Brain Pirates/Camel Humps

Siegfried the Orange, brave Viking warrior, explores another side of himself. Featuring two new stories: “Brain Pirates,” a story about the what happens when the voices in your head are swashbuckling problem-solvers, written by Niko, an 8 year old from North Carolina, and “Camel Humps,” the story of how a camel lost and regained his most important attribute, written by a 5 year old from Oregon named Paloma. 

Scroll down for the original stories behind the episode!

Illustration by Camila Franklin

Original Stories

Brain Pirates

by Niko, age 8, North Carolina

Once upon a time there was a pirate that lived in someone’s head. And its crew fought off problems. And then there was a very scary problem. But the crew was ready. And once that person fell asleep, they started attacking the problem. But, it turns out it was all a dream.

Camel Humps

by Paloma, age 5, Oregon

This story is about a camel who loves his hump. He loved to touch his hump. One day a mouse came up and ate his hump! He ran back to his farm and told his owners “a mouse ate my hump! I need a new hump!” they tried a person and a boat for a new hump and it didn’t work. So he ran to his camel friends house to ask for help. He sang them a song that went “dear friends. Dear friends. I need some help. I wish for help. I wish for help”.


No one answered. So he went back to his owners. Everyone cared about him, because they were his owners. He was a smart camel. So what he did is he went to his friends olivia and lily and they gave him golden hump. His old one was green.


THE END

Story Spark

Niko, who wrote “Brain Pirates" is presenting this week's Story Spark!

Write a story about a mysterious door. What if some kids looked through the keyhole, but on the other side of the door they saw the moon? What happens when they go through the door, and who (or what) is waiting for them on the other side?

Roll Call Stories

Frank The Zucchini

by Lydia, age 9, Idaho
Once there was a zucchini named Frank. He was a giant zucchini. Frank heard his owners talking about dinner. Good, Frank thought. I'm hungry. Then they said they were having zucchini souffle! Oh no! Thought Frank. Their going to eat me! So Frank made a plan to escape that night. At precily midnight, Frank began his plan. He squeezed his eyes shut. (Even though he didn't have any.) And he tried his hardest to sprout himself some legs. Pop! He had his very own legs! He wiggled out of the fridge. He ploped on the kichen floor. He scurried across the living room to the door. Finally he opened up the door. He ran outside shouting, I'm Free! When I was morning an old lady who couldn't see well thought he was a little boy. She gave him some cloths and they lived happily ever after. The End.

Don’t Put Pets On Your Head

by Maya, age 4, New Jersey

Don't Put Pets on Your Head Don't put cats on your head Because even if they aren't real They could still scratch you And boop you on your head And that's why you shouldn't put cats on it. Don't put dogs on your head They might scratch you too I never put Betty on my head I learned that from Betty Don't put things that fall on your head Or puppets They might dingle down

The Boy Who Could Breathe Fire

by Andrew, age 6, Texas

Once there was a boy. His mom lit a candle and he loved to smell candles, so he smelled the candle. But the fire went up his nose and then he could breathe out fire from his nose. Then he became a superhero.

Just U

by Ari, age 7, Florida

"Welcome to the great art contest. I am Billy Bam Bo. Here is the first contestant, Just U. Really, that is his name? Jerry, is this correct?" "Yes" said Jerry. "All right then, here comes Just U. Oh, wow, that is some Bad Art [sung]. It is so bad. The show is cancelled. Go home people! Why did you make your art so bad?" "Because it is Bad Art [sung]. I know, I can't stop. I flunked every grade. I am bad at everything." "Still, it is Bad Art [sung]. Well, leave my studio. And never, ever, ever, ever, ever come back!!" That wasn't the last we saw of him, but, I don't want to tell you that story- it's not pretty. "One more time, that was really Bad Art [sung]. The end.

The Test/The Case of the Spilling Hot Chocolate (feat. Fergie L. Philippe)

Rolo and Smitty’s secret past is revealed. Featuring two new stories: “The Test,” a song about a high stakes rhyming competition with the best rapper in class (Fergie L. Phillippe), written by Mason, a 10 year old from Wisconsin, and “The Case of the Spilling Hot Chocolate,” a story about one family’s terrible curse, written by an 8 year old from California named Andres. 

Scroll down for the original stories behind the episode!

Illustration by Camila Franklin

Original Stories

The Case of the Spilling Hot Chocolate!

by Andres, age 8, California

Once upon a time there was a kid and their mom and they spilled of some hot chocolate at a coffee shop and then they bought another but then it spilled again so they grabbed their phone but they dropped their phone in the hot chocolate cup so their phone didn’t work. The next day they went to a coffee shop but they spilled their coffee so then they got a hot chocolate for the kid and. But that’s build and the next day they went to the store to buy their self some hot chocolate packets and a new phone when they went to thh hair store to get a new phone then we got some hot chocolate packets went home made hot chocolate but they spilled the hot chocolate and brought their new pair phones in the hot chocolate. The next day they bought 30 million phones and 30 million hot chocolate packets and they are all am I spilled all the heart chocolate and dropped their phone into the pile of spilled hot chocolate the end.

The Test

by Mason, age 10, Wisconsin

CLICK HERE TO READ

Story Spark

Mason, who wrote “The Test" is presenting this week's Story Spark!

Write us a story about something interesting that happens one day in chemistry class. You were making some kind of concoction, and all of a sudden, it explodes! When the smoke clears, you see something that SHOCKS you. What is it? And what kinds of problems does it cause? Most of all, how do you fix this?

Roll Call Stories

The Pickle Plunges

by Kuba, age 5, New York


My name is Kuba and this is my story: The Pickle Plunges

A long time ago, there were people living on a collosal pickle in the middle of the water. There was a giant wave that came along the water and hit the pickle. Everybody cried out, “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!” Then the pickle sank and the people went down, down, down in the water.

Some of the people swam to the surface and found that trash was coming together from every direction and clinging together to form an island. The people crawled onto the island and named it “Trash Island.”

The people on the island then jumped back in the water and swam under to find the rest of the people that they left behind. Once they found them, they took their hand and brought them to the surface.

The island smelled very bad because it was made out of trash. But the people said it was tolerable and were glad to be alive.

They thought of an idea to make the island much more beautiful: A manufacturing plant that made perfume. When they tried it out, they said “This is good. We should do it all over the island.” And then the island smelled beautiful. They became the perfume capital of the world.

Do you still remember about that collosal pickle that the people lived on? No diver alive today has found this ancient pickle. The reason is because it was turned into a giant reef – Pickle Reef – and it washed into a cave… the deepest and darkest part of the cave.

The End.

The Story of How My Trash Can Feels Every Day

by Camilla, age 10, Louisiana

Once there was a dumpster named Dumpster Dan. “I’m so tired of being used for human waste.” He had a friend named Trash Can Stan. “Listen Dan, you think your job is bad? Get in my shoes! I have to smell Big T. all the time!”

Sure, Dan and Stan were best friends, but boy did they fight a lot. Let’s say they’re… frenemies. “Stan, I hold more trash than you do. Humans don’t come near me! Also, I have to smell myself as I get stinkier and stinkier.” Dan argued back. Man, you get tired of this REAL QUICK. You guys need to calm down. Get a trash-erpist! “We heard that, Random Person That Seems To Be Narrating Our Lives!”

Jeez, don't have to be so harsh about it. Just a suggestion. Anyway, as you can see, they are not happy with their jobs or the amount of trash they hold. So please for their sake, try not to make so much trash.

“Yeah. So, we can’t control that…” Yes, yes you can, person. Also, who ARE you? Where did you come from? I’m confused.

Anyway- “Hey want the last Munch-a-Bar Narrator?” Sure. I’ll just throw away the rapper and… done! “Hey man, you were just telling these people not to throw away a bunch of trash. YOU JUST DID!” Oh.. um.. I’m sorry…? “I’m gonna get y-'' THE END!

Hehe… umm, why are you still her? I said, THE END!

The Copying Cow

by Sloane, age 7, Canada

The toilet was a time machine

by Ian, age 8, Texas

Quinn: Welcome back, guys! Today we’re going to flush a random toilet for no reason.

(toilet flushing noise)

Nancy: Posted!

Henry: What’s happening?

All kids: Whoooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Where are we??

Nancy: We’re in some kind of futuristic room. There are buttons everywhere.

Quinn: This button says “Big Bang”. What if I press it?

Nancy & Henry: No no no don’t do it!

(presses button - futuristic teleportation noises)

Nancy: We’re in space. This is where Big Bang happened. This is where it all started. Look, there’s the toilet over there. Maybe if we press it, we’ll go back to that futuristic room.

(big bang noises)

Quinn: Oh no! The teleportation toilet is getting sucked in a black hole!

(everyone tries to thrust themselves to the toilet)

(Henry flushes the toilet. They teleport back to the room)

Henry: I have a science project on ancient Egypt. Let’s go there.

(now in Egypt)

Egyptian: The pharoah is that way.

Nancy: I want to meet the pharoah.

(They find a temple. They go in the temple. Then they realize the temple was full of riches beyond their wildest dreams.)

Everyone: OMG

(Mummies came out and started chasing them.)

Quinn: Ahh there are mummies!

(All the kids run back to the toilet)

Quinn: I’m going to flush the toilet a lot of times.

(he flushes the toilet 37 times. The toilet starts glitching out and sends them to the Sphinx that’s the Keeper of Time.)

Sphinx: If you enter my riddle, you may pass. If you fail to pass my riddle, you will fall into a bottomless pit.

Henry: I don’t have time for this. (goes behind the Sphinx and unplugs it)

Voice: You guys are the chosen one. enter to stop me from destroying the universe!

(they went in the door. The villain was made out of worms.)

Everyone: Ah! Worms!

Villain: Ha ha try and stop me now! (the worms take the shape of a hammer and start trying to crush them)

Nancy: This is why you always bring bug spray.

(Nancy sprays bug spray at the villain.)

Villain: No bug spray… my only weaknesssssssss.

(villian is defeated)

(the worm boss had enough power to restore the time toilet and bring them back to their own time)

The mayor: I was watching TikTok. You got the whole thing on film! You saved the universe! Medals for all you three kids.

Mom & dad (come and hug them): We saw the whole thing on film. You are our little heroes.

Mayor: All of these kids have saved the universe. Three cheers for them!

(Giant robot explodes the mayor’s house)

Giant robot: Hahahaha I will destroy you all.

Kids: We will save the day again. Trust us.

The End.

Alf the Alligator's Tea Night/The Journey

The Story Pirates record solo podcasts. Featuring two new stories: “Alf the Alligator’s Tea Night,” a story about an unreliable narrator who ruins a fancy alligator’s big night, written by Liam, a 10 year old from Wisconsin, and “The Journey,” the tale of a family who sticks together through a series of harrowing adventures, written by 6 year old from Washington named Marley.

Scroll down for the original stories behind the episode!

Illustration by Camila Franklin

Original Stories

Alf the Alligator’s Tea Night

by Liam, age 10, Wisconsin

Alf was a very fancy "I'm not THAT fancy!" Sorry, Alf was a complete slob who-"OK fine, I am kinda fancy." He is eating fish righ-"You are so annoying..." I am very annoying. "UGHHH!" He is getting ready for a tea party "I can narrate myself, thank you." OK "Ahem, I am getting ready for a tea party with other fancy Aligators." And I am going to embarrass him the whole time. "NO YOU AREN"T!" Oh yes I am, I'm the narrator. I control you! "Oh yeah!?" Alf stuck up his arm. "Oh.. he....caan." Alf did the boogie. "OK THAT'S ENOUGH!" Alf did tango with a broom. "SOMEONE MAKE IT STOP!" Alf gets ready, and goes to the tea party. "THANK YOU!" With a parrot "...of course....." Alf see's the un-fancy Aligators "OK THIS IS ENOUGH! I WENT WITH A PARROT, I DID TANGO WITH A BROOM, I I DID THE BOOGIE IN MY DRESS HALL, WHAT WILL HAPPEN NOW!!?" Alf said all that out loud. Alf didn't realize that until now. "WHERE EVEN ARE YOU!?" I am EVERYWHERE. I am telling a story. Soon this would be read by THOUSAND AND THOUSANDS AND-BEEP BEEP BEEP "Ah, it was just a dream. I should get ready for my real party!" You really should! "UHG!"


THE END

The Journey

by Marley, age 6, Washington

CLICK HERE TO READ

Story Spark

Marley, who wrote “The Journey" is presenting this week's Story Spark!

Write us a poem about nature. Be sure to include some things that you would see in nature. But also, try including some fantastical things as well. What happens when nature and fantasy mix together?

Roll Call Stories

Bill the Sock Eater

by Caleb, Joshua, Elijah, Abby, and Lucy from New York

Bill The Sock Eater

“Gather round children, and listen to a story of when I was young-ger”, Said the Old Weirdo who lives somewhere else. ”I bet you my mile long beard that this will scare you out of your socks (laughs manically).”
“How do we know that you didn’t make this up”, asked the village idiot. The Old Weirdo answered, “Oh trust me, I experienced this story first hand (laughs manically and village idiot screams, and all the children run around in circles screaming). The name of the story is… Bill! Bill the Sock eater! Que Lightning (lightning strikes)! It all started in the year nineteen onedey-one (1911)! There was a young boy who ate nothing but big, fat, smelly, sweaty socks! some people complain about the moths chewing holes in their socks, but others complain about Bill… eating their socks whole! They begged him to stop, but instead of making his habit slow, they made it grow! He ate pickled socks, caked socks, a jewel sock, avocados stuffed with socks, but worst of all, anchovies… in his socks! Man, that sounds delish; would anybody lend me their socks? No? Okay, well anyways; one day they had enough and decided to stop him! They locked him in prison, but while in prison he took up eating something else… Eyerything! It was awful, it was terrible, it was in my opinion… delicious! So one day (June 32 if you must know) he ate his way out of Prison! He ate more, and more! First the prison, then the Moon, then he drank the great lakes (mainly because the pyramids were spicy)! Then, when he was really hungry he ate all of China ! Wow! Good thing it was Universal go to mars day! When everyone got back from Mars they were horrified! Bill had eaten the world into the shape of a Sock! So a new branch of the military was formed! G.R.U.B.! It stands for: Get rid uf (hey that isn’t spelled right) Bill! Well anyways by now Bill had eaten enough to last him a lifetime, so they had to get rid of G.R.U.B. and plaster the earth back together! And I might mention that they gave bill a new name!” “What was it?” asked everyone listening. “ The Old Weirdo who lives somewhere else!” said the Old Weirdo who lives somewhere else (all the children run around in circles screaming!

The Moppers Who Were Actually Mops

by 7.5-year-old Norah in Washington

Once upon a time, there were two moppers named Mrs. Mopp and Mr. Mopp. You might be wondering why their last names are Mopp. Well, it’s because they were actually mops!
They decided to become moppers. They liked lollipops. They only liked lollipops because they could throw them up into the air and make them do a loop-de-loop.
When they were in the mopping place at someone’s house, they simply wet themselves and DANCED ALL OVER THE FLOOR!!! Then, their boss got stuck in the snow. They put themselves in salty water and danced all over the snow! The salt was able to melt the ice, and their boss got un-stuck.
The next day, Mr. and Mrs. Mopp invited their boss to a tea party! The boss spilled his tea, and Mr. and Mrs. Mopp were delighted, because they got to DANCE ALL OVER THE FLOOR and clean up the tea!!! Then everybody in town spilled their tea, and Mr. and Mrs. Mopp DANCED ALL OVER THE TOWN!
But then, an inventor named Eleanor invented an invention that kept pouring tea, and she left it on when no one was using it. This made Mr. and Mrs. Mopp annoyed because they had to keep dancing forever.
Then, Mr. and Mrs. Mopp did a dance on a wet stage. But, unfortunately, Eleanor brought her new tea spilling invention. But then, they were shocked because a girl from the audience came with someone who looked just like Mr. and Mrs. Mopp. The girl was like, “WHAAAA????” because Mr. and Mrs. Mopp said, “Hi, what’s your name?” to the mop! The girl said, “What?? You can talk?!?!?! That mop doesn’t talk, though.”
Mrs. Mopp asked, “What’s your name?”
The girl said, “My name is Eleanor. I snuck the tea spilling invention because I like to clean! The invention made me able to clean forever!”
“Oh,” said Mrs. Mopp. “I thought it was so we could clean.”
Eleanor said, “I just put on glasses and a dress, and it made me look like another person. That’s why you didn’t recognize me!”


The End.

Why You Should Never Leave Hungry Kids Home Alone

by 10-year-old Susannah in Iowa

once upon a time there where 2 kids Amos and Susannah . Amos said " I'm so hungry i could eat a person'' "GRANDMA" they called together ''can we get some food ,pleeeeeeease?'' said susannah . so the grandma went to get food and while she was gone the kids ate each other and when grandma came back she was like ''where are the kids, whatever ''and started to eat the kid's food. THE END!!!!!!!!!!

A Little Girl Was Feeling Blue/Cicada Party (feat. Ryan Gaul)

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!”

The Dangerous Plumbers/The Bike That Is a Car

The Story Pirates create an extremely popular underground car wash. Featuring two new stories: “The Dangerous Plumbers,” a harrowing tale about who NOT to hire to fix a clog, written by Julian, an 8 year old from New York, and “The Bike That Is a Car,” a story about the greatest transportation invention of all time, written by a 6 year old from Toronto named Aliyah.

Scroll down for the original stories behind the episode!

Illustration by Camila Franklin

Original Stories

The Dangerous Plumbers

by Julian, age 8, New York

“Hey Mommy, the bathroom drain is clogged,” Billy said.

“Billy, that is absurd, I checked it last night and it wasn’t clogged!”

Billy’s father says, “No, he is right. It is really clogged.”

“Ok–I’ll call the plumbers.”

Then, after Billy’s mother called the plumbing company, they arrived.

One plumber said, “Where is the drain we need to unclog?”

Billy’s Dad replied, “Yeah, right this way, we have a bathroom drain that is clogged with hair and dirt and other stuff.”

The plumber said, “OK, we’ll just go ahead and fix it. You folks may want to step out of the house for a moment.”

“Why are you holding those big canisters? And what is that glugitty glugh glugh noise?”

“Oh, don’t worry. Just the stuff we use to unclog your drain.”

“Billy! Janice! we are leaving the house now. The plumbers want us to leave the house.”

When the family got outside, they started hearing strange noises. They were looking at the truck for the name of this unusual plumber. The name painted on the side of the truck was “Melting the Drain.” Below that was painted, “We’ll unclog your drain with our special stuff.”

William, the father, says, “I see smoke coming out of the plumbing vent on the roof. What kind of plumbers are these?”
The plumbers come out of the house with smoke coming everywhere through the air. The say, “You better wear these air masks inside the house for a little while.”

William says, “What kind of plumbers are you?”

Billy does not wait for an answer. He gets the air mask on like the plumbers asked, and rushes to the house with his parents behind him.

When they open the door to the house, William, Janice, and Billy realize that the plumbers dumped hot lava down the bathtub drain! The bathtub was melting and the pipes were melting, too.

Then, they noticed the sink was running and the water was running on the floor, cooling some of the hot lava into stone where they flowed together.

They also realized that the bathroom shower was on and so was the kitchen sink! Two sinks and a shower were running water on the floor.

Billy says, “I guess that is for safety reasons.”

Billy’s parents rushed downstairs, realized that the basement was filled with lava and was melting everything in its path.

They also noticed the roof was on fire from the large amount of heat.

The family ran out of the house at this point and called the fire department and the police.

Walking back to the plumber’s truck with the police in front of them, and the fire department trying to put out the burning house, the police say to the plumbers, “You are under arrest!”

The Bike That Is A Car

by Aliyah, age 6, Canada
A boy comes home from school. He bikes home on his bike. While he’s bicycling, an idea occurs to him, that he should invent a bicycle that is a car. When he bikes home he asks his mom if he can get a bunch of materials from everywhere. He built a bike. But then he wanted it to be a car too because he loves driving cars. So he made a picture of a car that is a bike and everything it can do. Then he tried to build it. He first built it out of cardboard. He tried to drive it. He tried to do everything he could but he couldn’t get it to work. He realized that he needed some tubes and real buttons that did stuff. But it’s still made out of cardboard so it didn’t work. So then he realized that he needed it to be out of something hard. So he made it out of plastic. It kinda worked, but it drove for about 5 seconds then it crashed. Then he tried to make it out of glass, but it smashed. Because glass smashes. So he asked his next door neighbour if she could help- she was an engineer. His next door neighbour Ms. Fred planned it out on a piece of paper. He said everything it should do. And Ms. Fred drawed it on the piece of paper and wrote it in his garage. They start to build it. Ms. Fred said that, “We need lots of materials from everywhere!” It took about 5 weeks for them to get all the materials. After they got all the materials, they started to build. Months and years and seasons passed by. And they were still not done. The boy waited patiently. One day it was done and they tried it out. After they tried to bike they realized it was too heavy, they tried to make it lighter. First the boy thought to make it out of foam, but the engineer said that won't work. Then they realized not to put so much pressure and weight. It took another 5 weeks to get the new materials, again years, weeks and months passed by. Again the boy was so patient, he waited. Finally they tried again, but he wasn’t so sure about perseverance and what was going to happen. The engineer said that perseverance is key in building stuff. Then they tried it out, it still didn’t work. This time the problem was there was no pedals because they forgot about them. It took another 5 weeks to get all the materials. The boy was losing his patience. After another weeks, months, years passed by he had no patience. The engineer said, “We waited all this time, and try it out. Don’t loose your patience young boy!” They tried it out and it still did not work. The engineer secretly put in too much stuff that made it not work. For she was making a big surprise. The boy finally thought they should give up. But the engineer was still working all year long. Until it was his birthday. She surprised him with the vehicle he wanted. He drove it everywhere. He became a car seller for those bike cars.

Story Spark

Julian, who wrote “The Dangerous Plumbers" is presenting this week's Story Spark!

Write about an invention that can shrink or "gigantify" something. How does the invention work? And what can you use it on?

Roll Call Stories

Jolie’s Podcast

by a 4-year-old named Jolie in Massachusetts


I want you to enjoy my podcast.

It's about how people eat and drink. I will start with drinking. Put water in your mouth and then swallow it. Now food. You put food in your mouth, chew, chew, chew, chew; until it's all chewed up and and you have the food in your stomach.

This is a kid podcast. And a kid is writing it. A kid that is still learning how to to read.

Now, how people survive. People survive with food and water. You need to drink carefully and eat carefully so the food and kind of water you are drinking won't go down your throat without you swallowing it. You need to be careful for every step of your life even when you are still a baby.

I need you to be careful when you drink and eat. The End.

There’s A Goat Stuck In The Chimney

by 11-year-old Clara in California

There's a goat stuck in the chimney.

The First Smore

by 10-year-old Gideon in Illinois

READ IT HERE!

The Oval Apocalypse

by 9-year-old William in Tennessee

Once upon a time in a not very far away live of paper. A pencil was drawing ovals lots and lots of EVIL OVALS.🖋 a big oval, a medium oval, and a small oval. Together they ruled the world and made it an oval.then they ate all the erasers and then the pen the end

The Mismatched Puzzle Piece/The Sad Queen (feat. Cecily Strong)

A professional glassblower (Cecily Strong) discovers Eric’s natural talent and tries to convince him to go pro. Featuring two new stories: “The Mismatched Puzzle Piece,” a song about a backwards journey through the alphabet, written by Olivia, a 7 year old from Colorado, and “The Sad Queen,” the story of queen and her court who learn to appreciate even the lowliest subjects, written by a 7 year old from Florida named Arjun.

Scroll down for the original stories behind the episode!

Illustration by Camila Franklin

Original Stories

The Mismatched Puzzle Piece

by Olivia, age 7, Colorado

Once upon a time, there was an alphabet puzzle. And letter Z realized he wasn’t in the right place at his puzzle space. He knew he had a dangerous quest through the alphabet to find letter A and switch places. He had to make sure he didn’t get smooshed by yoyo Y. He knew he had to go through the gates of X . Then he would have to avoid the W walrus to make it to the next letter. And then he would have to go through the V for Villainous Victor. While he went through that he met Victor the villain. Victor tried to trick him to stay where he was but it didn’t work. In letter U, there was an unbirthday happening. Some of them tried to force letter Z to stay for cake but he didn’t because he knew he would get a tummy ache. When he went to turtle T, there was a slow tortoise who offered him a ride but it took hours to cross the letter T street. Next he had to avoid the rattlesnakes in station S and he made it through even though he stepped on a few. Wiggily R was all written wrong, but letter Z made it through just fine. In Quilt Q, he had to knit a quilt to pass. In Popcorn P, he had to make sure he didn’t step on any popcorn, because if he did it would cause it to explode. In O, there was a friendly octopus but he accidentally sprayed ink. It took a while to get through because it was so dark but he made it through anyways. In Narwhal N, he had to make it through a maze and not touch any of the pointy narwhal horns. In monkey M, he had to monkey around but he made it through with a few swings on vines. Next in Lion L, there was the king of the jungle. And he made it through even though the lion tried to eat him. In Koala K, letter Z snuggled a lot but then he went through when the baby fought with his Mama. In Jellybean J, he juggled jellybeans. He went to the circus and got through. In Igloo I, letter Z met an Iguana and helped build an igloo. And then he went to the next letter. Letter H was hot! Letter Z went through but he sweated a lot. In letter G, he had to say “ggg, ggg, ggoooooo” and he went in a go-cart to make it through. In F he had to swim like a fish. He had fins and he had one big wish: to make it through the alphabet without getting tricked, kicked, or whipped. In Elephant E, he had to make through the elephant that would try to stomp on him or even you. In D for dog, there was a lot of meat. Even though the dog said he can’t be beat. In C for cat, letter Z said “meow!”. He made it through when he changed into a cow. In bug for B, he sang a song happily. In letter A, he went through the apple tunnel. It looked like a silly little funnel. Finally he felt in the right space. Letter A made the whole adventure to Z’s old place.

The end!

The Sad Queen

by Arjun, age 7, Florida
Once there was a sad queen who was not happy and was very sad. She was sad because: One, her kitchen was not clean. Two, her clown was not funny and he didn't even have a red nose. Three, there was thief who disrupted the peace.
One day a wizard came to her and said, “I think I can help you.” The wizard tried all his spells on the clown but nothing worked. Then he tried all of his spells on the kitchen and one worked. “See I told you I could help,” he said.
The queen said, “But I still have other problems.”
“I know someone who can help,” said the wizard. Poof! The wizard was gone.
A maid appeared where the wizard was standing. “I think I can help,” she said. The queen took the maid to the clown. She threw her broom and the clown’s red nose appeared. The queen cracked up. The queen threw the broom on the floor. Later the thief tripped on the broom and was found unconscious and went to jail.
Th queen solved her problems and lived happily ever after.

The end

Story Spark

Olivia, who wrote “The mismatched Puzzle Piece" is presenting this week's Story Spark!

Kids: write a story where the main character has to use a mnemonic device for a school project. Tell us what they have to remember with the mnemonic device, and what the mnemonic device is. Try to make the mnemonic device as silly and crazy as possible.

Roll Call Stories

The Evil Amphibians

by a 7-year-old named Xander in The UK

Once upon a time in a creepy town, frogs were taking over the world with their evil minds. Mel, a scientist, tried to stop them with her science potions, but it didn’t work. The president frog said “stop fighting” but that also didn’t work. Mel made all the frog’s food rotten by magic, but the frogs were still alive! Her car got destroyed, and her movie got cancelled because of the frogs. And then, Mel used her newly discovered magic to fight the evil frogs and make them extinct, there were only nice frogs allowed. Mel looked at the carnage and said “at least there are still nice frogs around.”

The End

The Day it Rained Cats Doing Gymnastics While Eating Ice Cream

by 9-year-old Anna in Ohio

It was a hot summer day. I was out in my backyard doing stuff on my bar, when all of the sudden something fell beside me. It was another bar, except it had a cat on it! I looked to the side of it and there was a not on it! It said “we are the cats doing gymnastics”. Then, more and more started to come they were doing flips, handstands, and cartwheels, and they were eating ice cream! I asked them to do a routine, and they were amazing! They even showed me how to improve my skills. There all time favorite ice cream flavor was cookies and cream. Then my friends came over and they did some gymnastics with the cats, we found out the cats could talk! We went to my front yard and every one was doing gymnastics with the cats playing with them, and talking to them! They stayed until night. Then they walked away. Everyone went home. It was the best day of my life!

The Very Loud Lawnmower

by 8-year-old August in Texas

One day, a bunny woke up and heard a very loud buzzing noise. So, Guinevere the bunny went outside and saw a lawn mower and was very annoyed. She went to the tape store and bought some very sticky tape to keep busy. When she came home, it was, still, there!! First, she put on earmuffs, but it sucked them up! Next, she threw muffins at it. Also, she threw her couch at it. After, she went to the basement and dug deep into the ground, but she still heard it!!

She called her lawyer, but bunnies don’t HAVE lawyers!! She said, “SKUDLEMUFFINS! I wish it would stop!”

Tired, she tried to ignore it by taking a walk. On her walk, she saw two signs. The first sign said, “Are you very annoyed? Then try ear buds! Only $10!” The next sign said, “Build the best astronaut suit! Prize $10.”

She decides to build for five hours but builds a great suit. So, she goes to the place and wins $10. Then, she goes back and gets the ear buds. Meanwhile, the lawn mower goes so loud it explodes the earth!!!!!!!!!!

Guinevere kicks the lawn mower to Neptune. She tapes the earth back together. She gets a medal from the king of the world.

The lawn mower says, “Ah SKUDLEMUFFINS!”

The End!

CLICK HERE TO SEE AUGUSTS’S HANDWRITTEN VERSION AND DRAWINGS!

The Punny Dad

by 7-year-old Natalie in Washington, D.C.

There once was a dad who had too many dad jokes. One day, his hungriest kid came to him and said, “Dad, I have a nosebleed.” His dad said, “More like a nose FEED!!” That wasn’t any help at all, so the kid went to his mom. A few days later, the kids’ door fell off. They said, “Dad, can you put the door knob back on?” And the dad said, “More like a door NOT!”

One day, one of the kids said, “Dad, I have a really serious request for you. Can you help me rehearse my complaint to Nana about the fact that she won’t let me drive her motorcycle?” The kid said, “I’m going to say, ‘But Nana, the motorcycle is so cool! I want to ride it!!” The dad said, “Sounds good, son, but how about you change ‘But Nana’ at the start to ‘BANANA!’”

A few weeks later, they went to a witchcraft shop and bought a potion that would make him very, very serious. They poured it into a glass of water and it blended in. When their dad came in from outside, they said, “Hey, Dad, we poured you some ice cold water for this hot day.” and gave him the glass with the potion in it. The dad said, “Hot day? More like a NOT day!” That the son said, “Daddy, can we play toothbrush monster? I don’t want to brush my teeth.” This was a game they played where the dad pretended to be a monster and chased his son around until the kid brushed his teeth. But tonight, the dad said, “No son, that sounds like too much fun for me. I’m very serious.”

The next day the daughter said, “daddy can we ride piggy back to school?” The dad however said, “no, you know me I am a serious person.” And the daughter went to school sad. The next day the son and the daughter told their mom, “Mom, that’s too serious, we want the funny dad back.” So their mom went to the shop and bought a reversed potion. The mom said, “here kids this should cure your dad.” So they brought it home, poured it in a glass of water and gave it to the dad, who drank it. He turned back into a silly dad.

The kids said, “Dad, we’re so glad you’re silly again, we even missed your ‘Dad jokes’!” And the Dad said, “DAD jokes, I think you mean RAD jokes!”

And that’s the story of me is me, happy me is best.

The Tree With a Love For a Mountain/Infamous

Baby With a Mustache has an identity crisis. Featuring two new stories: “The Tree With a Love For a Mountain,” a song that proves that even nature can fall in love, written by Landon, an 8 year old from California, and “Infamous,” the story of a trendsetter who is tired of setting trends, written by a 10 year old from California named Clarke.

Scroll down for the original stories behind the episode!

Illustration by Camila Franklin

Original Stories

Infamous

by Clarke, age 10, California

Tori was the coolest girl in town. Possibly in the entire world! And one day, on her birthday, “Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Tori, happy birthday to you!” “Thanks mom and dad! But you can eat the cotton candy. Whenever I try to be different from the other kids by not eating cake on my birthday, it becomes a trend for the rest of the year! If I eat cotton candy for my birthday, then all of the other kids will want to too!” Mom: Wow honey, I didn’t realize you felt this way!” Tori: thanks for understanding.” (goes to her room and flops down on her bed.) the next day, at school: school bell:RIIING! Tori:“aaah! That”s the school bell! And its Summer’s birthday circle! Can’t be late!” Class: “happy birthday dear Summer! Happy birthday to you!” Teacher: “here! Now I’ll hand out the cotton candy, because Tori likes it!” Summer: wait! I’m neighbors with Tori and she didn’t eat any of her cotton candy!” Teacher: “THROW AWAY THE COTTON CANDY!” Male Student: (timidly): all of it?”teacher:(in rage):”ALL OF IT!” Tori: “wait you guys! People have been copying everything I do! And you don’t know how it feels to never be original, be the “trend setter”, the cool one.” Female Student: “I think it sounds amazing!” Tori:because you’re not me. Eat the cotton candy if you like, just don’t copy me anymore! If I wear a plain T-shirt and jeans, that becomes the next style! Listen, if you want to copy what I do, go ahead. But don’t be copycats.” Teacher: “that was so emotional!” Tori: “sure.”

The end!

The Tree with a Love for a Mountain

by Landon, age 8, California
Once upon a time there was a lonely tree that wanted to go to the mountains. but he was just a tree so he couldn't go anywhere. he really wanted to go so much with his binoculars and snow gear up to the top of the mountain but then he found a pine cone on his limb and then he planted it. and he kept growing more and more until a man cut off one of his limbs and took it to his home and the tree wanted to get his limb back but he wanted to go to the mountain but he cut off one of his own branches and he could walk. and now he swings from limb to limb finally he made it to the top of the mountain. and he shouted I am I and we are we. The end.

Story Spark

Clarke, who wrote “Infamous" is presenting this week's Story Spark!

Kids: write us a story about the most wild space food imaginable. Tell us where the food comes from, what it tastes like, and what it looks like. And most of all, who eats it and why?

Roll Call Stories

The ‘The’ Who Wanted To Change His Name

by a 7-year-old named Calvin in Massachusetts

The High Note And The Low Note

by 6-year-old Bethany in Kansas

So, there is a high note and low note. The high note found the low note and the high note did not like the low note. And so the low note was sad. And then the high note came back. And then the low note was so happy so he hugged the high note and came back to his own self, the high note.

Chicken Soup Costume

by 10-year-old Delia in Texas

I put on my chicken soup costume.

The Scarer

by 8-year-old Wimberly in Switzerland

The Starfish/The Package (feat. Dan Mintz)

When her diamond headphones go missing, Meghan recruits a hard-boiled detective (Dan Mintz) to solve the mystery. Featuring two new stories: “The Starfish,” a story about remembering who you were in a past life, written by Louis, a 9 year old from Nevada, and “The Package,” a rom com-style story about a gloomy farmer who receives a special delivery…of love, written by an 8-year-old from New York named Saanvi. 

Scroll down for the original stories behind the episode!

Illustration by Camila Franklin

Original Stories

The Starfish

by Louis, age 9, Nevada

Once there was a starfish. Every night it would climb up a rock and look up and see all of the real stars. Sometimes it thought it used to be a star up there and fell by an asteroid or something, but he bonked his head so he doesn't remember.

So then he went to Shark and asked him if he could help him get up to space. He asked Shark if he could throw him up there.

Shark tried. Starfish went up and then down. Nothing.

Then they tried to use a cannon to get starfish up there. Blast! Starfish hit an airplane - it did not work.

They used a cannon and he was about to make it until - bing! - he hit an airplane.

So then they tried it again. When he went up, a meteor hit him, and when he hit the ground he bounced back up into space. He was in space! But there was something different about him - he was shiny, he was brighter, he was made of fire! He was a real star! With all of the other stars he would play with his old friends that he had made back before he fell to Earth.

The end.

The Package

by Saanvi, age 8, New York
er named Rick came outside his barn on a sunny warm day. Now you might think that farmer Rick loves sunny warm days but this farmer hates sunny warm days. He loves dark and stormy days. So when he sees the sun and feels the warmth he nearly hides in the barn for the rest of the day! The animals are so upset!

So when farmer Rick came outside to Sunny warm day he grunted and then went back into the barn. Then there was a ding dong, and famer Rick got the door. And standing there was the Post lady.

“What do you want?”, farmer Rick asked.
“I've got a package for you”, said Sarah, the Post lady.

Farmer Rick never gets packages. Sara dropped the Box on the farmer's grass and walked back to her van. Farmer Rick picked up the box and carried it inside. He opened the box and inside there was a Heart-Shaped Box.

Farmer Rick gasped “I forgot today is Valentine's Day. Maybe one of the kids sent me a prank box.” But inside there was a box of chocolates. You might think that Farmer Rick was surprised to get chocolates, but farmer Rick got a piece of chocolate and took a bite “crunch”. The smell floated across the barn.

The next morning it was sunny and warm so instead of farmer Rick staying in all day he went to milk the cows, fix up the chicken coop and do more farming stuff. The animals were confused about what happened and how did he change? Farmer Rick walked his dog Star, waved to everyone and did a lot of nice things everyday. It seemed like that until one day all the pieces came together..

One day another package came, Sara dropped it off and said nothing. Strange thought Rick.. As he opened the package he found a note that said “Hi my name is Sarah and I gave you the box of chocolates”.

“What a surprise!” farmer Rick said. Then he went to the post office and went to the front desk.
“Is Sara here?” farmer Rick asked.
“Yes, why?” asked Max the head postman
“I wanted to ask her something,” farmer Rick said.
“Okay you may go” said Max “but only for twenty minutes okay”
“Yes sir” Farmer Rick said.

When he saw Sarah he asked “Did you send me chocolates?”
“Me?” Sarah asked
“Yeah” farmer Rick said
“Then yes” responded Sarah. “You are my Valentine”, she added.

So they got married and lived happily ever after!

Story Spark

Saanvi, who wrote “The Package" is presenting this week's Story Spark!

Kids: write us an adventure story about someone who goes hiking up a mountain, but then, they get lost. Who comes to save them, and how do they do it?

Roll Call Stories

Shivering Timbers

by a 10-year-old named Norah in Minnesota


When I shiver, I yell "TIMBER!"
When I shiver, I trip

When I shiver, I yell "TIMBER!"
When I shiver, I fall

When I shiver, I yell "TIMBER!"
When I shiver, I scrape my knee

The Princess With No Etiquette

by 7-year-old Eva in Hawaii

Persian Cats Raining From The Sky

by 6-year-old Ellie in New York

Kevin The Worry Chip

by 9-year-old Coraline in California

Once upon a time there was a chip called Kevin. He was a worry chip. All the other chips were happy chips. Kevin wished he was a warrior chip.
So Kevin went on a journey to find the Sword of Destiny. But there are dangerous things that are terrifying! But he will try to be brave.

So he went off. When he reached the first enemy he was scared, but he knew he could be brave. This was the first dragon, but it was not that strong though. Kevin hit the dragon with his fierce sword then the dragon blew fire out of its mouth. Then Kevin flung his shield in front of him and blocked the fire. Then he quickly dashed and hit the dragon. The dragon was defeated.

“Only two more dragons to defeat.” Said Kevin.

He started to walk. When he reached the second dragon he was braver than ever. He knows he can do it. He ducked when the dragon blew fire at him. He jumped and striked the dragon as hard as he could. Kevin started running so fast around the dragon that the dragon got so dizzy. Kevin destroyed the second dragon.

He started walking again. Then he saw the last dragon. He rose his powerful sword. They were ready to fight. Kevin shot up and striked the dragon. The dragon blew fire at Kevin, but Kevin stopped the fire and it blew back at the dragon and the dragon was defeated.

Then Kevin saw the Sword of Destiny. He was a great warrior chip. When he got home he showed all the happy chips the Sword of Destiny. When he thought in bed he felt brave and he didn’t want to keep the sword so he decided not to keep the sword. The end.