Straight from the Kids: Short Stories, Vol. 2

THE FOUR TURTLES NAMED: SCARLET, HUMPFREY, RALPH & JACKIE

Once upon a time there were two turtles. One was a boy and one was a girl. Their names were Humpfrey and Scarlet. Scarlet and Humpfrey met at a lake. Not just any lake, a special lake. When they saw each other, they knew they wanted to be friends. A couple days later they saw each other again at the very same lake.

The next day Scarlet saw another turtle but it was not Humpfrey. Then when she same back Humpfrey was there. Scarlet said she had exciting news. Scarlet said she was going to have twin turtles. One was going to be a boy and one was going to be a girl. But Scarlet didn’t have a dad for the twins, so…Scarlet said, “Humpfrey, will you be the dad for the twins?”

Humpfrey said, “Yes.” He was so happy. He couldn’t wait to see his son and daughter. The boy’s name is Ralph and the girl’s name is Jackie.

—Nicholas

20 FEET TALL

Once upon a time there was a boy named Joey. He was very short so other kids teased him. This made him sad. He wished he could grow so tall that he could call the kids who teased him short!

One night he was walking home when he saw a green light over the woods. He decided to investigate. He found a bright, green glowing crystal. He tied it around his wrist and immediately fainted. When he woke up in the morning, he felt slightly uncomfortable. Standing up, he was as tall as a tree which was 20 feet tall! “Wow, this is awesome,” said Joey.

Joey found out he could return to his regular size by taking off the crystal. So he took it off and started walking. That was when he saw that a building was on fire. He saw a little kid screaming for help. Joey knew he had to act fast so he put on his crystal and grew 2- feet tall. He rescued the kid and gave him to his mother. Now Joey knew his destiny.

Aliens from the planet Zorgoss were looking for a green crystal. But nobody knew about Joey’s secret so the aliens were preparing their primary weapon to vaporize Joey’s city—Kranus.

Now a good alien came to Joey’s house and unlocked his crystal to level Black. Now Joey could grow 40 to 100 feet tall. He grew so tall that he grabbed the Zorgossian spaceship and threw it deep into space.

The good alien took back the crystal but made Joey taller. Joey lived happily ever after.

—-Julian, 3rd grade

Straight from the Kids: Short Stories

Short story submissions are starting to roll in, so without further adieu…

THE DINOSAUR
I woke up and saw a dinosaur in my backyard! I went to the backyard and hugged the dinosaur. I gave him some chicken noodle soup. He liked the soup and ate it all up. I played tag with the dinosaur. Then I have him a goodbye hug. He is my friend.

—Sarah, Kindergarten

SPACE VOYAGE
Once there was a boy named Henry. He had bought a rocket from NASA and was going to pick it up. When he got there, he asked if he could launch it at Cape Canaveral. They said yes.

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1—the rocket was about to launch with Henry in it! The loudspeaker suddenly turned on, “0, and here we have liftoff!” Smoke came up around the rocket, and the ship started to move. Two seconds later, the loudspeaker boomed on again with the speeds the rocket was on. As soon as the rocket hit space, it flew faster than any other ship towards a nearby star. The loudspeaker turned on again for the last time. It said that the first boy in space started a voyage toward the nearest star, Alpha Centauri and its planets.

Henry started controlling his ship towards the first planet. He was just starting to land when a lightning bolt yanked the ship to a second planet! He crash-landed on the planet, and tons of small human-like green aliens started pulling on the windshield to meet Henry. They took him to their President’s house. They had a dinner of meatballs, spaghetti, pizza, and cake. After dinner, Henry asked them if they knew how to fix rockets so that he could fly bacl to Earth. That night, he and 100 aliens went outside and started to take apart the ship. Two hours later, the new ship was built.

When he was about to leave, he told two of the aliens who helped him that they could come back to Earth too. They started getting ready all of the new ship’s supplies. At the same time, Henry told all of the others goodbye. Then they got into the rocket ship and sped home to Earth. When they arrived, the President had the aliens live safely, and he gave Henry a medal for going to the star and planets and coming back with some alien life.

—Adam, 3rd grade

Helping the Earth

As Earth Day draws closer, read over these fun facts and encourage your kids to think about ways that they can help the environment!

Making paper from recycled materials can result in 74% less air pollution and 35% less water pollution, rather than making paper from wood pulp.

Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.

Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour! Most of them are thrown away!

Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours–or the equivalent of a half a gallon of gasoline.

The average household throws away 13,000 separate pieces of paper each year. Most is packaging and junk mail.

Every year, each American throws out about 1,200 pounds of organic garbage that can be composted.

These facts come from Recycling-Revolution.com. The facts have been compiled from various sources including the National Recycling Coalition, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Earth911.org.

More About Composting
Food waste makes up a lot of what we throw away every day. To reduce the amount of trash you produce, consider starting a compost pile with your kids! This guide, designed specifically for kids, explains different methods of composting, and also provides instructions on making bird feeders from recycled containers!

Recycling Links for Kids
Benefits of Recycling
Green Planet 4 Kids
Kids Recycling Zone
Recycle Works: Kids

Earth Day Program

Don’t forget to register for our Earth Day program at the Westergard Library!

We will be making terrariums! Once your terrarium is made, you will be able to plant some seeds, take it home, and watch the plants grow!

Thursday, April 21 at 2pm
Grades 2 and up
Westergard Library

Register by calling 732-752-1166, ext. 14, or register in person at the Children’s Information desk at Kennedy or Westergard.

Calling All Writers…

Click the image below to view a larger version. We will be accepting submissions until the end of April. Can’t make it to the library to hand in your story? E-mail it to rlazzaro@piscatawaylibrary.org.