Meghan creates a tech company for Nimene’s inventions. Featuring two new stories: “Why You Should Never Feed a Potato Chip to a Kangaroo,” a cautionary tale about kangaroos and their quest for world domination, written by Tyson, an 11 year old from Utah, and “The Never Ending Story Story,” a mind-blowing trip down the rabbit hole of storytelling itself, written by a 13 year old from Washington named Maggie.
Scroll down for the original stories behind the episode!
Illustration by Camila Franklin
Why You Should Never Feed a Potato Chip to a Kangaroo
by Tyson, age 11, Utah
Tim lived in his house with a pet kangaroo. He was eating potato chips on his couch and then he dropped one on the ground. His kangaroo named Dunkaroo hopped over to it and ate it. Tim didn't mind because he was pretty sure that kangaroo's could eat potato chips. Then Dunkaroo hopped on his lap and started to eat all of the potato chips in the bag. "No! Dunkaroo, get down!" said Tim. Then Dunkaroo ate all of the chips. he went to the kitchen to get a different snack then went to sit back on the couch. When he got back to the couch, Dunkaroo was levitating right in front of his eyes. Then Tim's pet kangaroo shot lasers out of his eyes. He shot them right at Tim's feet. "OUCH!" Said Tim. Then Dunkaroo spoke "I order you to give me more flat salty tasty snacks. Right now." Tim ran to tell his parents what was going on. When he came back in the room with his parents, Dunkaroo was standing there like nothing happened. "I swear, mom, he was floating! And he shot lasers out of his eyes! He had super powers!" But his parents were not convinced. His mom and dad left then when Tim turned around Dunkaroo wasn't there. He went to his room to see if Dunkaroo was in there. When he looked out of the window and there were kangaroos everywhere. Tim ran outside and noticed that Dunkaroo was levitating again. Tim knew what he had to do. He ran inside and grabbed as much bags of potato chips as he could, then he ran back outside. "Here, Dunkaroo, here's your chips! And where did all these kangaroos come from?" Said Tim "They shall be my friends. I will share those tasty snacks so that everyone shall know the greatness of them. Now, hand them over, Tim." Tim gave him the bags of chips. "Finally, I shall be the ruler of snacks!" Then he threw all of the chip bags out except one, that he ate himself. Tim was thinking of ways that he could stop these kangaroos from possibly taking over the world. He remembered that kangaroos ate grass. "Wait! I know something that you would like better than those chips." Said Tim. Dunkaroo floated down to him. "Yes? What could possibly be better then these holy snacks?" Said Dunkaroo "This." said Tim as he pointed to the grass. "Try it." said Tim. All of the kangaroos bent over and took a bite of grass. "Hmm... This is... Wonderful!" Said Dunkaroo. All the kangaroos gave up the bags of chips and started munching on grass. A few seconds later Dunkaroo started to act more normal. Then eventually, all of the kangaroos started to leave. Tim's kangaroo hopped over to him, he wasn't talking. Dunkaroo was finally back to normal.
The Never Ending Story Story
by Maggie, age 13, Washington
I’ve got a story for you! Once upon a time, there was a girl named Natasha. Her biggest dream was to become the youngest author in the world, and she already had a rough draft. Natasha read it to her mom. This is what it said:
It all started with the library writing contest. Allison couldn’t wait to share her story. She sent it to the judges. This is what they read:
Mrs. Reed, the librarian at Riverside Middle School, had noticed that there was high demand for “origin stories" at the beginning of the school year. It was August 31st, and Mrs. Reed searched the shelves of the local book store in hopes of finding the perfect book. Here is one she found:
Stop! Just stop!
Whoa! Who are you, and how did you get here?
That is unimportant. Anyway, what’s all this mumbo-jumbo I hear?
Um, It’s just a story.
Just a story? Geez! What do you call it, The Neverending Story Story? Because that’s what it seems like to me. A story about a story about a story about a story. It’s the most confusing thing I’ve ever heard in my life!
Oh, for Heaven's sake, would you please knock it off? I have a story to tell here.
(sigh) Okay fine. But
I’ll be glad to see the day (or the century) where you’ll say “The end.”
Well, this story just ends when I’ve run out of ideas.
Like that’ll ever happen.
I’m sure it will. My brain can’t generate story ideas forever, you know.
Okay, okay, go on.
Wait. Where was I? Oh right. The story the librarian found read:
Before stories really existed, there was a boy who made them up in his head all the time. But he had always kept his stories to himself. However, he just couldn’t keep them secret for much longer. The first story he told to anyone was:
Once upon a time (actually in the future), there was a person who made stories for a living. He created many stories, and this is the one that was the most well-known:
“Mom, just one more story, please?" Mia begged for the millionth time. Her mom grabbed a book from the shelf and started reading:
It was a dark and stormy Halloween night, and a group of kids was trick-or-treating. They rang the doorbell of the house on 13th street, which just so happened to be the house owned by a dentist who disapproved of “candy consumption." She was also an excellent storyteller. When the woman answered the door, the kids still said "Trick-or-treat," even though they didn’t expect any candy.
“I might not have any sweets on me,” the dentist said. “But I do have something even better. How would you like to hear a story?”
“Yes!” the kids cried. So the woman started her story:
Once upon a time, there was a novelist who had been dealing with writer's block for a very long time. He was just about to give up when an idea came to him, and he set to work. This is what he wrote:
“The end at last," the author said, finally setting his pen down. Though he enjoyed writing stories, he was glad to be finished.
Few! I was wondering when that was going to end.
You’re welcome. Now that that’s settled, may I ask again, who are you?
Does this give you a clue: I want to be the youngest writer in the world.
Natasha?
Aha, that’s me.
Hey, Wait a sec. So if you're Natasha, then that means you technically wrote this story.
No, you did. No, wait, Allison did.
How confusing!
That’s how I intended it!
Story Spark
Tyson, who wrote “Why You Should Never Feed a Potato Chip to a Kangaroo" is presenting this week's Story Spark!
Write a story about a character from your imagination who gets sucked into a book. Tell us what book they get sucked into, what the world of the book is like, what they do inside of the book, and most of all: how do they get home?
Roll Call Stories
how to worm!!!
by Amos, age 11, Washington
One day a kid ate a candy worm and thought is there a dance for worms? He went home and he looked on YouTube how to worm. He watched the video and he said I should teach the whole world how to worm!!! He taught the world to worm!!! THE END!!!!!!!
The Farm Animals’ Very Own Slide
by Gwen, age 8, UK
Bob and John were cowboys. But not just any cowboys. They were pigs who were cowboys.
They ran a large ranch in Texas where they cared for a lot of different animals, including horses, chickens, donkeys, llamas, and gazelles.
One morning, as Bob and John were finishing setting out breakfast for everyone, they noticed Casey, one of their horses, was not in her stable. They began looking around for her. First, they searched near her barn. When they didn’t find her, they separated and searched all over the farm.
Finally, after a couple hours, Bob her a “neigh.” He turned around in the direction he thought it came from, but no one was there.
“That’s odd,” thought Bob.
And then he heard it again.
“Neigh!”
This time, he looked up. Sure enough, there was Casey, stuck up in a tree. Bob shook his head in disbelief.
“Casey, how did you get up there?”
“Neigh!” Casey said back.
It wasn’t a very tall tree, but Casey was a very large horse. So getting her down was going to take some doing. Bob called John on his walkie.
“John,” he said. “You’re never going to believe where I found Casey.” A few minutes later, John was standing next to Bob, looking up at Casey in the tree, trying to figure out what they should do. After a lot of brainstorming, they decided their best idea was to build a slide from some leftover materials, including an old chute, they had stored in the barn.
Once they retrieved all the parts, Bob and John started assembling the slide. Surprisingly, it didn’t take them long. Even more surprisingly, Casey seemed curious about what they’d built. Bob and John were worried about how they were going to get Casey down the slide, but she inched herself over to the slide without any coaxing.
Meanwhile, many of the other animals on the farm had gathered to watch what was going on. There was a lot of buzz as to whether this was a very good idea or a very bad idea.
As they were talking to themselves, and Bob and John were tightening the last bolts at the bottom of their slide, Casey peered down from the top. First, she reached out with her right hoof.
“Slippery,” she thought.
Then, without another thought, she hurled herself onto the slide.
Mind you, this was a horse who loved adventure. After all, she was stranded at the top of a tree. How many other horses do you know like that?
Bob and John and all the animals below watched Casey fly down the slide in awe.
She reached the bottom in the blink of an eye. Casey jumped up on all fours and let out an excited “neigh!” The other animals, sensing how much fun she just had, wanted to try the slide themselves. They quickly surrounded Bob and John and made all kinds of excited noises and motioned to the slide.
“I think they want to try it, too,” Bob said to John.
“I think you’re right,” John said. “And you know what? I want to try it, too!”
So they got to work building a ladder to the top of the slide. As soon as they were done, the animals lined up and, one by one, climbed to the top and flew down the slide. This went on for the rest of the day. Everyone had so much fun.
It didn’t take long for news of the slide to spread to the neighboring ranches. Within just a few days, there was a long line of animals waiting to use Bob and John’s slide, including sheep, goats, ducks, turtles, and even a few snakes and alligators.
Everyone was welcome. And everyone enjoyed playing together on the slide.
Silp, dip and trip
by Natalia, age 10, California
“Welcome to nobody's favorite game show! I’m nobody’s favorite host. The Weird Host!You know how this game show works: someone's bowling ball slips, one dips, and finally one trips and because orange juice is spilled on the floor and don’t ask why.
Here’s our first contestant, Jennifer Kairna.” said the Weird Host “hello it’s such an honor to be here. Can I tell you a joke?” asked Jennifer “ No you cannot” “ thank you, so one day a pile of-” “on to our next contestant.” interrupted the Weird Host” hey I wasn’t finished with the joke yet!”
“He came all the way from coolaforneea." “It’s California” said the next contestant “That’s what I said.Anyways welcome Antwanet Plela.” “It's Mia Antwanet and I’m a girl!” she said “say this with all my heart. NOT SORRY! And finally he walked 2 steps to get here, here he is mmmmeeee!" (Everyone gasped and everyone on stage, even the Host.He did it the loudest.)
“We’ll be right back!” Do do do da do “Dude, have you had orange juice spilled on your floor?Bruh if you said yes then come down to Marley’s Bagels it’ll be radical. You Know if you're wondering I’m definitely not related to a person named Marge anddude she doesn’t sell donuts. Hey dude can that part be cut off?” “no to tight of a budget” said Producer Guy “how many seconds do I have left?” he asked “80 maybe you can show an example” said Producer Guy. And after he did that he sounded sick. “Delicious.”
“We are back Jennifer is about to roll” (the sound of a bowling rolling on the floor) “wow it looks like she is going to win!Wait no, her bowling ball slipped on the orange juice.”
“Next up Antwanet Plela-” “IT’S MIA ANTWANET!” she yelled “ this kid am I right. Well it looks like she is about to roll. She is getting close to the pin! Oohhh her bowling ball went into the gutter or it dipped.” He said “NOOO!” exclaimed Mia
“Well my turn don’t mind me.” He pushes her out of the way.“He blinks twice and he rolls and it looks like mine somehow mine tripped into the gutter.I should have expected that it would trip jokes on me”
The Producer Guy asked “well- wait just a second where is the last whining-” “Mine slipped” said Jennifer. “ Mine Dipped” said Mia Antwanet. “ And mine tripped” said the Weird Host. “WE QUIT” they said. This was produced by Marley’s Bagels.” said Producer Guy “ Marley say something!” “what uh dudes don’t buy Marge’s donuts okay see ya. Bye!”
The End
Bad Brother
by Kimya, age 9, New York
My brother shrank me with a shrink-O-ray and a ant ate me.
