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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#43: Kidding Around

Want a quick way to lift your spirits? Revisit the books you loved as a child.

This week, we got a chance to do exactly that while writing a blog post on 100 Classic Children's Books, and we quickly found our minds swirling with imagined places and whimsical characters.

While our prompts this week are inspired by those same children's books, whether you write a children's story or not is up to you. Pick up your pen and let your imagination do the rest!

p.s. – Are you interested in coming behind the scenes of the Reedsy Prompts contest as a judge? Head here for more information!

This week's prompts

Write a story about transformation.

Nonfiction – 172 stories

Write a story about the relationship between a parent and a child that spans several years.

Adults – 122 stories

Write a story about someone who discovers a mysterious object in their home.

Kids – 118 stories

Write a story about an average day turned upside down by an unexpected visitor.

Kids – 111 stories

Write a story about an unlikely friendship.

Kids – 113 stories

Stories

“Mermaid Drawings” by Jan Querubin

Submitted to Contest #43

It was Isla’s fault that they transferred the same day as the school’s Family Day. Ken’s twin sister was so excited to meet other children, she couldn’t wait till Monday. Three years of being home-schooled bored her to death, as she would always complain.“I can read already. I can write my name and Ken’s, too! Please, mama? I wanna make friends,” Isla cried. When asked if she could count from one to a hundred, she would rush to her room screaming, “I know fifty!”Staying at home didn’t bother Ken, though. But his sister was so insistent that ...

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“Who I Am” by ℙ𝕖𝕒𝕔𝕙𝕪 𝐻𝑒𝒹𝑔𝑒𝒽𝑜𝑔

Submitted to Contest #43

September 14It’s 4 A.M. right now and I am officially awake. Yay. What’s the point in sleeping anyways? Sleeping supposedly helps you learn, though I’m not learning anything in the slightest from anyone, and it won’t happen for a while, if ever. So I am beginning to think, like all people do at 4 A.M. when they can’t sleep. I suddenly thought of a question I don’t dare to answer: who am I?Identity. What is it? Does it define who you are, or simply how you appear? I have struggled to figure this out my entire life, but I, as an extreme introv...

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“The Similarities Between Me and E. coli” by D. Holmes

Submitted to Contest #43

The lab instructor claps to get our attention. “If you’ve read your lab manuals, you know that today we’re performing transformations.”***According to biologists, transformation is the act of introducing foreign DNA into bacteria.I am a biologist.At least until I get into med school.***Step 1 in a transformation is to retrieve the competent bacterial cells from the -80oC freezer and thaw them on ice. “Competent” here means that our E. coli cells have been treated with calcium chloride to make them pliant and more likely to uptake foreign DNA...

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“Caught” by Ash Brinton

Submitted to Contest #43

If you steal something from another time, they will never find you. That’s what he’d promised. You disappear. You never were or are not yet. You’re transient, like speed, or like the wind. So easily she had stepped into those magical machines with their white coils and sharp rims, believing in the next world, the next moon, and the next theft. But one day she was caught, and everything she discovered thereafter destroyed everything she knew about time. It does not move or tick. It is one place, one moment. It is we who are moving. None...

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“Once upon a time in the forest” by Tim Law

Submitted to Contest #43

Dan had blue eyes, a dark mane and eight legs. The son of a Centaur and a Fawn he was born with four more apendages than Centaurs should and a multitude more limbs than all the other Fawns. The Centaurs would chase Dan through the forest, teasing him for his difference. Extra limbs meant extra fast though so Dan could always out run them and their hurtful words. The Fawns were worse, not wanting to tackle such a broad shouldered creature they threw their taunts from afar or hidden behind whispers. Such it was then that the Sylvan forest was ...

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“Winston and the Legend of Va-Khum” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #43

Listen closely, Little One, and I shall tell you a tale of a day long since passed.It was a day like any other, the sun was streaming in through the blinds, casting alternating rectangles of golden light — through which motes of dust floated, lethargically — and sepia-tinted shadow. Dave and Stella were out somewhere, and I was home alone.Where was I?My child, you hadn’t been born yet.Wow…It wasn’t unusual for me to be home alone, I often was. I didn’t mind, in fact, I was quite content to look after the house, lounging on the sofa or taking...

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“The Most Beautiful Thing” by Harken Void

Submitted to Contest #43

“Mom?”She paused by the door. “Yes dear?”The little boy hesitated in the dark.“You want to hear it?”The gentle rustling of bed sheets indicated her son was nodding his head.“Alright,” she said and turned the lights back on. Her four year old was tucked neatly in bed, covered with a blanket full of cars and planes. Only his tiny head and the tips of his fingers protruded out from the safety of the bed covers.As his mother walked back to the bed, the boy sat up and a wide smile spread on his face. He pulled his legs closer so she could sit at ...

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“I Know What” by Kathleen March

Submitted to Contest #43

I have inherited a lot of things that if the previous owners knew, they’d be rolling over in their graves to think what parts of them have survived. Some of the things I can identify, because they are labeled with a name, in their little boxes or envelopes, crinkled and smelly from age. A lot of things have a name or even handwriting I can place to a relative. I can do that detective work even if that relative is somebody I never met or who was gone before I was born. You see, my family was extremely respectful of others and that meant honor...

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“Into the Crawlspace” by Tori Routsong

Submitted to Contest #43

“You—what?”Quentin sighed and readjusted his grip on the tree branch. “For the last time, I found a giant stone fox statue in the crawlspace behind my closet and I don’t know how to get it out on my own and I can’t fall asleep with it there because there’s a hole in my closet from that time that we locked Quade in there back in seventh grade.”“So? There’s still a door for the crawlspace, right? Ergo, no problem,” Alexander slurred. He rubbed his eyes and looked up to where the stars would be if it wasn’t for all the light pollution. It was f...

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“Struggle of a young girl” by Anshika Srivastava

Submitted to Contest #43

Life is full of struggles and our future depends on our way of crossing the struggles. This story is of a girl who decided to cross the struggle and not to give up on it. Even she was so young and inexperienced she decided to learn. CH.1 DepressionAll reporters were taking pictures of her, Suddenly A reporter asked her, “Mam, how was you able to achieve such big post in such an early age?” She replies with a smile “you need to….7 YEARS BACK……………………...

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“The Weatherman” by Lori Colt

Submitted to Contest #43

My mom left so many years ago, abandoning Ernie and I, her two sons, to our grief and anger and simply to wonder. We never understood why. Growing older I settled for knowing that I probably never would understand but that never stopped the pain I always felt. My father, a prominent congressman in Texas, dismissed our inquiries so we asked them less and less often. Our mom simply disappeared. She evaporated into thin air and no one knew where she went. “End of story”, our Dad would say. Ernie took it the ...

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“They Come Back” by Christopher G

Submitted to Contest #43

There are moments you never forget. The first time you tasted alcohol. The first time you vomited from alcohol. Losing your virginity. The day you get married. And the day your child is born into the world. A cliché in itself, albeit true, does suffice to say there isn’t anything more important at that very moment. Looking into his almond black eyes and mostly bald head reminded me of the brevity of life. I held my wife’s hand as she gazed upon the two of us as we all finally made our acquaintances for...

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“Me and My Toolkit” by Gurpahul Singh

Submitted to Contest #43

It all started in 4th grade. Mid of April- perhaps it was, with western gales and a ting of fading spring, and a scorching season peeping from the corner. We were young, novice players of this great stage; yet to be conscious to the play around. Flying upon the clouds and swaying in the winds, we were mute to the pasts and blind to the future. School periods were woes, school friendships were vows. We were driving in almost a dreamland. But just then, a fifth wheel sneaked into my four-wheeler, whom I have failed to drop off, until now…So, i...

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“The Cup” by Tim Law

Submitted to Contest #43

I found it while dusting, a strange cup that definitely did not belong to me. It was nestled behind a number of photo frames. As I took the photos down off the mantle in my tiny kitchen I noticed the cup. Taking it down the first thing I noticed was its complete lack of dust. Who knows how long that thing had sat where I had found it but there was not a single speck of dust. The cup was white, cut from some kind of stone as it had no joints, nor any other signs to show that it had been man made. Yet it had two handles, one on either side of ...

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“The Three Islands” by ℤ ℍ☮️

Submitted to Contest #43

CHAPTER 1 - A Fountain at OakensteadMable and Ross stood in front of Oakenstead. It towered above them, giant-like. The walls were beige-bricked, covered in long swinging vines of mossy green. The house seemed like it had authority, it was like an old lady. This old lady appeared wrinkly and stern, but if one were to look closer than they'd see the hidden beauty in her smile and her figure. They both soaked in the hues of green that sat like dresses on the bark-carved maidens. Mable was a small girl who looked like a china doll. Her hai...

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$50

Prize money

636

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - May 29, 2020 EST

Won by Guilherme Copati 🏆

Title: Reunion

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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