The Kite Mark Torpoco, 11 Hi, I am a purple kite named Samuel. I was born on a small island called Mallorca, in Spain. I was born in a small shop, near the beach, filled with snorkel gear. Lots of people on vacation came in and out of the shop, but I never got sold. The people bought all the snorkel gear, but not me. I was made by a famous kite designer, but at the time nobody knew who he was. I have a red bull on me with shining eyes. Then, one day, a boy came into the store. He was small, skinny and he had brown hair. He looked at the snorkel gear and said, “No.” Then, he looked at me and said, “Mommy, I want this one.” He explained to her that he wanted me because some day when he grew up, he was going to be a famous bullfighter. His mom looked annoyed, but said it was fine. The boy jumped up and grabbed me, went to go pay, and hugged me on the way out. I was very happy. He took me home. The house was very big and had three stories. The boy’s room was on the top floor, and had a window looking at the ocean. His room had paintings of bulls hanging on the walls. He put me on a shelf with a bull plushy. On the weekend, he took me to the beach for my first time. When we got to the beach, the boy took me out of the car. I was scared because I didn’t know what was happening. He tossed me into the air, and I started to fly in the wind. It felt at first like I was going to die, but then it got fun. It felt free. I started to go in circles like a dancing bull. I learned lots of tricks that day, dancing with my boy who was like a matador with his cape. We played all day until the sun set. When I got down, the boy hugged me. I would fly with my boy each weekend at the beach. It felt super amazing every time. We would always have fun. As the years passed, I grew to love the boy. When I first met him, the boy was so small. But he grew older with me. But even though I wasn’t as clean and new as I started, he still loved me. But one day, the boy let go of me when he got distracted. A bee landed on his leg and stung him. He let go of my string. I flew away apprehensively. I felt sad. As I flew higher, I saw the vast ocean and its waves crashing down. I heard the seagulls and the waves. Then, I fell on the sand. I looked for the boy frantically, but I could not find him. The beach looked so different. It had less people on it. The night came, and I felt sad and alone. I held onto the sand trying not to fly away again. The morning came. A man was walking on the beach. He was tall, bald, and was wearing a purple rain coat. He picked me up carefully and looked at me. He said, “Was this made by Reyes de la Vega?” He was just amazed. He took me to a museum. The museum was big and had a lot of paintings in it. I was put in the center of a room surrounded by glass. There were a lot of people who looked at me. They had rectangular things with flashing lights which they held up and pointed at me. I felt all locked up. I wished to be with the boy again. I was all sad and alone being locked up. I am sure the boy was sad too. One day I saw the boy at the museum. He looked different. He looked taller, and had a lot of other taller people with him. They had an older woman, who was leading them, telling them about me. Even though he looked different, I knew it was him. He looked at me and had a tear in his eye, then he walked away.
short stories
Flash Contest #7: Time Traveling Characters From the Past. Our Winners and Their Work!
Weekly Flash Contest #7: Be a time traveler in reverse! What would happen if a character from the past arrived in the present? Choose a time period you like and know a little bit about, and write down at least 3 things that make it really different to now. Now imagine that someone your age and your gender has arrived in your house from that time in the past. Use your list of differences to write a story about what happens during the day you spend together. The week commencing May 11th (Daily Creativity prompt #36) was our seventh week of flash contests, with another record number of entries including one from our youngest-ever Flash Contest entrant! We had fun meeting time travellers from different eras from ancient history (even dinosaurs!) to the present (yes, some time travel was projected into the future–it’s complicated!), and it was even harder than usual to choose our favourites. We commend all of the entrants for their imagination, and for the creative ways they found to bring their characters from the past into life in the present using clothes, language and misunderstandings about contemporary everyday life to make them real. This week, we are announcing our 5 Winners, whose work is published below, plus 5 Honorable Mentions. Congratulations, everyone! Winners (work published on this page) Isabel Bashaw, 10, Enumclaw, WA Samson Brown, 12, Cary, NC Ava Shorten, 10, Mallow, Ireland Michela You, 11, Lexington, MA Xuyi (Lauren) Zheng, 10, Guelph, Ontario, Canada Honorable Mentions “The Time Watch” by Hannah Nami Gajcowski, 10, Bellevue, WA “Lace, Frills, and Clever Jokes” by Samantha Lee, 10, Thomaston, CT “Prehistoric Visitors” by Sean Tenzin O’ Connor, 4, Bishop, CA “Panic From the Seventies” by Lauren Oh, 12, Cary, NC “A Dose of Time” by Ella Yamamura, 12, Cary, NC Remember, we are running the Flash Contest every week during the COVID-19-related school closures and shelter-in-place arrangements. It is always based on the first Daily Creativity prompt of the week. The prompt is posted on Monday, entries are due by Friday, and the winners are chosen and announced the following week. Isabel Bashaw, 10 Enumclaw, WA My Weekend With Jane Isabel Bashaw, 10 My name is Isabel, and this weekend, the craziest thing happened to me. I don’t know where to start, but I’ll begin on Friday night, when everyone was in bed . . . * * * “Hoo Hoo Hoo . . .” I was awakened in the middle of the night by an annoying owl outside my bedroom. And since I was up, I decided to have a snack. I crept downstairs, so as not to wake anyone up. I grabbed two peanut butter cookies and a tall glass of milk, then I went back upstairs to eat at my desk. I munched on a cookie, then gulped down some of my creamy white milk. After I had finished, I clambered back in bed, and tried to sleep. But after five minutes, I was startled by a green orb hovering over my pillow. I leapt under my covers in fear. When I looked up, the green orb was shaking violently. I tried to move, but I felt stuck to my bed. Finally, the orb stopped shaking, and a girl fell out of it, and landed on top of me. “mff gt off of e!” I said, muffled under the weight of the mysterious girl. “Sorry!” she said, and climbed down from my bed. “What the heck?!” I yelped, rubbing my eyes. This girl looked like a pioneer. She was wearing a bonnet, a shabby dress, and was super tan. Her barefoot feet smelled terrible! “What is this house? It’s so pink!” said the girl, walking around. “It’s not a house, silly! Its my bedroom,” I said, eying her. “WOW!” She cried, and started jumping all over the place. I heard footsteps coming up to my room, and quickly told the girl: “get under my covers, and stay there. Be super quiet, too.” She obeyed me, and then I started jumping until the door swung open and my dad walked in. “What are you doing up here? It’s 4:00 in the morning, Isabel. Stop jumping around! You’ll wake the baby!” He looked around. “Who said wow?” I quickly came up with a fib. “I was singing a song! WOW! I am a star, la la la la WOW!” I sang, with an offbeat tone. Clearly my dad didn’t buy my act. He went up to my bed, and pulled up the covers, where the girl had fallen asleep. “What!? Did I say you could invite a friend over to play dress up in the middle of the night?!” he barked, then walked back to me. “Sorry Dad.” I whispered. “Just don’t wake anyone else up again, ‘K?” he said, his eyes softening. “Okay, ‘night dad.” I said. Then he walked out of the room, and the girl leapt out of the bed. “My name is Jane, by the way, and an hour ago I was in my log cabin, when this lady appeared in front of me and told me that I was allowed to go forward in time to see the future for 24 hours. I said okay, and the next thing I know I am falling onto a stranger’s bed, and that’s the whole story basically.” I was shocked, and not entirely convinced. “When is your birthday?” I asked, suspiciously. “May 23rd, 1845” she said in a split second. “I still can’t believe that this is just one room!” “Well,” I said, “I guess you can hang out with me for 24 hours. So, what’s it like, being a pioneer?” “Is that what people call us? Well, I sew mittens, hats, and socks, but I mean everyone does that. I also help mama stir the beans, and make cornbread. I churn the butter, and milk our cow Besie, and care for her calf Beanie. I also harvest crops from our garden, and I love to play
Flash Contest #3: Write From an Animal’s Point of View: Our Winners and Their Work!
Weekly Flash Contest #3: Write from the Point of View of an Animal Write about a day in the life of your pet or a friend’s pet, as if you were that pet. Remember to think about what it might be like to be an animal. How do they see the world? What do they think about humans and their fellow animals? What are their hopes, their dreams, their fears? This is a great exercise in point of view. The week commencing April 13th was a very special week for our Daily Creativity series. We had a takeover, by one of our readers, Molly Torinus, age 11, from Middleton, WI! Molly is a volunteer in our COVID-19 Focus Group, and she wrote a whole series of terrific writing prompts for us. When we planned her takeover, we all agreed that this prompt, challenging everyone to write from the point of view of an animal (Daily Creativity prompt #16), would be a great one to set as the contest. You all seemed to think so too, as we had a record number of entries! We were thrilled that Molly also joined the Stone Soup team to be one of this week’s judges. Once the contest closed at the end of last week we all read the entries independently, and gave them our own scores. Then, we put the 3 judges’ scores together to come up with a shortlist, and had a Zoom meeting to discuss it and agree the final results. It’s the first time we have had a reader judge in one of our contests, so it was very exciting for us to work with Molly on the contest: we can tell you that she was a very thoughtful and fair judge, and we really enjoyed working with her on this contest. We will try to get readers involved again in future, so look out for another takeover soon! We all very much enjoyed reading these entries, and we were impressed by the different ways people approached the challenge of thinking like their pets. We especially loved the entries that really sounded like the thoughts and behaviours of animals we have met. It was easy to agree on our top contestants; and we also wanted to honor some of the other entries, as there were so many good ones. So, this week, we are announcing our 5 Winners, whose work is published below, plus 4 Honorable Mentions. Congratulations to all of them, and thank you Molly for a great writing challenge, and a fantastic job as a judge! Winners (work published on this page) Yutia Li, 10, Houston, TX Anna Rosini, 12, Arlington, VA Audrey Tzeng, 11, Rocklin, CA Ella Yamamura, 12, Cary, NC Sophie Yu, 12, Houston, TX Honorable Mentions “Chickens and Playtime” by Nora Heiskell, 12, Philadelphia, PA “Piano Bunny” by Maya Mourshed, 8, Silver Spring, MD “The Great Indoors” by Enni Harlan, 13, Los Angeles, CA “A Good Summer Day: A Day in the Life of Moti” by Anushka Trivedi, 9, Silver Spring, MD We also received a drawing last week which seemed to fit really nicely with this contest, so we are using it as an illustration for this page. Allie Dollar, 11, of Monticello, FL, thought that the dogs–as well as their owners–should be wearing masks while out for their walks during the pandemic, so she drew some for them. Thank you, Allie! Remember, we are running the Flash Contest every week during the COVID-19-related school closures and shelter-in-place arrangements. It is always based on the first Daily Creativity prompt of the week. The prompt is posted on Monday, entries are due by Friday, and the winners are chosen and announced the following week. “Pixie,” by Yutia Li, 10 Ding-dong! Oh no. The doorbell is never a good sign. I hear a click and a creak, and an unfamiliar, pungent odor reaches my nostrils. I wrinkle my nose. This scent is new to me. It smells slightly like Olivia but with more of a sharp, aromatic tang. This person must’ve used some of that perfume thing that humans use. I hear energetic voices at the door. It’s Olivia and one of her friends, by the sound of it. Pretty pretty please don’t say that that person’s coming inside. No! The door slams shut, and footsteps round the corner. I make a dash for it, but it’s too late. The perfumey person is right on my heels. She scoops me up and cuddles me. Ew! That stupid odor. I think I’m allergic to it. “Pixie!” she coos. She has short brown hair and like, a trillion freckles. Kinda similar to Olivia, but her height is much shorter. Oh, and the stinky perfume, of course. “I’ve heard so much about you! You’re the best kitty ever, aren’t you? Yes you are. Such a cutie pie!” She scratches behind my ears, and I wince. No smelly hands are allowed on my beautiful fur! I try to scramble out of her arms, but her grip is too tight. After like, ten minutes of cuddling and rubbing, she finally releases me. I automatically scramble up the stairs and to my favorite hiding spot, a cubby right under Olivia’s bed. Her fragrance of fresh aloe and lavender never fails to soothe me. I’m just getting ready to doze off when the doorbell rings. Again?! More people? Ugh! This must be one of those playdates or whatever you call them. But I’m safe here. Olivia would never let any harm come to me. Yet as I lie there, the doorbell rings a third time. And a fourth. And a fifth. What the heck? Is this the largest playdate ever or something? I sure hope they don’t stay long. I don’t need any more perfumey people cuddling me today. OMG! My kibble! It’s almost my dinnertime! I can’t go and get my food with all these people down there, though! My mind is lost in a whirlwind of thoughts. But the scent of
