Once upon a time, I was sleeping on a shelf. I would tell you my title, but I do not have one because the humans are lazy. That’s how the humans ruined my life. Other books made fun of me because I didn’t have a title.

Every year I grew a new page. It happens when when it’s your birthday. Each page counted as a year. I was eight pages long. That meant I was eight years old. I was a plain book with no words.

“I wish I had a title. There is no story without a title.” I said as I woke up and looked at the other books with titles. I decided to find a title right after I ate breakfast made of pencil shavings. I hopped onto the table where I met a pencil. It was a tall pencil without an eraser. He told me he would write me a title.

“But in return, I want a eraser,” he said.

I walked over to the cupholder. Inside the cupholder, there was a pen.

He said to me, “I will give you an eraser if you give me some ink.”

I searched all day for ink until it was night time. I entered my shelf, tired and exhausted. I told my mom all about my day. I told her I did not  find a title. My mom was a bible book. Bibles were old and wise like my mom. But my mom was not that old.

She told me, “It does not matter if you don’t have a title. That’s what makes you special.”

I felt much better. I was proud of who I was. I did not have a title, but I decided everyone else could call me Jimmy as my name, not as my title.

That night, my dad came home from the airport. He was on a work vacation. He was a dictionary at the school, and all the children looked at my dad to look up words. I was proud of my dad.

Now it was summer vacation, so my dad was coming home. I didn’t see him for nine months. The school year was really long.

I saw my dad coming up on the shelf. My mom told him my new name. I hugged him, and then I went to sleep. There wasn’t much to a dad, so you just hug them and go to sleep.

The next morning, I saw my dad in the kitchen. He was with our neighbor. Our neighbor was a cookbook! They were baking pen ink for breakfast. My dad brought pen ink home from the school! I felt so angry. I was looking for pen ink for hours, maybe even decade! (It felt like a decade since I was a kid.) But then, I didn’t care anymore. I remembered I was proud of who I was.

I said good morning to my dad, and my dad said, “Good morning, Jimmy.”

Breakfast was a bowl of pen ink. Books ate pen ink so the words inside us didn’t fade away, but I had no words. I just realized that if I didn’t have a story, then pen ink wouldn’t work. I started to frown.

I told my dad, “I’m going on a voyage to find a story, so that I can eat pen ink and the story won’t fade away.”

“I thought you said you don’t want a title.”

I gasped. “I don’t want a title. I want a story because I can use my story to help people. You teach kids words. Mom’s a bible. I don’t know what she teaches. Our neighbor teaches cooking. And I want to help people too.”

I packed a sleeping bag, lots and lots of pen ink, pencil shavings, and a tent.

My mom came downstairs, and I told my mom I was going on a voyage to find a story. She wasn’t worried.

She said, “How far could a book go? Am I right, or am I right? Really.”

Then I started my voyage. I went to the front lawn, where I started my voyage for a title. I walked on until it was night time. It was morning, and I checked my pages. I saw pictures of myself, the pen, and the pencil, and words.

“I have a story!!!” I yelled.

I ran back to the house and jumped on the desk. I traded my ink for an eraser and traded the eraser for a title. The pencil wrote a title for me, and I decided it would be “The Book With No Title.” My story was about my journey I went on to find a title.

I climbed onto the shelf, and I told my parents all about my new story and title. My dad and my mom were very happy when they heard this news. I decided I would be a picture book.

I learned to go see other books with titles. I made friends with a book. His title was “Captain Hailey Sails Across the World!” He was a comic book, and his name was Jake. From that day on, I always played with my friend, Jake, and made new friends with a fantasy book. His title was “The Land of Dragons” and his name was Leo. I played with Leo and Jake every day, and I was never lonely again. No one ever made fun of me again because now I had a title. And we lived happily ever after.

The End!!!