As a precursor to reading a story about survival, seventh grade students were asked to come up with a list of things they would want to have in their emergency survival kit. Students were specifically instructed to limit themselves to things that were readily available (so no Apache helicopters), and the complete kit had to be something you could comfortably carry in a student backpack. As always, there are students who chose a very sensible collection of things to put in their emergency survival kit: water purification tablets, a flashlight (with batteries), a first-aid kit. Those students are not the subject of today’s story.

Here are some of the more unusual items some students chose to put in their emergency survival kit:

• Fifty cheeseburgers.
• Moisturizer.
• Colored pencils.
• A puppy.
• Fifty gallons of water. (Must be a strong kid with a really big backpack.)
• A Gameboy.
• Five throwing stars.
• Jell-O. Because there’s always room for Jell-O.

September is National Preparedness Month.