Stellar Stories #AloneTogether

Welcome
to Stellar Stories,
our magazine for kids and
the adults who love them!
This StoryMaker edition contains
short stories written and
illustrated by students in
Toronto, inspired by their
own lives and fuelled by
their imaginations!
©2020 Story Planet
Cover art by Sabrina Tu | www.breetwo.com
Book design by mumblethief | www.mumblethief.com
With thunderous third-planet
thanks to the Ontario Trillium
Foundation for their support!
All rights reserved. No part
of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any
form or by any means, storage
or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from
Story Planet.
An agency of the Government of Ontario
Un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario

Welcome to
For ten years, Story Planet has been wholeheartedly committed to
helping kids write and share their stories. So when the pandemic hit,
we pivoted to meet the extraordinary needs of students and teachers
by taking our workshops online—and to be honest, this was not without
its challenges! From students who lacked computers or stable Wi-Fi, to
learning how to join breakout rooms and chat, to figuring out how long
we could keep 10 kids engaged on-screen (55 minutes, give or take), it
sometimes felt like we spent as much time troubleshooting as writing
stories. But in the end, we did what we always do: we learned together,
and imagined, and created. These pages are a celebration of the wonderful
young authors we had the pleasure and honour of spending these
months with. When we think of our best possible future, it is their voices
and their stories we hear. Enjoy!

We have the honour of being guests on this land, the traditional
lands and waters of the Petun and Wendat Peoples,
the Anishinaabek and Haudenosaunee Confederacies, and
most recently the Mississaugas of the Credit River, as well
as many other Indigenous nations, some of whose names
are no longer remembered. We acknowledge all who
came before us and have travelled the lands and waters of
this territory.
By saying the names of its original keepers, we remember
that this territory continues to be subject to the Dish
with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement
between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and Three Fires
Confederacy of the Anishinaabeg to peaceably share and
care for the resources around the Great Lakes. Today, the
meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many Indigenous
Peoples from across the continent, and we are
grateful to work in the community on this territory.
While reconciliation means different things to each community,
let it compel all of us to move beyond words of
acknowledgement. If it were a word in Anishinaabemowin, it
would be a verb meaning to make right the wrongs, and in
context, to commit to learning the history and responsibility
in the genocide, displacement, and theft of land from the
Indigenous nations across the land known as Canada, and
to continuously decolonize colonial frameworks and roles
that were imposed upon Indigenous nations. We remind
ourselves of how urgently current this history is and that
we all have a choice in how we participate in the treaty
of this place.

Black Lives Matter.
We understand that acts of racism and violence against the Black community are
rampant and perpetuated through systemic oppression, which we have witnessed within
our schools and communities. We also understand that systemic oppression is perpetuated
through silence. Story Planet unequivocally advocates for justice and equity in all
moments and situations in life.
We are a team from diverse cultural backgrounds who knows that racism is not just
rampant in the United States but here in Canada to a degree that is equally systemic
and devastating. We stand in solidarity with the freedom fighters who demand for the
conviction of all four officers who murdered George Floyd. We demand justice for Regis
Korchinksi Paquet. We demand justice and dignity for all Black and Indigenous lives—
both those that have been lost, and those that are still here, fighting to overturn these
systems of white supremacy. We support the calls to dismantle and defund the criminal
justice system, specifically police and prison institutions, as it currently stands. We also
support the redistribution of police funds to community organizations who are working in
health, education, and legal services, to eliminate deep societal inequities.
Story Planet believes in action, and we are committed to doing the following individually,
and as an organization:
• To stand up to and confront acts of racism both explicit and subconscious by committing
to speaking out
• To continue helping children tell and share their stories
• To continue prioritizing our work in neighbourhoods that are most vulnerable to
these inequities
• To help children see the value of themselves and their lived experiences
• To continue conversations and to share resources internally that allow us to; support
those in pain, confront our own privilege and biases, educate ourselves on racism
and white supremacy, and use these reflections to inform all of our work with
young people.
• To work with partners to amplify the voices of young people, and work to dismantle
systems of oppression.
• To better prepare ourselves with words and concrete actions to respond to acts of
racism and inequity we see in the schools and in the stories we read and tell
• To investigate how to combat systemic inequality in the education system and
advocate for deep changes
• To reflect on the story structures children are taught that implicitly and explicitly
maintain systems of power, on how Story Planet is a part of that, and on how we can
work to shift that paradigm.

Ms. Kent’s and Ms. Dicenso’s classes
10 • Arthika Surendiran The Adventures of Petal and Tackle
14 • Ceylin KaracanDoctor Vefa
16 • Cindy PheRosie and Rubicca
18 • Delland Jr BantonThe Family
20 • Elizabeth Thang The Reality Of A Planet Of Doughnuts
24 • Emine KaraalpSlippery Soap
25 • Haneen ShalloThe Video
27 • Jerome Mensah Missing Parents
29 • Long HoangLo and The Secret Tea
31 • Maya RamsinghThe Nurse
32 • Varshiga NagapramanArial and the Forest of Gems
36 • Hassan and CailynDonut Planet
38 • Emine and ArthikaSlippery Soap vs. Sicky
40 • Long and Ceyline Legend of the Money Stone
41 • Jeannea and Johanna The Potion
Mr. Ahmad’s Class
44 • Adom Baffour Life with the Apocalypse (parts 1 & 2)
47 • Angelina Latchminarine-GonsalvesThe Enchanted Forest
49 • Baran Firooznam Lizzie’s Special Diamond Ring
51 • Naja Jack-RichardsonPatchie Making Friends in Dogland
52 • Osazee Otaniyen-ErhaborAccusation
55 • Chimadbi Peace Onyeama How Tom and His Friends Got Stuck on a New Planet
57 • Ruwayda HassanLost Friends
60 • Visvaasjine ManeeswaranKate’s Story
62 • Robel Lulu Illustration

Ms. Darote’s Class
64 • Brent Adrien Antonio The Lost Siblings
67 • Eric TranCricket
68 • Jenae Stennett Latoya and Family
70 • Mai MangRoly Makes a Friend
72 • Moses AyegbaThe Amazing Adventures of Blake III!
74 • Nima Ali Alien Apocalypse
76 • Olivia LawlorMy Short Story
78 • Rachel AkintolaThe Legend of the Gold Wonders
83 • Ramazan Atarman The Egg Army
85 • Ramazan Cinucen Steve and the Red Apple
86 • Taveyah PetersThe Monkey Scientists
88 • Treshauna Walters The Bully
89 • Zayd JihadPhillip Gets Lost
Ms. Seibert’s class
94 • David TranDragon and the Aliens
96 • Esme Loo NgMy Story
100 • Jayden Le Squidson’s Best Day
102 • Naaneka Palmer & Justin Arana-CajamarcaToothpaste to be Nice to da Shark
104 • Salma Noor Dragon the Dragon Makes A Friend
106 • Umar AbdulazizThe Quest
107 • Wahaj Malik Drago and His Frenemy Squidson
110 • Yasmin JeilaniMy Short Story
112 • Zayd Mohamed-Inshaf Fire and Friends

Community Friends
116 • Gavi Engel-YanFour Eyed Willy and the Saturn Centaurs
118 • Zachary Rayment The Centaur’s Quest

The Adventures of Petal and Tackle
by Arthika Surendiran
On the Planet of Donuts there was
an alien named Tackle. Tackle
was a strong and caring alien,
and he lived in a town named
Cloudsdale. Tackle’s best friend’s
name was Petal. They did everything
together.
One afternoon Tackle and Petal
were at karate class. Tackle said
to Petal, “I really want to meet
Sicky one day.” Petal agreed.
Sicky was a bad alien. He made
people sick, and nobody knew
where he lived.
After karate finished, they went
to a cafe. When they entered the
cafe, it smelled like dirty socks.
“Why does it smell so bad?”
said Petal.
“I don’t know,” replied Tackle. They
also saw green goo and smoke.
“That’s weird.”
Then…POW! They saw Sicky!
Everyone in the cafe left through
the fire exit. Only Petal and Tackle
were left in the cafe.
“Leave, Sicky! You’re not
supposed to be here!” said Tackle.
Petal and Tackle were getting
ready to fight using their karate
moves. However, Sicky spoke up.
“Please don’t hurt me,” said Sicky.
They were confused. Wasn’t Sicky
10

a bad guy? “I am only here to
make friends.” Petal and Tackle
did not believe him. But Sicky
wasn’t doing anything, he was
just standing.
“Fine,” said Tackle, “if you can
prove that you will be nice, we
will believe you.” Sicky nodded.
“The first thing I need you to do
is clean up the mess you made,”
said Tackle.
Sicky started cleaning the goo
and the smoke. When he was
done, Petal told him to apologize
to everyone who was in the
cafe. Sicky went to go look for
everyone. They were all outside
the cafe. Everyone was going
to leave, but Sicky explained
everything.
“I am very sorry that I frightened
everyone. I hope that you can
forgive me.”
They all nodded and agreed to
forgive Sicky.
Petal and Tackle were getting
friendlier with Sicky. “Okay,
this is your last task. You need
to announce to the Planet of
Doughnuts that you are a kind
alien now.”
“How am I going to do that?”
asked Sicky.
“You need to go to the radio
station and kindly ask them if
you can speak on the radio,” said
Tackle. Sicky didn’t even know
how that was possible, but he
said he would try.
When they arrived at the station,
Sicky asked the radio station
manager, “Hi, can I please do an
announcement?”
“Well, as long as you follow the
three rules: It can’t be useless
information, you cannot play with
the buttons, and you have to pay,”
said the manager.
Sicky didn’t have any money, so
he didn’t know what to do. “Miss, I
don’t have money,” said Sicky.
“I don’t want money, I want a
precious red ruby from the Forest
of Gems,” said the manager.
The manager needed the gem
because one of the buttons was
broken, so she needed a ruby to
replace it.
Sicky was scared to find the gem
alone, so Petal and Tackle agreed
to help Sicky. “Don’t worry Sicky,
we have your back!” said Petal.
Sicky told the manager that
he could do it, so he went on a
mission with Petal and Tackle.
When they arrived at the Forest
of Gems, they started searching
for the ruby.
“We’re never going to find
it!” said Petal.

“Don’t be so negative,”
replied Tackle.
One hour later, Sicky saw a ruby!
“Guys, I found the ruby!”
“Okay, get it and let’s go!”
said Petal.
When Sicky picked up the gem,
the bushes started shaking.
“What’s happening?’” said Tackle
in a frightened voice. Suddenly, a
fox jumped out of the bushes.
“That’s my ruby!” exclaimed
the fox. “If you want that ruby,
you’re going to have to fight for
it.” The fox kicked Sicky in the
leg. Then all of them kicked and
punched the fox back. POW!
BOOM! CHING!
“Okay! You win, you get the ruby!”
yelled the fox in pain. The fox left
and Sicky got the ruby.
“Let’s get out of this forest before
we have to fight again,” said
Tackle. When they left the forest
and went to the station, they gave
the ruby to the manager.
“Thank you for this ruby. You can
go make your announcement,”
said the manager.
All of them ran to the radio room.
An employee showed them
where the microphone was.
“Hello everyone. It is Sicky. I am
not a bad guy. I was just here to
make friends, and I do not make
people sick. It is just a rumour! I
have changed who I am, and I am
sorry for who I was before. I hope
you can accept me as a friend
one day. Thank you.”
The next day, the whole Planet of
Doughnuts welcomed Sicky with
kind arms. Sometimes, aliens can
change for the best.

Doctor Vefa
by Ceylin Karacan
Doctor Vefa was a very good
doctor. He was nice and
cheerful. He was protecting
everybody and helping
everyone. He was tall and also
had long hair and was a little
shy. He spent most of his day in
the hospital. He was checking
sick people with nurses in
the emergency.
One day a very sick person
came to the hospital and
needed to be examined. Sick
person cried as soon as he
sounded. Everyone in the
hospital was staring at him with
wonder. Sick person asked the
doctor to look at him. Doctor
Vefa came to check him, but
something was wrong since he
didn’t have a mask and gloves.
He thought about how he
would care for them. Sick
person was crying and he
thought he would die soon.
Vefa was trying to find a
solution. He called his mom
to bring a mask if she had a
mask. His mom said, “I don’t
have one, but I can sew for you,
don’t worry.”
She sewed the mask ready in
five minutes. She dropped the
mask and gloves for Doctor
Vefa and nurses. Vefa took the
mask and gloves and examined
the sick person quickly. Sick
person was happy and Doctor
Vefa felt so good to help.
14

Rosie and Rubicca
by Cindy Phe
Once upon a time there were
two girls named Rosie and
Rubicca. They had a pet deer,
and it was an adult deer to help
them if they got hurt. They lived
in a house in the Wecky Forest
that had bright red trees.
One night, Rubicca saw
something in the forest and
Rosie was asleep.
Rubicca tried to wake Rosie up,
but she failed. So Rubicca put
on her shoes and her jacket
and her phone in her jacket
pocket and she went off in the
forest, but not any forest, a
WeCkY ForEst.
Meanwhile…
Rosie was still sleeping
when she heard a scream.
The scream sounded
like… “Rubicca!”
Rosie was so worried about
Rubicca she put on her things
and looked for Rubicca. When
Rosie went to look she saw
Rubicca’s phone on the ground!
She was so worried she jumped
when something touched her!
It was their deer. Rosie said to
her deer, “Hey girl what are you
doing here?”
The deer picked up Rosie and
put her on her back. Rosie had
no idea what her deer was
doing, so she asked, “Um, do
you want to come with me to
look for Rubicca?” Her deer put
16

her head up and down for a yes.
So they went off (again) to look
for Rubicca.
TwO hOurs LatER!
MorNinG
Rosie and her deer were so
tired and hungry they looked
like homeless people, but a
good thing was that the WeCKy
foResT had fruits, so Rosie got
some fruits off of the tree and
she gave some to her deer and
they got stronger. The bright
red fruits were magic fruits that
had different magic powers.
So Rosie and her deer got
stronger, and they got stronger.
Now they could go look for
Rubicca for the whole day.
FoUR HouRS LatER
nOoN
It was noon. Rosie was starting
to lose hope to find her sister,
but then they saw a half circle
homebase thing, but it had
a code pad. The homebase
was made of glass, and when
Rosie got close enough she
saw Rubicca in it and she
realized she had gotten kidnapped.
But she didn’t know
how to get inside, but then she
had an idea.
Remember the fruits were
magic fruit so she found a tree
that had fruits on it. She now
had a fruit. She ate the fruit and
she got big, but she knew that
she was not big for long so she
punched the glass and she
went little again but that was
not a problem. She asked her
deer to lift her up and she did.
Now Rosie was inside but then
she saw a random cave inside,
but she just went off to the
real reason that she had come
here. When she saw Rubicca
she untied her, but when she
did that a dragon came out
of the cave.
So Rosie grabbed Rubicca by
the hand and went off. But the
deer came jumping through
the broken glass that Rosie did
and the deer ate the apple and
she went big and knocked the
dragon down and they left with
their deer to go home.

The Family
by Delland Jr Banton
One day a man called John,
whose last name was Reggae,
was in high school and
everyone was making fun of
his last name.
He went home crying to his
parents and he told them that
he got bullied so bad that he
didn’t want to go to school
anymore because he got
bullied. Then his parents said,
“It is okay.”
But he said, “It is not okay,
you guys have their back but
not mine.” So he walked to his
room. He said, “It was not fair
I got bullied.” Then he went to
sleep. Then he got the saddest
school sleep.
Then his parents said sorry and
they cried and said, “It is our
fault that we didn’t do anything
about it, we have to talk about
it.” So they did.
Ten years later they died, and
he cried. He said, “Hi, Mom and
Dad. I wish you could come
back alive.”
After that day John got bullied
at his work job. One day he was
in the gym and he felt something.
It was super powers, and
he was getting bullied again
and he used his super powers.
He said, “Wow, I didn’t know
that I had super powers,” and he
saved the city.
18

John stopped a robbery, and
later he had a baby, but John
died one month later.
His wife was sad. She was
named Scarlet and the baby
was called Jack Will and last
name was Reggae.
Jack Will got bullied four
years later and he was crying
to his mom and said, “I miss
Daddy so much.”
Nineteen more years later he
got a lot of friends and was
famous, but one day someone
got so jealous that he got
punched in the face. But then
Jack Will got super powers
and he left his work and told
his girlfriend.
His girlfriend said, “You have
the same story as your dad.”
Jack Will said, “What? You
didn’t tell me that!”
His girlfriend said, “Your mom
said that and I just don’t want
you to be sad.”
He said, “Is that why you
told me that?”
Then he went to talk to his
mom. He said, “Why mom? Why
did you not tell me that? Mom,
I do not want to be sad. You are
saying the same thing as my
girlfriend.”
Well Jack Will got beat up so
badly and went to the hospital.
His mom was crying and same
thing for his girlfriend, but he
said, “I am fine,” and he walked
out of the hospital.
One year later his mom died
and as his mom got rushed to
the hospital her son got his first
kid. Jack Will’s son was born
the same day his mom died.

The Reality of a Planet of Doughnuts
by Elizabeth Thang
Hey! The name’s Jungkook. You
might know me as the youngest
member of BTS! I am 23 right
now and I mostly wear black,
and I usually get scared by jump
scares. My favourite drink is
banana milk. Also, today I thought
I would tell you about the reality
of the Planet of Doughnuts. . .DUN
DUN DUNNN!!
So first it starts with so many
doughnuts. You might be wondering,
“Jungkook, isn’t that good
you get to eat doughnuts all day?”
Well you got that right, unless you
want to get a stomachache. HAH
*Laughs* Oh, and there’s
doughnuts all over the floor, so I
suggest you wear a pair of shoes
that you don’t mind getting dirty.
If you don’t, let’s just say I warned
you. Also there is this doughnut
print tiger so don’t mistake it as a
doughnut. Don’t get me started,
there’s this pool but it’s so small
that it can only fit five people so
if you have a big family, sorry you
gotta miss out on that fun.
Now for the park. It has a couch
made of peacock feathers and
you must be like, “Oh my god, it’s
so beautiful I don’t want to ruin it.”
Well, sorry, it’s a picnic bench, and
at the park they have automatic
swings. That’s the good part,
20

ut it’s held by strong plants, so
beware that insects might be on
you. Oh, and you should be aware
of this “germ monster,” Sicky. He
hates water and soap. Yesterday,
me and my friend Taehyung and
his dog Yeontan had to stop him.
*FLASHBACK*
It all started when me and
Taehyung were taking Yeontan on
a walk and we saw Sicky finding
people to attack. Taehyung said
to me, “Jungkook, hurry behind
the rock.”
Then I said, “Okay, let’s get
our gear on.”
Yeontan then went in front of
Sicky to distract him with his
cuteness while Taehyung started
shooting soap at Sicky.
Sicky noticed him so Yeontan
quickly grabbed his puppy bag
that was filled with water and
poured it all over Sicky, but it
wasn’t enough.
But he didn’t know I was preparing
my claws out of my
backpack to shoot hand sanitizer
at him. I went for the risk and
now shot it at him. *skrt* *skrt*
*splash* *splash*
The bad smell was now gone.
He got so mad he tried to shoot
lasers at us, but WE QUICKLY
DODGED. I shot more hand sanitizer
and he melted away.
*END FLASHBACK*
Now let me just admit it. . .WE
HAVE BEEN UNDER CONSTRUC-
TION FOR FIVE YEARS!!!!! But the
good part is that there is a huge
diamond stadium where I perform
for my armys (what my fans are
called). Let’s all remember that
the best part is that you get to
see me right?

Slippery Soap
by Emine Karaalp
My character’s name is Slippery
Soap. My character lives in the
washroom beside the sink.
It cleans everyone’s hands.
My character visits schools
and hospitals with his friends,
Gloves and Mask, to catch the
corona virus and kill it.
Slippery Soap’s problem is kids
go to the forest or school but
don’t wash their hands. They
touch their faces and their
mouths. Sicky monster finds
the kids, spits at them, and
makes them sick. Sicky is faster
than Slippery Soap. He makes
way more sick dirty kids than
Slippery Soap cleans. He hides
on top of a tree in his forest and
finds kids that are healthy and
chases them. He eats the gems
in the forest and gets energy.
Slippery Soap is trying to be
faster than Sicky, but Sicky
is evil. Slippery Soap has a
sword and tries to fight Sicky,
but Sicky’s spike shield never
lets him lose.
Slippery calls his friends from
the forest, the Mask and Glove.
Slippery Soap is flying and
making masks and gloves
rain. Kids catch the gloves
and masks and now Sicky
monster can’t give them germs
fast because the kids use
masks and gloves.
24

The Video
by Haneen Shallo
My character’s name is Claire.
She writes all her stories in
her bedroom with a computer.
Claire is an online writer; she
writes historical facts about life
and she loves to read. She publishes
one story almost every
day because she is motivated.
One day Claire made a video
about her inspiration, Emma De
Williams. She wanted Emma to
see her passion. She was very
dedicated to her work.
A few weeks later, Emma De
Williams found Claire’s video
on the internet.
She giggled and laughed, “Oh
boy, I wonder why I inspired
her? Her stories are absolutely
atrocious!”
Then, Emma De Williams
commented, “You better
work harder, Claire. I’m super
disappointed.”
Emma wrote the comment
as a joke, but then Claire took
it seriously.
“What did I do wrong? I always
worked hard! And my favourite
inspiration isn’t inspiring me,
but being rude!” Claire sobbed.
She had worked hard for seven
years on her writing and Emma
still thought it was a joke.
25

Claire replied to Emma’s comment,
“I don’t get it, that wasn’t a funny
joke, Emma. I took it seriously.”
Emma saw and replied, “I’m sorry, I
thought you loved jokes! But lucky
you, I’m publishing your stories in
my famous book: Emma’s Most
Loved Stories!”
“Thank you so much! I can’t
believe it! You’re amazing!” Claire
wrote. She felt proud of her
writing and videos!

Missing Parents
by Jerome Mensah
The Beginning
Once upon a time there was a
land of animals. There were a
lot of animals, but there was
one animal that other animals
called a hero. His name was
Aqua Hog! He loved saving
and helping others. The first
time he saved someone was
when he saved his friend from
falling in water.
Missing Parents
One day, his mom and dad
weren’t at home. He was very
confused because his parents
were always there when he
came back after school. He was
thinking that maybe they went
somewhere and they left him a
note. So he decided to look to
see if they left him a note. He
was searching for five minutes
and he didn’t find any note so
he knew something wasn’t
right, and his parents must be
in trouble.
Looking for His Parents
So he went looking for his
parents. The first place he went
to was the grocery store. He
looked around each aisle and
didn’t see them. Next, he went
to the school because maybe
they were going to pick him up.
He looked all around and he
27

didn’t see them. Then he found
an underground cave close to
a bush. He decided to go and
look inside.
Finding His Parents
When he went inside he saw a
weird looking lab and saw his
parents in a cage. “Mom! Dad!”
he said. His parents were going
to say something but then a fox
came in. “Well, well, well, look
who’s here,” said the fox.
“Who are you and why did
you take my parents?!”
asked Aqua Hog.
“I’m planning to take over the
world and I’m going to control
your parents and make them
my helpers.”
Saving His Parents
Aqua Hog ran off and saw a
blue gem. Aqua Hog never
saw a gem before so Aqua
Hog touched it and he got
water powers.
The fox got scared and
ran away, and Aqua Hog
went to go save his parents
and went home.
His mom and dad were proud
of Aqua Hog, so they gave
him a free house as a gift. He
was so happy. He invited his
friend Blaze over to play in
the tree house.
Thirty minutes had passed and
Aqua heard someone screaming
help and Aqua Hog and
Blaze went to go find out.
To be continued. . .

Lo and The Secret Tea
by Long Hoang
After the first story, Lo and Ng
bought a shop where they sold
tea for one dollar. So many
people liked Lo’s tea, and he
had a secret about tea.
One day not like the others, Lo
saw a guy he didn’t like. The
guy was Humcat 1.
“I thought you were dead!”
Lo questioned.
Humcat 1 replied, “I never died.”
Lo asked, “Why did you
come here?”
Humcat 1 answered, “I came
here for the secret tea recipe.”
Lo furiously shouted, “I will
never teach you that!”
Lo and Humcat 1 got into a
fight. Lo couldn’t win because
he didn’t have a superpower
like Humcat 1.
After that he needed to find
Humcat 2 or he’d have to teach
Humcat 1 the secret tea recipe
to him. Finally he found Humcat
2 under the trash can. And he
told Humcat 2 the story.
Lo and Humcat 2 were fighting
with Humcat 1, and he was
about to lose.
29

Humcat 1 took Ng out and
said, “If you don’t teach me the
secret tea I will kill her.”
Humcat 2 ran over to Humcat 1,
and Humcat 2 threw Ng to Lo.
Humcat 2 tried to kill Humcat
1, and at same time, they both
killed each other.
Lo and Ng stood there and
cried rivers for their close
friend. They decided to give
him a funeral and picked him
up, but when Lo picked him
up, Humcat 2’s eyes suddenly
opened, startling Lo.
Humcat 2 chuckled and said,
“Did you guys really think
something like my brother
can kill me? Even though
he is my blood he is still
weaker than me.”
When she heard this Ng
decided to surprise Humcat 2
with a party at her tea shop. In
the afternoon, after cleaning
up all of Humcat 2’s wounds at
the hospital, Lo and Humcat
1 returned to the tea shop to
find all their friends and family
waiting there for them with
pastries and drinks.
“Surprise!” they all yelled.
Lo and Humcat 2 stood there
shocked but with a smile.

The Nurse
by Maya Ramsingh
The nurse works at a hospital
and helps people. The nurse
needs a nurse uniform to work
at the hospital. The nurse works
seven days a week just to be at
the hospital to help people. The
nurse needs to provide the best
care for the patient.
Then the Covid 19
pandemic started.
Now the nurse is working 16
hours a day for seven days a
week just to keep people safe.
The nurse is using limited
stuff a day to save people and
protect herself from being
exposed to Covid 19.
The solution to Covid 19 has not
been found, but a lot of people
are helping by making masks
and donating supplies. Social
distancing is kinda helping
with the Covid 19. People need
to wear masks to help, so the
Covid 19 and also people are in
self isolation.
31

Arial and the Forest of Gems
by Varshiga Nagapraman
There once lived a girl named
Arial. She had dark brown hair
with light brown highlights. She
wore glasses, but the glasses
weren’t normal ones—they acted
like robots. Arial had magic
powers because she was born
with them. Her favourite colour
was teal, her favorite fruit was
mango, and her favorite hobby
was helping people out and
hanging out with her best friend
Mia. Mia was a very helpful
person. She was very confident
and caring. Arial had a puppy
named Lulu. Lulu had golden fur
and little wings on his back and
was quite playful.
Arial lived in Cloud City. Cloud
City was in the sky. The houses
there were on clouds. To get up
and down you just had to call for
a rainbow slide, stairs, elevator, or
escalator. Her house was always
organized and clean.
Arial was a doctor at a hospital
called Rainbow Ribbon Hospital
(RRH). She wanted to help people
from Sicky the germ monster.
You see, Sicky was a virus. Sicky
was only his nickname—his real
name was Coronavirus—but
Sicky was what people called
him. Sicky was not an organized
person. His whole house smelled
like dirty socks except the
32

athroom—the bathroom smelled
like roses, and Sicky hated roses.
He used a laser gun that shot
germs so whoever he got close
to would get the germs. Sicky
had small wings on his back and
carried an umbrella that he used
as a shield. He also had teleporting
powers, but that took a huge
amount of energy to use.
Arial was with her friend Mia
taking Lulu, her puppy, for a
walk when she heard two of the
townspeople saying it was the
Annual Gems Day.
“It’s the Annual Gems Day, we
better get decorating,” they said.
Annual Gems Day was the day
when the first gem tree grew
from the Forest of Gems (that
first tree was the great tree). The
Forest of Gems was a forest with
bright red trees that have gems
instead of leaves and each one
has its own gems. The grass
there was red and green mixed
together. The red grass was hot,
and the green grass was cold.
There were many things that lived
there like animals, such as the
gem squirrels (that had a gem
in the middle of their stomachs),
golden rabbits (that were very
shiny), talking parrots (they were
colourful and could actually talk),
some people, medical masks, and
gloves that help you when you
get sick, and ya.
In the middle of the forest was the
biggest tree of all which grows
all the gems in the universe. In
the middle of the great tree was
a multi-coloured gem which
gave the whole forest its colours.
If it was ever stolen then the
forest would lose its colour and
whoever had that gem would
be very powerful (but that won’t
happen because the forest is so
protective, right?).
Now back to Arial and Mia.
‘‘I totally forgot that, I mean how
can I forget I mean my great
great great great great I DON’T
EVEN KNOW HOW MANY GREAT
grandfather planted the first
tree,” said Arial.
‘‘What, you didn’t tell me that!”
shouted Mia.
‘‘Oh, I guess I forgot, but
let’s go home and decorate
for Gems Day!”
They both went back to their
homes in the sky.
Sicky the germ monster didn’t
know anything about Gems Day
or the forest until now.
Sicky was going shopping for free
stuff like always (because Sicky is
a virus that spreads and obviously
no one wants it) when a piece of
paper flew in his face.

“What is this?” he said as he took
it off his face.
“Annual Gems Day: for more
information, go to the library.
I don’t like reading, but this
sounds tempting, why don’t I just
take a look?”
Sicky went shopping then headed
to the library. As he read about
Gems Day he got more and more
interested, but the thing he got
interested in was the gem in the
middle of the forest in the great
gem tree. He wanted to take it.
“With that gem I will be the most
powerful germ in the universe!”
Sicky got a map and followed it
to the forest. He stepped on the
red and green grass and a big
wall appeared.
“Ha! Nice try but I knew that
was gonna happen so I’ll just
use my wings.”
Sicky flapped and he flew but
when he tried to go in, an invisible
shield was around the forest.
“What! I didn’t know this was
gonna happen. I guess I’m gonna
have to use my teleporting
powers.” He tried and tried and
tried, and then it worked, or he
thought it had, but in a second he
was back outside of the forest.
Sicky took a deep breath then
he put his fingers together and it
worked. The only problem he had
left was getting the gem out. The
animals were watching it.
All the parrots went to the
people who lived in the forest
and told them.
“Oh no! This is terrible, but if we
go close to him he will shoot us
with germs!” said Rob, the leader
of the forest people.
When Sicky touched the gem, the
grass shone bright red and made
waves. “Oh no I bet someone saw
that I better hurry,” he thought,
and yes someone had seen that.
Arial and Mia were the ones who
had seen it. They put on their
flying boots (boots with wings
attached to them) and headed
to the forest. Arial and Mia didn’t
have trouble getting in because
they weren’t evil. Then they saw
Sicky trying to take the great gem.
“Sicky, stop!” the girls shouted.
“Why would I ever listen to some
pesky girls!” he yelled.
“Well why do you even want it?”
asked Arial.
“To be the most powerful germ in
the universe, duh!” shouted Sicky.
“Oh no you don’t,” said Mia.

“Then try me,” Sicky said in a deep
voice as he shot germs at them.
Arial dodged all of them, but
Mia got shot.
“Oh no! I got shot,” said Mia.
“It’s alright because I know the
cure for it,” Arial said as she did
the spell called “healing waves.”
As Arial said those words Mia felt
better than ever.
Sicky took a diamond from one of
the trees and used that to get the
great gem out. It took some time
but then it was out.
“Ah ha! I am now the most
powerful one!” he shouted.
All of the forest and things that
lived there were drained of colour.
Arial got super mad. She then
transformed, and her hair grew
longer. She grew humongous
wings and she shone so bright.
It was a battle. Arial vs. Sicky. Let
the battle begin!
Mia, the forest people, the
animals, the gloves, and masks all
wanted to help.
Sicky fell and was defeated.
The gem was restored, the
colour was back, everything was
back to normal.
Sicky got up and ran sadly. Arial
went after him. He said, “I didn’t
want to be the evil one. It was a
part of my family to be evil, but I
don’t want to be bad anymore.”
“Sicky, you don’t have to be bad. I
can be your friend if you want me
to,” said Arial.
“Thank you,” said Sicky.
Arial, Mia, and Sicky have been
friends ever since, and Sicky
also ditched his germ laser gun
ever since too.

Donut Planet
by Hassan Aden and Cailyn Gandalera
Tyson was in the Forest of
Gems fighting his enemy, a
dragon lizard named Hybrid.
Tayson looked like a wolf and
could talk to animals. He had
a red gem on his right arm
and a blue gem on his left
arm—those are the colours of
fire and ice.
Tayson and Hybrid had been
fighting since they were kids.
Tayson’s parents were royalty:
his mom was the ice queen
and his dad was the fire king.
Hybrid’s parents didn’t have
magic power. They had to work
hard and develop their martial
art skills and were jealous of
Tayson’s parents. Tayson
and Hybrid hate each other
because their parents did.
While Tayson and Hybrid were
fighting, Dumpy the alien swept
in and used their ice power to
help Tayson win. Tayson was
surprised because he usually
fought solo and wasn’t expecting
help. Dumpy the alien
also had fire and ice powers,
which is why they noticed
Tayson. Dumpy wanted to be
friends with Tayson because
they like good people. Dumpy
could sense that Tayson was
pure of heart.
Tayson asked Dumpy to prove
themselves as a teammate.
Tayson and Dumpy left the
36

Forest of Gems to go on a journey
together so that Dumpy could
train to become an excellent
sword fighter. If Dumpy trained
well, Tayson would give them
the gift of a sword (that’s a big
deal because Tayson never gives
gifts!). Once Dumpy received the
sword they would be friends and
teammates forever.
Tayson and Dumpy approached
the Donut Planet. When they got
there they discovered that Sicky,
a giant germ monster, was terrorizing
the planet. Tayson had only
ever fought in the Forest of Gems
and had never battled a germ
monster before. Tayson tried to
use his sword, but it didn’t work
on Sicky. Sicky’s body was made
of slime and would instantly
heal any cut.
Dumpy had never fought a germ
monster before either. Dumpy
used their fire power to try and
melt Sicky, but that didn’t work.
The slime was already melty, so
it didn’t make a difference. So
Tayson and Dumpy tried an experiment
so they could defeat
Sicky. They made an experiment
and put all their powers in it and
they poured it on Sicky, and Sicky
was defeated.
Tayson and Dumpy were happy
that Sicky was not terrorizing
the Donut Planet, and the Donut
Planet thanked them and gave
them donuts, and they were
best friends.

Slippery Soap vs. Sicky
by Emine Karaalp and Arthika Surendiran
Slippery Soap likes to hang out
in the washrooms on the Planet
of Donuts. They are there to
help people wash their hands
to protect them from the Sicky
Germ Monster.
“Remember to sing the ABC song
or happy birthday for 20 seconds!”
they say loudly and happily to
anyone who comes in after the
people get some soap from them.
Even though Slippery Soap is
very happy on the outside, they
have one big fear: Sicky the
Germ Monster! Sicky is faster and
stronger than everyone else on
the planet. One day, Slippery
Soap decides to leave the
washroom to face their fears of
Sicky the Germ Monster, but not
before finding some other soap
friends to help protect the people
in the washroom while Slippery
isn’t there.
Slippery Soap flies to the Forest
of Gems where they know it’s
Sicky’s favourite place to hang
out. They gather their friends,
Mask and Gloves, along the way.
It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to
get there, depending on the wind.
There is already a group of
people hanging out in the
Forest of Gems, as they know
Slippery Soap needs help with
38

the fight. These people are also
there to eat some of the forest’s
gems for energy.
Sicky is fighting with everyone,
and making them sick at the same
time! Because Sicky has spikes on
their body, they can shoot these
out and make people sick. This
makes people get a headache
and fall asleep, making them
unable to fight.
But some of the people are able to
eat gems for more energy!
To be continued. . .

Legend of the Money Stone
by Long Hoang and Ceylin Karacan
Fliy is an alien who is looking
for a magical stone called
the Money Stone. Fliy needs
the Money Stone because his
planet is dying; there is no food
on his planet.
The Money Stone is far away
and in another universe so
Fliy has to travel far from his
planet to find it.
needs masks and gloves to
fight Sicky.
On their adventures, Fliy and
Dr. Vefa find out that the Money
Stone is on earth, and the
person who has the Money
Stone right now is Low.
To be continued. . .
On the way, Fliy meet Dr. Vefa.
Dr. Vefa is also looking for the
Money Stone, because she
40

The Potion
byJeannea Lewis and Johanna Oduro
Hanna and Nea met in class in
Grade 3. They were introduced
to one another by a different
friend because they both loved
doing gymnastics and dances
at school at lunch.
One day they were walking
home from school and they
heard something coming from
a house and they went to check
if the person was alright. It was
a scientist who was making
a potion and it went wrong. A
virus spread to a gorilla and he
got sick, and then he turned
into a monster called Sicky.
Sicky lived in a dusty, messy,
gooey, nasty house in the
forest. Before he got sick, he
was going to make friends. He
didn’t know he was sick until he
started growing gooey things
on his face.
When Sicky went to the city,
everyone saw that he was a
monster and started running
from him. Nea and Hanna ran
to the gas station. They saw
some of their friends at the gas
station. They told their friends,
“Go home before you get sick
too. We will take care of Sicky.”
They went up to Sicky and said,
“Sicky please calm down, you’re
being very mad and scaring
them. You’re also making
people sick from your breath.”
41

Sicky sat down and said, “Help me!
My anger is taking control of me.”
The girls felt sad for Sicky. They
wanted to help him. They took
Sicky to the scientist to make a
potion to get the virus out of him.
Sicky drank the potion and started
feeling better. They made more of
the potion to help everybody who
was sick from the virus. Everyone
was so happy and thanked
Nea and Hannah.

Life with the Apocalypse
by Adom Baffour
Long ago there was an apocalypse
called Good vs. Evil—it
was not good. Good people
were called Campers and the
evil people were the Deadheart.
They were called the
Deadheart because they had
no feelings due to an infectious
outbreak called. . .the
eternal storm XXAAAAAAAS.
The eternal storm infected
the Campers. The Deadheart
roamed the open land. The
Deadheart were trying to infect
the Campers and turn them
into Deadhearts.
One of the Campers called
Jack and said, “We killed all the
Deadheart people, yay!”
But there were two left, and
they were making more Deadheart
people, and one of them
killed Jack!
Momo, Jack’s best friend, said,
“No, poor Jack!” but then they
went back to war. “Looks like
we’re going back to war.”
The Campers would always
miss one of the Deadheart
people, day after day until they
could not fight. Then the bad
people had to kill all the good
people, but they still did not get
along. Then some of the Deadheart
people got along with the
Campers, so they decided to
stay in a safe place together.
44

One of the Campers in this
safe place was named Jake.
He discovered a formula to
make the Deadheart people
good. The evil Deadheart
people noticed that more and
more Deadheart people were
becoming good and getting
along with the Campers. They
investigated the whole camp
because they were really
good sniffers. They sniffed out
Jake’s formula and found out
why the Deadheart people
were becoming good, so
they smashed it!
Now without Jake’s formula
the Deadheart became a
bigger pack. However, there
was one Deadheart person
who could control themselves:
a boy named Taylor.
Taylor made wristbands for
the Deadheart to control
them. Then they got along so
they lived happily everly after,
or did they?
Someone, a Deadheart named
Neffee, broke the wristbands
so that the Deadhearts would
go wild and turn into wolves
because she wanted a wolf
pack. They went to hide in the
woods, and then she said, “I
own the night.”
GOOD vs. EVIL 2 coming soon
Out Spring 2021

Life with the Apocalypse 2
by Adom Baffour
So Neffee, the girl who turned into
a wolf, was starting to take people
and somehow turn them into
werewolves. Then they became
a pack. Then they said something
about a moonstone being able to
control the wolves, so they didn’t
go wild. But then a dangerous
storm came, and they all had to
stay in the school. The wolf pack
came inside with all the Deadheart
and the Campers. They got
scared, then one hour later the
storm stopped and everyone was
so happy because they did not
have to stay with the wolves.
The next day the wolves wanted
to go to school, so they did.
Then they had an election with
Campers and the Deadheart. The
votes came in and the Deadheart
won, so then they had a school
dance and it was only the Deadheart
and the Campers. Then the
wolves came and the humans
let them into the school because
they were afraid of the wolves
but thought if they were nice
they wouldn’t hurt them. Then
there was an earthquake, and it
stopped. The wolves somehow
found their moonstone underground.
Then they got healed,
so they had the party where the
moonstone was underground.
Everyone got along!
46

The Enchanted Forest
by Angelina Latchminarine-Gonsalves
In the forest, where unicorns fly
and rainbows shine, was a girl
named Bon bon. Bon bon wasn’t
no ordinary girl, she was special.
Bon bon lived in a house in a rare
tree that lived for many years.
In her house she had a fridge,
a bed, a closet, and a wooden
desk that she made for drawing.
She painted the walls pink and
blue, her floors were yellow and
made of glass! As a little girl, Bon
bon grew up with her sister Anna
in an enchanted forest where
the sun shines and never rains,
snowmans talk, lions and zebras
are friends, pigs fly, and the most
beautiful part of it all is flowers
blooming everywhere that never
die. The secret about this forest
is that everything is made of
something sweet!
On a hot day Bon bon woke up to
the birds chirping on her window
ledge. Bon bon went to make
breakfast for her and her sister
when she realized someone
had stolen food from the fridge.
Bon bon didn’t want to scare her
sister, so she decided to wake
Anna up to go for a walk in the
forest to gather vegetables and
fruits. While walking, Bon bon and
her sister stopped by the river
to talk to the frogs, swans, and
little fishes.
They kneeled down to fill their
water bottles with water. “What’s
that smell?” Anna asked.
Bob Bon looked up and saw
smoke coming from a part of
the forest. “Let’s go check it out
Anna,” said Bon Bon.
47

They hopped on a tiger and went
towards the smoke. As they got
closer, Anna and Bon Bon got off
the tiger and tippy-toed through
the grass. They peeked from
behind the tree and saw a lonely
woman who looked lost, building
a fire with some of the fruits and
vegetables that Bon Bon had in
her fridge!
“What do we do?” asked Anna. “I
have an idea, let’s bring tiger with
us for protection,” she said.
So they approached the woman
slowly. “Crack, Crack, Crack!”
went the sticks on the floor.
“Who’s there?” said the woman.
Bon Bon and her sister walked
towards the woman. “Hello, this
is my sister Anna, and my name
is Bon Bon.”
The woman looked scared. “I was
stranded wandering this amazing
forest and came across a house
in a tree. Nobody was home and
I was very hungry so I took some
fruits and vegetables. I’m sorry,”
said the woman.
Bon Bon and her sister introduced
the tiger to her. “Would
you like to come live with us?”
asked Bon Bon.
“I would love that, I have
no family or friends,”
said the woman.
Bon Bon was so happy that she
made a friend. Bon bon, her
sister, and the woman hopped
onto the tiger, and on they went
through the enchanted forest.

Lizzie’s Special Diamond Ring
by Baran Firooznam
Lizzie is a 12-year-old princess
who lives in a castle. Lizzie has
golden hair, white skin, and
blue eyes. One day Lizzie was
flying with her unicorns. They
were flying over her castle
playing a game. Lizzie had
six unicorns.
While Lizzie and her unicorns
were flying, a group of three
thieves snuck into the castle to
seal Lizzie’s special diamond
ring. Lizzie’s diamond ring
had the power to make its
owner rich: that’s how Lizzie
became a princess.
What the thieves didn’t know
was that Lizzie’s ring had protection
around it so that if
anyone tried to steal it, Lizzie
would know. The castle had a
bunch of security cameras that
recorded any intruders.
When Lizzie got the alert that
someone was in the castle, she
felt scared and stopped the
game. Lizzie and the unicorns
went into the castle to see what
was happening, but the thieves
had already run away.
The next day, while Lizzie was
sleeping, the robbers came
back and stole the ring! They
broke the protective spell.
Lizzie didn’t hear them come
in because she was sleeping.
When the alarm finally went off,
Lizzie felt terrified. She ran to
check her security camera and
saw three robbers breaking the
49

protection spell and taking the
ring. Luckily, Lizzie still had her
castle and the rest of her stuff.
The robbers knew it was a
special ring that would make
its owner rich. They got into
a huge fight over who got to
keep the ring—they all wanted
it because there was only one.
Then, the head robber showed
up. He was the charge. The
head robber took the special
diamond ring. The three
robbers ran after them.
Lizzie was on her unicorn
flying over the forest when she
saw the robbers running after
the head robber. Lizzie was
happy to have found her ring.
She knew she had to hurry in
case they hurt the ring.
Lizzie felt scared and sad. It
was a very special ring that
her grandmother had given to
her for her fifth birthday. Her
grandma had since passed
away, so the ring was very important
to Lizzie. Lizzie’s plan
to get the ring back was to go
to the robber’s house while
the robber was sleeping. She
was going to steal it back!
That night the head robber
had the ring at his house.
The robber was holding the
ring and there was a bunch
of money and gold and
diamonds around him. He was
getting pretty rich. Lizzie was
getting really mad because
the robber was using her
special diamond ring.
When the robber went to
sleep, he dropped the special
diamond ring onto the pillow
next to him. Lizzie saw the
diamond ring. She snuck into
his house very quietly so that
she didn’t wake up the robber.
She grabbed the diamond ring
and then flew away on her
unicorn. Lizzie was so happy to
have gotten the ring back.
The next morning the head
robber woke up and saw that
the ring was gone and felt
so confused. The other three
robbers were so mad at him
for losing the ring. The robbers
knew that they were going to
be poor forever.

Patchie Making Friends in Dogland
by Naja Jack-Richardson
Patchie is a male, long haired
chihuahua. He likes to run
around outside and play with
his rope toys. He is scared of
other small dogs because sometimes
the small dogs bark at
him. When he is scared he runs
behind his owner.
Patchie has one friend named
Naja. Patchie wants to make more
friends with other small dogs. The
problem is that the big dogs don’t
want chihuahuas to have friends
because the big dogs don’t have
friends themselves and they don’t
want the small dogs to be happy.
One day Patchie tries to make a
friend at the dog park, and the
big dogs bark at him. Patchie runs
behind his owner.
The other small dogs ask the
big dogs to stop, and tell the big
dogs, “You don’t need to bark. You
can just ask to be friends.”
The big dogs shake their heads
to say okay. Patchie comes back
to the big dogs and is not afraid
anymore. They all play hide and
seek together. One big dog is “It.”
Patchie hides behind a tree, and
the other dogs hide in different
places. One hides by the slides
and others hide by the swings.
The big dogs find the rest of the
dogs but not Patchie. Patchie
stays in his hiding spot until it
is time to go. Before they leave
they all think of going to the lake
tomorrow. They all return to their
owners and go home.
51

Accusation
by Osazee Otaniyen-Erhabor
Once upon a time there was a
boy in my community named
Boyboy. Boyboy had blue spiky
hair, red eyes, and orange Nike
shoes. He had six fingers on
each of his hands, and six toes
on each of his feet. Since it
was impossible to find gloves
that fit, he made his own
with a sewing machine and
animal hair.
Boyboy was always ready to
learn and not to make trouble.
He was afraid of a boy named
Rodrick who was always trying
to get him in trouble. Once
Rodrick brought a frog to
school and put it on the principal’s
desk and tried to frame
Boyboy, but it didn’t work,
and Rodrick got detention
for six weeks.
One day Boyboy was walking
home from school. He saw
Rodrick and the police on
the sidewalk.
Rodrick said, “Here’s the person
who took the ball from school!”
Boyboy tried to defend himself
that he didn’t take the ball, but
he didn’t have his backpack
with him to prove it. The police
arrested him and took him to a
holding cell.
At home, his mother was
watching Judge Judy when the
news interrupted the channel.
52

“Here is some breaking news.
A kid is accused of taking a ball
from school. He says he didn’t
do it, but no one knows the
truth.” They flashed a picture of
Boyboy and his name.
Boyboy’s mother rushed to the
jail and got him out. She didn’t
want to yell at him in public or
else she would look like a bad
mother, so she waited until she
was home. At home, she told
him to pack up and get out of
the house and go to America.
“I can’t travel to America. I am a
Canadian,” Boyboy said.
His mother thought since
Boyboy had never stolen
before, he could stay. She said,
“Fine, you can stay.”
The next day Boyboy tried
to resolve the problem, but
his mother didn’t listen. The
argument continued till the
very last day of the week,
Sunday. On that Sunday afternoon,
the police officer that was
investigating the case came
and knocked on their door and
said, “Sorry, your son didn’t do
it. It was one of the bad boys at
his school that framed him up.”
Then the police left. His mother
gave him a hug and apologized
for yelling at him. Boyboy also
apologized for talking back.
They promised each other that
they would never do anything
bad to each other again, and to
believe in each other, and they
all lived happily ever after.

How Tom and His Friends
Got Stuck on a New Planet
by Chimadbi Peace Onyeama
One day Tom and his friend
Jessica were exploring a spaceship
that they weren’t supposed
to be on, and they got stuck on a
different planet. Jessica was the
one who wanted to go into the
spaceship, but Tom was the one
who pressed the button that got
them stuck. Tom pressed a button
clearly labeled “Do not touch
please,” and then the spaceship
threw them to a new planet.
At first they thought that the new
planet had not been discovered
yet, so they thought about a
name for it.
“Circum,” said Tom
“No,” said Jessica, “Circum doesn’t
sound like a good name.”
“Welp, hope you get used to being
stuck on a different planet. Are you
ignoring the fact that we could
potentially die here?” Tom said.
“Well, technically yes, but at
the same time we could potentially
be saved or survive,”
Jessica responded.
“JESSICA THERE IS A WEIRD
FLYING THING COMING
TOWARDS US!” Tom screamed,
unaware that the flying thing was
actually a UFO.
“There’s a girl inside the UFO,”
Jessica said.
The UFO landed so hard on the
ground that everything went
flying to the sky. The door opened.
55

Inside there was a girl. “Hello
there!” said the girl.
“What is your
name?”’ Tom asked.
“My name is Lina. And you?”
the girl replied.
“My name is Tom. And Lina is a
pretty cool name.” I like this girl,
Tom said in his mind.
“So why did you come here in a
UFO?” Jessica asked.
“The aliens captured me and
brought me here, those dirty
aliens,” Lina said.
“Let’s find a way to get out of
here!” said Jessica.
“I’ve got a plan. Let’s look for
a nice alien to help us find out
which button starts the rocket
ship, then we can get off of this
planet,” said Tom.
They went searching for a nice
alien. Jessica saw a green alien
and thought it looked nice. The
alien didn’t sting her, but then it
started screaming at her. Then
the green alien did sting her,
but luckily it wasn’t that strong.
Jessica ran away. Then she
met a purple alien and it was
really nice. The purple alien
agreed to help them.
“I found a nice alien,”
said Jessica.
“Skiudwwior,” (which means
I could help you in guano)
said the alien.
“It’s a good thing I can speak
guano,” said Tom.
“Since when did you speak that
weird alien language?” Jessica
questioned.
“Actually it’s called
guano,” said Tom.
“Jessica, look behind you!!”
Tom shouted. Jessica had
been standing next to an alien
hole but she didn’t know it. The
alien got angry and stung her.
Jessica fainted.
“Jessica, Jessica! Wake
up!!!!!” Tom cried.
“I don’t think Jessica will ever
wake up,” Lina said.
Jessica was pronounced dead.
Everyone was sad. The purple
alien still helped them, and
luckily Tom and Lina made it
back to earth.

Lost Friends
by Ruwayda Hassan
Once upon a time there was
a little boy named Zac who
was about 7 years old. Zac had
brown hair and green eyes, and
his favourite colour was blue.
He liked to play with Savannah,
his best friend, and he was very
scared of snakes. Savannah had
light brown hair and blue eyes,
and her favourite colours were
pink and purple, and she loved
to water her garden, and she
was scared of bees.
Zac and Savannah had been
best friends since they were in
kindergarten. When they first
met, Zac was a little shy, and
Savannah helped him build up
his courage. Savannah was so
scared of eating carrots! Zac
helped her get over her fear of
eating vegetables. When he
was around six years old, he
even snuck out of the house to
go and visit Savannah.
They loved to skateboard
together, but not in the rinks,
just around their houses and
stuff. Just to let you know,
they were neighbors, so they
went to each other’s houses
all the time.
They went off to different
colleges so they were not
going to see each other any
more. This is because Zac’s
college was in Dubai and Savannah’s
was in NYC (New York
City). They went off to college,
57

and didn’t see each other again.
They didn’t even have time to
say good-bye. They were best
friends, but they split apart and
were really sad about it.
Now let’s move on. They were
done college, all four years, and
hadn’t heard from each other
since they left. Zac had a nice
condo in Dubai and Savannah
had a nice apartment building
in New York City. Savannah got
Zac’s number again from one of
his friends and decided to give
him a call because she missed
him. Zac remembered her voice
even from all those years so
they met up. Zac flew into New
York City. If you’re wondering
why Savannah didn’t come to
him it is because Savannah
couldn’t leave her job, so
that’s why.
Things got complicated
because all the flights were
cancelled, so Zac couldn’t fly
over straight away. Savannah
was really sad about this as she
wanted to talk about life with
him. Thankfully, he only had
to wait a few hours until the
next flight.
They just got to talking about
life and their jobs. Suddenly
Zac got a great idea: he wanted
Savannah to come live with
him. She didn’t think it was a
great idea because what about
her job? Zac told her that she
could work with him because
his job place was hiring.
Savannah said yes, so they flew
to Dubai and Savannah got the
job at Zac’s workplace! Zac
had an extra room in his condo,
so Savannah took that room,
and they were best friends
again and everything was
back to normal!

Kate’s Story
by Visvaasjine Maneeswaran
Once upon a time there was a girl
named Kate. At the age of six her
best friend forever (BFF) left for
another city because his dad’s
work was there. She thought that
she could call Mark whenever she
wanted, but his family changed
their number so they stopped
talking and no one knew why.
After Mark left, Kate went to the
park a lot because that’s where
they met. She liked to go there
for the memories. She sat under
a big oak tree and imagined
Mark sitting beside her. She read
stories and pretended Mark was
listening to them. After school,
she sometimes locked herself in
her room and cried.
After Mark moved, Kate’s dog,
Matt, protected her, but she
couldn’t take Matt to school. Kate
liked to play soccer with her dog
in the backyard. She liked it so
much that she started soccer
lessons and became a champion!
A lot of her classmates teased her
about it though. They said, “Kate,
why are you playing soccer?
You’re not a boy!” but Kate
ignored them because she liked
playing soccer.
Then Kate was twelve. Nobody
liked her because she was a loner,
so the kids bullied her a lot. She
mostly got bullied by Sally. Sally
was new to the school and always
bothered Kate so she wouldn’t
get bullied herself. Sally had
60

londe hair, green eyes, wore
a lot of pink and a pink bow.
Her hair was mostly in pigtails.
Sally once cut Kate’s hair, but
it grew back fast.
One day while Sally
was bullying her, a boy
yelled, “Stop!”
Sally stopped, and then the
boy went to Kate and brought
her to lunch. The boy was
Kate’s old BFF, Mark! Mark
recognized Kate but didn’t tell
her who he was because he
wanted it to be a surprise, and
he wanted to protect her but
also wanted to make sure no
one bullied her.
Kate asked, “What is
your name?”
“Mark,” said the boy.
“What’s your name?”
“Kate,” said Kate.
After that, both of them were
quiet for the whole lunch.
Then they went to the park.
Mark asked, “Can you tell me
about your past?”
“Sure,” said Kate. “So it all
started when I was six, my BFF
left me so I became lonely. My
parents bought me a dog. I
named him Matt. I wish I could
find my BFF!”
“What is his name?” said Mark.
“Mark Yu,” said Kate.
“That’s me!” said Mark.
Kate hugged Mark. “I missed
you so much,” said Kate
“Me too,” said Mark.

illustration by Robel Lulu

The Lost Siblings
by Brent Adrien Antonio
One day there were two siblings,
Hakuna and Blake, who went
to the jungle to study the flora
and fauna. Little did they know,
it wasn’t just a normal jungle, it
was filled with mysteries and a
lot of things to study. They lived
in a treehouse filled with scientific
stuff. Blake happened to be
an archaeologist, but Hakuna
was a doctor so Hakuna joined
Blake and became an archaeologist
as well.
The jungle was filled with living
coconuts, a king birch tree whose
name was Britannica, yellow
grass, yodelling goats, and lots
more. For a long time Blake and
Hakuna didn’t know that the living
coconuts were evil. The coconuts
got around by rolling. Then,
suddenly, the coconuts used a
leaf to blindfold Hakuna while
Blake wasn’t looking. Then the
coconuts took Hakuna away from
Blake. Blake couldn’t find Hakuna
anymore, he went back to the
treehouse to see if Hakuna was
there. Hakuna was lost! Blake felt
lonely and didn’t know what to do.
Then Blake met the giant living
tree named Britannica. Britannica
agreed to help him find his
sibling. Blake promised to take
care of Britannica while they
were searching for Hakuna. After
doing all the research, Blake
still couldn’t find Hakuna. He
then built a detector to detect
Hakuna’s last known scent and
64

finally found his chance to find
his sibling.
Britannica had an unknown
material that came from their
leaves. It was invisible and
no one could touch it. The
material used the earth’s
magnetic field to detect a
person’s location. The material
needed the scent of a person
to locate them. Unfortunately,
the sensor didn’t detect far, so
they had to walk around a lot
to find the trail. Blake started
calling out to him.
Then he heard a voice, “Help!
Hello? Help please!” That was
the voice of Hakuna.
They found the living
coconuts, and Blake now
knew what happened. The
tree called his friends, Birchinta
and Betuler, to help get
Hakuna. The catch was a
success and the coconuts disappeared
out of nowhere.
Now Blake said, “Did those
coconuts do anything to you?”
Hakuna answered, “They
captured me and put me in
this prison with some yodelling
goats!”
They chatted and chatted until
the evening. They lived happily
ever after—for now.

Cricket
by Eric Tran
Once upon a time there was
a bird named Cricket who
lived in the city with his friend
who was a bug.
“I wish the humans would stop
trying to eat us,” Cricket said.
“I’m afraid I don’t understand
what that feels like,”
said the bug.
After a year of always having to
avoid humans, Cricket decided
to move to the desert for safety.
The bug decided to come with
him. Cricket thought this was
out of friendship but the bug
seemed to have different ideas.
Cricket’s home looked like a
hole, and the hole had a tiny
bedroom and a big bedroom.
After a year Cricket accidentally
ate all the food, so Cricket had
to go get more.
However, Cricket was too full,
so he couldn’t go and said, ”I’m
too full I can’t get the food, but I
could get it tomorrow.”
The bug said, ”You have to
get it today.”
The next morning Cricket was
too hungry and could not fly, so
the next day they passed away.
67

Latoya and Family
by Jenae Stennett
Latoya was an 18-year-old
girl with long straight hair
and bangs. She was a brownskinned
girl with light brown
eyes wearing black jeans, a
white long sleeve top, and
Nike shoes.
Latoya went to school, and she
had friends. She lived in Florida
with her family, but there was
a problem: her family wanted
to move back to Canada even
though they had been living in
Florida for five years.
Latoya’s home in Florida
was very fun. She preferred
the weather in Florida to the
weather in Canada—she liked
humidity and wouldn’t get so
much of it in Canada. There was
also lots of stuff to do in Florida.
She liked her school and her
friends. She loved history class
and had a great history teacher.
Most importantly her best
friend, Melinda, was in Florida
and she didn’t want to leave
her. Latoya and Melinda had
known each other since they
both moved to Florida when
they were 13.
Latoya told Melinda that
she was moving to Canada,
and Melinda wasn’t happy
about that.
Melinda said, “No! Please stay!”
So Latoya decided to stay!
Latoya met with her family.
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“What about if we go to Canada
for a couple of months, and if
you like it you can live there
and I will go to school in Florida.
I will just come to Canada every
month if I have enough money,”
Latoya said.
Her family agreed! There was
still a problem, though. Her
family said they didn’t want her
to waste all her money every
month, so they said that they
would come and visit her. She
had to go to school and they
didn’t want to mess up her
time at school because she
needed to learn.
Latoya and Melinda decided
to move in together and be
roommates. Their apartment
had everything pink-ish, and
there were white fluffy carpets.
They had a big TV. The couch
was dark white and fluffy. They
ate healthy food, and Melinda
cooked most of the time. They
also got a puppy named Samia.
They did their school work
and talked about school and
other things. Latoya missed her
family, but she talked to them
on the phone. Latoya’s parents
came to visit, but they only
stayed for a couple of weeks
at a time because they had
work to do.
Everything worked out and
everyone was happy!

Roly Makes a Friend
by Mai Mang
My character’s name is Roly.
She is 12 years old. She comes
from Tokyo, Japan but she
went to New York, USA to study
abroad. In Japan there are a
lot of flowers and Disneyland.
For fun, Roly likes to draw and
make art.
You know that Roly goes to
USA to study abroad, right?
So the first day at school was
really hard for her because
she couldn’t make friends with
anyone. She was really sad
so she decided to not tell her
parents about that.
At the end of the school day
her parents picked up Roly and
said, ”Are you okay? Do you
have any friends today?” and
Roly said, ”Um, I think so, yes.”
When her parents heard that
they were really happy.
This is why Roly didn’t have
friends. You know that in USA
there aren’t a lot of Japanese
people so that’s why Roly
doesn’t have any friends. Now
let’s go back to the story!
Some days later, she made
a plan to find some friends.
So, she looked around her
classroom at lunch. And after
looking and thinking she knows
who will be her friend. His name
is Braden. Braden was friendly
and spoke Japanese.
70

So she came to his table and
said, “Hi, do you want to be
my friend?”
Braden said, “Sure! Why
not? So do you want to play
with me and my best friend
during recess?”
Roly said, “Yes!”
So they played with each other
during recess and now they are
best friends forever! They both
felt happy to have a friend.

The Amazing Adventures of Blake III!
by Moses Ayegba
Once upon a time, there were
two 17-year-old brothers,
Hakuna and Blake, who were
living in peace together with
their family in the jungle. One
day, they were building a treehouse,
and while searching for
materials, they got lost in the
jungle and they got separated.
But Hakuna and Blake survived!
But then they were separated
for three months. Now they
were trying to find each other!
Time to get to know Blake and
Hakuna! Blake III is a 17-yearold
boy with a short blue afro
with bangs. He is a time traveler
and has a sweater with all the
jewels in the world! He always
has a hoodie on with baggy
jeans and likes to time travel to
the 1980s. He is as
dark-skinned as Mars and lives
in a treehouse with a naturally
sourced elevator and also has
an arcade and a lab.
Hakuna is also 17 years old
with long red dreads and wears
a light red shirt and dark red
jeans and Converse. He is also
dark-skinned, also likes to time
travel and has a similar treehouse
like Blake’s. Like Blake
III, Hakuna is also friends with
all animals. Fact: Blake III and
Hakuna can communicate with
each other with their brains!
Back to the story!
One lovely Thursday morning,
Blake III was ready to start early
to work on the portal. He was
doing well, but he didn’t know
72

what was coming at him very
soon, otherwise he would have
been scared.
Meanwhile at the dark side of
the jungle, the evil coconuts
were trying to plan an evil trick
on Blake III so he couldn’t build
the portal. The portal was a lot
of fun and the evil coconuts
were the enemy of fun. The
coconuts weren’t always evil.
They became that way when
they rolled into the dark side.
Later on, the king of the evil
coconuts said, “We should plan
a sneak attack from the back
entrance. He will never know
we are coming!”
The others agreed.
Now back to Blake. He was
doing okay, but he didn’t have
any souls so he had to get
some. He went to a part of the
jungle called Lost Souls Forest.
He took jars and scooped them
in. It was that simple!
Later, as soon he took a step,
the coconuts rolled in with
a big *BANG* and everything
was gone.
One of the coconuts said, “Ha!
What are you going to do
without your portal?”
Blake said, “Dude, I have a
second one,” with a shrug.
Then he kicked all of the
coconuts out, all the way to the
dark side! Then Blake continued
to work on the portal!

Alien Apocalypse
by Nima Ali
Lumoon had short hair, blue
jeans, and green eyes. He was
a fifteen-year-old male with
parents that were legends
and had super powers. He
wore a lot of hoodies and he
loved plants. When Lumoon
was younger, he got 15% on
a test and he started getting
bad grades and getting into
fights. So his parents said
they couldn’t deal with him
anymore. They broke a cave
from a mountain and threw it
onto someone’s roof and made
him live there. He did home
school from there.
One day there was an alien
apocalypse. A bunch of aliens
from Pluto had a spaceship and
it became a wreck and
fell to Earth. They stepped
out of the spaceship and saw
colourful grass, flowers, and
houses. They tried to eat the
grass. It tasted like dog poo.
Even so, they thought the place
was so beautiful that they
wanted to stay.
The aliens happened to have
the names and ages of all the
humans on Earth. A scientist
had tried to get rid of all the
people’s information and threw
the five files up, wrapped in
bubble wrap, and threw it into
the Milky Way and a few days
later it had landed on Pluto.
The aliens had lazer guns. They
started shooting at people. The
people had to go to Mars. The
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aliens were killing most of the
people on Earth but Lumoon
got most of them to Mars.
Then aliens came back one
day so there was war. Lumoon
and his people won and got to
go back to earth. When they
went back to Earth everything
was gone so they had to
start a new life.

My Short Story
by Olivia Lawlor
Once there was a girl named
Isabella. She was very wealthy
and lived in a mansion with
her mom. She had orange and
blue hair with an orange hair
tie, and a red necklace. Isabella
had a blue and white t-shirt
with a heart on it and a tank top
because her shirt was short. Her
jeans were ripped blue jeans
with a red lining at the top and
bottom, with blue and black
running shoes.
Her dad was always on a
business trip because he
worked for a cruise ship
company. Isabella went to a
private school in LA and she
had two best friends named
Lily and Zake.
One day when she was at home
Isabella started burning up.
She started feeling dizzy. Her
mom rushed her to the hospital
because her temperature was
hundred and twenty. When she
got to the hospital they were
all wondering if she was okay.
Her mom came into the room
and Isabella was awake. She
got hotter, her skin was red,
and if you touched her skin it
would burn you. After one hour
her mom saw her skin on fire.
She calmed Isabella down and
her temperature went down.
Isabella and her mom didn’t tell
anyone about her power: fire.
Isabella and her mom decided
to keep it a secret from
everyone. The only people who
knew were her dad and Isabella’s
mom.
76

The Legend of the Gold Wonders
by Rachel Akintola
Hi, my name is Lilliana. I am
thirteen years old. I have light
blue and purple hair. I have one
blue eye and one pink eye. I
am half-unicorn, half-goddess
and half-human. Most of the
time I look like a regular girl
but since I have one pink eye
and one blue eye I cover it with
my hair or an eye patch. When
I want to transform, it gets
stormy and thunder comes and
a bright light comes up, then
I transform into a half unicorn-half
goddess. I also like to
wear light colored clothes and
black shoes.
I live in a secret land called
the Gold Wonders. It is a place
where mystic creatures and
people like unicorns, dragons,
gods, goddesses, and more
live. The city is really different
from the human world. In our
city we have rainbow sparkly
foods and snacks.
The schools are way different.
The schools are sparkly and
rainbow. Each classroom has
walls made of gold. We don’t
have many subjects at school.
We only have Math, English,
Mystic P.E. (a class when you
open the door, you see a forest
with a lot of obstacles that you
have to use your wings and
powers to pass), and History
of Mysticism.
The parks look regular, but
when you step on the park it
teleports you to the Rainbow
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Play Forest. Clothing and shoes
are regular colors but very
sparkly. The rest of the things
and places are regular.
Since I am half human, I go to
a regular school and live with
my friend Stacy. She is also
half human/half elemental
goddess, and like any grade 8
student, I think it’s boring. Even
though my friend and I are not
fully human, we still behave
like regular people but no one
knows who we really are.
But there is one problem in
the mystic city. There used to
be a really nice angel named
Alex. He was nice to everyone
and everything, especially the
plants. One day when he was
walking through the rainbow
play forest he went really deep
into it. Of course no one knew
about it because they wouldn’t
even think of going that deep.
Alex came across a dark, black,
stony cave that he thought
seemed suspicious as everything
in the forest was rainbow
and green. Immediately he
went inside the cave and the
dark angel Tegan grabbed him
and turned him into a dark
angel and put all his powers
into a dark magic bottle.
So his job now (since he didn’t
have any of his powers and
couldn’t control himself since
he had become a dark angel)
was to start taking all the
parents of the mystic creatures
in the city and capturing
them into the cave. The
dark angel also convinced
him to take Stacy and me to
the cave, but somehow we
managed to escape.
Since then we have been trying
to defeat the dark angel Tegan
but we lost countless times.
We were only able to take the
dark magic bottle that Alex’s
power was in. Now Tegan has
been trying to find us and take
over the Gold Wonders and
the human world so it is all in
our hands to find Alex, turn him
back to a light angel, and battle
Tegan once again.
One day, as school was over
for Stacy and me, we saw a
strange boy chanting some
word and he transformed into a
dark angel.
“I think that’s Alex!” said Stacy.
“We have to get him to quickly
transform!” I said.
At that moment we realized it
was Alex. We realized we were
the only ones who could help
Alex because all of the other
mystic creatures had already
been captured by Tegan. If we
didn’t, Tegan would capture

everyone in the human world
and turn everything dark.
We transformed into our mystic
mode as fast as we could.
“Ultra Transformia,” we said
together as we transformed
and teleported ourselves to a
battlefield.
After a few hours, we finally
won. We gave Alex back his
light powers and he transformed
back to a light angel.
Then we all went back to the
guardian light angel because
Alex was her son, and we all
started to prepare for the battle
against Tegan. Soon it was time
for the battle, so they all transformed
and teleported to the
battlefield.
Tegan was already there,
so we suspected something
was wrong.
“Well, well, well if it isn’t the
guardian angel and her little
friends. I am unstoppable!
Can’t you see that you can’t
defeat me? Shadows Attack!”
said Tegan.
Within a blink of an eye,
multiple shadows started attacking
them, but we fought the
shadows and defeated them.
Then it was Tegan’s turn.
Tegan used her dark sword
to slash the guardian angel
from behind. Stacy and I
attacked her together with our
unicorn magic.
With that we were able to
discover Tegan’s weakness.
“Guys I don’t think we can
survive this. She is too strong.
We should just give up already.
She is going to defeat us any
way,” said Alex.
“I think we figured out her
weakness!” Stacy and I
said. “Her weakness is
teamwork. When Stacy and I
attacked together, she got a
little damaged.”
“We have to fuse powers!”
Stacy and I said.
So we fused all their powers
together and attacked. We
finally defeated Tegan, and all
our parents were set free.
We lived happily ever after with
nothing to worry about. We
made a peace treaty with the
king of the human world, and
all the mystic creatures were
allowed to go to the human
world in their mystic form.

The Egg Army
by Ramazan Atarman
One day two friends named
Ramazan and Jordan went to the
forest and found a house there.
It looked to be about 3,000 years
old. Just as they were about to go
inside the house, Jordan heard a
noise from the sky. It was an alien!
The alien spaceship landed and
out came an alien! It looked just
like a Dorito.
“I’m a friendly alien and my name
is Bob,” the alien said. “I come
from Mars.”
Ramazan was shocked by Bob
the alien. Bob came because the
egg army was coming to take
over the planet! They had come
from a black hole in space. Jordan
and Ramazan didn’t know the
egg army was about to arrive, and
they were scared.
“Are we going to die?” they asked.
“No,” Bob said confidently.
The army arrived and Bob gave
both of the friends a pair of
boots so they could all stamp
on the eggs.
Even though there were a billion
eggs, the attack only lasted a few
minutes as once the egg army
saw their fate, they got scared
and ran away back into space.
Bob, Jordan and Ramazan had
won the attack!
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Once the attack was over, Bob said
goodbye to his new friends and left in
his spaceship. Jordan and Ramazan
went back to their houses. They had
so much excitement that they didn’t
explore the old house in the end.
They told their parents all about the
attack from the egg army and about
Bob the alien. Their parents didn’t
believe them.
“You’re not going to that forest again
because it’s dangerous,” they said.

Steve and the Red Apple
by Ramazan Cinucen
My character is Steve. Steve
likes to play Minecraft and he
likes to eat red apples. He does
not like green apples. Steve is
27. He wears a blue shirt, dark
blue pants, and grey leather
shoes, and he has brown hair
and blue eyes. He really wants
to get a red sports car.
Today Steve is alone in the
forest exploring and looking for
red apples to make apple juice.
Steve knows every single trail,
but a tree is blocking one and
Steve gets lost.
He screams, “Help! I want to eat
more red apples!”
A random kid screams,
“Are you ok?”
Steve says, “I want to eat more
red apples!”
The kid says, “I’m going to call
my dad for help!”
The dad comes back with
a chainsaw and cuts the
fallen tree.
The kid’s dad drives Steve
home and Steve gives them
apple juice and apples
and says, “Thank you for
helping me.”
Steve goes back to play Minecraft
and eat more apples!
85

The Monkey Scientists
by Taveyah Peters
Blake III lives in the forest. He
likes to play with his friends that
are animals. There is a giant
gorilla in the forest and he’s
the king. One day the king goes
missing and all of the animals
go searching for clues to find
him. The clues are pieces of a
map. When they put the pieces
together they find out where
the king is: in a lab over on the
other side of the forest.
The scientists in the lab are
monkeys wearing little monkey
lab coats. The monkeys are
doing experiments to find a way
to become bigger and stronger,
like the gorilla king.
Blake III is with some friendly
snakes and the gorilla king’s
kids. They all found the lab
together. There is a square door
on the roof of the lab. They
decide to sneak in to confront
the monkey scientists!
86

The Bully
by Treshauna Walters
Once there was a girl named
Isabella. She was very wealthy
and lived in a mansion with
her mom. She had orange and
blue hair with an orange hair
tie, and a red necklace. Isabella
had a blue and white t-shirt
with a heart on it and a tank top
because her shirt was short. Her
jeans were ripped blue jeans
with a red lining at the top and
bottom, with blue and black
running shoes.
Her dad was always on a
business trip because he
worked for a cruise ship
company. Isabella went to a
private school in LA and she
had two best friends named
Lily and Zake.
One day when she was at home
Isabella started burning up.
She started feeling dizzy. Her
mom rushed her to the hospital
because her temperature was
hundred and twenty. When she
got to the hospital they were
all wondering if she was okay.
Her mom came into the room
and Isabella was awake. She
got hotter, her skin was red,
and if you touched her skin it
would burn you. After one hour
her mom saw her skin on fire.
She calmed Isabella down and
her temperature went down.
Isabella and her mom didn’t tell
anyone about her power: fire.
Isabella and her mom decided
to keep it a secret from
everyone. The only people who
knew were her dad and Isabella’s
mom.
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Phillip Gets Lost
by Zayd Jihad
Zack is my main character. He
is short and has blue hair and
black eyes. He is nine years
old. He is funny, nice, and has
a great personality. His favorite
things to do are playing with his
friends, Midis and Kevin. Zack
lives in a house in Toronto. It
has four rooms and two bathrooms.
Zack’s room is on the
top floor of the house. It has a
big TV where he and his friends
like to play video games. Zack
also has a very special pet
named Phillip. Phillip is not
like other cats because he is a
talking cat. He can only speak
to Zack and the people Zack
chooses, like his best friends
Midis and Kevin.
One day his friends Midis and
Kevin came to his house to play
NBA 2K20. Zack and his friends
were in his room playing 2k
for an hour and noticed that
his cat Philip was not in the
room anymore. Zack asked his
friends if they saw his cat and
they said no. They went downstairs
and checked the whole
house and he was not there.
Then they went to the door and
saw that it was open.
“Sorry Zack, I must have left
the door open when I came in,”
said Kevin.
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“It’s okay Kevin. I know it was a
mistake, but we really need to
find Philip,” said Zack.
Zack was worried because he
and Phillip had never been
separated before and Zack
was scared he would never see
him again. Phillip had never run
away and even when he was
scared he would hide under
the couch but he had never
left home without Zack. He
did not want to lose his best
friend Phillip. Zack was very
sad because he knew if he did
not find Phillip, there would be
no one to take care of him and
he would be all alone in the
streets without a warm home or
a best friend.
“What should we do first?”
said Midis.
“We need to look around the
neighbourhood,” said Zack, and
they all ran outside. Zack told
his friends that they needed
to split up so they could find
Phillip faster and meet at his
house in an hour.
Kevin went to the school to
look for the cat. He had to
search every classroom to see
if Phillip was there, which took
a long time. After looking in all
the classrooms he searched
the library, cafeteria, and washrooms
and still could not find
Philiip. He decided to look
outside at the playground and
searched the entire field and
did not find him. Midis looked
at the local store. He showed a
picture of Phillip to the worker
at the store and asked if he
saw him. The worker said no, so
Midis looked around the store
himself. Then he went outside
and asked people around the
store if they had seen Philiip,
but no one did so he headed
back to Zack’s house.
Zack walked around his neighbourhood
looking for Phillip. He
even searched near a smelly
dumpster but could not find
his cat. After, Zack went down
the street near his house and
asked his neighbours, but they
did not see Phillip either. Zack
was on his way home, sad that
he would never see his cat
again, when he remembered
that Phillip would hide under
the couch when he was scared,
so he thought maybe Phillip
might be hiding under a car. He
started checking under cars to
see if Phillip was there. After
searching under all the cars in
his neighbourhood he heard a
meowing sound coming from

under a car and looked under it
and saw his cat Phillip.
Zack was so happy that he
found Philip, and Philip was
happy too and he jumped into
his arms. Zack took Philip home
and met up with Kevin and
Midis. They were all so happy to
see Phillip and see that he was
back home safe. They made a
promise that they would keep
an eye on Phillip and make sure
they would close the door at
all times so he did not get out
again. Then all of the friends
went back upstairs to continue
playing NBA 2K20 .

Dragon and the Aliens
by David Tran
There was a dragon named
Dragon who lived in an enchanted
forest ruled by Drago
the Fox Dragon. Dragon was
alone and felt a bit sad about
it. He didn’t have any friends
as he was new to the enchanted
forest.
Before he came to the enchanted
forest he was in a dragon
world that was in space with his
family. He wanted to explore
but decided to make the enchanted
forest his new home.
After making the enchanted
forest his new home, he made
his own house. He built a house
with logs and leaves. When he
finished his house, he started to
explore the enchanted forest.
While exploring the enchanted
forest, he found something
that looked like a UFO. He
didn’t know what it was, so he
went closer to see the object
better. He found some small
green aliens that were the size
of ants. He was both scared
and surprised, so he ran away
and returned home to his
house. Sometimes he returned
to see the aliens because he
was fascinated even though
he was scared.
One day, Dragon worked up the
courage to talk to the aliens. He
94

walked up to their UFO, which
looked like a classic flying
saucer, and asked what their
names were. There were ten
aliens, and two of them, who
seemed to be the leaders, introduced
themselves. “I’m Tom,”
one said. His voice sounded like
a fish. “I’m Sam,” said another in
a very high-pitched voice. Tom
and Sam each had three eyes,
the rest only had two.
“Where can we find fuel for our
ship?” they asked in sync. “We
live on a purple planet with
other aliens. There’s lots of goo.”
“I think I can help,” Dragon said.
He got a plastic cup and filled
it with rainbow water. He filled
the fuel tank and the UFO shot
into the sky. Dragon followed
the ship into space. He wanted
to see something new.
On the purple gooey planet,
Dragon explored for a while. It
was similar to earth, but gooier.
After a while, he realized he
was lost. He couldn’t tell the
aliens apart, so he couldn’t find
Tom and Sam.
He tried to fly back to enchanted
forest, but got lost
and then stuck in a shower of
flying objects. Then suddenly
he saw his home world, the
dragon space world. The world
had expanded and turned
rainbow couloured.
Dragon’s family lived in the
center of the planet, which
was flat like a plate. He found
his parents doing work on
their computers.
“We are so shocked to see you,”
Dragon’s parents said. “You
were gone a whole five years.”
From then on, the family had
a good life. They taught other
dragons how to fly and they
played computer games.

My Story
by Esme Loo Ng
Drago is a dragon and fox at
the same time. He eats the
coronavirus! In the summer
he breathes fire and in winter
breathes ice. Other people like
him. His roommate is named
Ice. Drago does not get along
with his brother. His brother
lives in a different cave.
Drago lives in the Enchanted
Forest. He sees trees, trees
are of all sizes. There are lots
of flowers. There is a mountain
in the middle of the forest.
Drago’s cave is next to it.
There is a ramp that leads all
around the mountain. Inside
the cave it looks like a regular
cave. There’s a huge leaf that
Drago sleeps on. Ice sleeps
on a smaller one. The leaves
smell like tofu.
When Drago is all by himself
he likes to explore the outside
world. He is forbidden from
going to the human city. His
mother forbade him because
humans are dangerous (according
to his mother). When
he’s with Ice they play a game
together called Hide and
Sneak. It can only be played at
night. They use their sense of
smell to find each other. Sometimes
Ice gets scared. In the
day they play Hide and Seek.
They are in the Forest playing
Hide and Sneak. What they
don’t know is that they are
being watched and that the
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forest is haunted. There’s a
secret demon on the loose
that’s hiding. He has a magical
wand that lets him get into
the forest. Drago and Ice think
that everyone else is sleeping,
and they think they’re the only
ones outside playing. They
have no idea that the Demon
is there too. The Demon is
going to try to take over the
forest by getting rid of Drago
by snatching him and putting
him into a bag that he’ll throw
into the garbage. It’s not
any kind of garbage, it’s the
garbage that’s in the city. The
Demon is hoping that Drago
gets caught by the humans
and then they will take him
to a lab to study and do
tests on him.
The Demon is watching Drago
and following him. He grabs
him and puts Drago into the
bag. Drago is trying to get out
but the Demon is prepared
for Drago and his superpowers.
The Demon’s boss is the
Devil and he knew what Drago
could do with his sharp claws
and fiery breath so he made
sure the bag was fire, ice and
scratch proof. Ice has no idea
this is happening.
So when Drago is in the huge
bag that is only ten inches
bigger than Drago there is
also a can of beans. Drago
hates beans. He wants to
throw them out. The smell of
them is grossing him out and
he hates it. He actually hates
the smell even more than he
hates lollipops.
When he gets dumped he
doesn’t really know where
he is because it’s dark. The
Demon isn’t aware that there
are kids near the dump.
The Demon just leaves. The
kids go look and they try to
open the bag, but it’s hard
for them. When they finally
open the bag, they find Drago
with the beans.
Drago screams and flies
up but then he quickly flies
back down because his wing
is broken. The kids just say,
“Whoa! A dragon fox!” They
don’t really seem scared.
One of the kids just learned
about dragon foxes in his
history class and he didn’t
believe they existed. Now that
he’s seen one, he can’t believe
it. There are three boys and
one girl. That boy decides to
take Drago home and sneak
him into his house. Luckily
he lives in a mansion and his
room is huge, so Drago fits
in there no problem. There’s
even a bouncy castle in the
room. This boy has five dogs
and five cats. He has always
wanted a pet dragon, but even
cooler is a pet dragon fox.

Drago doesn’t know how to
get home. Drago is feeling
weird. He doesn’t know if
the boy is going to kill him
because his mom always told
him that humans were dangerous,
especially children.
The boy wants to do something
nice, so he gives Drago
a lollipop. But Drago hates
lollipops and freaks out. He
tries not to lose his temper so
he runs around the boy’s room
twenty times. Luckily the boy’s
parents are away visiting his
grandmother in California and
they can’t hear all the noise.
All the running makes Drago
so tired that he falls asleep
on one of the cat’s beds, but
he breaks it.
Once Drago is sleeping, Jacob,
the boy, sees that Drago
doesn’t like lollipops so he
gets Drago chocolate instead.
There are many kinds of chocolate:
dark, light, white chocolate
too. There are even apples
just in case. The boy also has a
sister, and she faints when she
sees the dragon. Drago finally
wakes up, sees the chocolate
and eats it all. But he eats so
much that he throws up.
The boy lives on the other
side of the city. Drago is trying
to talk to the boy. He only
speaks “Fox” but he is able
to write in English because
he went to school. It isn’t an
ordinary school. It is like home
school but it is dragon school
and he learns different languages
there.
So he writes down a message
to Jacob, and Jacob understands
that he has to get
Drago back to the Enchanted
Forest before the scientists
find him and start to do
testing on him.
So the boy and Drago start
their adventure to return to
the Enchanted Forest. Along
the way they get to know each
other and they discover that
they have a lot in common and
that they want to be friends.
Once they get to the edge of
the forest, Drago has to go.
But the friends decide to meet
often. They also decide that
they will make a plan to one
day defeat the demon.

Squidson’s Best Day
byJayden Le
Squidson is a squid monkey.
He lives in a city in Cloudtown.
One day Squidson is going for
a walk. Squidson sees other
squids and cloud buildings.
Suddenly Squidson sees a car
crash. It’s a 300 year old car.
He decides it’s not his business
and he walks away. He goes to
the ice cream shop. He orders
an apple ice cream in a cone.
But he doesn’t have any money.
Squidson decides to look for a
job. He looks at a tall building
that has many offices. A lot of
workers are walking in and out
of the front doors. He applies
for a job in real estate and
gets a job in one of the offices.
People are nice. Sometimes
the workers party in the office
after work. They get snacks, like
chips and chocolate, and listen
to funky music. They have so
much fun they make a mess!
After, they clean it all up.
Squidson works for 24 hours,
then he walks back to the ice
cream store. He orders his
apple ice cream cone and feels
happy. Squidson eats his ice
cream, and then walks home.
Squidson has met fun new
friends at the office and is going
to go back the next day.
100

And then the next day he goes
back to work. After work they
have another party. They invite
the ice cream shop owner,
and he brings fruit ice cream:
strawberry, apple, raspberry,
and banana.
After the party they all head
to the park. It is afternoon
and sunny. They see a bunch
of people chasing a famous
person (Squidson the Deejay,
who is a squid-koala).
Squidson the Deejay does
not realize he is being chased
by the crowd because he is
running away from the police.
He has robbed a bank and,
while he was running away,
caused a car crash.
This time Squidson (the good
Squidson) helps the person in
the car (named John) by calling
911. Squidson pulls John out of
the car to see if they are injured.
They are kinda injured. The
ambulance comes and helps.
Everyone goes to the hospital.
The driver is okay.
John decides to quit his job
and get a job in the office with
Squidson. John never drives his
car ever again. Squidson and
John play ball in the afternoon.

Toothpaste to be Nice to da Shark
by Naaneka Palmer and
Justin Arana-Cajamarca
Once there was a cloud world
where flying squids lived. In this
cloud world, there was a beach
made of ice cream sandwiches.
The flying squids loved to swim
in the blue clouds surrounding
the beach.
One day at the beach, Squidson
Washington III and their friends
had taken lollipops off their sticks
to play with them like beach balls.
All of a sudden a cloud plane was
about to crash into the beach!
“Everyone get out of the way!”
Squidson yelled. “There’s a
plane coming!”
Squidson and all their friends
jumped into the clouds to
start swimming. The cloud
plane crashed into the beach
and turned into more ice
cream sandwiches.
As Squidson was swimming away
from the crash, a magic tree
below made Squidson’s brain
switch with Drago, their Dragonfox
frenemy from the enchanted
forest below!
At that moment, Drago was
flying through the sky in a game
of fox-dragon tag, which was
like hide and seek mixed with
tag, high above the treeline (the
dragons used clouds to hide from
102

each other). Drago was chasing
another fox dragon when they
suddenly found themselves
transported into Squidson’s body.
For both of them, it was a very
weird feeling.
Suddenly, in the cloud ocean,
a baby shark came towards
Squidson and their friends.
Usually, Squidson was afraid
of baby sharks, but Drago as
Squidson was not, they released
their special ink that was like blue
toothpaste at the shark, which
made the baby shark’s teeth
clean and beautiful. This was important
because the shark had a
thousand teeth!
Just then, Squidson was having a
very difficult time flying in Drago’s
body. They were used to flying
as themselves. They crashed into
the squid cloud ocean and into
Drago as Squidson. When Drago
crashed into Squidson they both
returned to their regular bodies.
Everything went back to normal,
except now the baby shark had
very, very clean teeth.

Dragon the Dragon Makes a Friend
by Salma Noor
Dragon the dragon was alone in
the Enchanted Forest and felt a
bit sad about it. He didn’t have
any friends right then because
he’d just arrived there. Before
he came to the Enchanted
Forest he lived in Dragon Space
World with his family. It was
pretty much a regular home.
He left Dragon Space World to
explore, but got lost along the
way and now he couldn’t find
his way home.
Before now, Dragon hadn’t ever
left his home, so he found it
hard to get back straight away.
Dragon was exploring the
Enchanted Forest when he
bumped into another dragon.
He was so surprised!
“Ouch!” they both said at
the same time.
“Hello,” said Dragon the dragon.
“Hello!” said the other dragon.
“My name is Blaze.”
“My name is Dragon,” said
Dragon. “Are you new
here as well?”
“I have been here for my whole
life!” said Blaze.
“Wow!” said Dragon the dragon.
“I am new here and I’m trying to
find my way back home.”
“Where do you live?”
asked Blaze.
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“I’m from Dragon Space World.
It’s in space.”
“Actually, I think I know
the way to the Dragon
World!” said Blaze.
Dragon the dragon was very
happy to hear this. He flew
around with joy.
“It’s very far away,” warned
Blaze. “It will take at least four
days to get there!”
Blaze had a very, very old car
that they were going to use to
get to Dragon World. The car
was green and rusty with a
lot of scratches. Even though
it was old, the car could fly
through space, but you had
to drive it for four whole days
before it would fly.
Dragon and Blaze got to Blaze’s
house to pack up for their trip.
Blaze packed two toothbrushes,
one tent, some money ($50),
two pairs of shoes, and two
jackets. Luckily Dragon the
dragon had a bunch of food, so
they packed that too.
They made a couple of gas
station stops along the way
to buy more food and for
bathroom breaks. As the drive
went on Dragon and Blaze
became better friends.
First they started driving, and
then they started asking questions
to get to know each other.
Dragon asked, “What’s your
favourite colour and favourite
food?”
Blaze said, “My favourite colour
is green, that’s why I picked this
old car that’s green!”
Dragon told Blaze that his favourite
colour was red.
After driving for four whole
days Blaze pushed a button on
the car and the space feature
opened. They were flying in
space! Once they were in space
it only took two minutes to get
to Dragon Space World.
When they landed, Dragon ran
back to his home. He went up
to his parents and gave them
a big hug. He was so happy.
Blaze said goodbye and went
back to the Enchanted Forest.
Blaze said that he would always
come back and visit Dragon
in the Dragon Space World.
Dragon knew he’d made a
friend in Blaze and he didn’t
feel so lonely anymore.

The Quest
by Umar Abdulaziz
There was a person named Jack
who had a pet dog named David,
and they lived in a tiny house.
Jack had black eyes and brown
hair, and he always wore a black
shirt with brown pants and red
shoes. David had brown eyes and
half of his body was black and the
other half was brown.
Their house was made out of
wood, and they had one bed to
share. They usually met friends
at the park since they were
very nice. They sometimes got
ice cream. Jack’s favorite was
chocolate, and David’s favorite
was strawberry.
Jack’s friend but now they were
no longer friends because they
used to get into lots of problems.
They would sometimes argue
about where to go. Jack once
called the police, but the police
didn’t care.
To solve this problem, Jack had
been trying to raise money so he
could sneakily move somewhere
else at night, but David kept on
biting the money. Jack decided
to pretend that he was homeless
so that people could give him
money. This plan worked and he
was able to get enough money to
move somewhere else.
Every week, Bill always showed
up at their house. Bill used to be
106

Drago and His Frenemy Squidson
by Wahaj Malik
Once upon a time there was a
Squidmonkey named Squidson
Washington III, and a Dragonfox
named Drago. Let’s begin with
the story of Squidson...
Squidson’s Origin
Story of Flying
Squidson was learning to fly
and got incredibly tired. He
could not fly. After a while
Squidson sat down on a cloud
to rest, but the cloud was
squishy and soft and Squidson
fell through it. He was so scared
that he yelled, “Fly tentacles,
fly!” His tentacles were
jiggling in the sky so quickly
that he flew.
The next day, Squidson was
battling his frenemy Drago
(who ruled the Enchanted
Forest). They knew each
other from even before they
were born—in their mothers’
separate bellies.
Despite their history, Drago
didn’t know that Squidson
could fly, as Squidson was still
trying to learn how to fly the
last time Drago saw him. Just
as Drago was about to defeat
Squidson, Squidson flew! Drago
was so surprised that he lost
concentration and Squidson
used his tentacle-hit move. The
hit was only kinda powerful, but
Drago lost a lot of power, so he
was knocked into a nap for the
whole afternoon (also known as
an afternoon nap).
107

Drago’s Origin Story
Drago used to live in a magical
dragon realm. In this realm
there was a magic fountain,
and whenever a new dragon
was born it was taken to the
fountain and assigned an
element. If the new dragon
wasn’t taken to the fountain,
they wouldn’t have any
magical powers.
When Drago was born, he
became the ruler of the realm
because he was stronger than
all the other dragons and
learned all the elements. Only
the ruler could learn all the
elements—the other dragons
could only learn one.
When Drago became ruler,
Squidson brought in an entire
army to the dragon realm.
“I was never your friend, Drago.
I just wanted to destroy your
realm once you were ruler!”
Squidson said.
Drago didn’t expect that
because Drago thought they
were friends as Squidson had
been nice to him, but it had all
been an evil plot!
Squidson’s army destroyed
Drago’s entire realm, so Drago
used the axe-summon-slash to
create the Enchanted Forest.
How Drago Learned the
Axe-Summon-Slash
After Drago’s entire realm
was destroyed, Drago and
his people had to go to find
another realm, but Drago
went on a separate journey to
find a realm.
He was tired after trying to find
a realm. He saw a cave nearby,
and he went inside. He didn’t
know there were challenges
inside the cave. He had to fight
monsters to get through.
Once he had defeated them
all, he found a scroll at the
end of the cave. It was full of
techniques of how to do axesummon-slash.
He read the
scroll. Then he went to find his
people. He found them and
used axe-summon-slash in
front of them and created the
Enchanted Forest.
The Separation
After winning their last battle,
Squidson demanded a tax from
Drago’s people: the chickendonkey
and other dragons.
Squidson needed money
to repair the cloud village,
which had suffered from many
damages in past battles with
Drago. Drago had damaged
the cloud world, because in the
past Squidson (who had been
his friend) brought an army to

destroy Drago’s realm, which
was a magical dragon world.
After the dragon world was
destroyed, Drago became even
more powerful and ruled over
the Enchanted Forest.
In the present, Drago was very
upset after he lost the most
recent battle. One good thing
had come out of it: he’d remembered
an old move called
axe-summon-slash. It was
an important move because
it was legendary. He’d used
axe-summon-slash to create
the Enchanted Forest. He had
forgotten it since then, but remembered
it now.
The next day Drago and
Squidson started to fight again.
Drago used the axe-summonslash
on Squidson.
Drago was just about to win,
which would have given Squidson’s
realm a lot of damage, but
then Drago’s father appeared.
Drago’s father was legendary.
He had a power move: he separated
the two realms. Now
Squidson and Drago’s realms
were super far apart and they
never fought again!
Dun dun dunnnnnnn.

Drago and the Bearasaur
by Yasmin Jeilani
One day Drago left their house
to meet a new friend. Drago
was a part dragon, part fox.
They were 12 years old.
The first place that Drago went
was Animal Castle. Animal
Castle was a castle filled with
animals. The biggest animal in
the Enchanted Forest, a T-Rex
named Rex, lived in the castle
and ruled all who lived there.
Drago ran into some trouble
crossing the bridge. It was up,
so they couldn’t get across.
Drago asked a few of the
animals to help them gather
wood. Once they’d gathered
enough wood, Drago nailed
it all together to make a long
poker and then used the
poker to push a button and
lower the bridge.
Drago crossed the bridge and
went inside. When Drago got
to the throne room, they saw
that the T-Rex was gone. One
of T-rex’s servants was there
instead. The servant introduced
himself to Drago. He
was a half-bear, half-triceratops
named Bearasaur.
Bearasaur was nice. He told
Drago that the T-rex would be
gone all day. Drago told Bearasaur
to quit his job because
being a servant was too tiring.
So, Bearasaur quit his job and
left the castle with Drago.
110

The next day the T-rex went
back to his castle. He noticed
that his drawbridge was down
and asked some other animals
who had been there. The
animals told T-Rex that Drago
had come by to talk to T-Rex.
T-rex went looking for his
servants, but he didn’t find
any. They’d all quit! Through
his window he saw Drago
flying around the forest. T-rex
decided to ask Drago where
all of his servants went.
Drago told T-Rex that he
hadn’t seen his servants, but
secretly he’d told them all to
hide in the cloud world so that
they could be free.
The T-rex left the Enchanted
Forest to go look for the
servants. Once he had left,
Drago told Bearasaur to come
out of hiding. Drago built a
house for Bearasaur right next
to his house.
The T-rex gave up on being
the king because he was sick
of all the work, he never got
to go outside, and he didn’t
have any friends. T-Rex was
lonely, so he left the Enchanted
Forest forever. He
moved to an island filled with
other dinosaurs and became
friends with them.
Drago and the Bearasaur were
so happy. The king was gone
and they were free! Drago
and Bearasaur became best
friends and lived happily
ever after.

Fire and Friends
by Zayd Mohamed-Inshaf
Fire the dragon was born in a
mountain far away. He was a big
dragon with big wings, two big
horns, and a tail with a triangle at
the end. He had a special power,
which was breathing fire out of his
mouth. He used his special power
to keep warm and to go and get
food, like deer and anteaters.
He lived with a roommate called
Ice. Ice was just like Fire but the
opposite. She looked like Fire, but
her scales were white, and she
used her ice power to make ice
cream and ice cups to keep cool.
Fire’s goal in life was to make
friends with Squidson II, a
squid who lived in the deep
sea. He wanted to make
friends with Squidson because
Squidson was nice.
Fire first met Squidson II at the
small island where everyone went
to see the sunset. It was the most
beautiful place to see the sunset.
When someone was bleeding,
Squidson treated them with first
aid right away, without thinking.
After that, Fire wanted to make
friends with him.
Squidson was scared of the candy
asteroids, so he had wandered
into the deep sea. Only when the
candy asteroids stopped coming
would Squidson come back. The
candy asteroids were big and
they got heavier and heavier
when they got to the atmosphere,
112

then slowed down and destroyed
people’s homes.
To stop the candy asteroids,
only Fire and Ice could do it
together. Ice said she would
only do it if Fire got an ice
crystal from the other side of
the world. Fire said okay.
He went alone but met some
friends. There was an obstacle
to get the ice crystal. He had
to pass the obstacles in the
five story tower. For example,
he had to walk on water
without making the water ice.
There were also four other
towers with two stories each.
Fire passed all the obstacles.
The ice crystal was so far up
it hit a bit of the atmosphere.
Fire had to go all the way up
to get it. But there was a trap:
if you got the ice crystal, the
tower would fall down and
break. But Fire could fly!
He got the crystal, which was
sparkly and in a diamond
shape and small and really
powerful (even when the sun
hit it, it could make ice). But it
had a curse: whatever touched
it would turn into ice. The
only way to break the spell
was with fire.
Fire took a cloth and held
it, and the cloth turned into
ice. Fire did all he could and
breathed lots of fire at it. It
worked! He took the crystal
back to his side of the world.
When she got the crystal,
Ice said she would help Fire
defeat the candy asteroids.
She made a thick layer of ice
over the land, and Fire made
sure everyone was warm. The
candy asteroids hit the ice
instead of the earth, so the
land was protected.
Squidson heard the news.
He came back up from the
deep sea. After he heard who
had saved the land, he made
friends with both Fire and Ice.

Four Eyed Willy
and the Saturn Centaurs
by Gavi Engel-Yan
Once upon a time there was a
centaur named Four Eyed Willy.
Four Eyed Willy was a Saturn
centaur because he lived in a
forest on Saturn.
One day Four Eyed Willy was
walking with his favourite tree
(oh, did I mention that all the
trees in the forest could talk
and walk?). Suddenly Four Eyed
Willy heard a sound. It was the
sound of the dragon’s evil fiery
breath. Four Eyed Willy’s favourite
tree ran away and so did all
the other trees, animals, creatures,
and even Four Eyed Willy.
Unfortunately, since Four Eyed
Willy had been walking for so
long his legs were too tired to
run. The dragon inhaled a very
big breath and burned down
the whole forest. Some fire
caught on one of Four Eyed
Willy’s shoulders! Four Eyed
Willy inhaled and blew out
the fire on his shoulder. His
shoulder was burned and his
home was destroyed.
Suddenly it started pouring
rain luckily, which extinguished
the fire. But there was something
special about the rain: it
was healing rain. One drop of
the healing rain got on Four
Eyed Willy’s shoulder and
healed his burn.
The flying centaurs, who lived
on one big cloud above the
forest shaped like a tree, saw
what happened to the Saturn
116

centaur’s home: their beautiful
forest was now just ashes.
The cloud centaurs invited
the Saturn centaurs to live on
their cloud. The Saturn creatures
said yes!
Each flying centaur flew down,
put one or more creatures on
their back, and flew back to
the cloud home. They kept on
doing that until all the creatures
were on one big cloud, and
they all lived happily ever after.

The Centaur’s Quest
by Zachary Rayment
Chapter 1:
Mysterious Smoke
The SkyCity of Tameran was
peaceful as Thunderhorn and
his falcon Storm flew high
through the skies. Thunderhorn
was one of the few flying
centaurs in Tameran. Thunderhorn
did a loop-d-loop midair
and Storm dived and did other
types of acrobatics.
“You’re going to nail the flying
race this year,” Storm said.
Thunderhorn knew it, he had
practiced hard all year and
was feeling confident. He was
about to race Storm back to
the village when he saw smoke
rising up from an ancient
mountain said to be the lair
of a dragon. Thunderhorn
was shocked. The mountain
hadn’t smoked for almost a
thousand years.
Storm had noticed it too, “Burn
my feathers!” he shouted, terrified.
They raced back to the city
to report what they had seen.
Chapter 2:
Orange Fire
Four-eyed Willy was galloping
around the trees picking
apples as he went. He was a
centaur from the forest tribe. It
was a normal day in the forest,
118

nevertheless, Four-eyed Willy
felt something was wrong. He
frequently looked up at the
Mountain, muttering things
like, “Something’s about to
happen”, or “I feel the forest
chill in my bones!”
The feeling of unease
subsided; just when he was
about to calm down, he saw
an orange burst of fire from
the mountain. He rubbed all
four of his eyes to make sure
he wasn’t imagining things.
Then he ran back to his village,
blowing a warning cry from his
horn as he went.
Chapter 3:
The Meeting of the Clans
Both clan chiefs of Tameran
had heard about the smoke
sightings and called an emergency
meeting in the valley.
Thunderhorn, Storm, and Foureyed
Willy were all waiting
nervously at the back.
In an attempt to ease the
tension, Storm cracked some
jokes like, “That dragon must
have a pretty bad cold to
sneeze out all that fire!”, but it
didn’t help.
Finally the clan chiefs agreed
to send out one member
from each clan to investigate
the source of the fire and the
smoke. They wanted to know
the problem so they could
try and fix it.
Thunderhorn and Storm
plucked up their courage and
agreed to go on behalf of their
Clan. Four-eyed Willy agreed
to go as well, and that day
they set off.
Chapter 4:
Journey of the Centaurs
The first obstacle they faced
was the great ravine. Thunderhorn
and Storm could have
just flown over, but because
of Four-eyed Willy they had
to find a path through. After
doing some scouting, Storm
spotted a broken down path
that they could take.
They traveled along the dusty
trail. Suddenly, a giant spider
jumped out from behind a
crevice! Four-eyed Willy saw
it coming and had his bow
ready. He shot the spider in
its biggest eye. Then they all
rushed away from the spider.
They were through the
canyon, but still had to go
through Broken Down Woods.
Many of its trees were violent
- they were mad at humans
for cutting down trees in their
forest! Four-eyed Willy, Thunderhorn
and Storm cautiously
made their way through
the forest, they made sure
they stayed in the center
of the path and kept their
weapons drawn.

They were walking past a
large oak when it bent down
and grabbed Four-eyed Willy!
Thunderhorn and Storm immediately
took to the air.
Thunderhorn dived toward the
oak tree and cut off the front
branches with a slash of his
sword. The oak tree dropped
Four-eyed Willy on the ground
hooves first! The heroes
dashed out of the forest.
As they were leaving Storm
cracked a joke, “That tree is
definitely rotting!”
Climbing the mountain was
easier than they had thought,
a trail had already been
carved, so they made it to the
top by nightfall.
Chapter 5:
Battling the Dragon
Once they arrived at the top of
the mountain, they saw a large
opening and inside was a glittering
red dragon. Four-eyed
Willy and Thunderhorn immediately
drew their weapons.
When the dragon heard the
sound of a sword being drawn
from its sheath he suddenly
woke up and attacked the
centaurs with a belt of fire!
Thunderhorn and Storm rose
into the air and Four-eyed
Willy galloped around trying
to get a shot at the dragon.
When Four-eyed Willy had
fired his first arrow he realized
that the scales protected
the dragon from any attack.
He told this to Thunderhorn
who dived at the dragon
with his sword.
The dragon took to the air to
meet Thunderhorns attack.
With the dragon’s underbelly
exposed, Four-eyed Willy
started firing his arrows viciously
at the dragon’s belly
and wings. Finally, when the
dragon was losing altitude,
Thunderhorn stabbed him
through the mouth finishing off
the vicious dragon for good.
The trio went back to the
valley, reported everything to
the clan chiefs and Tameran
was peaceful once more.

1. Get a pen or pencil and some paper.
2. Find an object in your home. It can be a spatula, a bed
sheet, a DVD, a table, a chair, a plant, a sculpture! Play with
how big or how small the objects are.
3. Write in the voice of that object. What would it say if it
only had one chance to speak?
4. It can be their secret thoughts and dreams, a bedtime
story, an angry speech. The possibilities are endless.
5. What would it say to the person that uses it the most?
Would it be angry or happy or thankful?
6. Read the piece out loud and find their voice and rhythm.
7. Keep finding different objects and writing different stories.
YOU CAN ALSO:
8. Use the object like a puppet, and make it talk! Make sure
you choose an object that isn’t easily breakable.
9. Make different objects talk to each other.
What would their interaction be like?
10. Place your objects in different locations.
What would they say there?

SPECIAL
THANKS
to the amazing teachers, Story
Planet writers and artists, volunteers,
and the children themselves
who make our universe
a much brighter one!

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(especially the little ones)!
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until next time...
Let your story
shine bright!

Talking trees and evil coconuts. Lost dogs and best
friends. Fantastic discoveries and false accusations.
The stories in these pages are a portal to the imaginations
of students during the COVID-19 pandemic, a
time when real life was almost stranger than fiction. 9 780991 884155
ISBN 9780991884155