i am desperately searching for a short story i read probably twenty years ago, when i was in third grade or so. ray bradbury may have written it, i'm afraid i don't know. it was about kids on mars, i think, or somewhere you could only go outside one day every ten years or something. anyway the kids bully around this one girl and lock her in a closet. after everyone goes outside and plays in the sun and rolls in the grass or whatever, they go inside and the teacher finds the girl. the kids realize they had forgotten her as she sits there, crying.
please help i would be so indebted.
thank you! - jk

jasonkollias:::

It was Ray that wrote the story. But not on Mars. It takes place on Venus! The title of the story was...

All Summer in a Day

It starts off:

"Ready?
"Ready."
"Now?"
"Soon."
"Do the scientists really know? Will it happen today, will it?"
"Look, look; see for yourself!"
The children pressed to each other like so many roses, so many weeds, intermixed, peering out for a look at the hidden sun.
It rained.
It had been raining for seven years; thousands upon thousands of days compounded and filled from one end to the other with rain, with the drum and gush of water, with the sweet crystal fall of showers and the concussion of storms so heavy they were tidal waves come over the islands. A thousand forests had been crushed under the rain and grown up a thousand times to be crushed again. And this was the way life was forever on the planet Venus, and this was the schoolroom of the children of the rocket men and women who had come to a raining world to set up civilization and live out their lives....


(It was originally published in:
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March, 1954.)

[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 01-27-2003).]

It's a great story.

It's collected in,

"The Stories of Ray Bradbury"

and

"A Medicine For Melancholy"

thank you!!! i can't believe how fast you replied to my query. reading that beautiful opener makes me want to run out in the freezing cold of new york and buy it tonight! i can not wait to read it tomorrow, and i believe i will not stop with that story.
thanks again! - jk

If you get a chance, look through some of the postings. Bradbury's unique writing has touched many lives.

This board sooo needs an FAQ--
For anyone with the time and inclination, how many queries does this make for "All Summer in a Day" (not counting people who wanted, and couldn't find, the movie, just people who wanted, and couldn't remember the title of, the story)?

Well, the FAQ could always just start small and grow over time. Perhaps you could assign sections to willing long-time members...someone could take a section on movies, someone could do this book or that...you could edit it together and voila!

Mr. Dark / Others::

By the way, All Summer in a Day... is re-printed in a student text book published by...

McDougal/Littell "Literature & Language"

Offices in: Evanston, Illinois . New York . Dallas . Columbia, SC

Text Books!!!

You know what that means?

That means it is probably a more incredible task of now tracking down all the books that Ray's stuff is being re-printed in...

I first read this story in that very textbook when I was teaching it. In my current edition of McDougal Littell that story is not included, but "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed" and "The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind" are. Also there is a mini-unit on Ray with a "Meet the Author" section including an interview of him, a section on his key style points, a biographical section, and more. I include all of this every year in my sci fi/fantasy unit with my seventh graders, and I usually spend way more time on it than any of the other teachers in my department!!

Good! He SHOULD be re-exposed to each upcoming generation! That sounds like a good unit.

Donn Albright says Ray has over 800 anthology appearances. I don't know if he counts textbooks with anthologies or if they're another whole area--in which case, double that number! Only his agent knows for sure....

Sometimes I almost identify with poor Margot. It's been raining here for about two months.

since i am doing a report on bradbury (but then again, who hasn't??) i saw that you guys were talking about him being in the mcdougall/littell books i went to my room, and it turns out i have four different ML books that i have collected over the years from my schools...i know...bad me...anyways i ahve found an excerpt of dandelion wine, the pedestrian, the utterly perfect murder, and excerpt from a sound of thunder, there will come soft rains, and a lot of those little mini interview type deals. thanks for the idea guys!