A Day in the Life Competition Winners

A bit thanks to our sponsor, Wondery, and their podcast, Little Stories Everywhere. In each episode, Virginia Madsen and Robbie Daymond read an original children’s tale. These imaginative stories explore the exciting world of Griffins and they even then they even fly you to Cloudtopia: The Land of Unicorns.

Hello, This is Jana and Bertie

And we are here with the winners of our Day in the Life Writing competition. We asked you to write a story about a famous person who had a bad day. Thank you to everyone for all your wonderful entries. We are going to read out as many as we can. It’s always hard to pick the winners, but in the end, we have to make some choices … here’s what we came up with.

The First Day in the Life is written By Grace Laverty from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. Grace is 7 years old.

Once upon a time there lived two famous Rockstar sisters called Skullz and Midnight - also known as 'The Rock Twins'. They lived in their penthouse at the very top of the tallest hotel in New York, 'Hotel Fancy-pants'. Skullz had bright pink hair and Midnight had purple hair - together they were 'The Rock Twins'.
The sisters were getting ready for a big festival that they were going to perform in called 'The Festival of Rock'. They put on their sparkly rock leotards - Skullz wearing pink and Midnight wearing purple - and made their way to the stage.
Just as the concert was about to start - disaster struck as lightning hit the stage sending sparks flying everywhere. The crowd didn't realise that this was lightning and thought that it was all a part of the show.
Midnight screamed into her microphone "Everyone! Run! This is a real storm... make your way to the dance studio at Hotel Fancy-pants!"
The crowd ran with Skullz and Midnight following, instruments in hand. They got to the dance studio and The Rock Twins performed there and the crowd went wild. It was their best show yet!
They all lived happily ever after and The Rock Twins learned to always check the weather before any performances.

Grace writes…

We really LOVE Storynory, I would be the happiest girl in the world if you picked my story. Thank you. Well, Grace, we really liked the way your story was very visual and we could easily imagine Skullz and Midnight on stage when the lightning struck.
____________

And we should give an honourable mention to Grace’s sister Anna, who is just five years old, who wrote a story about a princess who had a very bad day when she foolishly played with a box of matches.

Our other winning writers are a little older. The next is by Nora Kay aged 9, who lives in Eswatini -

One Very Different Day

One cloudy, black day in the morning, one very small chubby person with a dash of green skin was standing in the bathroom getting for the day. Senator Bob Bobbing was putting on his red coloured wig, already dreaming about the great day he would have with all the people who loved him because he was so famous. Bob went to his kitchen to get his cereal that makes you look green. Bob sat down on his chair which had crazy cracks all over it. He had already gulped the whole bowl and the table looked very messy with crumbs of the green cereal. Bob needed to get ready for his famous work. He packed his bag and he was off.

Bob jumped out of his car at work and said, ‘Hey Fellas’ with a squeaky voice. But, the people did not say ‘Hey, what’s up? it’s good to see you’ like normal. Bob thought it was rather odd. He figured out that they just did not hear him

When Bob was in his fancy office he sat down on his beautiful leather chair and opened his computer that said Rich Famous Guy on the back. Bob did not want to work today, so he closed his laptop and went for a walk on his favourite road, ‘Famous and Rich Guy Avenue’. Bob was not feeling alright, he was wondering about things that happened earlier today. He still had that feeling stuck in his head, he realized that he was having a bad day. Bob walked on and saw something that he wanted, a friend. Here was the answer to his problem. If nobody at the office was talking to him, all he had to do was buy a new friend. He could do that because he was rich. He walked down to where the sign said ‘Friends for Sale’. Bob reached for his money and said ‘One friend, please.’ The person said, ‘This one will be good for you, he’s called Maya Carson.’ Bob was so excited he kissed the seller guy! Maya and Bob walked on having joy until Maya kicked him in the face!

Bob said, ‘Ouch!” Bob had blood running down his face. But Maya just ran into the bushes. Bob felt the most hurt he had ever felt. He had just bought a friend who hit him in the face! What kind of friend was that?

Bob slowly walked home with the blood dripping down his face. He wiped his face with a towel. At last, Bob got to work, again nobody said ‘hi’ to him. Nobody said, ‘Hello, how was your walk?”

So Bob sat at his desk. He thought deeper and deeper until realized something he had never realised before. If people like you because you are rich and famous, they are not true friends. The best way to make true friends is to be nice to people, and they will be nice to you.

So Bob tried his new approach. Instead of expecting everyone to love him because he was rich and famous, he took an interest in people, tried to help them, and be nice to them.

Bob was friendly and people were friendly back. It was so simple. Bob was happy for as long as he lived!

Eswatini is a small kingdom in the Middle of Southern Africa, and I’m sort of connected to it, because I spent the first two years of my life there. Back then it had another name, it was called Swaziland.
Sadly, I don’t remember anything about Swaziland. I was too young. But I do know that I had a nurse called Regina and that there was an avocado tree at the bottom of our garden. I ate avocado as baby food, and I love it to this day.

Well, a big well done to Nora Kay for her story about Senator Bob Bobbing who thought he could buy friends because he was rich and famous. What’s our next story Jana?

A Day in the Life
By Elina Radia, age 10
Jonathan Thomas had spent a lot of his adulthood auditioning for the London Wind Orchestra. Every year, he’d return home disgruntled and grumpy. Every year he’d receive the same news: “We have enough flautists at the moment—come back next year!” and get the door slammed in his face. Every year that is, until Jonathan was 32.
Apparently, the lead flautist suddenly got arthritis in his hands and wasn’t able to play anymore. The man at the desk took his name and ran into the audition room. That year, Jonathan went home smiling and clutching a binder of music sheets.
Every year from then, Jonathan performed exceptionally in the orchestra. And soon, he climbed up to the role of lead flautist. He was showered with coins, (one person even gave him their credit card!) and he always went home grinning, and his pockets jangling.
The other performers couldn’t help being a little jealous of Jonathan. True, his music was the most beautiful and fluttery of the whole orchestra, but he could be a little snobbish at times.
He was often heard saying, “My music is the best of the best. It’s not fair that I have to perform with you commoners!”
Of course, the conductor was oblivious to Jonathan’s rudeness. He’d go babbling to anybody who’d listen; “Jonathan Thomas is the best flautist we’ve had in decades!” He even talked the manager into paying Jonathan an extra £100 per hour! The other members of the orchestra objected quite a lot to this change in salary, but the conductor saw no sense in resetting Jonathan’s salary back to standard.
Because of all the extra money, Jonathan soon became a trillionaire. He was even able to buy a ruined castle and pay for the work done to turn it into a safe place to live. Soon he thought he had enough money and retired from the orchestra. He bought himself several mansions and castles, and hired a team of robots for servants. He had no family so he lived alone.
One day, forty years later, while Jonathan was lounging on a sofa munching on creamy chocolate cookies, a servant scuttled in holding an envelope. “This arrived for you today, sir,” he mumbled and scurried out of the room.
Jonathan tore open the envelope and squinted at the writing. It read:

To Mr. Jonathan Thomas,
You may or may not know of the christening for the new Princess born a month ago. All celebrities such as yourself are expected to come. Please bring along your flute as you are expected to play. The christening is taking place on Sunday 1st December, at Buckingham Palace.
Sincerely,
Edgar Edwardshire
Butler to HRH Queen Elizabeth II
Jonathan’s face went pale and then a sickly green. “Flute? FLUTE! They want me to play the flute?” he stammered. Then he let out an anguished yell, and Mr Johnson, the butler ran in. “Are you all right, sir?” he asked.
“Johnson,” Jonathan muttered, “Send a letter to the palace saying I can’t go to the christening. Say I have to meet with the King of France or something. I can’t go!”
Mr Johnson scurried away and returned a few minutes later. The letter clutched in his hand read:

Dear Mr. Edgar Edwardshire,
I am sorry to inform you that I have an important meeting with the King of France on the day of the christening. Please send my regards to Her Majesty.
Sincerely,
Sir Jonathan Thomas
Mr Johnson sent it off to the post office the next day. The reply came back the following evening:
To Jonathan Thomas,
They don’t have kings in France anymore. Come to the christening on Sunday 1st December.
Edgar Edwardshire
Jonathan screamed, cried and kicked, but no matter what he did, he still had to go to the christening.
Sunday 1st December dawned snowy and cold. Jonathan dressed in his best suit and tie and trotted downstairs. He gobbled up a hasty scrambled eggs on toast, grabbed his flute and a random music score and ploughed through the deep, fluffy snow into his electric limousine.
The driver floored the accelerator and zoomed out of Cornwall and into London. 3 hours later, they arrived at Buckingham palace. Jonathan tried to take as long as he could to get out of the car, but he still arrived on time.
The ceremony passed in a blur, and before he knew it, Jonathan was asked to play his flute. “Um, I-I left it in the c-car!” he stuttered, and flew out of the palace, leaving his flute on his chair. He was stopped by the Queen, who said very sternly, “Mr. Thomas, we have asked you to play your flute, which you have left on your chair.”
Jonathan gulped, picked up his flute, opened it and made a terrible attempt at putting it together. Then, he took a deep breath and blew. The sound he produced was like a very loud, very wet, raspberry.
A gasp went round the room like a Mexican Wave. Every guest there had heard Jonathan play in the orchestra and they knew his sound had been beautiful. Nobody knew what had happened until someone shouted, “Jonathan Thomas has forgotten how to play! BOO!”
Everyone started booing Jonathan and pelting him with fruit and vegetables brought in from the kitchen. He ran down the aisle, with food coming at him from all sides. He slammed the door of his limousine and the driver sped back to Cornwall. Jonathan had learned his lesson: always tell the truth.

And that was A day in the Life by Elina Radia. We really liked the story because a flautist seems such an unlikely person to be super-rich and famous these days. It’s kind of classy and quaint. It’s also very well written. So well done Elina and special mention to your younger brother Leon, who wrote about a famous palaeontologist, also quite an unusual profession.

And here’s Bertie with some special mentions:

Special mentions go to Lina, who wrote about Lila Jones and her dog Rocky,
Richar Tai from Beijing who wrote about Madame Jeek and her car that dived down to another world, Eviey, who wrote about Lord John and a spacecraft, Annalise Buss, aged 5, from San Franciso who wrote a funny story about a cowboy who did everything backwards and caught the Hiccups, Abigail Herman, who wrote a very imaginative story about a Flamingo’s coronation, and Benjamin Dworin who invented a colourful character called Flashy Tashy. And a special mention to Marie Chase VanderKaay who wrote about a rich schoolgirl called Dorothy Bell-Dougle. We really liked the story but it was a bit long.