We announce the winners of the Storynory Easter 2010 Writing Competition.

Which two young story-writers will will win a Sweetpea3 MP3 player? We shall find out, but first we will listen to a range of stories from the 80 + entries.

Many thanks to Sweetpea3 for providing the prizes !

We will be publishing the text of every story entered into our competition in due course. (As soon as our site re-organisation is ready).

Stories are read by Elizabeth with comments from our producer, Hugh, who has been helping Bertie pick the prizes.

This is Elizabeth, and I’m here with the results of the Storynory Easter 2010 Story Writing Competition. I’m going to be reading some stories and extracts from several of the contestants, and at the end, we’ll see which two lucky winners will be receiving a Sweatpea3 MP3 player ! And we would like to say a big thank you to Sweetpea3, for sponsoring our competition. They make a really cute and well thought out MP3 player for kids and it’s perfect for playing our stories.

And now I’m joined by our producer, Hugh, who has been helping Bertie to pick the winners. Hugh what has response been like?

Well it’s been fantastic. We received over 80 entries written by listeners of all ages, from all over the world. And it’s been extremely hard to pick out the winners. I have to say that in a competition like this there is a huge element of luck, because there were so many stories that were so good, that the results comes down to Bertie’s personal taste and his whim. Unfortunately, only two stories can win the Sweetpea3 MP3 players, but we are going to read out as many as we can.

So Hugh, which story would you like to highlight first?

Let’s start with a few from some from the younger contestants. This is a very imaginative one by Ali Ziad Lone aged 6 , and it’s all about a box of crayons.

Once upon a time there was a land of blue crayons. The sky was blue, everything was blue. All crayons lived happily, having blue fun, except for one who was orange, very very orange. His hair was red. He name was Orangy-red Blue but sometimes he was called Blue Red-orangy.

Thank you Elizabeth. that’s a lot of fun. And of course the stories by younger writers are often very concise. Let’s hear an entire story in three lines by Alexis MacKie, aged 6

Snowmen were at work when an earthquake shook snowwomen awake.  Fires burned in Snowville.  Snowwomen were running and helping snowmen.  I like snowmen and snowwomen.  I also like sliding on snow.  I like snow.

And I must ask you to read another really, really short story by a contestant who is just a little bit older, and that ‘s Emma Matheson, aged 7, and it’s called, The Story of Water.

My story started in a shower, when a drop of water landed on the glass wall of the shower my eyes followed it. It ran to the tile floor”

I like you” I whisper to the drop of water.

“noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!” I said. The drop of water went into the drain. I started to cry. A drop of water landed on my hand.

“Oh” I said “I like you” I said.

Isn’t that just a perfect little story?

It’s lovely, but presumably not all the stories were so short?

No indeed we had some real epics, but the next one Bertie and I picked out is just a bit longer, and I think we should hear it in its entirety because it’s a really sweet tale. It’s called the Flower by Alainna Wigginton, aged 8

Once upon a time there was a young girl. Her name was Jessie. She lived in a big cottage with her mom and dad. She was an only child, but she wasn’t lonely because she had the biggest, most beautiful garden in the world. It was full of fruit trees that she loved to climb and in. One of the trees she had her own tree house. She loved to play in it, read in it, and watch birds. She was a very happy girl. It was there in the garden that she planted all the fruit and vegetables the garden could hold.

The garden was not just hers. It belonged to her whole family. They worked together to make it the biggest garden anyone had ever seen. Jessie enjoyed planting carrots, snap peas and cucumber. But her favorite thing to plant was the flowers. She loved all of the flowers in the garden, but there was only one flower in the garden she liked best. It was a beautiful blue flower with pink and yellow in the middle. Jessie knew that she would never want to let it die. She watered it every day and gave it flower food.

She had seen a lot of this kind of flower before, but there was something different about this one. It could talk! Jessie could not believe it when it said, “Hi there!” after it grew. She loved to talk with her new friend.

She did not tell her mom and dad that she had a flower friend. When they asked, “Where have you been, Jessie?” she would answer, “In the garden watering the plants.” And then she would go back outside.

One morning she asked, “May I go out to the garden and water the plants, Mom?”
“Yes, after you feed the dog,” Mom replied.

“O.K.” said Jessie. She put on her boots and went to the barn to feed Barker, their dog. He was just a little puppy. But Jessie loved him as much as the flower. She named him Barker because he liked to bark. Then Jessie came out of the barn and skipped to the garden.

“Flower!” she called.

 And the flower answered, “I’m here!” They loved to play cards, board games, and lots of other things.

On the last day of May, Jessie came out to the garden to see the flower all closed up in a ball. She kissed it goodnight and tip-toed  back inside.

I love that one because it’s so simple, and it seems to conjure up a little girl’s imaginative world so perfectly.

Yes it was lovely, But would you say that there were more boys or girls who sent stories in?

Oh definitely more girls. But there were some very exciting stories by boys too. This one has an unlikely hero in the form of a Funnel Web Spider, which is one of the most deadly spiders in the world, and to make it even more unusual, it’s set in the time of the dinosaurs. It’s a bit like Jurassic Park from a spider’s perspective, and it’s by Eden Smith aged 8. It’s pretty much all action. Let’s hear an extract from the middle of the story.

The raptor launched itself of the tree and grabbed Rhino and took him away.

“Rhino!” I shouted. “You’re goooooooooone!” I said to myself. I was very upset.

I jumped into the bushes and ran as fast as I could to catch up with the raptor. I was pushing through all of the weeds.

Suddenly, I bumped into a foot. I looked up and saw it was another tyrannosaurus rex. I really hoped it was nice and would help me, not chase me and eat me.

I said, “Hello”.

He said it back to me.

“Could you help me find my friend?” I said.

“Sure,” he said. “Hop on my back and tell me how he got lost.”

“Well,” I said. “There was a raptor in a tree that jumped out of the tree and grabbed my friend and ran away with him. I don’t know where the raptor took him.”

“Okay, where did the raptor first grab your friend?” he asked.

“Over at that tree,” I said.

“Anyway, what are your friend’s name and your name,” he said.

My name is Freak the Funnel Web and my friend’s name is Rhino the Red back.

When I told him my name and my friend’s name we went over to the tree that the raptor took Rhino the Red back away from me.

We followed the footprints of the raptor and we finally found the raptor.
I noticed that I couldn’t see Rhino.

I said to the tyrannosaurus rex, “Can you see Rhino the Red back?”

“No,” he said to me. “I can’t”.

We looked around and we couldn’t see him. A few seconds later the raptor tried to attack us but the tyrannosaurus rex tackled the raptor and it died. We walked past where the raptor was standing and we found Rhino laying on a rock.

“RHINO!” I yelled. “Are you okay?”

“Yep, I’m okay,” he said.

That’s a real boy’s story.

It certainly is. Anymore in that action packed vein?

Well the next one isn’t quite so fast paced, but we like dit, particularly for the ending which I must warn you is rather scary ! Particularly if you are a small fish. It’s by Tyler-jay McIntosh, aged 10

There was a little boy called Bill and he wanted a pet fish. So he begged and he begged and he begged until his mum could not take it anymore. The next day Bill and his mum went to the pet shop to buy a fish. While they were there Bill could not find a single fish that was right for him. So he asked the lady at the desk if there was anymore fish he could take a look at. “I have one more fish that I think you might like” the lady answered with a smile.

“Wow, cool that fish is amazing!” “I’ll take it,” said Bill with no objections at all, but the fish he lept up and danced around the whole store while humming a little tune “I am getting my very own fish my very own fish, my very own fish I am getting my very own fish and I can’t wait to take it!” By the look on Bill’s face you could tell that he was excited.

The sun was setting and the stars were forming as Bill and his mum set off through the night to get back home. Bill and his mum lived by the sea on top of a big hill so it took them 30-40mins. Bill was sitting at the edge of the window while he was also holding his fish in his hand the slightest bump, crack or slippery oil on the road would send his fish into the air and land in the sea. It was a really hot day so it must be a really hot night there for Bill’s mum winded down the windows in the car. At the side of the road there was speed limit saying “30mph” Bill’s mum didn’t worry about that because she was going 25mph. Bill’s mum did not see this coming there was a speed bump right in front of her and as soon as she realized, she pressed on the brake “hard” but it was not enough, soon the fish was flung into the air and landed into the sea with a big splash!

Meanwhile in the car, Bill and his mum were so sad about, you know who, a name that I can’t even repeat in the story anymore only Bill and his mum can. “I want my fish back!” cried Bill as loud as he could. “Don’t worry I’ll get you a new one and even better too.” “No I want my fish back!”

Meanwhile under the sea Bill’s fish wasn’t finding it easy as well. “Bill, Bill where are you?” Bill’s fish was scared as another fish said, “Hello young fish you look very plump and tasty” licking his lips at him “who are you and what do you want” Bill’s fish replied with a shaky voice. “I want some dinner and you look so tasty!”……………….

OOOOH… That’s scary..

And what would you say the competition tells us about Storynory listeners?

It’s hard to say if the competition entrants exactly represent our listeners, but I can say that up until about the age of eight, there seems to be a fairly even split between boys and girls .

The biggest group of entrants by far was made up of girls aged about nine or ten, and they come from all over the world, but particularly the English speaking countries and South East Asia. We have a lot of listeners in Vietnam, China and South Korea by the way. The contestants are very international in their outlook, they often write about travel, or living abroad. We had an interesting story about visiting Cambodia by Maisie Caldwell aged 8, and another one about Afghanistan. And Maya E. Knierim, for example, has a story about a sea dragon set in the South China Sea.

Another international young lady, Michelle Lee who was born in South Korea, and currently lives in Europe, writes about being at a boarding school overseas.

And what do the stories tell us about our listeners interests?

We can see a great deal of concern for animals with stories about ponies and stray dogs and cats, and quite a lot set in natural surroundings featuring something like a magic wind or a magic peach tree. And here’s a very nice example of that genre. It’s a story about being turned into a Butterfly by Grace Noonan aged .10 years old, and can you read us an Extract Elizabeth?

Have you ever wanted to fly? Well, my friend, Molly Micawits, had this experience. But no, not in a plane, but as a butterfly. Yes, a butterfly! Would you like me to tell you the story? Well, I am sure it will be great, because I’m Molly Micawits!

One day in mid June, I was wondering what I could do. My mom was getting annoyed that I kept asking her silly questions like “Mom, why does everyone HAVE to stay on the ground? Why can’t we float?” All the sudden she told me to go take a walk in the meadow. I decided that that was a pretty good idea so I went to the coat room to get my jacket. I was just starting my walk when I started to get dozy. All the sudden, I fell into the meadow. Luckily, the meadow was nice and soft. I slept for a while until I felt this tingling feeling. I woke up not to find the meadow, but a whole new world. I then realized that I had been transformed into a butterfly.

And there were lots of very good stories in this age range, and unfortunately there isn’t time to mention them all,

So we are getting more grown up now. Are the stories getting more sophisticated?

Yes, the age range of Storynory listeners is quite wide and that’s reflected in the competition entries. The stories by older writers have similar themes, but a bit more form and shape to the plot. and structure.

We’d like to hear one, by Katie Giffin aged 12, and she tells me that it’s based on a conversation with her dad who is a scuba diver. In fact, she’s turned the story around, and told it from the point of view of a clam, and it’s a story within a story, which is quite a sophisticated structure. It’s called USO and if you want to know what U.S.0 stands for, you’ll have to listen on.

Once upon a time in the reefs around the island of St. Thomas, a clam was coming home to his beloved family.

“Honey, I’m home!” Mr. Clam called out as he slid into his sand home. Mrs. Clam, his wife, came out from the kitchen with a green-stained apron on and his six children ran after her from the living room.

“Hi, honey! How did work go?” Mrs. Clam asked.

“Yeah, Daddy, yeah! How did work go?!” His kids surrounded him excitedly.

Mr. Clam, feeling a little claustrophobic, said, “Whoa, whoa! Please, move!” he chuckled.

“Sor-ry.” all the little clams chimed in unison, making the word two-syllables.

“Well I had an . . . interesting day . . . I’ll tell you about it at dinner.” Mr. Clam asked. “Is dinner done yet?”

“Yes, it is. I made plankton soup,” replied his wife.

“Yum! My favorite.” He nodded, seeming to agree with himself. “Let’s sit down and I’ll tell you all about my day while we eat.” The little clams jumped to sit down. Mr. and Mrs. Clam sat down after them.

As Mrs. Clam ladled out the thick, green plankton soup Mr. Clam began his tale. “Today there was a strong current. It was a bit harder for me to cling to the rock while I worked. One especially mean, hungry fish came and with one flawless sweep of his tail, he knocked me right out of my protected spot on the rock.”

At hearing this, all the kids gasped and shouted, “Oh no, Daddy!”

“Yes, he did! Well, as I was saying, the fish knocked me right off the rock! I tumbled, over and over, down to the sandy bottom. I promptly opened my shell to move, when the vicious fish swooped in to eat me! Worse yet, more fish came! There were what seemed to be hundreds of fish swimming all around me. They were flashing their teeth, trying to get at me. I shut my mouth very quickly! The fish continued to swarm all around me, when off in the distance a very strange creature swam up. It was a U.S.O!”

“An unidentified swimming object!” gasped his family in unison.

“The U.S.O’s face was barely visible. It was hidden by a strange plastic . . . thing. That’s the only way to describe it! It had two funny sections each in an oval shape. Then there was a nose shaped section too, under the ovals. That covered the upper part of his face. The lower part was covered by a hose attached to the metal cylinder on his back. The hose was actually stuck in his mouth!” All the clams snickered.

Instead of the usual tail fin that fish have, he had two long, rectangular fins. He swam up to me, shooing away the hungry fish. He gently picked me up and cradled me in his hand. Then he set me back on my work ledge. Amazing how he knew exactly where I was meant to go, isn’t it?”

“Yes, yes.” agreed all the little clams.

“I am very thankful to that U.S.O. Your husband and Daddy wouldn’t be here today without him.” There was a moment of silence to think about the story Mr. Clam had told, and to silently thank that special U.S.O.

At almost that very time, in the hills of St. Thomas, a scuba diver was sitting down to dinner with his family.
“Any interesting happen at work today, Dad?” asked his expectant children.

“Well, I saved a clam . . .

That was USO by Katie Giffin.

It was very amusing. And does the age range go older still?

Yes, we also invited grown ups to enter, though we said they wouldn’t be able to win a Sweetpea3, so it’s just for the honour, so to speak ..

And any stories you liked from the grown ups?

Lots, but there was a character I found particularly endearing. His name is Percival the Dragon, and he’s the creation of Andrew Mitchell who is 35 years old, and he wrote it with Sharon Mitchell who says that she is Andrew’s mother, and so perhaps a bit older. So let’s hear a little bit of Percival of the Dragon.

When he reached a ledge overlooking a flickering mountain valley, Percival stopped.  Peering over the rim, the dragon stared down the slope at the slowly bubbling lava.  Smiling, Percival scrambled over rippling rocks that looked like weird frozen waves on a hard black ocean.  Crouched beside a small runoff pool, he lapped lava like a happy cat with a bowl of cream.  Percival sighed blissfully as the warmth spread through his body.  He stretched his neck and blew some very satisfactory smoke rings.

 The dragon turned away from the volcano.  He was feeling better, and the day seemed less depressing, but he was very hungry.  Percival thought about Sir Maldwyn’s fields, and his mouth began to water as he thought about the cabbages and other tasty food growing there.  He really liked vegetables. 

Thanks Elizabeth. That was an extract from the rather lengthy but very charming Percival The Dragon. Also from the grown up tales, I wanted to mention Tangleweed the Goblin with some very detailed, slightly old world illustrations by Steven Corps. And a special mention goes to the Magic Paisleys by By Carolyn Fay. It has really nice beginning that makes you want to read on.

Hello, my name is Arden Paisley. Yesterday, my mum and I made a special secret discovery.

Do you want to know what it was?

I’ll tell you, but you must not tell anyone, especially not Spoony Anna Gray. She would be so jealous and she’d never speak to me again.

I love the bit about don’t tell anyone, especially especially not Spoony Anna Gray. But we are running out of time, so if you want to find out what the secret is, you’ll have to read The Magic Paisleys by Carolyn Fay on the site.

So we’ve heard that our audience has some very talented writers, but what about the artists among them? Did any send us their own illustrations?

A few did, and they were really very nice indeed. I have to mention the very charming Wave Monkey by Morgan Ross, A very beautifully illustrated and hand written story about squirrels by Shutri Parthasarthy and a story by Cindy Chen with her pencil drawings of an ingenious rat called Ron who uses a needle to fight his enemy, a cat called Anya. And this is the very last extract for today.

Ron raised his needle and pointed it at Anya.

“So, you wanna fight, huh?” Anya let go of his tail.

“Well, of course, if we did, I would win, because, after all, a three year-old rat couldn’t beat an eighteen-year-old cat, could it?”??Ron threw the needle at Anya, but she was too fast and dodged it quickly. Anya picked him up, put him in the sink, stuck cotton in the plug, and turned on the water. She put a rotten banana inside, so that it stank. Then she walked away. “GET ME OUT OF HEEEEERRRRREEEEE!” Ron screamed. Finally, his sister, Felicia heard him and came to his rescue.

So Hugh, you and Bertie have had a hard job choosing the winners.

Yes we have. And in fact there were so many more stories that I would have liked you to read out for us, but the programme would go on and on for ever and ever. We find it just so hard to decide.

Ok, but you’ve got to choose. Which two writers are going to win the Sweetpea3 MP3 Players? ??Well this is really, really hard, but What do you think Bertie? Ok, we very much liked the story about the drop of water by Emma Matheson, aged 7. It’s so short. but it’s just so perfect.

Well done Emma ! And one more Hugh…

Errr Bertie…. help me here…

come on boys…

Well I do find I keep coming back to The Flower by Alainna Wigginton, aged 8. And of course we heard both those stories earlier on in the programme.

Fantastic. A lovely choice. Emma and Alainna we’ll need your addresses so that the Sweetpea3 Toy company can send you the MP3 players.

Yes we’ll be in touch. And I just want to say another big Thank You to Sweetpea3 for helping us encourage young writing. Sweetpea3 is a Canadian company and they’ve won awards for their children’s mp3 player. If you weren’t one of the two lucky winners, you can buy a player via the links on Storynory.com.

So that wraps up the Easter 2010 Story Writing Competition

Except to say that can read all the entries on the site – if you go to Storynory.com look for the You section.

( And it may be a couple of weeks before all the texts go up on the site. I’m sorry about that, but it’s got mixed up with a rather big technical update that we are doing, but they will be appearing in due course. )

So from me Elizabeth,

And from me Hugh

Goodbye.

And over to YOU! Hear Jack and the Beanstalk told by Children in their own voices, and in their own words.

This is the result of the first Storynory Workshop. Natasha helped a group of children prepare to record their own version of this famous fairy tale. For two hours on Sunday afternoon, they developed their parts through games, physical actions and other creative devices. And towards the end of the workshop they gathered around The Storynory Microphone and told us Jack and the Beanstalk in their own way.

We are planning to do more of these workshops in and around London to start with. If you are interested, please email bertie@storynory.com. And we are also interested in hearing from any schools.

(The Little Mermaid Part Two follows shortly !!!!)

Many thanks to our talented group of young story-tellers: Emerald, Chrystal, Isabel, Maria, Jasmine,Eleanor,Joe, Victoria, Alexander,Amelia, Genevieve, Jonah, Lucy, Toby, Eleanor,

I walked into the living room
And much to my surprise
There’s a bump in the rug
Oh my, Oh my!

It is rolling and wriggling and moves from
Side to side Oh what could it be?
I think I’ll run and hide.

But no, I must be brave
I will not run away
This bump in the rug will not chase me away

I go get a broom
To poke it just to see
The bump lets out a gurgle
Then moves towards me

The bump has reached my feet
I am frozen in one place
Suddenly I can feel something tugging on my shoelace.

I crouch down very quietly
To have a little peek
I finally have the courage to go ahead and speak.

“Are you a monster?”

The bump does not answer

But grows bigger and bigger
Until al last……………

POPS OUT MY LITTLE SISTER!

We laugh and we giggle
And both crawl under and hide
Suddenly we hear footsteps
And mom lets out a cry.

There’s a bump in my rug!
Oh my, Oh my!

—

Once there were two girls named Ella-Rose (for short we’ll call her Ella and she’s 7) and Freya, who’s only 3. By now it was Christmas, Ella and Freya rushed down the stairs and instead of presents, they found a note and Freya just said “What does it say?”

“It says” said Ella “that if we go outside we’ll find SANTA’S SLEIGH!!!”

“Why” asked Freya

“Because” said Ella, getting very excited “we’ve been the best children this year!” and they whizzed outside like a flash of lightening.

When they saw the sleigh, they noticed that there were presents with their names on! Ella said to Freya “I know the special words that make children fly on the sleigh!”

Then Ella shouted these words at the reindeer: “Giddy up reindeer, up, up, up. giddy, giddy, giddy, giddy, giddy, giddy up, up, up!” Suddenly, the reindeer started to fly! On and on they flew until they arrived at the north pole…

“HO HO HO!” said a gruff, jolly voice. Ella and Freya looked up to see, a man, all dressed in red with white trimmings, a white beard and hair.

“Who do you think that is?” Ella asked.

“SANTA CLAUSE!” answered Freya.

“Yes!” said Ella.

“Wouldn’t you like to come in my workshop?” asked Santa

“YES PLEASE!!!” answered Ella and Freya together. So of they went. Santa even asked Ella to make some toys and give a hand to the elves and even be in charge of the elves! “What about me?” asked Freya thinking she had to sit down and watch.

“You” said Santa with a smile, “can stop the baby elves from being naughty so if one of them are naughty ring this bell” and as he said it, he passed a small bell to Freya.

When it was break time for the big elves and Ella, Ella felt very proud of herself because she had made: 6 toy dolls, 3 toy trains, 8 rocking horses and 2 dolly dresses and since it was midnight after break time she had to help load the toys into the sleigh. Ella had the job where when nattily, without looking and not very carefully, put a huge sack of toys on the sleigh over and over again whilst Ella had to put the mini sacks into the giant sack! (I wonder how she did that!) Freya was having lots of fun too! And she even had a new friend, her name was Rolip. They were playing happily together until a 4 year old baby bully came up to Rolip and said:

“WHAT DID I SAY TO YOU ABOUT HAVING A FRIEND WHO ISN’T ME!!!”

Freya was very worried about her friend when she remembered the bell so she said to the bully “Stay away from her or I’ll ring this bell!”

“WHAT!” laughed the bully “What’s that bell going to do you big baby!”

“Just watch” said Freya angrily. She rang the bell, Santa came running down the hall “Who is being naughty, Freya?” He asked. “HIM!” shouted Freya pointing at the bully “He is trying to separate me and Rolip because he only wants Rolip to like HIM!” Santa walked over to the bully and cried

“If I told you once I told you 1,000 times, don’t hurt other people OR elves!” And he sent him into the cage where naughty little elves go and he gave 1 meddle each to Rolip and of course, Freya.

Ella wasn’t the only person having trouble, 1 of the elves wanted to steel her favourite present from Santa. THE SIVER ROCKING HORSE!!! Santa hadn’t given HER anything to tell him an elf was being naughty! But luckily she knew where Santa was so, holding onto the information where he was, she ran down the hall way and ended up in the room where Santa keeps all the toys that the elves broke or the ones that the children wouldn’t like . Ella explained to Santa that an elf (who’s name was Boomper) was trying to steel her silver rocking horse. Santa went up to the elf and shouted “GO AND FACE THE WALL IN THE STABLE!!!” and the elf did. So Ella gave Santa a huge hug and then it was time to leave.

Ella and Freya had earned a golden trophy to take: it was full of toys! And Santa even gave them two rocking horses linked together! On the way home this time, Santa came with them for the sleigh ride. Santa did know they had a puppy named Missy so he gave Ella three bags of doggy treats and Freya four bags of brand new toys and they were all for Missy! (Well puppies are children dogs so why can’t they get presents?)

When they got home their parents said, “Where have you been?”

“To Santa’s workshop” replied Ella and Freya together.

“WOW!” cried their parents together so they all shared and unwrapped the presents and the trophy whilst Ella and Freya said thank you to Santa and the elves (except the bullies!).

(who wrote this for her 8 year old grandson)

Afraid of mice? You really wouldn’t have expected it. His father, Tom Cat, was a famous mouse catcher. He had even won a blue ribbon at the county fair for catching the most mice in the shortest time—ten in ten minutes.

And his mother, Allie, was often sent for by the local farmers to clear their barns of mice. Tom’s fur was black with a white chest. Allie was a beautiful gray cat with white paws.

He was born in a warm barn in the Virginia countryside. He was Tom and Allie’s first kitten and they were so proud of him. They named him Kit. Kit’s fur was a combination of his father’s and mother’s: he had small stripes, black and brown.

Tom and Allie had great expectations for Kit. As soon as his eyes were open they started to train him. Allie would push a pinecone or a big leaf onto the barn floor. Then Tom showed him how to quietly sneak up on it, one paw at a time, then POUNCE! Kit copied his father again and again until he got to be very clever at it. He didn’t even mind the stickiness of the pinecone on his paws. He would chase the leaf as the wind blew it across the barn floor, then he would pounce on it just like his father.

Soon it was time for the real thing. Kit had grown fast. By springtime he was almost as big as his father, who said it was about time he caught his own food.

The farmer’s wife was in need of a good mouser. She came out to the barn to fetch Allie and Kit. She brought them into the kitchen that evening and then went to bed.

That night the mice came out of their little holes to eat the crumbs of cheese and crackers that had been left on the floor.

So many mice! First there was one, then three, then ten mice, all running around the kitchen floor and having a great time with the feast of cheese and crackers. Kit had never before seen even one mouse, and here there were at least ten at once. He yowled and made a great leap to the top of the table. He trembled all over.

“Kit!” his mother said. “What’s the matter with you?”

“Mother! I’m afraid of all those mice!” cried Kit. “There are so many of them. And they run around so fast. Maybe they will bite me!”

“Don’t be silly, Kit.” said his mother. “Let me show you what to do.”

And she pounced on one—and ate it right up, tail and all. Then she went for another, but he got away. This frightened the rest of the mice and they scurried back to their holes.

“Now get down off that table and we’ll practice chasing and pouncing again.” Allie said in a firm tone. She was worried. What would Kit’s father say? How could the son of the two best mouse-catchers in the State of Virginia be afraid of mice?

The next night the same thing happened again. Kit leaped on top of the refrigerator this time.

“Just watch me,” said his mother as she pounced on one mouse after another until five mice were dead.

“I can’t help it.” Said Kit. “They run around so fast and I’m afraid they’ll jump on me!”

The next morning Allie had to return to the barn to do her Spring Cleaning. Kit’s father, Tom, had gone on a hunting trip with three of his friends from a neighboring farm. Kit was alone in the house. Maybe Kit would learn to catch mice by himself. Maybe not.

As soon as his mother left, and after the mice had gone back to their hiding places, Kit began to explore the house. What a pleasant place it was! If only he could always live there—and if only the mice stayed in their holes all the time. He cautiously climbed the stairs to the second floor. There were three doors, but only one was open. Kit went in.
There was a boy sleeping in the bed. Kit jumped on the bed and gently put his paw on the boy’s head. The boy woke up and laughed. “What a beautiful cat!” he said and stroked Kit’s fur. This had never happened to Kit before. It was heaven.

The boy picked up Kit and took him down to the kitchen where he set out a saucer of cream. This was a new taste for Kit. He licked it all up.

Then the farmer came into the kitchen. “We still have mice in the house. I could hear them scurrying around all night. If this cat doesn’t catch mice we’ll have to get another one that does. I can’t afford to keep a useless cat!”

“Oh please Dad,” said the boy. “Let’s give him a chance. He’s such a lovely cat and I’m sure he will catch the mice soon.”

The farmer’s wife came into the kitchen to make breakfast. “We could try him out for a day or two and see if he catches the mice. His mother always got rid of the mice in my house in just a few days.”

So the farmer agreed to give Kit two days to get rid of the mice.

That night Kit curled up in a chair in the kitchen and waited for the mice to appear. He would try as hard as he could to catch the mice and not be afraid. He wanted to live with the boy in this wonderful house that was so much nicer than the barn.

But it happened again. When the mice came out of their holes and started running around the kitchen, Kit was frightened and again he jumped on top of the refrigerator.

In the morning the farmer came down to the kitchen and announced “One more day! If the mice aren’t gone tonight, the cat will have to go!”

Kit was very sad when he was put into the kitchen that night. If cats could cry he would have cried himself to sleep. But he couldn’t sleep. He kept thinking about the boy and about how much fun it would be to play with him all day, and maybe sleep with him in his bed at night.

The mice were just creeping out of their holes when a great loud thunderstorm frightened them back in hiding. Suddenly Kit smelled a strange smell. It wasn’t the smell of mice. It was something else. Like the bonfire the farmer had set in his field last fall to burn the brush from the woods. That was scary for the cats—they had run away to the safety of the barn.

Kit knew that something was wrong. That smell did not belong in a house. Quickly he jumped off the chair and ran up to the boy sleeping in his bed. “Wake up! Wake up!” Kit licked the boy’s face. He meowed as loudly as he could.

The boy woke up. “What’s the matter?” he groaned. And then the boy smelled the burning. “Fire!” he yelled and ran to wake up the farmer and his wife. The farmer quickly called the fire department while the farmer’s wife and the boy carrying Kit raced downstairs and out to the back yard. Soon the farmer joined them.

Soon they could hear the fire trucks racing and screaming their alarms on the highway. The fire fighters rushed into the house and then up to the roof. The lightning had hit the roof and started a fire there. They pulled the big hose from the truck and shot the water up to the top of the roof. The fire was out. The house was saved.

The family was still watching the fire fighters when the fire chief came down from the roof and told them the fire was out. “If you hadn’t called us right away you would have lost your house and probably your lives!” he said.

“The cat! It was the cat who woke me up! He saved out lives!” shouted the boy.

The next day the local newspaper reported the story of the cat who saved the lives of the family. The story was picked up by other papers all around the country. Reporters called to find out more about this famous cat and take pictures of the boy holding his life-saving cat. And the Society for Heroic Animals presented Kit with a Silver Medal, the first ever awarded to a cat.

But the happiest moment for both the boy and Kit was when the farmer announced to the family “This cat has saved our lives. He will always have a home with us. And if we need to get rid of the mice, we’ll find another cat to do that!”

So that is the story of the cat who was afraid of mice. Tom Cat and Allie were so proud of their son. They told all their cat friends about Kit’s medal and they never again mentioned anything about mice.

Aline, who often leaves comments on Storynory, has sent us a story that she wrote herself. Thanks Aline! We really like your story about a magical animal called a rea.

If you have a story, send it to us for consideration, and if we like it, we will publish the text here. Or send us a picture if you prefer. Either way, it MUST be your own work!!!

Unfortunately, we can’t ask Natasha to read all the stories that you send us, but every now and then we might pick one or two for her to read – perhaps at Christmas or on another special occasion.

Here’s Aline’s lovely and exciting story.

………………………………..

There once was girl named Molly.  She was a normal girl but one day something extraordinary happened that made the girl’s life change for ever. She was walking outside and came upon a stone that looked just like a rock. “Hmm”, thought Molly, this must be something that the Indians left behind. (But little did she know that what she was holding in her hands was a egg of a rea) Molly took it into her hut and hanged the strange rock up on to her wall (Molly was fascinated with Indians and every thing to do with them). Days past and to Molly’s surprise the stone was turning redder every day!

“Oh! I wonder what the Indians did with this stone”, thought Molly curiously. One day the stone cracked and what came out of it was a truly extraordinary animal! It was the size of a matchbox! Though it looked quite dangerous and frightening. It had claws, teeth and 4 legs. It had bright blue strips dawn its back. The animal said “PIP!” Molly backed away. But the animal moved closer to Molly, and each time she backed away! Molly soon plucked up her courage and went up to the animal and patted it softly on the head. The animal made a purr and climbed up Molly’s arm! (of course it was small enough to do that). “Oh! You darling creature!” she said, noticing that the strange animal did not do any harm.

A month or so went by, and the animal was about 20 pounds and was the size of an oven! Molly would feed it and groom it, but the strangest thing that happened in her everyday life was that when she went to sleep, she had strange dreams that the animal was talking to her!

One day in the middle of autumn Molly dreamed that the animal was saying to her:

“I am a rea”,

“But what is a rea?” asked Molly in her dream.

“A rea is a creature like me”, said the animal. “You must name me though!” it demanded.

“Umm, but I don’t know what to call you!” Said Molly.

“Look inside me,” said the Rea.

“But, But, But..” said Molly.

Soon she found her self in her room with the rea asleep on her rug: “I will name you… Drey,” said Molly.

The animal made a roar of disapproval. Then the animal flushed it eyelashes. “Oh, I get it you are a girl!” The creature nodded. “Ok then… Thimble, I will name you Thimble.”

The animal purred, and nodded. But in that instant Thimble was surrounded by fire! Molly was trying to see Thimble through the fire. “Thimble are you ok!?”

” I am fine,” said a voice  in her head, which she recognized was Thimble’s voice. Molly spotted Thimble through the fire and she was indeed turning the color of a thimble! Soon the fire began to go dawn and in its place was Thimble but she was not blue as she was before, she was silver!
“Climb on my back,” said Thimble. Molly did as she was told .

“Where we going?” Asked Molly.

“We are going on adventures to far off places,” responded Thimble in Molly’s mind. “Now hold on. You don’t want to fall off and die,” added Thimble,  still in Molly’s mind.

“Die?”, asked Molly.

“Afraid are you? Here we go!”Said Thimble, in a crouch position. And within a flash, Thimble leaped through the window, and when they touched ground, Thimble ran like lightning.

And that’s how Molly and Thimble went to places that no other humans ever had feasted their eyes on.

……

Aline promises another installment of her story about Molly and the rea.   Bertie is really looking forward to reading it!