Weekly Flash Contest #10: Write down 5 ideas for some impossible characters – space frogs, singing clocks, walking cactuses – the more unlikely the better. Pick 2 of them. What would happen if they met? Write a story about it. The week commencing June 1st (Daily Creativity prompt #51) was our tenth week of flash contests, and our entrants rose to the double challenge of inventing some crazily impossible characters, and putting them together in bizarre situations. Well done everyone for your wildly creative stories and ideas! This was such a strange and fascinating group to choose from, that we found it just too hard to narrow down the number to share with you. So, this week we have 6 winners, whose work is published below, and 4 very honorable Honorable Mentions. Congratulations to them all! Winners Isabel Bashaw, 10, Enumclaw, WA Lucy Berberich, 11, Oxford, OH Federico Lynch Ferraris, 11, New York, NY Lila Laton, 10, New York, NY Tilly Marlow, 10, Bristol, United Kingdom Alice Xie, 12, West Windsor, NJ Honorable Mentions “Enchanted Woods” (story and drawing) by Amelia Barth, 10, Elgin, IL “The Mathematician and the Songstress (A Story Told from 2 Points of View)” by Anna Haakenson, 12, Beach Park, IL “Polka Dots” by Samantha Lee, 10, Thomaston, CT “The Eerie Cat-Man Thief and the Gucci Bunny” by Daniel Wei, 13, Weddington, NC Isabel Bashaw, 10Enumclaw, WA Zombie Unicorn vs. Tap-Dancing Carrot Cake Isabel Bashaw, 10 It was Independence Day in the magical land of Mystic Topia, and a parade celebrating the town’s freedom from Wicked Humans was underway in the town square. Horns blared and drums banged throughout the crowded streets. A variety of animals, things, and creatures stood packed together under the sun, straining to see Mayor Cactus, the leader of this year’s parade. The Mayor (a famous opera singer in her youth) belted out “God Bless Mystic Topia” as she shuffled unsteadily down the street, forcing the crowd to shift forward and back to avoid the movement of her spines. She was followed by the amazing Tap-Dancing Carrot Cakes. This tap-dancing trio rat-a-tap-tapped along to the bouncy beat of the drums in the marching band. After the marching band scurried a group of vampire, candy-throwing hamsters. Finally the parade ended in a finale of zombie unicorns performing acrobatic tricks for the crowd’s enjoyment. After the crowd had thinned and all the baby creatures slept in their parents’ arms, a lone zombie unicorn, hungry from her performance, snuffled along the streets in search of a bite to eat. She wasn’t having much luck because the street-sweeping cockroaches had already passed through. Just then, she heard a noise! One of the tap-dancing carrot cakes shimmied up the road, his headphones blaring music so loud that the unicorn (and probably the whole town) could hear it. The zombie unicorn lifted her head slightly and, flaring her enormous nostrils, sniffed the smell of her favorite food: CARROTS! Better yet, SUGARY CARROTS! Groaning loudly, the unicorn galloped over to the carrot cake. He had his eyes closed, humming and tapping along to the music, oblivious to his impending doom. The unicorn took a sizable bite of the carrot cake’s frosted arm as it waved around to the music’s beat. The tap-dancing carrot cake’s head shot up, its eyes staring directly into the eyes of the zombie unicorn, who was happily enjoying his gooey frosting. The carrot cake couldn’t feel the strike, but he knew that a piece of his body was not where it was supposed to be. His arm was being digested inside the belly of the undead! The carrot cake immediately spewed out cuss words like “buttermilk!” and “powdered-sugar!” Then, collecting himself, turned off his music and said in a low, threatening voice: “I. Will. Get. You. Zombie. Unicorn.” Now the zombie unicorn was quite confused. Weren’t carrots and sugar meant for eating? This little pastry was freaking her out with its angry, orange eyes and spiteful threats! “Woah, woah, woah!” she said. “Hold up! This is all just a big misunderstanding! I thought you were food! Can’t we just settle this in a peaceful manner??” The carrot cake kept on glaring, and tapped its feet angrily. “How about a dance fight?” asked the zombie unicorn. “If I win, you let this go. And if you win, I’ll give you free zombie unicorn rides for a week!” Still glaring, the carrot cake stopped his angry tapping and slowly nodded his head. Just then, a lone street-sweeping cockroach scuttled by, its jaws chomping on scavenged parade candy. “Hey!” said the zombie unicorn. “Will you be the judge of our awesome dance fight?” The cockroach, constantly glancing left to right, paused to nod its head up and down. “Alright, then, Tasty-Cakes, you’re up!” said the unicorn. The carrot cake tugged his headphones out of his device, scrolled through his music and started dancing to “I Like To Move It.” He crazily tapped across the road, only pausing every so often to catch his breath. He went on and on… and on, until finally the unicorn couldn’t stand watching anymore. “OK, OK. My turn,” she said, swiping his device with her hoof and clicking on her favorite jam. She swung her back legs and flipped onto her front two, doing a handstand, her horn touching the dirt. Then she clopped around and around, in a kind of shuffle dance move. Finally the carrot cake stopped her. “Let’s see the results,” he said with a smug look on his face. Both creatures turned to the cockroach. “What did you think?” the tap dancing carrot cake asked the insect. The insect shook its head and pointed to the unicorn. “I WON!!” shouted the zombie unicorn, prancing around gruesomely. The cockroach looked confused. They didn’t understand that he was pointing to the unicorn to tell her she had lost. Her dance was terrible! The carrot cake hung his frosted head, disappointed at having lost a piece of his arm and a week of free unicorn zombie rides.
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Daily Creativity #60: Create an Art Piece of Your Ideal Living Space
If you could live in any kind of habitation, with everything exactly the way you wanted it, what would it be like? Where would it be? Maybe it’s a cave, or a space station, or just where you already are. Draw, paint, collage, or build a model of your ideal living space.
The Tale of Despereaux, Reviewed by Eunice, 10
The Tale of Despereaux is a book about the power of love and bravery. Despereaux is a little mouse that was born different from other mice. He loved reading books, while other mice nibbled on them. As he was growing up, he soon fell in love with a princess who had lost her mom and was very clever and bright. But loving a human was against the rules of the mice, so he was sent to the dungeon. Meanwhile, a rat named Chiaroscuro hatched an evil plan against the princess. Chiaroscuro forced Mig to be part of it. Mig was a girl whose mother was dead, and her father sold her to a fake uncle who made her almost deaf. Of course Mig hesitated. But because she wanted to be a princess, she was in it. Little Despereaux fought like a knight for the princess, and at the end, they found a happy ending, and the castle was once more full of light and soup, music and beauty. I believe that Despereaux was mistreated by other mice. When Despereaux was born, he was very small and weak. No one understood him. What the other mice saw in their eyes was a dumb, useless creature, who fell in love with a human princess. Maybe Despereaux did break the law. But he was trying to listen to the music of the King while falling in love with the princess. The reason why this book is very satisfying is that little Despereaux became a hero and a knight, although he began as a failure and a mouse sentenced to death. When he tried to tell the king where the princess was, the king did not believe him. So poor little Despereaux did this by himself. He fought with the rats. And he saved the princess. Maybe the fight he had with the rats was not the same as all the battles by knights in fairy tales. But you see, the princess admitted in the end, “Despereaux, you are my knight,” and the little mouse abandoned by everyone he knew became the knight of the gorgeous princess. When I first saw little Despereaux being abandoned for his differences, I felt very sorrowful. I don’t think anyone should be abandoned or treated differently for being different. Little Despereaux was sentenced to the dungeon at a very young age. This was very cruel, and it made me angry. He was hated and about to die, just because he was different. To be honest, I could see myself a little bit when I was watching little Despereaux. It wasn’t like my family abandoned me. No, not at all. But when I moved to the USA, I was treated differently from my friends in my old school. Back in Korea, I was the most popular girl in the whole grade. But because I was in a whole different country, everyone abandoned me and played with me like I was a toy. Despereaux had reasons for what he was doing. And obviously, I had reasons for being different, too. Both Despereaux and I found our own way to be our own selves. After all, Despereaux is a mouse like all the others in his community, and I am a human like the others in mine. So we shouldn’t have been treated differently. Being different doesn’t mean you are being wrong. The Tale of Despereaux showed that to the readers. I thought it was very touching because once I was in Despereaux’s place. Being a kid who was abandoned by her friends and ended up being a hero, a knight, to them. I think Despereaux was brave for loving who he loved and forever being the knight of who he loved. I hope you can feel the emotion and truth of this story. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. Candlewick Press, 2009. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
