Bruce Black, professional author, spent three weeks with a group of bright young minds discussing stories and how they come to be. From this discussion these imaginative young ones wrote the following stories: Ali Age 10 It’s Feb. 24 and I’m in the car going to see the pandas at the zoo! I’m reading the Harry Potter books that my Mom bought for me, since I love reading! The car stopped and I got out. Something told me it was going to rain. It was either the dark clouds or the may be because my dad was mad and cranky and it made the air feel gloomy! I don’t know. It turned out that I was right. We ended up getting stuck in the reptile house! The place I least wanted to be! After awhile I got bored because there were only about 3 snakes, 4 frogs, and a couple of lizards. After what felt like a million hours we finally got to move on. We saw a ton of things bearcats, baby Pandas, otters, Elephants, and we actually saw a llama being born! We were just about to see the monkey when I heard a shout! One of the workers came hurtling my way. I jumped out of the way just in time to see the worker collide with a popcorn seller, and all the popcorn spilled and children ran! My mom helped him up and asked what was wrong! He said, “The chimps, lemurs, and orangutans escaped!” The worker was on the verge of crying. Well, at least it looked like that! All of a sudden someone screamed! Obviously it was because they ran into a chimp! I told the worker I would try to help him and told my mom I would be right back. Luckily I got away before my mom could ask where I was going! As fast as my legs could carry me I ran to the animal kitchen and grabbed their favorite foods! Then I made a trail from the cages to the middle of the park! Then I hid in the bushes near the cages! Pretty soon I Saw a lemur! The lemur was eating my food trail but when it got into the cage it sensed I was going to close it and leapt out! I felt disgruntled. Luckily I had back up plans! Yea me! My second plan was this: I would send all the workers in charge of the monkey and ape area into hiding in cracks and crannies! And then when the monkeys walked by, the workers would grab it and then transport it. To their cages! Great plan, right? Only problem was that when we got hold of the pesky monkeys I found out that the cage latch was broken! Someone was a sneaky cage opener! I did not want to ask everyone in the zoo if they opened the cages! That would take a life time! But then if I don’t ask anyone at all, then I would never find out who the pesky culprit was! I decided to ask the workers personal questions! First I went back to my mom asking her what the workers name was that told her the monkeys escaped! She said it was Tom Klide. I thanked her and ran to one of the gift shops and asked if I could use the public address (PA) system. She said no problemo. I asked on the speakerphone to speak to Tom Klide the zoo worker! The workers said they would send him straight to the “lucky giftshop” I guess that’s the name of the store! I asked Tome what time he noticed the monkeys were on the loose! He said close to 4:00. I asked Tom what his job was as a worker. He said he was the monkey keeper! I thanked him and thought over what he said. First of all I thought it was odd that he noticed the monkeys were on the loose around 4:00 when my watch told me that It was raining and thundering at 4:10! Secondly it would be easier for him to break the lock because he had all the keys to the monkeys! I went to the zoo manager! I told him all my suspicions! He ordered Tom Klide on the PA system to report immediately to his office. Tom walks in with a very grim look on his face. The manager confronted tom with all the information that I gave him. Very reluctantly Tom confessed that he wanted more attention and broke the lock and released the monkeys so that he could blame it on someone else and be the hero! The manager said that he would give Tom another job with less responsibility. He excused Tom and turned to me! He complimented me on my fantastic detective work. He game me a family pass that will last 2 years. I was very grateful and I told if he needed any assistance I would be happy to help. He said I certainly saved the day! I went back to my mom and showed my treasures! When we were headed back I stopped and said WE WILL RETURN! Christopher “I’m going to bed,” said Chris. As running back Chris was number 1. Too bad he does not have money. “Chris, wake up” said Mom. “Man, oh man. I need some money and I need it now.” “Time for practice,” said Mom. “I need some money.” “Well, you have practice, then you eat, then take a bath and then you go to bed.” “I know.” “Have a good time in practice.” “Coach,” he said as he walked on the field, “Football is in my way to getting money.” “Well, we need you,” “I know, I know. Can I take a break?” “Well, just for one week.” “How was practice?” Mom asked. “Good,” Chris said, “Coach said I can take a break so that I can make some money. Can we stop at Wal –Mart? I need some candy.” As they drove home he posted signs saying, “Candy $1.00 a bag” He had a million bags of candy That day he made $100,000. Monster House by Raven On a hot summer three children, Mary, Andrew, and Mike, lived across the street from an old abandoned and haunted house. One day Mike got curious and invited his two friends to go check out the house. So they went inside and there was this HUGE hole with green goo inside it. S So they continued on and Mary saw something suspicious. So she called Mike and Andrew and said, “I see a dead woman on the floor!” “Let’s check it out!” Mike said. “Go touch it!” Mike demanded. “NO WAY!” Refused Andrew. So they went and they saw two ghosts sitting there drinking coffee. And all of a sudden the ground started to shake and there was a HUGE wave coming toward them. “Run!” Andrew screamed. And the wave washed the children out. And ever since they NEVER went back there again. Shonasti Age 9 Once upon a time a cat was so happy that it ran so fast and it fell asleep and a dog bit it’s tail and the cat go so angry and the dog ran away so that cat went back to sleep and said ZZZZZZ The End Verdaugha the Cruel by Nathan Age 13 The creatures of Redwall were having their annual mid-summers feast. They had some visitors from the mountainous lands of Kalimador. The visitors were pandas, which the dibbuns crowded around for they had never seen pandas before, let alone bears. There were four pandas Riko, Ming, Ling, and Kenji. Riko and Ming were the adults while Ling was Kenji’s older sister. They had brought sushi which Skipper of theotters loved because of the fish! While everyone was enjoying the food. Riko pulled Arven aside. He explained that the reason they were at Redwall was because of an albino red panda named Verdaugha. Verdaugha was a seer who had a vast and powerful army of rats. His rat army wore armor made of the bones of their victims. He enslaved the other pandas to build a fortress inside a volcano that was not active but had lave inside it. Verdaugha had learned he could cast protection wards on iron cauldrons so he could fill them with lava to dump on his enemies. For a few minutes Arven thought over the information and then said, “I have come to a conclusion. Verdaugha was in a foul mood for his fortress was not finished when it was supposed to be. He would have all the fun of torturing the slavemaster he thought as he walked down the corridors of Knurl (his fortress). When he arrived at the torture ledge (which was outside so everyone could hear the screams) Sumff the slave master was tied to two posts. “How do you wish to die?” asked Verdaugha. “Of old age,” said Smuff hopefully. “Fat chance,” stated the panda. “Snerg get five slaves.” Snerg the rat captain ran inside. Verdaugha turned his attention to Smuff. “Smuff why is it that you can whip a slave but you can’t build a fortress in time?” “I tried!” “Not hard enough.” A few minutes later Snerg came with five slaves. “You five are here to whip Smuff to death. Snerg give them some whips,” said Verdaugha. “Proceed.” Verdaugha laughed as Smuff’s screams died into the night. Arven said, “I’ll take Skipper and some otters and we will travel to Salamadastronm then we’ll take some hares and travel to Kalimador.” So Arven, Skipper, and many otters set out the next day before dawn to Salamadastron. At Salamadastron the hares of the Long Patrol had already heard of Verdaugha and had 500 hares on the march to Kalimador. On the way to the mountain Arven came across a panda who had been to Salamadastron. He told Arven that almost all the hares were marching to Kalimador. Arven told Skipper that they needed to go to Kalimador right away. In a weeks time they found the hares who were six days from Kalimador. In eight days they sighted the fortress. At the fortress scouts (who are supposed to catch runaway slaves) said many hares and otters were coming straight towards the fortress. Verdaugha told Snerg to get the catapults ready and to assemble the army. The hares and otters charged as soon as they were in 100 yards of the fortress, but by then the rats had already assembled. Arven who was in the front lines was hit by a sling stone fell limp to the ground. When he awoke he was in the battlefield and he saw a white shape moving away from the fortress. Arven ran towards it and saw that it was Verdaugha. Arven ran faster and jumped and slashed at Verdaugha (who had not heard him). The next moment Verdaugha’s head hit the ground. When lilac mice attack! by Esther The rat world was in turmoil. The lilac were-mice were back! In a sudden turn of avents a were wolf had bitten someones pet lilac mouse! Now, this one, particular mouse, (named “cheesy”) was on the loose with a gang of followers! Now, deep in the heart of rat civilization, there lived a young rat named Mariel. She was a black hooded dumbo, renown for her quickness of wit. She had heard of the were-mouse attack, and was determined to stop the mouse in his tracks! She called up her two buddies, Manny and Juliet, and began to think about a plan. At first, Ideas were out like “silver bullet,” and “sharp steak,” but Mariel said that it would be altogether too hard to take down a cow, and who would go up to the human world for a pistol? Eventually, the three rats formulated a plan. Mean while, the lilac were-mouse had struck again! Cheesy had recruited 10 rats, and 12 mice. But Mariel’s plan was allready in action. Juliet and Manny were laying harmless rat traps that would zap the were rats back into there normal form, but because they would not work on mice they just scattered cheese on the ground. They had a special plan for cheesy though, and it involved a silver mouse trap baited with Parmesain. The army ran through, and everything went according to plan. The rats ran into the rat traps and were zapped, and the mice ate the cheese. Cheesy took the bait on the mouse trap and got a silver pin through his heart. The only thing that remained was to notify the police. When they came, after investigating the scene, the police said to Mariel, “Thank you for your servie, but why the cheese?” Mariel simply answered, Cheese in large amounts kills mice. A Year later, Mariel, Manny and Juliet went into the detective business and had a successful career. And the moral of this story clearly is to NEVER EVER feed your pet mouse cheese.