Smith cheers and kisses her back. He asks her to be his Mrs. Smith. She says “of course” and paints his lips with icing. Their shop becomes known as a magical place where romantic messages read by customers prove true every time, even if there are a few bumps along the way. Each year at Christmas, the lasting love of the Smiths is so overwhelming that it causes their Christmas crackers to spread all over the world. So, Mr. and Mrs. Smith live happily ever after with wedding cakes and magical love all around them.
Copyright 2022 Jennifer Waters
LOGLINE
A heartbroken girl visits a mystical Christmas tree on a New Zealand cliff with enchanted nearby caves when her mother dies.
PITCH
Following the shadows, Amelia Brown and her father venture into a legendary cave during a visit to Cape Reinga in New Zealand with its famed Pohutukawa tree. Looking for the spirit of her recently deceased mother, Mr. Brown tells his daughter about the warrior Tawhaki who fights to avenge unjust deaths. Many people think that the caves have become a conduit between heaven and earth where Tawhaki travels while helping people on their journey to the afterworld.
SYNOPSIS
Twelve-year-old Amelia Brown watches a shadow pass by the caves near the cliff of Cape Reinga in New Zealand with her father. According to legend, he explains that she is probably seeing the spirit of the warrior Tawhaki who is known to visit the caves. Although she is sad that her mother has recently died, her father tries to cheer her up by telling her the local folklore. The wind blows hard against the Pohutukawa tree that clings to the cliff of Cape Reinga in New Zealand. Caves wrap around the cliff, where it is said that people visit before they pass into the spirit world to heaven, possibly including her mother, who recently died in a car accident.
As Amelia and her father walk near the cliff, her father tells her the legend of the warrior Tawhaki. As the story goes, the famous Pohutukawa tree emerged from the cliff of Cape Reinga in New Zealand on Christmas Eve. Its burning red flowers are said to symbolize the blood of a warrior who died attempting to avenge his father’s death. His name was Tawhaki. The warrior tried to get help in heaven on his mission, and then he fell to earth, causing the red flowers to bloom. He still roams the earth, trying to avenge his father’s death. He hates injustice and secretly tries to bring justice to those in need of it. He also helps people on their journeys from earth to heaven through the caves near the cliff. Although he has his doubts, Amelia’s father says maybe Tawhaki will help bring justice at her mother’s upcoming court case.
Trying to speak to her mother one last time, Amelia convinces her father to go into the caves. She eventually comes face to face with the spirit of her mother. Then, she looks at her father and knows he cannot see her, so she says nothing to him about it. Her father thinks they couldn’t find her mother in the caves. Meanwhile, the spirit of Amelia’s mother bends over and kisses her cheek. It burns like fire, and Amelia is sure it is real. Then, her mother does the same to Amelia’s father, but he doesn’t feel the fire on his cheek. Amelia’s mother slowly takes off her diamond wedding ring and slips it into Amelia’s hand. Her mother disappears to heaven. The winds blow hard, and the Pohutukawa tree shakes as a shadow falls from its branches. Thought to be Tawhaki, Amelia notices it follows the Browns back to their house and accompanies them to the court case regarding her mother’s accident, where the defendant admits his guilt, and justice prevails.
Copyright 2022 Jennifer Waters
