Gnomes in the Garden

One morning, Jake wakes up and looks out of the window. He sees that his two gnomes in the garden are trashed. He wonders why but can't get an answer.

In the middle of the night, Jake wakes to the sound of a disturbing noise. He creeps out of bed and goes into the garden with his flashlight. He goes behind a bush, and in front of the bush he sees the two gnomes fighting. Jake is terrified. The gnomes are alive! So that's why they were trashed to bits. Then Jake jumps out and shines his flashlight on the gnomes. At once, they freeze and turn back into statues.

The following night Jake is ready for them. When the sun is down and the moon is up, Jake prepares himself behind the same bush. Then he hears them. The gnomes start fighting, as usual. Jake counts to three and jumpsout of the bush. But this time the gnomes are quick and run into the bushes. But Jake follows them. He crushes through the bushes and catches up with them.

Suddenly, Jake stops. In front of him is a porthole. The gnomes are on the other side, ready to jump in. Jake tries to shine the flashlight on them, but they have already gone through the porthole. Jake closes his eyes and does the same.

He falls to the ground and gets up. He looks around and realises that he is right outside his house in the garden. Then Jake quickly turns around expecting to see the gnomes. But instead he sees two statues. They are his parents. How can this be? Is this another world? He hears noise coming from the house. And then he understands. He has jumped into a porthole that transported him into another world. A place where everything is switched around. His parents are the gnomes frozen outside in the garden, and inside the house are the two gnomes alive.

Jake knew what he has to do. He opens the front door and waves at the gnomes. And they see him. Then Jake runs into the garden and waits. The two gnomes run out and stop, rooted to the spot. They are frozen. They have turned back into statues.

Jake knows this was happening because this world is the other way round and his parents are frozen in dark not sunlight, like the gnomes. So the live gnomes that are in the house will get frozen in the dark. Then Jake starts feeling stiff. He can't move his legs. He is turning to stone! Into a statue!

Julian - Grade 7.3

WINNER of WORLD BOOK WEEK 2008 Short Story Competition

Good Deeds Bounce Back

One bright sunny morning in July, a man named Alan McGregor was walking on the beach. The sun shone in his face as he walked across the golden beach. As he was staring out at a calm, blue sea he spotted two bobs of gold paddling their way across the waves. As they came closer, Alan saw that they were two dogs. He jumped into the sea and rescued them. When he brought them back, he saw that they had name tags. He returned them to their owners and to say thank you, the owners gave Alan one of their puppies. He named the puppy Pink.

Alan went everywhere with Pink and they soon became the greatest of friends. Alan felt secure when Pink was with him. In the afternoons, Alan took Pink to the beach with him and used to meditate. Alan felt even more secure beacuse cars could not drive through to the beach. That afternoon, a car drove through the beach without noticing the signs. Since Alan was meditating he could not see or hear the car coming. Only Pink noticed the car coming their way. Pink barked, but Alan was still lost in his meditating.

Pink put herself directly in the way of the car. Just as Alan became aware of what was going on, the man in the car saw Pink and dodged her. This further strenghtened Alan and Pink's friendship. This just proves that since Alan saved the dogs and brought them back to their home, Pink, the daughter of the dogs saved Alan's life. It proves that every good deed that we do bounces back at us.

Matthew - Grade 7.3

RUNNER-UP WORLD BOOK WEEK Short Story Competition

The Day Everything Disappeared

One day there was a lovely blue bird in an oak tree, there was a flock of sheep running in a meadow. There were pretty pink buterflies flying in the air.

The following day there was a magician at a boys' birthday party. The magician wanted to make a ball disappear but the trick went horribly wrong because he was so so rushed by the children, that he made everything disappear.

The children in the party disappeared, the blue bird disappeared, even the oak tree disappeared, the sheep stopped running and disappeared, the pretty pink butterflies disappeared, every living creature, every country, state, continent and planet disappeared, the whole world disappeared. Everything in the universe disappeared. So there was nothing else to disappear, not even a pretty pink butterfly.

Max - Grade 7.1

RUNNER-UP WORLD BOOK WEEK 2008 Short Story Competition

Me and My Books

I am sometimes teased,
and not very pleased
because I read books
which don't improve my looks.

I just can't help it,
I'll go and sit
take a book,
and give it a good look.

Time flies when I'm reading a book,
so I don't bother to give the clock a look
when we go back to class
I wonder how the time passed so fast.

On Book Day,
some children try to stay away
when books are such fun
especially if you have more than one.

In the end it was their loss,
I showed them who is boss;
with books I am always on top
that's why I will never stop.

Dawn - Grade 6.1

WINNER of WORLD BOOK WEEK 2008 Poetry Competition.

The Wizard's Story

Once, there was a wizard,
who swallowed a lizard
and got caught in a blizzard.

His name was Fay,
he was born in May,
and, they say,
was born in a barnyard of hay.

He lives in a number of flats,
his neighbours have rats
and lots of bats.

He flew to the moon
on his broom
while holding a spoon.

Later, he went to Pluto,
and found a creature called Muto,
which was half hog and half dog.

Then, he coughed the lizard,
so more bad luck for the Wizard!!

If you look at the sky,
you will see someone saying bye,
on a star so far,
on the Milky Way;
if you look closely,
that is Fay.

Bettina - Grade 6.1

RUNNER-UP for WORLD BOOK DAY 2008 Poetry Competition.

My Dream

Last night I had a dream,
of dolphins in the sea.
Strange creatures in their team
all waiting for their tea.
Shining diamonds in the sky
and aliens flying by
all waving me goodbye.
Hope I'll see them again next time.

Andrew - Grade 6.4

RUNNER-UP for WORLD BOOK DAY 2008 Poetry Competition.