Oscar
After a fire burns his family farm and orchard—their livelihood—Oscar and his siblings must find work “Come on!” Oscar yelled to his younger brother, Finn. Finn ran to catch up. “Of all the fires in...
Stories
Original fiction by young writers ages 8-13
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After a fire burns his family farm and orchard—their livelihood—Oscar and his siblings must find work
“Come on!” Oscar yelled to his younger brother, Finn. Finn ran to catch up. “Of all the fires in the world, why did one have to come here?” Oscar complained.
“I don’t know,” replied Finn, skipping along.
Finn was seven and did not like to work hard.
The trouble begins when the sewer people decide to form a government
Now once, long ago, on June 12, 2027, a stray banana peel found its way into the sewers of Orlando, Florida. It travelled through the sewers for twenty minutes, and then it at last came to the very bottom of the sewers, to a deep puddle.
This is the second installation of a novella that we are publishing in three parts in the April, May, and June 2021 issues of Stone Soup.
Chapter 10
It’s my first hip-hop class.
After suggesting it to my parents, they reluctantly agreed to send me for a tryout class.
“Swifty, I appreciate you wanting to try new things, but you’ve got to be dedicated.
Humans interrupt a peaceful day in the forest
The forest had always been peaceful.
The forest was where you would stand still and feel the earth beneath your feet. It was where you would inhale the sweet forest air that was full of the invigorating scent of tree bark and green leaves and fresh earth. The forest had that unmistakable feel of authenticity: it made you feel alive.
A five-year-old boy desperate for food unknowingly makes a terrible mistake
Sammy walked along the road. He was kicking a rock. It helped him forget about being hungry, but if this worked, he’d have food. Once, he had tried to eat the grass. Jack told him that the grass had been green before the great and just rebellion. Sammy didn’t believe him. The grass had always been blue.
Celeste sets out to find a bank robber—but ends up solving a mystery about her mother instead
Eighteen-thousand dollars were stolen from the Bridgeham Regional Bank on Nov. 2. Eyewitnesses say the robber was a man wearing all black, carrying a gun.
“He had a slight figure and he ran very quickly,” said one woman who had witnessed the event.
This is the third armed robbery this week.
A leaf wonders why it must eventually fall
Sometimes I look down at the forest floor below and I wonder what is out there. All my life, I have been sitting on the same branch, on the same tree, in the same forest. I have no idea of the world beyond. In my tree, I am part of a community, but in the outside world, all I am is a tiny leaf amongst millions of others.
Allison struggles to accept what her mother tells her: that “different is good”
She combs my hair, carefully untangling each section. My hair is like a fluffy black cloud spreading away from my face. The pointed ends of the comb slide into my hair and out. Like a shovel in the dirt. My mom gives me some of my hair to work on myself. It’s thick, coarse, and kinky.
Tom Green is very spoiled and lazy—until an accident forces him to change his life
Tom Green was very proud to say that he had the best life any human could wish for. He would wake up in his cushiony white bed and then head down his marble staircase, where a delicious breakfast was waiting for him, prepared earlier that morning by his personal chef.
A girl wakes up to discover that everything has turned yellow
Bright as the sun, a color stands out from the rest. That’s yellow. Everywhere I go, I see yellow. I looked in a store in France the other day, and then I said, “Hey, look. The store’s all yellow.” All the clothes were yellow: yellow boxers, yellow sweaters, and yellow pants.