The Arnetts of Bowie have been telling family stories around the dinner table for generations, and Marieh Arnett, 13, is doing her part to preserve those stories.

An eighth-grader at Samuel Ogle Middle School, Arnett wrote a story about her great-great-grandmother, Mamie Lee Byrd, called "Please Wake Me Up" that will be soon published in an anthology of student work.

"I had heard so much about her," said Arnett, who has listened to stories about relatives stretching back generations to a farm in south Georgia.

"Please Wake Me Up" is about young Mamie, who had a reputation for pretending to faint to avoid picking cotton with her family. One morning in 1876 she "fainted," but this time with unexpected consequences.

"I wrote it so people could learn more about her family and where it came from," Arnett said. "They can read something that's true, and it also relates to the modern world about how kids fake."

Arnett's mother, Belinda Arnett, said she tells stories around the dinner table as a way to pass on the family's moral values to the younger generation.

"Sitting around talking about family history is very important," Belinda Arnett said. "It's our heritage; it's about things that have happened. We have a strong family, and the stories are about strength, courage and moral fiber."

Marieh Arnett, who started keeping a diary when she was 8, draws on her family history and on her own experiences for material. She uses a wheelchair because of a condition that affects her muscles — spinal muscular atrophy, but there are no limits on her mind.

"What I like about writing is that it gives me a way to express myself and a way to tell people about my feelings," she said. "People see the chair and not me. [With my writing] they actually see me and see there's nothing wrong with me. ... They can see how good I am and see that the wheelchair doesn't hold me back."

Marieh Arnett wrote "Please Wake Me Up" for her reading teacher, Ann-Marie Harris, who asked students to interview a relative and write about a family event. Eighth-graders already participate in the Prince George's County Write-A-Book competition, and Harris thought it would be a good experience for them to enter more contests.

The Grannie Annie Family Story Celebration, a nonprofit in St. Louis that publishes family stories, selected "Please Wake Me Up" from hundreds of submissions around the county and plans to publish it with the work of 37 other young authors in Grannie Annie, Vol. 5, for release in May.

"The competition is a challenge to go beyond their comfort zone, write for a broader audience, and to see that learning goes beyond the four walls of a classroom," Harris wrote in an e-mail. "I am very pleased that Marieh has been recognized for her ability to tell realistic stories."

A motivated student who plays the violin and likes math, Arnett has been accepted into the Summit Scholar Program at Bowie High School next year. Students take honors courses in their freshman and sophomore years to prepare for Advanced Placement courses in their junior and senior years.

Her goal is to go to Yale or Princeton and become a plastic surgeon.

"I'd like to help people," she said, envisioning a time when she can help someone injured in an accident by reconstructing their facial bones.

When the Grannie Annie anthology is released in May, Belinda Arnett is going to save an autographed copy along with other stories her daughter has written to preserve a part of family history.

"That way her space will keep its energy," she said.

The Grannie Annie Family Story Celebration holds an annual contest for young writers. Submissions are due Feb. 1. Selected pages from Grannie Annie, Vol. 5 will be posted online at www.TheGrannieAnnie.org in April and the book will be available in May for $14.95 plus $3 for shipping.