Winner of the “Most Unique” Award:

The Six Elephants - A Sci-Fi Animal Kingdom Fairy Tale

By: Sebastian Raphaël Phillips, age 7

Once upon the future, there were six astrophysicist elephants. They lived two by two in three homes on one of the moons of Jupiter called Ganymede. Only one thing scared them: it was the pair of evil alien lions who wanted to eat them. One day, the lions arrived to the elephants’ base with ten powerful robots under their command. The robots bumped the first elephant house to the ground. The two elephants ran to the second house. The robots set fake fire to the second house to scare the elephants. The four elephants ran to house number three. The robots ate the third house. The six elephants ran to their starships to flee to Pluto. The lions programmed the robots to activate their jet packs in order to chase after the elephants. Suddenly, a meteor zoomed toward the elephants’ starships. The elephants blasted the meteor to pieces. The noise of the exploding meteor threw both the lions and robots far away into the Great Red Spot of Jupiter (into, not onto, as it is a gas giant). The astrophysicist elephants lived happily ever after on the surface of Pluto. The end.

Moral of the story: We are better when we use our intelligence and work as a team.

Winner of the “Biggest Plot Twist” Award:

The Magical Birds

By: Dora Zong, age 10

Three Eggs

Once upon a time, deep in a forest there was three eggs. One was the colour of the deepest blue, and she’ll have the power of water. One was as white as cloudes in the sky. He’ll have the power of sky. Last but not lest came an egg that was red, she’ll have the power of fire. Three eggs to hatch on the full moon, they shall stop the evil, once and for all. They must work together, or if they don’t, nothings going to be done.

Chapter 2 — The story

1 month later

“Pay attention Sora! Reed are you deaf!?” Once again, Coral was yelling at her younger siblings. They were fond on a tree with no parent in sight. Coral, as the oldest, now was in charge and she an be very loud.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING, REED!?” screamed Coral, snaping her beak. “I DON’T WANT TO BITE YOU!” “What? I’m paying attention, I mean what did I do wrong?” asked Reed. “You were just playing tic-tac-toe in the dirt.” snapped Coral. A flash of light. White light. A door. Sora screamed. A flash of light, a door, and now a voice. The voice was telling a story.

Once upon a time, there were two Fairys. One was called Brighteye and one was called Storm. Storm was very powerful, but she was also very evil and mean. Brighteye was kind and helpful, Even when Brighteye and Storm are sisters, they soon became enemys. Worst of all, Storm is trying to take over the Forest in her dark, spooky way. Only one thing is in her way, Brighteye and the magical birds.

Everyone froze.

Chapter 3 — The plan

“What was that about?” asked Sora softly after a minute or two of silence. “The question is what should we do?” said Coral, spitting water from her beak. “I haven’t learned anything apart from that.”

Sora flapped wing, her wings were on fire. Coral spat some water on her. “Well I only know how to make it rain.” said Reed as he flapped his wings. A dark cloude rolled over them. As Reed clicked his beak, thunder roared as lightning flashed. “Hey,” said Coral, “Your better then me!” Reed smiled. “I think I know what to do.” said Sora. As Sora told the others the plan, they agreed to do what Sora said. After checking they had all the detils Sora had said on a piece of parchment, they looked it through a few times until everything was clear.

Image description (Added by the Arctic Reading Cirlcle): A drawing of a piece of paper rolled up at the edges. Text reads “First Sora will sneak up to Storm’s house and burn it up. Then Reed will make Dark cloudes circle the Forest to make it hard for Storm to see. Finally, ATTACK HER!!! Back up. Flee Bake into the FOREST and Coral will make it flood.”

Chapter 4 — Brighteye

“Now we just need to find Brighteye and the Storm’s—”

“No need to find me,” saind a voice. “Oh, and your lucky I know where Storm lives.” “Oh, um… is that you Brighteye?” asked Coral. “Oh yes!” said Brighteye. Brighteye was a plump little fairy with a very kind face. SHe had little wings on her back. Unlike the ones the birds had, these wings seem to be made of a misty, but bright glow, not feathers. “So I see you have a plan.” said Brighteye, smiling. “Yes, we do.” answered Reed.

“Can you show us to Storm’s house tonight at midnight? Because that’s when we’re planning to attack.” said Sora. “Sure, but that’s when she’s going to be sleeping.” said Brighteye. “Unelss it’s a sneak attack?” “That’s what we are going to do.” answered Coral, giving Brighteye an little smile.

“Very well,” said Brighteye, “We shall attack at midnight. Try to get some sleep now, I will wake you up at midnight with my secret army.”

Chapter 5 — Battle of the Sisters

“Wake up!” whispered Brighteye, “It’s 15 minutes to midnight.” 5 minutes later, they were on there way as Brighteye told them the new backup plan. “If you 3 come fleeing back, All kinds of birds, Robins, bluejays, cardinals, and more will do the rest, okay? I’ve make a bird cage to trap her in, when she’s in there, she can’t use her magic. Got it?”

Storm’s house was a little wooden house by a lake as dark as ashes.

“That’s the Lake of Ashes, it’s made of water, ash, and wood.” whispered Brighteye. ”Quick, let’s get started, it’s a minute until midnight.”

After Brighteye, Coral, and the birds found a hiding spot, Sora sneaked out and started to pile wood and tinder around the house, everything was black, no one could see. Reed had done his job.

As Sora lit up her wings with fire, slowly, as she walked around the house brushing her wings against the weed, the house was on fire. Someone inside screamed telling Sora she had done well.

Coral jumped out of the hiding spot. “My turn!”

“Hey,” said Brighteye, “You’ve done well, I think it’s my turn now.”

Brighteye raised her wand just as Storm steped out of the house. “Impervius!” a string of light shooted out of her wand just as Storm cried “Collomortis!” The red light, (Impervius) and the green light, (Collomortis) banged together. Coral had to cover her ears just in time. Reed, Coral, and Sora watched frozen as the two’s wands twisted and spun through the air. Finally, Brighteye’s light started to get stronger and stronger. “Bang!” Brighteye’s curse hit Storm full in the face as Storm fell backwards. “That was the Impervius Curse.” said Brighteye. “It should keep her doing good stuff until I figure out a way to get her to do good stuff, Forever.” added Brighteye.

Chapter 6 — The Truth

1 month later

“I think I should tell you the story of me and Storm when we were little.” said Brighteye.

“Once upon a Time, there was one me, one Storm. We had the power to learn magical Arts. Storm and I loved it. But when we were 16, magic made Storm more and more evil. She ran away from home. After that, she learned Dark arts, Dark arts can be very hard. But shse learned it. After living in the woods for 10 years, she learned potiions, evil potions. AFter wanting to take over the world for 14 years, she had missed her only chance. THat was when you guys were hatched.”

“So we were hatched to save the world?” asked Sora. “That’s what I think, but I think your parents thought having magical parents will make you evil. I did some research and I think your parents were a Bluejay, and some fire monster. But I have no idea what kind of monster.” said Brighteye. “Well, we have you.” said Reed. Brighteye smield. And they lived the best life ever,

THE END

Winner of the “Funniest Story” Award:

The Three Little Pigs Variation

by Henderson Gu — August 27, 2022

Once upon a time, there were three little pigs living in a farmhouse with their mother. The three little pigs grew up, healthy and strong. One day, their mother called them in and she said, “It is time for you three to go into the wilderness and live by yourselves. Make sure to remember what I have told you about the wilderness and have a fun time there but whatever you do, don’t forget about the Big Bad Wolf!” The three brothers wandered off into the forest and came across a humongous tree. They all thought about making it their home and they spent a long time discussing it. The eldest brother thought that was unwise to make the tree their house because the Big Bad Wolf could just climb up the tree but the other brothers took no notice of his words and started working on the treehouse which left the eldest brother with no choice. After three whole days of effort, communication and accidents, they finally managed to make the treehouse. The treehouse was small but it was still big enough for the three brothers to live in. They celebrated for a long time and after a long time, they finally went to sleep. The next day, they woke up to someone knocking on their door. The three little pigs wondered who could be knocking on their door, but they quickly found out when the Big Bad Wolf said, “Open the door and let me in or else I will destroy the house that you have been working on for days.” The two younger pigs looked at their brother expecting him to say something but he was too scared to say anything. The wolf bellowed, “Let me in right now or I will punch and kick until your treehouse goes down!” Fortunately, they had added an emergency exit if the wolf came to their house, so they managed to escape without the wolf knowing it. The wolf thought that they were still inside the treehouse and furiously said, “You have three seconds to unlock the door, three… two… one!” The wolf punched the wooden door so hard that the entire treehouse shook and the door flew across the room. The wolf looked around expecting to see three small pigs shivering and crying. But to his surprise, he couldn’t find them anywhere. The Big Bad Wolf was angry and frustrated about how he didn’t catch the three little pigs but there wasn’t much he could do about it so he walked away. From that day on, the three little pigs always tried their best and always worked as hard as they could and they all learned something very important: to always try your very best. The End.