A shady salesman (Ryan Gaul) tries to sell the Story Pirates some sunshine in a box. Featuring two new stories: “A Little Girl Was Feeling Blue,” a song about a girl who learns to honor her feelings, written by Evie, a 6 year old from Washington, and “Cicada Party,” a story about the biggest bug party that happens every 17 years, written by a 5 year old from New Jersey named Johnny.
Scroll down for the original stories behind the episode!
Illustration by Camila Franklin
Original Stories
A Little Girl Was Feeling Blue
by Evelyn, age 6, Washington
Once upon a time a little girl was feeling blue but then her mother came in the room and so did her father and they decided to watch a movie but it didn't help her. The end.
Our adaptation of “A Little Girl Was Feeling Blue” was written by Rachel Wenitsky and Ned Riseley, produced by Brendan O’Grady with vocal direction by Jack Mitchell.
Cicada Party
by Johnny, age 5, New Jersey
Every 17 years, America has the Greatest party ever. The Cicada Party! The babies crawl put of the ground and trade in their skins for some sweet wings! These wings arent just for flying, they also drop the sickest beat the world has ever seen! The cicadas jump in the pool, they climb trees, they dance and sing. There's no time for sleep! They dance their tales booties off, They're not scared to jump off the diving board. They eat cake . "Whoooh! we're having a party! Rock out! Rock out!" The light show is intense! people walk by and can barley hear themselves think. should people be scared of the cicadas? NO! They only come out to party! The party lasts for a few weeks and then, POOF, they're gone as fast as they came.
"Awesome party dude!"
"Don't be sad. we'll be back... in 17 years."
"WHAT!? AHH! That's so long!"
"Exactly! Why do you think we party so hard when we come out?"
*!@#$%&!$@#!%#&!&!$@##%#&!%!$@#@%!&
Story Spark
Evie, who wrote “A Little Girl Was Feeling Blue" is presenting this week's Story Spark!
Write us a story about magical creatures. Tell us what the creatures are like, what their names are, and most importantly, what their powers are. How do they use their powers to help their fellow magical creatures?
Roll Call Stories
The Shrinking Box
by a 6-year-old named Mila in Canada
Hey look! I'm balancing on a box. My box shrunk! The legendary sea monster pops up and Mila does karate kicks. The monster is defeated. The monster goes home. The end.
Yes Day
by 8-year-old Cora in Washington
Today is Yes Day! My favorite holiday!Mom, can I have a car? Yes.Great! Dad, can I have a phone?Yes. Awesome! I better hit the road!Bye mom and dad see you next year!10 hours later ... uh oh! I got caught by the police!Young lady you are going to jail. But I am a kid!It is yes day! Can I go free? Yes. Ok! Bye!1 year later ... Mom, dad I am back from Hawaii. And you can't ground me because it is yes day !
Burrito and the Golden Wire
by 9-year-old Dexter in California
Authors note:
My name is Dexter, I am doing a class about animal stories and this is what I wanted to write about. I got inspired By my stuffed animal burrito. He is very fat and cute so this is his adventures before he was my friend, and I like to imagine that he is telling me what to write. I hope you like it.
Prologue
Once upon a time there was a king of justice and kindness. He ruled over his loyal subjects and his palace was beyond beautiful, It was perfect, glimmering walls with stone precisely cut to fit, and a moat with Burrito’s with his secret animal in it, and with caves to explore and meadows to play in, with streams that lead to the sea. It was appealing, charming, splendid, stunning and wonderful, it made the most serious people cry.
Chapter 1
The ant
“Ah, finally a nice place to relax, and finally get away from all the people asking me questions.” He laid down on his stomach and watched the river as it playfully splashed around. And out of the corner of his eye he saw to his amazement a huge butterfly, that had just landed on a sunflower, with green wings and a black outline with two black dots in the middle of both wings, and when the butterfly slowly flapped their wings it looked like two big eyes staring into your soul, and reading your thoughts.
Burrito shivered and said, “That got dark fast, ok let’s see here,” he pulled out a list that he had been holding, “ I also need to plant lemon seeds and pick raspberries, that is at 10:45 , and after that I have a meeting with an ant? What? Ok, anyway that is at 11:30, then I need to hurry to a piano performance at 1:30, I need to go to a meeting, for the problem of greenhouse gasses. That’s at 3 o’clock and I think I will not have time to pick raspberries but I do think I will do it after . I guess I should head to Home Depot to get the seeds that I need, and if I have time I could pick some raspberries, then head straight to the ant meeting and then the greenhouse gas meeting.”
At Home Depot…
“All of these please.” He pulled out of his basket of four packs of lemon seeds and a fertilizing bag.
“Ok your majesty.” said the duck whose name was Alexander. Then gave a perfect 90˚ bow. Burrito pulled out his visa card.
“Oh, we don't accept visa, we only accept Apple, Discover, or American express.
“Oh that’s ok.” he took the Visa can and put it back into his wallet and then pulled out an American express card, and said, “is this good?”
“Yep.” Said Alexander. Burrito slid the card into the receiver and waited. After a few seconds it went “Beep.” And Burrito wrote his signature, pulled out his card and put it back into the wallet.
“By! Have a good day.”
“You too.” said Burrito. And walked out of the building.
At Burrito’s palace
Burrito Parked his car, and looked at his watch and realized he was late for his ant meeting by a minute. Burrito bolted across the drawbridge and headed straight to the meeting hall. When he saw the two giant doors ahead, he slowed down to a speed walk and opened one of the giant doors and walked to the meeting hall, opened a bit smaller doors than walked to the throne and sat on the plump violet cushioning. Then his butler named Henry came in and said that the ant was a little late. So Burrito sat on that chair for ten minutes before finally seeing a fire ant as big as a small book enter the room, and said. “Sorry I was late,” the fire ant said.
“It’s fine.” Burrito said, then thought. “It’s not fine! I sat in that chair for over ten minutes waiting for you to get here!” Burrito started noticing the cleaning people coming from the door. “I forgot that there was cleaning today,” he thought, then continued out loud, “what have you come for?” Burrito said, trying to muster up his best, king voice, “Um… I just wanted to ask you.” the ant paused and took a deep breath and continued very briskly. “Should you be worried that the other kingdom knows about the golden wire? And also you might be wondering how I got this information? I am a royal guard for the other kingdom and also a spy for your butler Henry/bodyguard.” Burrito stood there frozen in shock not able to speak. His worst fears were concluded. And new questions started popping up. “How are you my butler's bodyguard?”
“I am a fire ant.” she replied.
“Thank you for letting me know of this. I will try to figure it out…,” then turned his attention to his butler, and said. “Henry, can you get me my suit please? And also call the ten most experienced mountain climbers in the kingdom to be ready by tomorrow, and also i need my tailor. Meet me in the meeting hall tomorrow with all the things I need, Thank you. “Ok,” Replied Henry.
Chapter 2
Magic
The moment Burrito was awake he jumped out of bed and got changed into a nice green robem, and speed walked to the meeting hall. When he was there, Burrito noticed that no one was moving, “What gold wire?”the tailor said, carefully picking her words.
“Um so no one knows about the wire so, meet at the courtyard at 6:pm today and everyone is allowed. Can I have my suit, to try it on?” Burrito quickly changed the subject. Then everyone slowly started to move. A huge nightcrawler came over to burrito with his climber suit.
“Here you are, your majesty,” said the tailor, “you should have told them at the start, and me.” She added as she was putting on Burritos suit. Burrito said, “Don’t be absurd, they would have tried to steal the magic inside.”
“Wait, what magic?!” Night Crawler said astonished, “Henry never told me about magic!”
“I was worried that someone would try to find it and use it.” Burrito said.
“What even is the magic that you speak of? Does it give you nine lives? Or something?”
“No it does not give you nine live, the magic is a genie, and you can get any wishes you would ever want.”
“How do you know this?” Night Crawler said.
“It looked like a genie when I touched the wire and it told me it too.”
“Oh.” Said Night Crawler.
“Anyway.” Burrito said.
“Burrito!” Mineral the worm shouted, “I need your help!”
“Sorry, I need to go, I can talk later, great.” and not waiting for an answer Burrito quickly rushed over where Mineral the worm was standing. Nightcrawler waited until Burrito was out of ear shot then muttered,“that speech that Buttito's doing is not going to go well.”
Chapter 3
Explaining
“This is going to go so well.” Burrito half lied to himself.
“Yes it is.” Answered his tiny servant ants sewing the last bit of his suit together, “There we go, and good luck.”
“I don’t think that I will need it.” Walking out onto the balcony, waving to the crowded courtyard and then noticing that live cameras were watching him, burrito gulped.
“I have gathered here today to say something that I should have said a maybe long time ago, as some animals might already know that there is magic in the mountain in the golden wire I want to tell you need to hear the whole story,”
“It was a dark and stormy night when me and Henry the butler were inside the barn picking which gear would fit the electric car when there was a big crash, I looked outside to see if there was any problem then we saw a wire that was made out of gold. I wanted to go outside and see what it was so I asked Henry to come with me. Henry had hesitated then agreed, so we got the wire then a magical thing happened. A genie, that was as big as a bald eagle popped out and asked if you could have any wishes, what would they be? Then me and my butler put the wire on the rock in the middle of the highest cave in the mountains. The end.” The animals immediately started murmuring to the animal closest to them. “Why can’t they just fly up too?” asked a one eyed hawk perching on a ledge a little way off from Burritos balcony.
“It’s winter, the crows will fly everywhere. Remember to stork the bird, we'll know the story, he tried to fly up the mountain to get the healing herbs, the crows knocked him out of the sky.” Then everyone looked at their feet, talons or hoofs or paws.
“Well what are you waiting for?!” Asked the same one eyed hawk, “Go!”
“Yes, let me and my fellow mountain climbers get on with it, I thank you all for this meeting and I’ll see you at the festival of the elves, those elves are so mischievous!” Then Animals started slowly started to filing out of the courtyard, the moment people were out of the magnificent courtyard people immediately started talking to their friends and family with a low hush.
At lunch, that day, he was thinking that in about an hour he should be leaving for his quest.
“In about one hour, you are leaving for this quest, get packed up.” Henry said.
“Why are you here? I said to only disturb me if there was a problem?!”
“All of your mountain climbers went home sick.”
“With what?”
“Covid-9999.”
“WHAT NEW VARIANT!”
“A new variant! Run for your life!,” shouted a civilian.
“We’re joking!” he called back.
“Ok, ok, ok.”
“Any-who, how did our scientists figure it out?”
“Um they figured that out by… it got dark you could say, never mind that. You are going to travel alone, but in the middle of the mountain there is an elevator that leads to the cave, I have a map that will lead you to it but be wary because there many booby traps and puzzles that I set there so no one would get there before night time and remember go very quickly there is no lantern in the caves so bring one and be quick, light it when you need to, or you will die, good luck.” As he said that he slowly slipped into the shadows.
“Wow that was ominous,” Then knock knock knock, went the door, “who is it?”
“Me,” answered a worker bee called Lyra. “Come In,” then the door opens enough to let a human in, “how did you knock on the door and open the door you're so tiny?”
“I asked Henry.”
“Henry, where are you?”
“Oh, he left the moment I tried to knock on the door then he knocked it louder then ominously walked down the corridor.”
“Okay, what have you come for?”
“Can I come to drop cap mountain with you and retrieve the gold wire?” Burrito hesitated
“Um… do you know how dangerous it is going to be?” He said slowly.
“Nope, not at all,” the bee said.
“You might die.”
“I’m not planning on it but I will take it into account, and I have one question, why are you filling up a golden bath tub, and getting Doritos to eat in it?”
“How did you guess?” Burrito said, amazed.
“You are doing it right now.”
“Oh, you are hired!” Burrito said embarrassed
Chapter 4
Other kingdom
“Get her!” The first guard yelled.
“She's in the trees” the second one hollered.
“They can’t catch me.” She thought, as she was slipping behind a tree. The guards stopped and listened, terra found a rock and threw it to a trap that she had set.
“We got her now.” The second one whispered into the other bat’s ear. “Ah!?” Screamed Sunset the first guard.
Terra held in a giggle. “Where did you go?” Indigo called, she was the second guard.
“Don’t fall-.“
“Ow!” Indigo wailed. Terra felt bad, then pushed it away, “They deserved it.”
“Hello house!” She announced. Putting her stolen item in her chest with other items, she walked to the tallest tree and started clambering up it then sat down on one of the tallest branches and watched the sun set being swallowed up by the darkness. “It is really beautiful.” She whispered. Then climbed down on to the solid ground and walked to her shelter then opened the small door and walked to her chest opened it that and searched for the bag that she had stolen, the brown bag with green emeralds embedded in it, she pulled out the item in the bag, knowing that she got this from a respected trader, hoping it would be food or something useful Terra pulled out a golden new binoculars it could zoom 10 miles at max she guessed. Then put it to her eyes and pointed it to the drop cap mountain according to the maps she had read. Then she saw a figure just the outline, she zoomed closer and focused the binoculars and saw a cat with a… it was so tiny she didn’t know what it was. “Is that a bee?” She had seen that bee before it was the queen's closest advisor. She stood there frozen, and even missed a cricket that she would usually have caught and eaten for her dinner. She removed the binoculars for her eyes and put them back into her bag and into her chest and sat down and went to sleep
Chapter 5
Stealing
“Ah, what a nice day, I can’t wait to go to the store today.” Terra looked into her cabinet and found fancy clothes only worn by the richest of animals or people like herself, she walked over to the mirror and saw herself with emerald buttons incrusted in it and was light blue with a pocket inside it so no one could pick pocket you. She looked down at her pants, her pants were leather and pockets that were fuzzy inside just in case you were cold in the winter time, then she looked at her head and saw green eyes with brown hair.
“I’m ready to go and steal something else!” Terra opened the door and walked into the woods, she ducked into the shadows quietly and slowly making her way to her market.
“Now how do I get in side,” She wondered, “I know!” She waited until another carriage came by then hid under it and held onto wooded parts, CRREEAAKK went to the drawbridge.
“STOP!” Said a guard named Snow. The carriage came to an abrupt stop, “Have you seen this person?”
“No.” Said the driver.
“You may proceed.”
“Yes!” Terra exclaimed.
“What was that?” Questioned Snow,
“I don’t know what you mean?” The confused driver said.
“Um…” Snow gave the driver a long hard stare with his tiny bever eyes which seemed to last a century, then stepped away and the diver slapped the reins and the carriage moved on, terra waited till the carriage had gotten out of eye sight of the great big gates, then decided to let go of the wood that had kept her up for a while, then dropped quickly, stood up and dusted herself off. Hoping that no one had seen her, she hurried over to a big crowd and tried to blend in.
“Oh pickle, they have a wanted poster of me and they didn’t even get my ears right! It’s not that big… it is?” Terra looked at her ears, after a few minutes of picking pockets she found a free water stand just across the road. When no cars were in sight she jaywalked to the other side, took a cup from the stand and filled it up. And drank it quickly and threw it away. She easily found a fruit stand and released how hungry she was so then quickly formulated a plan, her plan was like this. She was going to make the Italian flag just above the fruit stand fall on to it then she guessed by the size of the fruit stand and the flag it would take about a minute to get off it and check if any of the fruit were on the ground. And by that time she can pretend to help them and take an apple or two, “But how do I get the flag to fall?” Terra thought
“We got you now.” an unfamiliar voice said, Terra slowly turned around and saw a huge guard, three more guards appeared and one of them had handcuffs.
Chapter 6
“Click.” When the Handcuffs. She knew there was no point in struggling, she was busted. The guards dragged her to a car and locked her in. One of the guards drove up to two great big doors with guards on either side, she knew them. But where? “They are the ones in the forest chasing me yesterday!” She thought, then glared at the guard named Sunset. Both of the guards opened to a huge throne room, everything was sparkling with sapphire paintings. And one of the paintings was a huge battlefield with a pile of dead soldiers dripping with blood and the queen standing up on them and a spear in her left hand and a shield in another one.
“Bow! In the presence of your queen coffee! The protector of the realm!,” Terra rolled her eyes, “The most beautiful blue jay that ever lived!” Sunset said dramatically
“Thank you for that introduction Sunset,” coffee the queen turned her attention to terra. “Thief, I am amazed how you got away from my guards 132 times, what is your name?”
“My name is terra.” She said flatley.
“Where do you live… terra.”
“Why would I tell you!?”
“Because I am you queen!”
“You're not my queen! Wait where Is the king?”
“I ate him!”
“No you didn’t.” Terra made a confused face. Then the queen guestered to a guard to get a piece of paper that had so many reasons about how she ate the king. While she was talking on and on, Terra was thinking about the king that had not been eaten! And Burrito was the only king. a realization that,
“King Burrito!” The moment Terra's words came spilling out of her mouth the queen looked scared.
“Maybe, maybe not, guards! Escort this… what’s your name again? Is it pineapple?”
“That is not even close! My name is-,” Terra furiously said.
“I was bored the moment you said: that is not even close! My name is-,” the queen said a very very very very very bad imitation of terra, “I don’t care what your name is!” And the guards took her away to the dungeons.
“Oof.” Terra was thrown into the dirt and dust and “click.” the lock went, she looked around and saw one window bared up and below it there was her bed so she climbed up and saw a beautiful garden with a bubbling stream, and a big waterfall that glistened in the beam of the warm hot summer day. “Wow this is not as much of a punishment, more like a nice place to relax.” After what seemed to be 5 hours without food and a bit of water the sun climbed slowly into the darkness and disappeared and fell into an uneasy sleep.
To be continued…
I will give you the rest of the story when I am done with the book.
The Bad Bandits
by 6-year-old Lewin in Maryland
Once upon a time, there were 1000 bad bandits. They all lived in their lair, the Bad Bandit 1000. One day, the bandits went out to steal. The bandits got trapped in a cage. And then the bandits sang, “Hey, hey, hey, we’re trapped! Hey, hey, hey, we’re trapped!”
Then they suddenly stopped when they heard a big POOF! sound. It was their ice-skating fairy-god-piggy-queen. She said, “I can help you. I can give you any wish that you want.”
“Let me tell you our wish,” said the leader of the bandits. “Get us out of this cage, please.”
“I will,” said the ice-skating fairy-god-piggy queen. But she accidentally turned them into frogs! And then she said, “I totally forgot! I’m still in training.”
The bandits said, “Why didn’t you tell us before?!”
“Because I didn’t know!” she said. Then she POOFED! out again. When she was back in Fairy Land, she went back to her training school, and it took 20 years for her to finish. Then she went back to the bandit-frogs, and turned them back into bandits. And she also used her magic to let them out of the cage.
“Haha! I’m secretly a police officer!” said the ice-skating fairy-god-piggy-queen.
The bandits yelled, “Whaaaaaat?! The End!”
