Sometimes when I visit a school, I’ll do a thirty-minute writing workshop with a small group of kids in which we create a story together. It’s impossible to write a story in a half an hour, of course. But the kids do learn how to create the framework for a story from scratch, everybody has a good time, and sometimes the stories turn out surprisingly good! Here are a few of my favorites…
(With help from Kobe Koren, Woodcrest School, Cherry Hill, New Jersey)
It was a lovely day on Mars and Boggley was enjoying a cup of Mars tea in his house with his pet chicken, Boggley Jr.
“Don’t you love when we drink tea in our little hut?” asked Boggley.
“Bok, bock bock bocka!” answered Boggley Jr.
“Lets go outside,” said Boggley.
It was just a normal day on Mars–red sky and red dirt. But suddenly, the world just turned upside-down.
CRASH! A spaceship landed on Boggley’s house!
“Oh no, my house!”
The unusual spaceship opened its hatch. Once the hatch opened a rover from Earth came out.
“Is there anyone here?” asked the robot.
“I’m here,” said Boggley.
The rover moved a little closer.
“Hello. I am a rover from Earth named Bleenor, I am here to discover your world.”
“Hello I’m Boggley. You crushed my house. This is my pet chicken Boggley Jr. I will introduce you to Mars, is that okay?”
“Sure.” replied Bleenor.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Mars, another rover landed. The hatch of the new spaceship opened up and out came a humanoid. He announced, “I am Clonean from Planet Aedeus.”
While Clonean was looking around, he tripped over something.
“Ow.” he said.
Clonean tried exploring more and he started running around. But Clonean tripped on that thing again and flew even higher with the thing. They flew so high that they went to the other side of Mars.
“PANIC MODE INITIATED! AAAAAHHH!” yelled Clonean.
Then he saw the thing he fell over. It was big and scary looking.
“What are you?” asked Clonean.
“I’m Fly Face, a native bug on Mars. Who are you?” asked Fly Face.
“I’m Clonean from Planet Aedeus. How about we explore Mars together?” said Clonean.
“Sure. I’ll show you around,” said Fly Face. And the two started exploring.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Mars, Boggley, Boggley Jr. the chicken, and Bleenor the robot from Earth started to walk around.
“Oh, I forgot something at my crashed down house,” said Boggley.
So they all went down to Boggley’s house.
I have a great idea, thought Boggley. That Bleenor robot destroyed my house, so I’m gonna make him rebuild my house and while he is doing that I will kill him.
“Um, Bleenor, you destroyed my house,” Boggley said with a smile. “Can you please rebuild my house for me?”
“Of course I can,” answered Bleenor. “I’ll start right now.”
Bleenor started to rebuild Boggley’s house.
“Now, I will start my plan,” said Boggley to his pet chicken.
While Bleenor was rebuilding Boggley’s house, Boggley tried to roll a humongous ball of Mars rock at him.
Once this rock hits Bleenor, it will be BYE BYE BLEENOR, thought Boggley.
Bleenor turned around and saw the big ball of Mars rock coming at him! At the same time Clonean and Fly Face came and saw what was going on.
“We’ve gotta save that other robot!” said Fly Face.
Fly Face and Clonean came to the rescue. They tried to stop the big, scary, humongous ball.
“Can you help me stop it?” asked Bleenor.
“Sure,” said Clonean and Fly Face.
“It’s no use,” said Boggley in a vicious voice.
“Wait a minute, I’ve seen your plans for too long,” said Boggley Jr. the chicken. “Bock, bock. You’re under arrest. I am with the S.C.C.C.J.A–The Space Center Criminal Chicken Justice Association.”
It took some time until Fly Face’s super bug powers kicked in, but they stopped the ball and put Boggley in jail.
“I called my base and I told them to get two rockets to Earth and Aedeus,” said Boggley Jr. the chicken. “The rockets will be coming soon. Goodbye.”
Later the rockets came and Bleenor and Clonean finally went home.
Or did they?