Authored, Illustrated, and Designed by: Leo Baeck Junior High School Grade 8 English Class
Children’s Stories A School Project by Marvelous
English Students
Introduction This is where the introduction to this project should go. It should
include answers to questions like, ‚What did you think when you first
heard about the project?‛ What did you like about it,‛ and ‚What did you
get out from it?‛
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It should be about 2/3 of the page. It should be about 2/3 of the
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It should be about 2/3 of the page. It should be about 2/3 of the
page. It should be about 2/3 of the page. It should be about 2/3 of the
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page. It should be about 2/3 of the page.
- Grade 8 Class
Insert a class picture here
Teacher’s Note
For this project, Grade 8 students authored, illustrated, and designed their own
children’s stories. There were multiple goals connected to this multi-week course of
study. Most importantly was that it gave students the rare opportunity to construct
their own ideas and have it honored by others.
The principle goal of this project was to develop students’ English skills, as this
was completed in an English class. As such, the following English skills were taught
explicitly: writing effective dialogue, paragraph structure, vocabulary, punctuation,
symbolism, character development, ‚showing‛ instead of ‚telling,‛ and editing. Sec-
ondary explicit skills covered illustration and working with Microsoft Publisher. Fi-
nally, social and emotional competencies were developed through the refinement of
each student’s personal values and by giving students creative/imaginative freedom
over their work.
In all, roughly 20 class periods were spent producing these stories, from gener-
ating the ‚seeds‛ of ideas to a final, digitally compiled version. Undoubtedly, the
work involved by the teacher required a serious time investment. Seeing the result
made it well worth the effort.
Regarding class composition, it quickly becomes clear to anyone reading the
children’s stories that both English fluency and effort played a role in the final prod-
uct. In this class alone, some students were virtually native English speakers, while
others struggled to compose full sentences. The project design was very sensitive to
this fact, allowing students to work toward their own differentiated potentials. With
the exception of a very small number of students, I believe that all the student’s put in
their best effort. In fact, there were occasions were students demanded to stay after
school to continue their work.
As a teacher, it was truly my pleasure to see these stories develop and take a
life of their own. I learned and was inspired by the students’ beliefs, morals, and crea-
tivity. I urge all education to consider this when designing curricula or planning les-
sons. It is my belief that respecting a student - in the form of giving authentic tasks,
valuing student’s work, listening to their ideas, and respecting their opinions – in-
creases their engagement and motivation in the classroom. This, in turn, ultimately
helps them learn.
If you are interested in doing a project like this in your classroom, make sure to
check out the last section in this booklet, which explains the steps taken. Feel free to
copy the steps exactly or make adjustments as you best see fit. Also, feel free to get in
touch at [email protected].
- Yotam Hod, Teacher
The Stories (1 of 3)
The Story of the Boy and the Town page 7—11
Dina Gorodnitski
A story about questioning poor leaders and celebrating differences
Perry the Parrot page 12—23
Amit Hershkowitz
A story about believing in your ideas and making friends
Pen Pal page 24—30
Dor Kleinfeld
A story about believing that you are smart and capable of learning
What will Help Nemo and his Tribe? page 31—35
Roee Ben Amara
A story about being a good leader
Todd and the Moon page 36—42
Sa’ar Matalon
A story about being good to those around you
The Little Garden page 43—52
Gabriela Udovich
A story about the importance of friendship
The Boy Who Never Laughed page 53—57
Hagar Sahar
A story about friendship and laughter
Gvanian page 58—63
Yosef Raisman
A story about truth, lies, and love
The Stories (2 of 3)
The Glowing Necklace page 64—68
Shira Labin
A story about self-confidence and believing in yourself
The Magical Mouse page 69—71
Tidhar Shosrad
A story about sacrificing yourself to help others
Beary the Bear page 72—74
Inon Starovieschic
A story treating your friends nicely
The Magical Envelope page 75—79
Batel Mankovsky
A story about trusting your friends and putting their interests ahead of yours
The Art of Dedication page 80—82
Yoni Halatnik
A story about giving and making something of your life
The Key to Success page 83—86
Maoz Karasenti
A story about what a person needs to do to succeed
The Imaginary Dog page 87—90
Goffer Oded
A story about having the courage to make friends
Missy page 91—92
Katya Mogilevsky
A story about treating others the way that you want to be treated
The Stories (3 of 3)
The Man in the Lemon page 93—99
Nithay Yarnitsky
A story about loneliness and the changes a person can make to have friends
Jake the Grey page 100—103
Avshalom Cohen
A story about treating people of all ethnicities, religions, and races equally
Timmy the Tractor page 104—105
Nithay Duek
A story about including others so they don’t feel lonely
The Underwater Sea Class page 106—108
Osher Ninno
A story about telling your friends the truth
Still Not Published page 109—x
Yuval Mendelson
A story about
Still Not Published page x—x
Omer Eshet
A story about
Still Not Published page x—x
Nimrod Boker
A story about
Steps to Creating Children’s Stories in Your Classroom
Teacher Materials by Yotam Hod (Teacher)
Page 120—135
By: Dina Gorodnitski
In a little town lived a boy, not so little, but also not so big. His name
was Tommy. Tommy loved his town. He liked the people, the houses, and
the parks. But what he liked the most was the colorfulness and the differ-
ences between the houses. Each house was different and had its own style
and touch. Each street wasn't like the other. That's why Tommy liked to go
out with his skateboard and wander around.
One day, Tommy went out
with his skateboard and skated
across the streets. The sun shone
over the windows and made them
sparkle like diamonds. All sorts of
flowers - roses, tulips, violets, sun
flowers and many more, grew in
front of the colorful houses. Eve-
rything was calm and beautiful.
In the main street Tommy
met all his friends and neighbors.
‚Hello Mrs. Smeet!‛ called
Tommy to the baker.
‚Hello Tommy. How do you do?‛
A little later Tommy met their neighbor, Mrs. Kukarlota.
‚Hello Tommy, how is your mother? Yesterday, I was planning to come
and visit her." (Tommy knew that "visit" meant come and gossip for an hour
or two). In the end of the main street was a big gathering of people. Tommy
saw his Friend Timmy.
‚Hello Timmy! What's going on here?‛ he asked.
‚It's the new ideas of Mr. Potato. Listen to what he is saying!‛ an-
swered Timmy.
And indeed, in front of his
house on a little stage, stood Mr.
Potato, the ketchup factory
owner, and he spoke to the peo-
ple.
‚Dear neighbors!‛ he
called, ‚Look at my new house!
This sort of color, these plants,
the shade for my car, the
porch< All these nice and ele-
gant, new things, are really necessary for a normal and honorable family.
From today all the people should plant roses, roses only. Look at the color of
my house. If we all choose grey and yellow as the colors of our houses, that
would be nicer and more homogenous. Also, from today, it is popular to put
white curtains with stripes and shades from bright wood only<" and so Mr.
Potato went on, telling everybody what to do so that everybody else could
match his new ideas.
Tommy went home. ‚That’s ridiculous, nobody will listen to him,‛ he
said to himself.
The days passed, and
some people started to
act like Mr. Potato and
listened to what he said
about being alike. They
colored their houses in
grey and yellow colors,
made their shades and
stairs look like they
were made from bright
wood, and so on.
After some
months, the nice, color-
ful town became all grey and yellow. All the houses were the same, like if
they were made in a factory. Even the flowers in the garden were all the
same: roses.
In one of the grey
houses of the little town sat
Tommy's family to dinner.
Tommy's mother liked
cooking and her cooking
was wonderful and really
tasty.
‚This is really deli-
cious, thank you Mom,‛
said Tommy, "very soon
your cooking will be the
only thing that is different from all the other houses," he muttered.
‚Don’t be so annoyed. It's not the most terrible thing in the world. I am
sure this will pass after some time,‛ promised Tommy's mother.
‚I know Mom, but now I even don’t like to go out. You feel like you
can get lost in all these streets! They are all identical!" cried Tommy.
‚It is true. But they aren't ugly, they are newly colored and well kept,"
said Tommy's father.
‚Yes, it's true,‛ admitted Tommy, ‚but the problem is that I feel that
not only the houses are all the same, it looks like the people in the houses are
also identical. They don’t have opinions, they can't stay themselves!" replied
Tommy.
‚Yes, we know," sighed his parents.
After dinner, Tommy requested to plant some new roses in the garden.
‚In the storeroom you will find some bags with rose seeds,‛ his mother told
him. Tommy went to the storeroom and found the place with the garden
equipment. He found the bags with the rose seeds and behind them he
found one half-empty bag -
a bag with orchid seeds.
Tommy knew that his
mother liked orchids very
much; he remembered that
before all the strange
‚house fashion‛ started his
family always planted only
orchids.
‚Why should we lis-
ten to what they say? Why
can't we stay ourselves?"
Tommy thought.
Tommy took the half-filled orchid seeds bag and planted the
seeds in the garden. From that day on he took care of the plants and just
couldn't wait until they grew and bloomed.
One day it happened. The little orchids grew and showed first signs of
blooming. Everybody was amused and surprised when it was clear that no
roses but orchids were growing in the garden. Some people agreed. Some
people argued, nagged their heads and clicked their tongues. The neighbors
started to gather around the house as if they never saw orchids. Tommy
went out to the garden and explained his decision to everybody. He spoke
to the people, exactly as Mr. Potato spoke a year before. But in contrast to
Mr. Potato's speech, Tommy spoke about staying yourself, loyal to your
opinion and to your style.
‚Why should we all be the same?
Our streets look like factories,
long grey factories. These facto-
ries are making the people look
grey and very much the same. We
don’t need to listen to what some-
body else thinks about our
houses. If we like orchids, why
won't we plant orchids?" he
asked.
‚And you, Mrs. Kukarlota,‛ he spoke to his neighbor, "your house was
always colored in pink, that was the color you chose and the color you liked
the most. Why should you live in a grey house if it so not like you?‛
‚He's right!‛ admitted all
the neighbors, "we all should
stay ourselves and not try to be
somebody else because some-
body told us it's better.
In one of the houses of
the little, colorful-again town
Tommy's family sat for dinner.
‚I am so glad that every-
thing came back to its course,"
said Tommy's mother, ‚and
that’s all because of you,
Tommy.‛
‚No, it isn't mom,‛ said Tommy.
‚Yes it is,‛ confirmed Tommy's father. "Maybe, if you didn’t plant
those orchids in that evening, we would all still be living in grey houses with
white curtains with stripes and planting roses all day."
The End
By: Amit Hershkowitz
A long time ago, in a peaceful and quite place, lived a family of
parrots. Mr. Parrot was the father, Mrs. Parrot the mother, and there were
three brothers: Ben, Jim and the smallest one - Perry. They all lived happily,
helping each other. Mr. and Mrs. Parrot were taking care of the kids while
the kids helped to take care of their home. Ben, the strongest one, helped to
lift the heavy furniture, Jim cleaned the house and Perry sat and thought
how to make the cleaning and lifting easier. As he sat and thought, he came
up with an excellent idea.
Our story
begins on a
peaceful day,
while all the
family prepared
for the coming
holiday of Ha-
nukkah. Every-
one was busy.
Mr. and Mrs.
Parrot did the
shopping, Ben lifted the Hanukkah lamp, Jim made a bunch of doughnuts
and Perry planned where to put the "Fire-Maker". The "Fire-Maker" was one
of his inventions; it was a big, black and red lighter that lighted the candles
of the Hanukkah lamp. Each candle was a different flame color. Some
flames were red while others were green, some were purple and some were
white. It was a big celebration of colors.
Near noon, the house looked
great, Everything was decorated
with straps that Mr. and Mrs. Par-
rot bought. The Hanukkah Lamp
stood in the middle of the house;
she was big and colored silver. The
doughnuts smelled so good, mak-
ing the air sweet and the feeling
even more. The "Fire-Maker" was
placed right in front of the Hanuk-
kah lamp, ready to light the candles. When the afternoon arrived, everything
was ready for the candle lighting. All the family started to sing Hanukkah
songs, spreading happiness and joy in the afternoon air.
Between the sing-
ing of the family mem-
bers, Perry noticed an-
other voice, a moan, a
stretch of a back, like
some sort of animal,
lurking to her prey,
ready to jump and de-
vour him. He looked at
his brother Ben, who
noticed it too. The fam-
ily sang another song,
but there was a gargle, some sort of a howl. Now Mr. Parrot noticed it too.
Another song, and the voices started to get stronger, closer. Another song
and there were many voices, much stronger, much closer. Perry looked at his
father, and his father looked back at him. The voices were so strong that the
family stopped singing, listening to the frightening voices, waiting. A few
more seconds, all of a sudden...
They heard a blood-freezing howl! The wall fell apart and they could
see the source of these voices - a group of cats! All the family members were
scared and frightened, they flew for their lives, and they didn't look back.
They heard the cats running behind them, trying to catch them. Their wings
couldn't move faster than that,
and the cats couldn't move
faster than them. Perry's heart
was beating so fast and he al-
most couldn’t breath, but he
managed to run away. Finally
the cats gave up and stopped
chasing them. The family was
still scared and shocked; they
spent the night outside, warm-
ing each other's bodies with
their own. "Tomorrow we'll
come back", said Mr. Parrot,
right before Perry fell asleep.
When the family came back to their house everything was ruined. The
decoration straps were all scratched by the big and sharp cat's nails. The Ha-
nukkah lamp was broken on the floor, filled with the oil of the doughnuts.
On the side of the room stood the "Fire-Maker", broken apart by the cats,
making all the gas escape.
The whole family was sad because of their broken house, but they
couldn't wait too long- they had to rebuild their house. They gathered some
blocks and started to put them down, one-by-one. Everyone worked to-
gether to complete their mission of building the house once again. Mr. and
Mrs. Parrot bought the materials while Ben and Jim did the physical work;
Perry was responsible to design the new house.
After a hard
day of work, the
family decided to
rest. They sat in a
circle, talking about
the hard labor and
the materials they
needed for the new
house. Perry was quiet this evening, he thought about the attack the whole
day, looking for answers. He remembered the idea that he thought about this
afternoon, wondering if he should suggest it. Finally, he had enough courage
to say it. ‚I have an idea,‛ he said loudly.
"Well, tell us," said Mr. Parrot.
Perry took a deep breath, and told them his idea. For a few seconds
everybody was quite, and then they burst into big, loud laughs.
"Don't be so funny," said Mrs. Parrot.
"This idea is for dreamers only," said Jim.
"Try again," said Mr. Parrot.
Perry didn't speak again the
whole day. At night, the sounds of
laughter wouldn't leave Perry's ears.
His mind was full with thoughts, so
full that he couldn't sleep. He got out
of his bed and went to one of the clos-
est tree tops. One thought bothered
him really hard, he wanted it so much
that he couldn't hear those laughs
anymore. "I'll show them," he
thought. Finally, after a lot of think-
ing, he decided to do it. He decided to run away.
The next morning, Perry was very far from his home. He arrived at the
big city, breathing her fresh air. Everything was loud in he city. Cars were
beeping, humans talked loudly and their steps were heavy and made a lot of
noise. Other birds were whistling to the beat of the human's legs. Perry
called it "The Music of the City." He flew on top of the high and grey build-
ings. Everything looked so unvaried in the city. After a long flight, Perry de-
cided to land in one of the alleys. He landed and looked around him; the
trash cans, the sidewalk, everything was grey, like the whole city. "Can't they
use some green?" he asked himself.
All of a sudden, he heard a whisper from behind the trash cans.
"Hey, you!" said the thick voice.
"Me?" asked Perry.
"Yes, who are you?"
"I'm Perry, and who are you?"
"I'm the big scary monster!" said the voice, echoing in the whole alley.
"I don't believe you!" said Perry, as his heart beats became stronger.
"You can see it by my shadow!"
Perry looked at the big shadow that arrived at the wall, it's seemed like
a big creature. It looked like a dinosaur with a huge shell on top of his back.
"I'm... I'm not scared!" lied Perry.
"Really then, come closer," the voice ordered.
"Okay," said Perry as he started to walk towards the trash cans.
"Okay, stop!" said the voice, but Perry didn't listened to him. "Stop I
said!" he said once again, but Perry didn't mind. "Stop right now!" the voice
begged.
"I'm not scared, I'm scared..." repeated Perry while he came closer and
closer, collecting courage with each step that he took. Finally he arrived be-
hind the trash can and discovered a small, green creature, with a big shell on
top of his back. It was a turtle.
"This is a smaller form of mine!" said the turtle.
"Don't lie," said Perry, "I know you're not a monster."
"Okay, Okay," admitted the turtle.
"So, what is your name?" asked Perry.
"Sheldon," answered the turtle.
"Well, if you don't mind... I need to go," said Perry.
"No, wait!" screamed Sheldon.
"What?" asked Perry.
"Why are you here? You don't seem the city-type of creature."
"I ran away from my home," sighed Perry. "Nothing important."
"Why did you run away?"
"My family laughed at me so hard, I couldn't take it."
"Why did they laugh at you?"
"Because of one of my ideas."
"Oh, you look like a very smart guy."
"Maybe,"
Perry sighed again.
"I need your
help," said Sheldon.
"My help for
what?" asked Perry.
"I need an
idea, my shell, it's
really heavy, what
can I do?"
"Well," said
Perry, "let me think
of it."
And so it was, Perry thought night and day about how to make Shel-
don's life easier, sketching, thinking, planning every little detail. Finally, after
a few days of work, he came with an idea. "Why won't you take off this shell
and become a lizard?" Perry suggested.
"How I never thought of it?!" wondered Sheldon as he took off his
shell. "From now on, I'm a lizard!"
Perry laughed.
"Thank you so much!" said Sheldon.
"My pleasure!" said Perry, "Well, I think I'll go now," and he continued.
"I'll meet you again someplace, good-bye!" said Sheldon with tears of
joy at his eyes.
"Goodbye," said Perry as he flew away from there. He kept flying until
he arrived at a big, green forest. He landed on one of the trees, hearing all
the beautiful sounds of nature - the songs of the birds, the howls of the foxes.
He was also glad to see the green color unlike the grey color of the city. Eve-
rything was much more peaceful in the forest. The sun shined up in the sky,
making the air warm and nice.
"The forest is sure better," said Perry, feeling the air stroking his color-
ful, red wings. Finally he landed on one of the tree tops, slowly jumping
down to the ground. He looked around him, green-and-brown trees were
everywhere, from the ground you couldn't see the sky, but you could feel the
sun. Perry stopped to rest on a leaf, relaxing his stressed muscles. The voices
of laughs didn't leave his mind yet. He sat and pondered.
He looked up,
searching for a solu-
tion how to make his
family believe in him
and their voices echo
in his head. He didn't
notice that his eyes fol-
lowed after a mysteri-
ous wing flight - big
blue wings. He was
hypnotized by those
big blue wings; he couldn't keep his eyes off them. "What is this creature?"
he asked himself, and kept looking at those amazing wings. Finally he de-
cided to ask the creature himself.
"Excuse me," he said. But the crea-
ture didn't answer. "Excuse me," repeated
Perry, a little louder.
"Oh, me?" asked a small, female
voice.
"Yes, may you come here?" he
asked.
"Oh, sure," answered the creature
before flying down to the ground, as it
came closer, Perry could clearly see it was a butterfly, a female butterfly.
"I just wanted to look at your beautiful wings," said Perry.
"Beautiful?" asked the butterfly.
"Of course!" said Perry.
"They're not that beautiful," mumbled the butterfly.
"They are!" jumped Perry. "By the way, what's your name?"
"Betty," said the butterfly, "and yours?"
"I'm Perry," he said and smiled.
"My... my wings aren't so beautiful," said Betty.
"They are!" repeated Perry.
"Well, I don't like them."
An idea popped on Perry's mind, "I'll make you love those wings!" he
said with confidence. So he flew onto a high branch and started to design
and draw, one idea, two ideas, three, four - a flow of ideas came to him. He
was inspired by the red and yellow sun, by the green trees, by the voices of
the forest. After a few hours of drawing and painting, he finally had the final
design. Then he turned to find the right materials: colors, brushed; every-
thing he could find in nature. After a few hours of searching all the materials
were there.
"Close your eyes," he said to Betty while he started to paint her wings.
"Okay," said Betty and closed her eyes. Line after line, dot after dot,
and finally Perry finished painting her wings.
"Take a look," said Perry.
Betty looked at her wings and almost couldn't breathe. They looked
beautiful.
"Well?" asked Perry.
"They look wonderful!" said Betty, a big smile on her face.
"I thought you'll like it," said Perry.
"How could I thank you?"
"No need," said Perry, "but I
have to leave now."
"Bye," said Betty.
"Goodbye," said Perry and he
flew away from there, leaving the
beautiful, happy butterfly and the
green, magical forest behind him.
The next morning he noticed
a wave of smoke coming from
somewhere close to the mountains.
He flew there and saw a village. It
was not as quiet as the forest, but not as loud as the city. It was somewhere
in between. There were a few small houses with red roof tops and small di-
visions of grass. Perry could smell and feel the unity of the village people,
small children playing with each other, grown-ups talking about the hard
day of work that was waiting just for them. Perry could smell the cup of cof-
fee that everyone drinks in the morning, and the smell of hard work's sweat.
All the village people seemed so peaceful and happy, smiling and talking
with each other.
Suddenly he heard a wail be-
hind one of the houses. He flew there
fast to find the source of the wail. He
saw a big, skinny dog, sitting on the
floor. The dog wailed in pain.
"What happened?" asked Perry.
"Go!" the dog barked at him.
"I'm just trying to help," said
Perry.
"Oh, excuse me, I'm just a little hungry," said the dog.
"What's your name?" asked Perry.
"I'm Dag, and you?"
"Perry," he said.
"Again, excuse me," said Dag.
"That's okay," relaxed Perry, "are you looking for food?"
"Yes, I haven't ate for days," cried Dag.
"Did you try to take food from the humans?"
"I tried to steal some food but I got caught."
"I meant, did you try to be nice and ask for some food?"
"No," hesitated Dag.
"Then try that."
Dag went to a group of humans. He was as scared as them, but finally
one boy decided to stroke him, and Dag babbled with his tail. "Oh, he's so
cute!" said another girl, and soon he was surrounded by many children. Af-
ter lots of strokes one kid gave him a piece of meat.
"Eat it", he said. Dag ate the meat and a big smile arrived on his face.
Soon he got another piece of meat, and another one, and one more, and so
on.
"How could I ever
thank you?" asked Dag.
"Don't thank me," said
Perry, "just keep being nice."
"You have great ideas!"
smiled Dag.
"Thank you," com-
mented Perry. "Well now, I'll
have to go."
"Goodbye," cried Dag.
"Goodbye," said Perry, pondering, and he flew away from there.
Perry's thought about the last weeks, and from the moment he left un-
til then, he couldn't miss the message that someone was trying to tell him. He
should trust himself and not listen to what other people say. He also understood
that sometimes, as the idea is much more unique it's also better, and he was
ready to show his family he was right all along. He decided to come back
home and execute his idea.
After a long
flight home, he
could see his house,
exactly the same
way he designed it,
with little windows
and a big door. The
rooftop was blue,
and there were
flowers in the back
of the house. He
landed on the grass
in front of the house.
"Perry!" screamed Mrs. Parrot loudly. The whole family gathered up at
the door, everyone was there - Mr. Parrot, Mrs. Parrot, Jim and Ben. "Where
have you been?" asked Mr. Parrot.
"I'll tell you later," said Perry.
Mrs. Parrot hugged him with a big warm hug. Ben and Jim smiled as
they came closer to their brother. All the family started to sing for Perry, as
they were very happy. Between the songs the family heard those familiar
voices, the stretch of backs, the wails, and everything came back to them.
Perry looked at the other family members, who were frightened. Jim started
to shake, while Mr. Parrot hugged Mrs. Parrot and Ben strongly.
Quiet, a few seconds of quiet. All of a sudden, the cats jumped up from
their hiding place, threatening the family with their big sharp nails and smil-
ing, showing their big dangerous teeth. They looked hungry, as they licked
their lips. This time there weren't any doughnuts, but they seemed hungry
enough to eat chicken—or parrot actually. The cats gargled with joy, looking
at their prey.
"Fly away!" Mr. and Mrs. Parrot whispered. Everybody flew, every-
body but Perry.
"Are you crazy?!" asked Jim while he looked back at his brother. Perry
kept standing; the cats came closer and closer, smelling the prey. One cat
jumped at him, showing his scary nails.
"Stop!" screamed Perry.
The cat stopped and looked at him with shock.
"I have a deal for you," offered Perry.
"Speak, lunch," laughed the cat.
"What about a peace treaty?" asked Perry.
The response was quiet at first, and then followed by a wave of laughs.
"Peace treaty?!" laughed the big scary cat.
"At least I tried," said Perry and closed his eyes.
The cats came even closer and smelled his body. Some cats still
laughed at the idea of peace treaty. "That's what happens when you let your
food talk," giggled one of the cats; the other cats laughed after him. Perry
was thankful for each breathe he took, he was scared and frightened, he
knew no one could save him now after he took that risk.
He's eyes were closed for a few more seconds, and a few more, and a
few more. He wondered why it was taking so much time and he opened his
eyes. He saw the cats were hypnotized by some sort of flying painting. After
a few seconds of staring at it, he saw it was a butterfly.
"Betty!" he screamed, smiling. He was so happy.
One cat lost his focus on the
butterfly and turned his mouth to
Perry. He got his head closer to
Perry's body and was about to
bite it, but a big shell separated
them; the cat's teeth broke in a
horrible cracking noise.
"Sheldon!" Perry was sur-
prised.
The other cats removed
their eyes from the beautiful but-
terfly to the red Parrot and the
green turtle.
"We are doomed," cried Sheldon. The cats came closer and closer, smil-
ing with pleasure, smelling the fresh meat.
All of a sudden, they heard a frightening howl; a big scary dog came
out from behind one of the bushes.
"Dag!" Perry screamed, feeling so safe.
Dag caught one of the cats' tails, playing
with it, "Well, well," he laughed, "I can see some
food here, huh?"
All the cats gathered together, scared.
"Should I eat them?" asked Dag.
"No," said Perry.
He came closer to a black, green-eye cat.
"Are you the leader?" he questioned.
"Y... Yes," he hesitated.
"I'll offer it one more time," said Perry
clearly. "Do you want a peace treaty?"
The cat thought for a few minutes, feeling
Dag's foot on top of his tail. He was scared and
he shook his feet strongly, "Well, why not?" he
laughed, but he wasn't happy, he threw a look of scorn.
"Great then," said Perry. "Now go away and don't ever come back."
Dag removed his foot from the cat's tail, who ran away with the others,
still shaking.
"Haven't you taken off the shell?" asked Perry.
"I couldn't leave it," said Sheldon, "family property."
"Thank you so much!" said Perry.
"No problem," said Sheldon, "you helped us - we helped you."
"Well," sighed Betty, "see you some day."
"Goodbye," said Perry with joy, but he also was sad to leave his new
friends.
Betty flew away, Sheldon went to the city and Dag left back to the vil-
lage. Perry knew he will never forget them. After that, the family's life be-
came normal once again. They all took care of the house, like they always
did. They never had a
doubt about Perry's ideas
once more. Sometimes
Perry flew to visit Sheldon,
Betty and Dag, which were
his new friends. And they
all lived happily ever after.
The End
By: Dor Kleinfeld
One normal day, in a small village a kid named Will was woken up by
his mother. Except it was not a normal day because Will's mother woke him
up so he would go to school, and it was not just any day at school, it was the
first day of first grade. Will unwillingly woke up and grunted, "I don’t want
to go to school! I am tired and I want to stay at home and play!"
"But you knew
for over a year now
that you will go to
school this year and
you know that every-
one has to go to
school." His mother
said.
Will got up, got
dressed, ate his break-
fast and finally picked
up his new backpack.
He walked to the bus
stop which was near
his house with his
mother. When the
school bus finally
came, Will said good-
bye to his mother and
complained again that
he doesn't want to go
to school and learn,
and said he will fail.
Then Will got on the
bus, with a frown on
his face.
When Will en-
tered his classroom he still had a frown on his face. He thought of the awful-
ness of having to work all day instead of playing. He thought of failing
every single quiz and test, and unfortunately for him that is exactly what
happened after the teacher introduced herself. She decided to give everyone
a quiz in which they would write whatever they could about themselves and
about every subject they would learn this year. After a few minutes, the
teacher finished going over the tests
and she gave the tests back. Even
though she said they only represent
what they know now and that they
would learn more at school, many
students were unhappy with their
grades. Between them was Will, who
failed miserably. How was he sup-
posed to know? He didn't even
know all of the letters! After the test,
Will passed the rest of the day's in-
troductory lessons sad and he
waited for the end of the day. School
was as bad as he thought it would
be.
A week already passed since the first day of school, and during that
week Will didn't have fun at all. During that week he didn't make any new
friends and didn't listen to what he was taught. One day, the bus was late so
Will had to wait after school. The teacher invited Will to talk until the bus
came. She told Will she noticed he wasn't willing to learn and she asked him
why he wasn't willing to learn.
"I just don't want to learn when I
know I can play at home instead." Will
complained.
"But you know that everyone has to
learn." The teacher said.
"I know but I can't, I just can't
understand what we learn!" he whined.
"Don't worry, you don't have to know
everything instantly, but first you need to
agree to learn." She said.
"You know what? I have an idea.
How about I give you this pen, maybe it
will help you learn? It helped me when I
was your age and it helped other students."
And the teacher took out a beautiful black
pen with silver lines that somehow re-
minded Will of a smiling mouth.
When Will held the pen it felt heavier than it looked and somehow he
felt better while holding it. "Thank you!" Will said, "I already feel better!"
And Will got on the bus with his new pen, happy for the first time since he
started learning at school.
The next day Will went to school with his new pen. He was happy to
go to school for the first time in his life. When they started learning, Will
used his new pen, and surprisingly he didn't only understand what he
learned, he knew what the teacher taught before the teacher even spoke! He
answered every question on the work sheets he got and finished them before
everyone else. Later that day, the teacher gave everyone a quiz, which Will
finished first and all of his answers were completely correct.
For the first time in over a week, Will actually knew the answers to the
questions he was asked. Because Will finished the test, his teacher let him
wait in the hallway. Will was bored, so he decided to take apart his pen, just
out of curiosity to see how it worked. He started pulling the pen from both
sides to break it open, but with no success. He tried to twist it, to see if it
screws open, but again with no success. The beautiful black pen just did not
open. Finally he tried hitting it on the wall and heard some grunts from the
pen that sounded like someone said, "Stop it, stop it!"
Will stopped hitting the pen and checked where the sounds came
from. When he found nothing, he tried hitting it on the wall again. Again the
moment the pen hit the wall he heard, this time definitely from the pen,
"Stop hitting me on the wall!"
Will turned the pen around and saw the silver lines on it moving. He
heard, "Yes, I am a talking but don't worry, I am also the one who helped
you learn today."
"Am I crazy or is this pen talking?" muttered Will.
”Yes I am a talking pen" the pen answered, "I am the all-knowing pen
and it is my job to teach kids how to learn. I know it's hard for you to under-
stand, but I need to help you be as good in school without me."
Will thought for a while and said, "I don't know if I am crazy, but I just
know keeping you is a good idea."
For the next few months of school Will had exceptionally good grades.
His pen helped him learn, but whenever he held the pen he could know al-
most anything he wanted. He knew which kids to befriend and how to run
in physical education class to outrun everyone. He was simply the most suc-
cessful kid in his class. All was good until one day when the teacher told the
class they would have a test that would be a big part of their mid-year report
card grades. Will wanted to take out his pen to consult him about the test.
But, he couldn't find it! He panicked and almost screamed, but then remem-
bered that he needed to keep the pen's secret because if he didn't, others
might get jealous. He decided that
he might have left it at home and
that he should look at it when he
gets home.
When Will got home he
couldn't find it. Now he really
panicked. He asked his parents if
they saw it and looked all over his
room and he didn't find it any-
where.
He spent the next month un-
til his test searching for his pen, at
studying for the test but more
than both he panicked. Finally by
the day of the test he was com-
pletely demoralized. He was sure he will fail the test. When the teacher gave
out the tests he almost screamed in despair. The minutes it took him to finish
the test were the worst in his life. He answered the questions as well as he
could, but he wasn't sure if his answers were correct without the pen to
guide him. The days he waited to get his test graded were the second worst
time in his life.
It took his teacher one week to check all of the tests. Will was once
again sad about going to school. He waited all day for the teacher to give out
the tests. When she finally called him to take his test she smiled at him. He
did not know why she smiled at him until he took his test and saw a big A
written on it. And was he dreaming? No, he really saw his beloved pen con-
nected to the test! He asked permission to go to the bathroom, and when he
got there he spoke to the pen.
"Where were you? I almost failed without you!" he told the pen
angrily.
"I am sorry but I needed to test you, to see if you could learn without
me. And obviously because of your grade you are ready." The pen replied.
"But I panicked and nearly failed!" said Will.
"But you didn't fail even under these tough circumstances, which
proves my point even better." The pen retorted.
"Okay, I guess you are right. I really can't have you with me forever."
Will admitted.
"Good, then now is a
good time to tell you that I
will need to leave you and
help another kid instead." The
pen said.
"Well I guess I have to
let you go. Maybe we will
meet again, or maybe I will be
the next Einstein thanks to
you." Will happily said.
"Oh, I remember
Einstein. He didn't think his
future was bright before I
helped him," the pen said.
They both laughed knowing
that it is the last time they will
be able to laugh with
each other.
A few more
months passed and it
was the best part of the
year again – the end of
the school year. Will con-
tinued to be the best stu-
dent in his class since the
pen had to leave him. By
now he had lots of
friends and lived out of
school better. It was al-
ready the last lesson and
in it they talked with the
teacher about what they
will do next year. Every-
one was at the edge of
their seats, waiting for
that final bell ring. But
Will thought what he
will do next year. He thought about how fun it will be to learn new things
and how helpful it will be. He thought of what new friends he will have and
what new things he will do. But then as the bell rang and everyone left the
classroom Will thought that in any future years when the teacher will ask
what they did in previous years, he will always have one answer. He learned
how to learn thanks to a certain black pen with silver lines.
The End
By: Roee Ben Amara
Once upon a time, there was a mean jumping-ball machine named
Mean. Mean always tried to tease the balls, but because the jumping-balls
were much smarter, they never listened to him.
The leader of the jumping-balls, Gwizzle, always tried to figure how to
escape from Mean prison and go free. Gwizzle had a son, named Nemo.
Nemo was the cutest, smartest, biggest, and most more colorful of all, not
because he tried to be like that, but because of Gwizzle. His father always
taught him to be nice and kind to others. Because of that, he was the most
beautiful jumping-ball, from the outside, but also from the inside.
Mean's home was in the big shopping center called, "Shop in the City."
Every time that a human watched Mean and the jumping-ball tribe, they had
to pretend they couldn't move and talk. This was because if the humans
knew it, the humans will operate on them, cut them up, and so on. Because
of that, Mean and the jumping-balls slept during the days, and woke up at
night.
One night, when it was almost sunrise, Gwizzle couldn't sleep. This
was because a great plan about how to get rid of Mean came to his head. The
plan was to keep Mean busy, so one or a few jumping-balls could try to es-
cape, then find a plan to free them all.
The next night was very exciting. A bunch
of Jumping-balls, called "The Specials," had a
meeting where they made important decisions.
They agreed that only one jumping-ball will es-
cape, because this way Mean wouldn’t notice.
If a group of jumping-balls escaped, Mean
would surely notice and chase them. They also
decided that the escaping jumping-ball will be
Nemo, the son of Gwizzle, because he was the
bravest, smartest, and fastest jumping-ball out there.
When they told the tribe, every one wanted to applaud, but they kept
silent, because they didn’t want to keeps Mean's attention.
After one week, the day to make the plan work had come. Everyone
was so nervous that they barely talked. The time had come. Everyone went
to the other side of the machine, where Mean could see them, and started to
fight. When Mean laughed at them, Nemo snuck out of the machine, and
started to run away. The problem was that Nemo's path walked through an
area that drew Mean's attention.
When Nemo almost succeeded to escape, Mean noticed him. "Hey!
Come back here if you don’t want your friends to be hurt!" Mean shouted.
Nemo knew that Mean won’t try to hurt the jumping balls, because then he
would have to catch another tribe of jumping-balls, or gums, which is
known as a hard mission. Mean turn around to tried to run after Nemo.
"COME HERE, YOU LITTLE USELLES JUMPING-BALL!" he screamed. But
Nemo ignored him. Mean started to chase Nemo, but Nemo already escaped
at the next intersection, and he hid there, between the flowers. When Mean
reached the intersection, he giggled out-load "Come out, come out where
ever you are, you little annoying toy!"
Suddenly, a thin pink line started to rise from the ground and got
bigger and bigger, until an orange appeared, followed by a clear blue sky.
"Oh no, the sunrise! I'll have to catch that little creature later<"
Nemo turn around to
relax, but instead, a dragon
head looked into his eyes.
Nemo almost fainted. "Heya,
buddy," the dragon said.
Nemo noticed now that the
dragon was only a head, and
on a white background.
Nemo wanted to say,
"Who are you?" But instead he
said, "What are you?"
The dragon head laughed, and said, "I'm Taghiare, the sticker."
Nemo relaxed. I just got away from that machine," Nemo said. "He always
annoys us, and teases us so we get angry at him,‛ he said.
"Don't worry friend, I'll help you find a way to get rid of Mean," and
Taghiare relaxed him.
"The problem is that this is what I am supposed to do, but I don't
have a plan," Nemo admitted.
"Shhhhhh! Here comes a human! Be quiet!" Taghiare whispered. The
human past by, and Nemo and his new friend restarted their conversation.
‚How can we do it?"
‚I think I have an idea, but I'm not sure if will it work."
‚Ok, let's hear it".
”Fine. First, we need to go get a friend if mine, named Tayra."
Taghiare whispered, "She's on the other side of the shopping center."
”Why, do you need something?" Nemo asked
‚Eh< kind of<‛
So Nemo and his new friend walked their way to the place where
Tayra lives, from one hideout to another, running and crawling, walking and
jumping. The days came and passed like a butterfly. Because the jumping-
ball and the sticker were very little, they needed days and days to reach their
destination.
Finally Nemo and
Taghiare reached Tayra home.
It was near the field, so there
was a beautiful view, (that be-
longed to an old farmer and
his daughters, who convinced
him to fill the field with wild
and rare flowers). Tayra was a
good-looking jumping ball machine, with shades of pale-blue and blue, as
opposed to Mean (who was red and black). She lived in peace with her
tribe.
"Hey Tayra!" Taghiare shouted so Tayra could hear him.
"Who said that?" Tayra asked.
"It's me, Taghiare! I'm down here!" he replied.
"Oh, Taghiare! I haven’t seen you for a long time! What's up?" she
whispered, because a human almost heard Taghiare's shout.
‚Listen, can we go inside? We didn't have a good morning’s sleep
since last week. Can you wake us up later tonight?" Taghiare asked.
"Sure," she said, "But, why did you say us? You aren't alone here?"
she asked.
"My new friend, Nemo, is with me," he said.
Nemo and Taghiare climbed up to Tayra's mouth, and got inside. In-
side the machine, there where a lot of Jumping-balls, much bigger than those
that were inside Mean. The nice jumping-balls offered Nemo and Taghiare
the best food and beds, but it was too late - Nemo and Taghiare already
curled up and had gone to sleep.
After a long night of talking, Nemo and Taghiare explained the plan
to Tayra, and the moment had come. Did Tayra agree to their plan, or not?
"Sure!" she said shortly after. If some human were close to there, he
would have thought that a bomb exploded right there. Every jumping-ball
(and there were a lot) cheered and clapped.
And so our story ends. Taghiare's plan worked, Nemo and his tribe
were released, but they preferred to
live with Tayra. Tayra made Mean
think she loves him, but there was a
mistake there: Tayra did fall in love
with Mean. Mean learned how to be
friends with the jumping-balls, because
his new girlfriend Tayra had a lot of
those little devils.
The End
By: Sa’ar Matalon
Once upon a time there was a little kid named Todd. Todd was only 8
years old, but even at that age he wasn't nice to other people, including old
people. One day, Todd walked in the street, and as usual he picked on a little
child. The child screamed, "Leave me alone, Todd!"
You are always picking on me. ‚I will tell my mom! She will teach you
how to behave!"
Todd knew that the child's mother will tell his parents, and they will
ground him for the whole week. So, Todd just walked away, to his school.
A few days after that, Todd sat under the big oak tree near by his
school. Todd always hung out alone there, alone with his daydreams. Todd
looked at the sky and saw the stars and the moon. Todd looked at the sky
almost every night, so he learned all the constellation.
He saw Scorpio,
and Leo,
but Todd never noticed that the moon wasn't full.
Todd started to worry because that night he saw that the moon is only half
full, and the night after that, he saw it a little smaller.
Night after night, the moon became smaller and smaller<
When Todd saw that the moon was almost gone, he ran to his father
screaming! "The moon disappeared! The moon disappeared!"
Todd's father knew that Todd wasn't nice to others so, he told him,
"The moon disappeared because you weren't nice to people."
"But how did it affect the moon?" Todd asked.
"Every time a person isn't nice to others, the moon tries to run away
from him" his father explained.
Todd was amazed. He decided that he will change his ways! He told
his father that he will be nice to the other people from now on.
Todd's father told the whole story to Todd's mother because he didn't
want her to tell him the true. They were both happy about Todd's decision.
Todd was nice to the little child.
He showed him how to whistle
and they became best friends.
Two weeks after that, Todd sat under the oak tree. He wanted to see
his progress, but shockingly the moon still wasn't full! Todd was sad.
He went to his father again and told him that he was nice, but still the
moon wasn't full. His father told him that every month the moon gets bigger
and bigger, and then smaller and smaller.
Todd understood that his father just wanted him to be nice to other
people. He decided that being nice is the most important thing.
The End
By: Gabriela Udovich
In a little town far, far away there was a house with a garden. In this
house lived a boy. That boy had a little lot in the garden, in which he planted
daisies, roses, and tulips. But there was one flower that the boy liked the
most, and it was the most beautiful and special flower in the whole little lot -
a sunflower. Every day the boy went to the garden, watered all the flowers
and just sat there, looking at the beautiful colors and shapes of the flowers.
Every day the sunflower waited for the boy. When the boy came the
sunflower felt great. He felt like he was the most beautiful, special and won-
derful flower in the whole world. Much better than the other flowers in the
garden, that's for sure. At these happy moments of the day the sunflower
was a king. He was at the center of the boy's attention, and the boy gave him
everything he needed.
The boy never wanted to leave. He always wanted to stay and enjoy a
little bit more from the flowers. "It is wonderful to look at the amazing flow-
ers I grew," explained the boy to his mother when one day she asked
him why he likes being out side the house so much.
Every day, when
the boy left the sun-
flower was sad. He was
just a regular flower that
had to give and share
with his community
everything he had. But
one day, after the boy
went, the sunflower felt
very lonely. He wanted
to cheer himself up. ‚I’m
the best flower in the
world. The most beauti-
ful, colorful, wonderful
and amazing
flower!‛ He kept saying
to himself while sitting
in his bed. ‚All the other flowers aren’t as great as me!‛ Then, a mischievous
smile spread across his beautiful little face and he stood up. ‚I’m the most
amazing flower in the whole world in the boy’s eyes, so he treats me like a
king,‛ the flower thought as he started walking from one side of the room to
another. ‚But when he leaves I become a normal flower, just like every other
flower in this community. I have to give, and even worse, share!‛ the sun-
flower thought disgustingly. ‚But I should be treated like a king all day long!
So,‛ now the sunflower stopped, ‚The other flowers should give me, share
with me, do as I want!‛ The sunflower smiled with pleasure and wondered
how could it be that he never thought about this before. ‚Fooooh,‛ panted
the sunflower while he went to his bed and checked what time it was, ‚It’s
way past bed time, and I got so tired from all this thinking!‛ The sunflower
went to sleep, deciding that he should share this wonderful idea to all the
flowers in his community.
A knock on the door
woke up the sun-
flower. ‚Knock- knock!‛
said a happy voice outside
the door, ‚Wakey-wakey!‛
‚Oh, come on,‛ mut-
tered the sunflower, still
half asleep, ‚Who could be
awake so early?‛ He
walked to the door and
slowly opened it. He saw
his neighbor there, Donny
the daisy.
‚Good morning,
sleepy boy!‛ said Donny
happily and entered to the
sunflower’s house.
‚Hey you too,‛
mumbled the sunflower,
while rubbing his eyes.
‚Oh, your house is so untidy,‛ sighed Donny. ‚You know I have few
things to tell you about this!‛ (every time when Donny came he said some-
thing about cleaning up the sunflower’s house. He really enjoyed cleaned
houses).
‚But my house is always untidy,‛ admitted the sunflower.
‚Not like my house!‛ Bragged Donny.
‚So clean it up for me!‛ Commanded the sunflower.
‚What!?‛ said Donny, who was shocked. ‚Explain it right now!‛ he de-
manded.
‚Well,‛ explained the
sunflower. ‚The boy treats me
like a king.‚
‚Yeah, we can see that,‛
acknowledged Donny.
‚So I thought, why
shouldn’t I be treated like a
king all day long?‛ asked the
sunflower.
‚You must be kidding
me!‛ said Donny.
‚No, actually I’m not,‛
admitted the sunflower.
‚But you can’t do that!‛
argued Donny. ‚This is very
selfish, not fair and an unfriendly thing to do!‛ He exclaimed.
‚It seems very fair to me,‛ said the sunflower, and then he threw
Donny out of his house.
The next day, every flower in the garden already knew that the sun-
flower and Donny argued, but nobody knew the reason. ‚The rumor says
that you argued with Donny,‛
Rosa Rouge the journalist asked
the sunflower. ‚About what?‛ But
the sunflower didn’t answer her.
‚Mr. Sunflower?‛ Rosa tried
again.
‚I’m hurrying, don’t bother
me now!‛ said the sunflower and
walked away.
Apparently, the sunflower
didn’t have to tell Rosa what hap-
pened, she found out herself. One
of the neighbors that heard the ar-
gument told her. On the next day,
every flower in the garden read in
the newspaper what the argument
was about. Today, when the sun-
flower was sitting in his house and
drinking his cup of tea, he heard a noise outside the house. ‚Who could
make such horrible noise during tea cup hour?‛ Wondered the sunflower.
He opened the door and saw at least ten journalists.
‚Don’t you have a cup of
tea to drink now?‛ asked the
sunflower.
‚Do you really want the
whole community to serve
you?‛ Questioned one journal-
ist. Dustin Daisy was his name.
‚Oh, I understand what
makes you bother me during
the tea cup hour,‛ said the sun-
flower.
‚Well, yes.‛ he answered
to Dustin.
Silence fell on the house.
‚Then we shouldn’t talk to you
any more, if you are so un-
friendly and selfish!‛ said a journalist named Risotto Rice.
‚She is right!‛ agreed the journalist Tony Litt, and all the journalists
left.
‚At least nobody will interrupt me while I’m drinking my cup of tea!‛
Thought the sunflower. ‚Oh great,‛ he said after he tasted his tea, ‚Now it’s
cold!‛
The next day, the fourth day from the horrible argument, the sunflower
walked slowly to the center of the lot
(where he meets the boy every day),
enjoying the wonderful, warm sun
rays. ‚Oh, hey Danfort!‛ waved the
sunflower. Danfort looked shortly at
the sunflower and walked away fast.
‚I wonder what happened to
him,‛ thought the sunflower and con-
tinued walking. While he walked, all
the flowers walked as far as they can
from him. But the sunflower didn’t pay
attention to this. The sunflower arrived
to the center of the lot. ‚The boy isn’t here yet,‛ thought the sunflower, ‚Or
maybe I’m too late?‛ He hurried and asked a daisy that stood near, ‚Sorry,
could you tell me what time it is?‛
The daisy looked at the sunflower, and said with astonishment, ‛You
are the sunflower that thinks he is a king! I’m not your servant!‛ The sun-
flower didn’t understand, why did she act like this? He went home, thinking
about what just happened.
Four days later the sun-
flower felt a little bit lonely.
Nobody spoke to him these
days, everyone looked at him
angrily and walked away
when he said something to
them. The sunflower started
to get a little worried, too.
Nobody shared with him wa-
ter and food, and the sun-
flower didn’t have so much
of this.
A week later, nobody
looked at him. Everyone be-
haved like he wasn’t even there. Now, the sunflower felt very lonely. He was
very worried too. He almost finished all his water and food. Even though the
boy tried to give the sunflower everything he needed, he couldn’t give him
enough. The most important thing was that he couldn’t give the sunflower
love and care as the flowers could
give him. He couldn’t talk to him,
hug him, laugh with him.
One morning, when the sun-
flower brushed his teeth and
looked at the mirror, as always, he
accidently swallowed his tooth-
paste. ‚Look at me!‛ he said to
his reflection in the mirror, ‚I’m
not so colorful as always! My beau-
tiful bright yellow and orange col-
ors became almost white yellow
and ugly orange! This is so horri-
ble!‛ The poor sunflower looked at every detail on his little body. ‚Oh no!‛
he said, terrified. ‚My stem dried, and now it’s not as straight as always!‛
The tears dripped on his face. ‚I’m not so beautiful and perfect as I used to
be,‛ he realized. ‚Now, I’m not the most beautiful and amazing flower in
the whole world.‛
On that day, in the house, the boy talked with his mother. ‚Mommy,‛
he said, ‚now it’s Spring, so would you like to go with me to the garden and
see the most beautiful sunflower in the whole big world?‛ His mother
smiled.
‚Of course, dear. Lets go, but tomorrow, fine?‛ The boy nodded with
his head.
A day later, the sunflower walked to the center of the city, feeling very
sad. ‚If I’m not so wonderful,‛ he thought, ‚than the boy might not love me
any more!‛
‚You will see,‛ said the boy to his mother five minutes earlier, ‚My
sunflower is amazing!‛ While they walked to the little lot, the boy told his
mother how great the sunflower is. It has beautiful colors, a great green
straight stem and of course a wonderful smell.
‚Yes honey, your sun-
flower is< nice!‛ said the
mother when they arrived,
with a little smile on her face.
The boy saw the sunflower
and sat down quickly, with
big astonishment in his heart.
‚What happened to my sun-
flower?‛ he asked his mother.
‚It was a lot prettier!‛
The mother sat behind him. ‚I
think it’s sick, honey,‛ she said
gently.
‚Does it have a fever?‛ asked
the boy worriedly.
‚No, dear,‛ answered the
mother. ‚It is sad. Maybe nobody likes it.‛
The boy looked at her, surprised. ‚But I really like him! I take care of
him every day!‛ he said.
‚You are a boy, dear,‛ explained the mother. ‚The sunflower also needs
flower love! You have nothing to do about it, so now,‛ she said, while stand-
ing up, ‚Let’s go home. I made great lemonade!‛ She smiled, and thought
that she has to uproot this poor flower as soon as possible.
The sunflower, of course,
heard the whole conversation
and became even sadder than
he was. ‚What have I done?‛ He
asked himself miserably. ‚Why
do I deserve this?‛. He walked
back to his house, understand-
ing that the boy doesn’t like him
anymore and he is alone now,
more than ever. All the way
back home the sunflower tried
to find answers to only one
question: Why? Why? Why?!
‚I know!‛ said the sun-
flower loudly, a few minutes af-
ter he started walking. All the
flowers around looked at him,
wondering who he was talking to. ‚I’m not the most beautiful flower in the
whole world,‛ he thought, ‚Because I’m sad. I’m sad because I don’t have
friends.‛ He started walking around. ‚And I don’t have friend because I was
very unfriendly!‛ Now he stopped. ‚So that means that I need my friends
to be happy and beautiful! But because I was so unfriendly nobody likes
me.‛ The sunflower smiled. ‚I have to apologize in front of all my friends,
and I will start immediately!‛
The sunflower started with Donny. He came to his house and ex-
plained him, for at least half an hour that he is very sorry about what he said
and that now he understand that it was very wrong. "Would you please for-
give me?" he asked at the end. Donny didn't answer.
"Of course I forgive you!" said Donny after a while. "You are my best
friend!". They hugged each other, laughing with joy.
The sunflower came back to his house, and called Rosa Rouge. "Hey,
Rosa?'" he said on the telephone, "I need you to write in the newspaper that I
apologize."
"What?!" she asked, while bringing a pencil and a paper.
"So, write that<" said the sunflower and dictated to Rosa that he is
very sorry about what he said, and he wants all the flowers in the little lot to
forgive him.
"Finally you understand that it was very wrong to want to be our king;
to be better than us!" Rosa said from the other side of the telephone.
"You are right," agreed the sunflower, "I guess I had to feel lonely for
some time. Just then I understood that I need you, my friends!"
At the next day, when the sunflower walked to the café in the center of
the lot in the garden, still nobody talked to him. "But why?" He thought,
"The article is already in today's newspaper!".
A little tulip girl then ap-
proached the sunflower. "Mr.
sunflower?" she asked, "Did
you really mean what you said
in the newspaper?"
The sunflower smiled to
the little tulip girl and nodded
with his head. "I meant," he
said and lifted the little girl,
"That now I understand how
important it is to be friendly,
not hurt others’ feelings and
not being selfish! And now," he
asked the waiter, "Please give
this adorable little girl a nice,
tasty candy!‛ All the flowers that few minutes ago looked at the sunflower
angrily now came closer to him, with smiles on their faces.
"Thank you, Mr. Sunflower," said the little girl, licking her big candy,
"Now you are nice again!"
At that day, the sunflower understood that friendship is the most im-
portant thing in the world, more then being beautiful and wonderful and
amazing, and more then being a king. Also he understood that you have to
give and share if you want to be a good friend in your community.
The boy understood that nobody is perfect, even the most beautiful
flower in the whole world.
And the other flowers in the little lot in the garden? Well, everybody
promised that they will do everything so that this story never happened
again.
The End
By: Hagar Sahar
A long time ago, in a small
town, lived two kids, a boy and a girl
called Michael and Jenny. Michael
and Jenny were best friends. They
were neighbors, and met each other
every day. They liked to play to-
gether with their toys, watch TV, and
play outside.
Even though they were best
friends, Michael and Jenny were
very different; Jenny was very funny
and had a great sense of humor. She
loved to laugh and tell jokes. On the other hand, Michael was very logical
and serious. He never understood funny things, and never laughed.
Jenny didn't understand why Michael never laughed, and hated that he
was always so serious. She wanted him
to understand her jokes, and laugh at
them. So, one day she decided that she
will try to make Michael laugh, no mat-
ter what.
Later that week, Jenny and Michael
met at Jenny's house. Jenny was plan-
ning to tell jokes to Michael, the funni-
est jokes she knew. She was sure it will
make him understand that the world is
very funny, and very different from
what he knew.
‚Hey Michael, I have a great joke to
tell you," she started. "What is there in
hell that frightens the kids so much? At the entrance to hell there's a sign
that reads: 'Welcome back to school!'"
”What?" said Michael, who was very confused. "I didn't understand.
What's so funny about that?"
Jenny was surprised. She always thought that joke was really funny, and
she couldn't understand why Michael didn't laugh.
”What? You didn't understand it? Kids don't like school, so the joke
implies that school is like hell!"
”But school isn't like hell! School is very important, and I don't think we
should laugh about it!"
‚But it's a joke, Michael, I
don't really think school is like
hell." Jenny said. "That is the point
of jokes, they aren't serious."
" I don't like jokes." Michael
said. "I think they're stupid."
" So let's do something else,
there's a great TV show now!"
Jenny said.
She was disappointed that her
try didn't work out, but she thought that maybe a funny TV show may make
Michael laugh.
She turned on the TV and the
show started. Jenny understood
every joke the characters said and
laughed all the time, but Michael
didn't understand, and after a few
minutes he said, "I don't like this
show. Let's watch something else."
" But Michael, it's so funny!"
Jenny said, amazed.
" No, it's not funny! All of the
people in this show say and do stu-
pid things, and it's not funny at all."
Jenny was very confused, but she
didn't give up. She knew there must
be a way to make Michael laugh, she just needed to try more things, and
then she will find it.
After they watched TV, Jenny and Michael went to the park. They loved
to go to the park sometimes. The park was very big, and there were a lot of
people there. Some of them were kids like them, which came to play in the
park, and some of them were adults. But when Michael and Jenny came to
the park, it was almost empty. Most of the people were now at home, eating
lunch. But there were some little kids with their parents that were having a
picnic.
One of the little kids ate a banana and threw the peel on the ground. His
parents didn't notice that, and after a few minutes, when his father rose up
to throw away his peel, he slipped and fell. Everybody in the park laughed,
except for the father, who was angry. He told his kid that he needs to throw
away his garbage. Michael said to Jenny, "That wasn't funny! You don't need
to laugh about that! This man could have got hurt!"
" But he didn't get hurt, so it's funny." Jenny replied.
" What's so funny about watching people slip and fall?" Michael asked.
He was very confused, because everyone laughed and thought it was funny,
not just Jenny.
" It's just funny, not everything
needs a reason to be funny," Jenny
said. "Maybe now he will under-
stand," she thought.
After a few hours Michael and
Jenny went back home. Jenny was
desperate. She didn't know what to
do. She tried everything she thought
could work. She thought now that
maybe Michael will never laugh.
Maybe he just isn't able to laugh.
Michael still was very confused.
He tried now to understand what's
funny about all the things he saw. He wanted to know what you feel when
you understand something funny. He wanted to understand funny things
and laugh of them, but he just didn't know how.
When they returned to Jenny's home, Jenny's mother made them two
cups of tea. Jenny and Michael started to drink, but then they noticed – the
tea was salty!
They were both disgusted, but then Jenny
started to laugh. Michael looked at her. It was
weird she was laughing because her tea was
salty. Her mother probably put salt instead of
sugar. "Why is she laughing?" He thought.
Maybe it's because her mother got confused
and made a mistake. When you think about it,
it is funny.
And then, Michael started to laugh. "Now I
understand!" He said. "Your mother made a
mistake, and made our tea salty. It is funny,
and there isn't a logical reason for it, it's just funny."
" Finally you understand!" Jenny said and smiled. She felt relief. She
succeeded to make Michael laugh.
From this day on,
Michael was still serious
and logical, but he also de-
veloped a sense of humor.
He always laughed from
jokes, and even told jokes
sometimes. Jenny and Mi-
chael remained best
friends, and now they
were even closer, because
now Michael could under-
stand one of the most im-
portant things to Jenny –
humor.
The End
By: Yosef Raisman
One day, on a high mountain, far away from here, was a hut. In this
hut was an old woman, wearing black clothes, smiling a terrible smile, with
yellow teeth. She had blue glittering eyes and huge fingernails. She was a
witch. Down the mountain was a forest, with high trees, and a few red flow-
ers. There lived a tall and beautiful man, who was the forest guard. On one
particular day the witch from the mountain saw the forest guard for the first
time. This is where the story began.
It was a normal day in the hut. The witch made a murky potion and
her frogs seemed to jump into her cauldron. The cook book, with her recipes,
was talking to her and the old tree was yellow as always.
"Now," screeched the cook book, "add five feathers."
" O.K," she replied quickly.
"And one fir branch".
”Oh! I'm sorry," she cried, "I forgot..."
‚So go to the forest and get it!" barked the cook book.
She left the hut with a frightened facial expression, and started to go
down to the forest. After three hours she finally got to that cursed place. She
was very tired, very exhausted. "Here you are..." she mumbled, looking on a
big fir tree. She took one branch, and climbed back to the hut.
"What are you doing!" someone screamed. The witch turned back. She
saw a beautiful young man, with green eyes, and a lovely smile. She disre-
garded it and started to run to the mountain.
"I don't know," she admitted, when she got home, "it was an unusual
moment."
I know this feeling," said the cook book. "It is love."
‚Love,‛ she agreed.
A few day later she had a plan. She decided to make something that
will give her his attention. Something unusual, like dinosaur, something
amazing, something special. This "something" was the lie seed, a tree that
nobody saw before, and nobody knows what its effects are..
”I don't think that that is a good idea," whined the cook book.
"I do think that that is a good idea," interrupted the witch.
Making a lie seed is very hard effort. Without any rests and with
many many things to do, the witch was decisive, and after two months she
finished the work.
The lie seed was small and blue, with a flame engraving. The witch
liked to think about the forest guard, and to think that he will touch her
beautiful lie seed. That thought gave her the strength to go down the moun-
tain on the second time. She wanted to plant her lie seed.
The way down was boring and the lie seed was heavy because it grew
up to a giant size. "You are so heavy," complained the witch.
‚I know," it answered. The witch was dumbstruck.
‚I imagined," she thought.
She stopped near the fir tree, and dug a big pit. She sighed, put the
seed in the pit and sat on the ground. The forest guard found her sleeping,
beside an ugly tree that he never saw before. He took her to his lonely house,
in the middle of the forest.
The house was green as the trees and high as them. The forest guard
liked his house. The witch started moving in his arms. He opened the house
door, and moved inside. A telescope was on the cupboard, watching outside.
A bird model slept beside it. The forest guard laid the witch on an ancient
sofa.
Where am I?" asked the witch when she woke up. "And who are
you?"
‚Oh, I'm Eldon, the forest guard, and you are in my home."
‚You have a nice home.
"I know, I like it to," Eldon agreed.
They talked for a long time, and Eldon felt that the witch is very nice,
and kind. She looked ugly, but he could see what was behind this mask. Af-
ter they finished with the talking, Eldon carried the witch back her hut.
Smiling to himself, he returned to his house.
But that is not the end of the story. The lie seed, that became an ugly
tree with complicated branches, started to do some unpleasant things.
‚Disaster!" howled the cook book, "Look what you have done!"
‚I haven't done anything!" lied the witch.
‚You are telling lies!" Reviled the book.
When she met the forest guard, two hours after this argument, she was
uneasy and excited. It was on a hill near the fir tree, near the lie tree. The for-
est guard was funny and polite as always, but he couldn't start talking. He
tried many subjects: Magic, Cooking, Clothing<
‚Look!" He said pointing to the close hill, "A new tree grew up there."
‚I know..." mumbled the
witch.
”I love trees, but I don't
know which tree it is," said El-
don. "Do you know?"
"No."
" I saw you planting it!
You should know!" snarled El-
don.
She disregarded and
started to run to the mountain,
just like on their first meeting.
When she got home she went to
her room, and started to cry.
"What have I done!" Sang the
witch.
‚I think you should go to
him," barked the cook book.
‚I don't need your recom-
mendations!" Sobbed the witch.
‚You gotta make some-
thing that will stop the lie!“
”I know," she agreed.
It was a long night for the old woman. She couldn't sleep, and all the
night she thought about the ugly tree and about all the events from the be-
ginning. She woke early in the morning and went to Eldon's home. She
waited until he woke up, and then she told him about all the events.
"I love you," he said, after she finished her story, "But we need to stop
this disaster".
They sat in his home until a very late hour. At
the end they had an organized plan. "It is go-
ing to be hard", said Eldon, "but we should
make it." He went to the cupboard and
watched the lie tree through the telescope.
"I'll meet you tomorrow," he said, "bring your
cook book."
During the night the witch slept. In the
morning, she took the book and ran down to
Eldon's house.
‚Making a true seed is not as difficult as making a lie seed," said the
cook book. It was the first time he saw the forest guard. He thought that El-
don is a really beautiful man. "You just need to believe."
Eldon and the witch looked at each-other's eyes. Explosion! A yellow
seed was on the table. The witch smiled and her old skin fell. Her teeth be-
came white. Eldon smiled to. It was the seed of love, the seed of trust, the
seed of truth.
Eldon and Gvanian, the witch's real name, got married in a huge en-
chanted wedding ceremony, wearing white, shining clothes. The cook book,
nervous as always, and the new happy couple lived happily ever after, with
an unusual level of honesty and an unusual love.
The End
By: Shira Labin
In a little town, somewhere on the planet, lived a girl named Jane. Jane
was ten years old and learned in the elementary school in the town. One
day in June, Jane's teacher told the class about school's traditional talent
show. ‚Each student can take part in the show. You can sing, dance or do
anything!‛
The students were so excited that the teacher had to knock on the table
with her pan, so the class will be quiet.
‚Remember,‛ said the teacher, ‚You have two weeks until the show!
All the students that want to join must write their names on this list by the
end of the week!"
The lesson ended and they all
went home, excited and happy.
Only Jane was quiet.
‚What happened?‛ asked Lilli,
Jane's best friend.
‚Oh, nothing,‛ replied Jane. ‚I’m
thinking about the show.‛
‚You will be great!‛ said Lilli.
‚You are the best dancer in
class!‛
‚I don’t know,‛ sighed Jane. ‚I’m
too scared to perform.‛
‚Scared?!‛ wondered Lilli.
‚You have to go to your grandmother! She will help you!‛
‚Great idea!‛ agreed Jane. ‚I’ll visit her today!‛
In the afternoon, Jane went to
her grandmother's house. Molly,
Jane's grandmother was knit-
ting gloves when Jane arrived.
‚Hello dear!‛ said Molly.
‚Hello Molly!‛ replied Jane.
‚I’m so happy your here because I
need your advice.‛
‚Come and sit next to me and
Ill try to help you,‛ promised Molly.
Jane sat down on the brown sofa
and told Molly about the talent
show.
‚I need to decide by the end of the week and I don't know what to
do!‛said Jane.
‚I think I have the solution for your problem,‛ hissed Molly.
‚Really?‛ wondered Jane. ‚What is it?‛
Molly stood and went to her bedroom. After a few moments, she came
back with a fine jewelry box, made of wood with flower pattern on it. She
sat down and took out from the box a lovely heart shaped medallion.
‚I got this medallion from my mother. She was an actor and when she
retired she gave me this medallion.‛
‚What so special
about it?‛ inquired Jane.
Molly smiled. ‚My
mother said that the necklace
can help you to contend with
your fears. She was right.
When I lectured in front of a
big audience, the necklace
helped me.‛
Jane looked at the trans-
pert medallion.
"Unbelievable," she whis-
pered.
‚Take it until the show,‛ offered Molly. ‚I’m sure that it will help you.‛
‚Thank you very much!‛ said Jane. ‚I’ll take good care of it!‛
She put on the medallion and went home to practice her dance.
On the next day, Jane showed the medallion to Lilli and told her its
story. The medallion amazed Lilli. During the history lesson, the teacher
gave an oral exam.
‚I’ll ask one student and he will answer in front of the class,‛ ex-
plained the teacher.
She asked all the students and then it was Jane's turn.
‚What if I make a mistake?‛ she asked herself. ‚They will all laugh at
me.‛ Jane held the necklace. ‚With the necklace I can do it!‛ When she
said it, something strange happened. The necklace started glowing. ‚It
is awesome!‛ Jane thought to herself. ‚Molly was right!‛ She quickly an-
swered the question and started thinking about the special necklace. After
she discovered that about the necklace, Jane was sure that she will perform
in the show. She wrote her name on the list and went home, thinking about
the show.
Time passed, and Jane
woke up on the morning of
the show. All the students
came to the main hall to or-
ganize the show. The stu-
dents were very busy,
they did the final rehearsal
and everything was
great. During lunchtime,
Jane sat next to Lilli and told
her about her dance.
‚I’m sure you will be
great!‛ promised Lilli.
‚I hope so...‛ replied Jane. She put her hand in the pocket, looking
for the necklace when...
‚The necklace!‛ screamed Jane, ‚I can't find it!‛
‚Are you sure that it isn't in your pocket?‛ asked Lilli, trying to calm
Jane down.
‚I’m sure!" sobbed Jane, "We have to find it before the show starts!‛
All the students helped Jane to look for her necklace.
It was an hour before the
show when they all gave up
and returned to the prepa-
rations. ‚I can't perform
without this necklace!‛
whined Jane to her teacher.
‚But what about your par-
ents? They came to see
you!‛ replied the teacher.
‚And Molly too,‛ mumbled
Jane. ‚I
can't disappoint her!‛
‚I told you,‛ said the
teacher, ‚You have to per-
form!‛
‚I’ll do it!‛ declared Jane, and she ran to get ready.
The show was very successful and all the performers were great.
Jane was the star of the
show. She danced like
a little fairy and her eyes
were glowing from happi-
ness. When the show ended
Jane came to Molly, ‚I have
to tell her about the neck-
lace,‛ she muttered to her-
self.
‚Dear Jane! Your dance was
amazing!‛ said Molly and
hugged Jane.
‚Thank you Molly,‛ replied
Jane, ‚But I have to tell you
something important.‛
‚I'm listening, ‚said Molly calmly.
‚It about the necklace....‛
‚You don't need to tell
me,‛ interrupted Molly. ‚Your
teacher told me that you lost
it, but it doesn't matter! When
you danced, you were glow-
ing without the neck-
lace! When you are sure about
what you are doing and have
self confidence you are glow-
ing, and everybody can see
it!‛
‚So... you are not an-
gry?‛ Jane wondered.
‚Of course Not!‛ an-
swered Molly. ‚And look
what I found under my
chair!‛
It was the necklace, transparent and glowing.
‚I’m so happy to see it!‛ said Jane. ‚But I don't need it anymore. I can
glow without it!‛
The End
By: Tidhar Shosrad
One day, like every day, Ben
walked from his school to his house,
the same way he went every day. Sud-
denly he felt something in his leg, and
this something went up until he
reached his neck. Ben saw that this
something is a little animal, a mouse,
and the mouse said, "Please don't hurt
me! If you don't hurt me I will help
you to help other people and make
you feel better with yourself."
And Ben said, "Hey, you can talk, are you a magical mouse or some-
thing?"
"Yes, and I help people, I can to do magic. Do you want to transfer me
to help people?"
"Of course, I love to help people." And then it all began...
They continued to go and on the way they saw a little cat stuck on one
tree. Ben said, "Oh look the little cat, he
is stuck on the tree and can't get down,.
Can you help him?"
"Yapp," said the mouse and the cat
got down. It seem like ropes got him
down.
‚Thank you that you got the cat
down," said Ben and he felt better.
The next day, Ben saw in the news-
paper that five people robbed a bank.
Ben said to his mouse, "Hey, you are a
magical mouse, lets go and stop the rob-
bers!" and they went to stop them.
At first they went to the scene of
the crime, to the bank that just yesterday was robbed. They went around the
bank, searching for a hint, but they didn't find anything. "Hey, I think
they are near the port, I can feel it" said the mouse and they went to the port
to catch the robbers.
They came to the port, and Ben saw a suspicious ship. They checked
the ship and heard a conversation.
‚We did it! We robbed the bank, let's escape from here. Come on peo-
ple, we must to hurry, let's go! Everybody to
the ship! Come on!"
And then every one of the robbers went
up to the ship, and Ben followed them and
went up to the ship too, but he hid from
them. The ship almost went away, but then
one of the robbers noticed Ben.
He said, "Hey, look here! There’s a little
kid here!" And then all the robbers noticed
Ben and came to him.
Hey kid, what are you doing here?"
asked one of the robbers.
I heard you and I know that you robbed the bank and I'll stop you!"
answered Ben.
‚You are so wrong, come on guys, tie him!‛ And all the robbers came
and tied him, and put him in the prisoner’s room.
~~~ In the Prisoners Room~~~
‚What a stupid person I was, why did I
come here at all?‛ Ben said. Suddenly, Ben heard
something move, and he said, ‚Who is this?‛
‚I am the magical mouse, you already forgot
me?‛ said the mouse.
”You don't know how happy I am that you
are here,‛ sighed Ben. And then the mouse re-
leased Ben from his tie. The mouse moved him
and Ben to the police station. There Ben told the
police all he knew and the police came and stopped all the robbers.
~~After Two Days, Ben Talking to his Mouse ~~~ ‚Hey mouse, why do you look like that? It seems like you're gone.‛
”You don't need me anymore, I did what I needed to do. You are now
a better man and you are helping to the community. Now I need to help an-
other person and I must go,‛ said the mouse and he was gone. So, Ben was
left alone and continued helping the community.
The End
By: Inon Starovieschic
Once upon a time there was
a small town called Springfield. In
the town there was a small house.
In the small house there was a
small family. Mom, Dad, and a
small boy called Gary lived there.
He had many toys with names
Tracy the Tractor, Cary the Car,
Dolly the Doll, and Beary the Bear.
They were very good friends until
one day something happened.
Beary was eating at Dolly's house when he shouted, "I don’t like your
food."
”I'm sorry," cried
Dolly.
"I don’t want to
be your friend if that
is your food," Beary
bellowed and left
Dolly's house.
Dolly didn’t know
what to do. She was
terrified from that incident and decided, along with the other toys, to ignore
Beary. And so every time that Beary talked to them they went away from
him. After three times he thought, "Why did this happen?" But he under-
stood why – it was because he wasn't nice to all the toys. So he wanted to be
nice again.
Beary decided
to help Cary to clean
her house. He made
a big dinner for all
the toys. After a few
days he asked Cary,
"Can I play with
you?"
Cary an-
swered, "Yes, but
only if you will be nice."
"I'll be nice," Beary
said. They played for a
long time until Beary
needed to go home. And
they played also in the
day after and after and
after.
On the fourth day,
Cary talked with Dolly
and Tracy and they agreed that they can play with Beary again. And the
toys were happy that Beary was nice and they could play with him again.
And all was back to normal until one day< But that is another story...
The End
By: Batel Mankovsky
Bill is ten years old and he lives in a little town, with his mother, father
and grandmother. His best friend is Oliver, and they live very near to each
other. They play together, study together, and do almost every thing to-
gether.
The story began on a very cold day of January, while Bill and Oliver
were talking in the play garden near their school.
“We’ve got so much homework to do for tomorrow, I don’t know if I
can do it all,‛ sighed Bill.
“Yea,‛ agreed Oliver, ‚And I still need to finish the work about the
dinosaurs<wait a minute! I forgot the book about the dinosaurs in class.‛
“Well, go and take it, I don’t think they already closed the gates,‛
suggested Bill. Oliver nodded, and hurried to the school, leaving his bag
near Bill.
Bill sat on the ground, waiting for Oliver. He opened Oliver’s bag and
searched for his English notebook that he gave Oliver earlier that day. He
found the notebook and was about to close the bag when he saw a little note
in the bottom of the bag. He took the note and opened it. The note was wrin-
kled, but the words were still visible. “Don’t tell Bill about that, ok?”
‚Tell me about what?‛ wondered Bill. ‚Is there something he is hiding
from me?‛ And then he remembered that he saw a couple of his friends
talking quietly, and when he came closer they immediately stopped and
looked at him with a strange expression. He didn’t know what that was all
about, but he started to get angry. He looked up and saw Oliver walking to-
ward him, holding his book.
‚Thanks for waiting<why
did you open my bag?‛ Oliver
asked, looking at his bag that
Bill forgot to close.
‚I wanted to take my Eng-
lish notebook, but when I
searched I found this,‛ accused
Bill, showing the note with an
angry look on his face.
Oliver looked confused.
After a moment he said, ‚Why
did you take it?‛
‚Because I saw it!‛ said
Bill, almost yelling. ‚What is the
meaning of that?‛
‚I<I can’t tell you<‛ muttered Oliver.
‚Why not?‛ demanded Bill to know. ‚Are you hiding something from
me?‛
‚No, no<really, it’s not important!‛ replied Oliver.
‚So why can’t you tell me?‛ questioned Bill. But Oliver didn’t say a
word.
“Fine! Don’t tell me!‛ shouted Bill. He took his bag and ran from the
play ground before Oliver could say another word.
Bill was angry. He couldn’t believe that Oliver would hide something
important from him. They were, after all, best friends. He walked to a little
grove near his home, because he did-
n’t want to go home yet. He walked
quietly on the path when he saw a
little hut between two trees. He
stopped. It wasn’t there before. The
hut was small, with one little win-
dow. There was no sign that some-
one lived there.
Bill was curious. He knew it
could be dangerous, but he took a
deep breath and entered the hut. It
was pretty dark there, and very
dusty. The only thing that was there
was a small table. Expect for this, it was empty. When he came closer to the
table, he saw a big envelope there. He took it and peered inside, but there
was nothing inside. Suddenly, the door of the hut opened and a man came
in. Bill almost yelled. He was startled.
‚Don’t be afraid boy, I won’t do anything to you,‛ said the man
calmly.
Bill looked at him. He was an old man, and he was smiling at him.
‚I see you found this envelope. Do you know what it does?‛ asked the
strange man.
‚What can an envelope do?‛ wondered Bill, but he answered, ‚No,
sir.‛
‚Ah, this is a very special envelope. You see, if you’ll write some re-
quest on a piece of paper and place it into the envelope, that request will be
realized,‛ the man told him.
Bill almost laughed. Did the man
expect him to believe to that? But the
man looked serious. ‚I know it’s hard to
believe, but I’m not joking with you,‛
said the man, looking directly at Bill’s
eyes. Bill didn’t know whether to believe
the man or not.
‚So<what you’re saying is that I
can write anything I want and it will
come true?‛ asked Bill suspiciously.
‚No, not exactly,‛ replied the man,
with a little smile. ‚Only if you ask for a favor for a friend, and not for your-
self, it will work.‛
”So I can’t ask something for myself? Why?‛ wondered Bill aloud.
”Oh, I don’t know why<but this is how it’s works,‛ said the man,
looking a bit amused.
”But I don’t have anything to write!‛ said Bill, more to himself than to
the man. He thought about Oliver and the argument they had earlier. Why
would he do something good for Oliver after today?
‚Well, that is your choice,‛ sighed the man, and without warning he
left the hut.
‚Wait!‛ shouted Bill as he ran after him, but when he opened the door,
he didn’t see him. The man was gone.
Bill was angry. Angry because of Oliver and because he was confused.
But then he looked at his watch and saw the hour. It was late and his parents
may be worried. So he took a last glance at the hut and left, leaving the enve-
lope behind.
For the next two days Bill didn’t talk with Oliver at all. They sat near
each other in class, but talked just with other pupils. On the third and the
fourth day Oliver didn’t come to school, so it was easier for Bill.
The fourth day after their quarrel was Bill’s birthday. His mother sent
him to buy a cake while she was making dinner, and they planned to cele-
brate Bill’s birthday with a magnificent dinner. When he opened the door he
couldn’t see anything because the room was dark. He wondered why his
parents turned off the lights when suddenly the lights turned on.
‚Surprise!!!‛
The room was full of people. He recognized his class mates, and his
parents and grandparents. And they all were singing ‚happy birthday to
Bill, birthday to Bill<‛
Bill smiled. And then he suddenly
thought, ‚What if that was the thing that
Oliver didn’t want to tell me? Probably it
was< I need to apologize!‛
He went searching for Oliver among
the celebrators, but didn’t find him.
‚Where’s Oliver?‛ he asked Michael, his
friend.
‚His mother fell ill, didn’t he tell
you?‛ Michael wondered.
‚What? No!‛ cried Bill. ‚Yeah<and
now he and his family are in the hospital
with her. He wanted to be here but he couldn’t,‛ Michael informed him.
Bill felt horrible, but he knew what he
needed to do. After all the guests left he told
his mother that he is going to take a walk. He
ran to the hut, hoping the envelope was still
there. It was, exactly in the place he left it. He
took a piece of paper and a pencil, and wrote
quickly, ‚I wish Oliver’s mother will recover
soon.‛
He took the paper and put it into the
envelope. He still wasn’t sure if it will help,
but he had a feeling it would. He left the en-
velope there and ran back to his home.
The next day Oliver came to school. Bill
talked with him, apologized to him and they made peace with each other.
Oliver told Bill that his mother was about to
recover quickly.
‚It seems that the man knew what he
was talking about,‛ thought Bill. The next
time Bill was in the hut the envelope was
gone, but it didn’t really bother him.
The End
By: Yoni Halatnik
Dana was a young girl. She had a lot of friends
and a very busy day so she went to sleep early. She
woke up early in this ‚Shabbat.‛ She loved to think
that she had a long free day to do whatever she wanted
to. This was because she hated school and she loved to
give from herself. Dana didn’t understand why she
had to be in a cage. (She even tried to drink RC FREE
but it was no good).
Dana had a small hut; every time she felt trapped
in the world she went there. ‚Why are people so busy?
Why can’t we be free? Why are we so eager to work
ourselves to death?‛ She was a really smart girl. She
was a ‚B‛ student but had the smartness that will lead
her to good life.
One day, after
school, Dana came
home and saw a 20-
30 years old male
sitting near the house entrance. He was
all dirty and it seemed that he didn’t
shave for a long time. ‚Mister, are you
looking for somebody?‛ Dana inquired.
‚No< I’m just sitting here, thank
you!‛ The dirty man said.
‚Are you sure?‛
‚You know what ‘kiddo?’ Do you
have some water?‛
‚Sure! Dana put her bottle on the
floor with a lot of excitement; she loved to help other people.
For the rest of the day Dana felt warm feelings of giving, the same
warm feeling everybody has when they do-
ing something for universal values. ‚It’s like
everybody has one thing they need to bring
to the world, and in my case it is the art of
dedication,‛ Dana told herself.
The next morning she woke up all mad.
‚Oh, I need to go to school once again! I am
spending so much time sitting in a class
when there is a great world outside the window.‛ Those were her regular
thoughts.
She came home very tired that day, feeling
that the world was all gray. ‛I want to do
something with my life.‛ She went to her
small hut. ‚I want to make my life special,‛
she shouted to herself.
‚I’m sorry,‛ Dana heard from outside the
hut.
‚Hey! You are the man from my house.
What’s up?‛
‚It’s all good, kiddo. I heard you want to do
something special in your life< well? Do
you have a plan?‛
She choked, and the man disappeared.
Dana ran home at full speed, not stopping at all! Suddenly she fell,
and the man was on top of her. ‚You know kiddo, many people are afraid of
me, they run from me. I think you are running to me. They, people, see me
one time. I think you
earned the chance to see
me twice.‛
The man continued,
‚You are on the right road,
kiddo. Remember, if you
want to feel free from time
and space you are always
welcome to our hut, it is
always open for you. But,
I have some problems
with the door; you may be
locked inside if you stay
there too long.‛
Dana woke up with a bitter-sweet smile. ‚One more day in school I
guess.‛ She knew that she had a dream, but she also knew that there is a
real-life lesson beyond it!
The End
By: Maoz Karasenti
Once upon a time there was a kid named was Tom. Tom was a horrible
student and he had no mom. His father was unemployed. One day, instead
of going to school, Tom walked in the street. Near the road he found an old
key. Tom didn't ask anyone for the key, he took the key and ran to his tree
house. Tom liked to be in the tree house because he could be there alone and
think by himself. Tom climbed on the tree and sat on the sofa and looked at
the key. There was a big S engraved.
At 3:00 pm, Tom came home. His father was in the kitchen, making
lunch. Tom put his bag in his room and sat at the table. His father served the
food and started to say, "Your principal called."
But Tom didn't react.
"She said you didn't come to
class today." his father said firmly.
"This is not acceptable! After lunch
you will go to your room to do
homework and you won't get out
until tomorrow. And you will not
get dinner."
Tom went to his room and
slammed the door nervously. Tom
went into his room nervous and fell
on his bed and thought, "Why can't
I be good at school? I just can't
learn. The material goes in one side
and gets out from the other."
Tom bore the key and he noticed the key was smaller. "What
happened?" Tom thought to himself. After one hour Tom decided to escape
from his room. Tom's father was in the living room, watching television.
Tom's house was on the second floor. He climbed out the window and
caught the rail of the emergency steps and climbed on them. After he
climbed, Tom went down and ran
away to his tree house.
When Tom reached his tree
house, he looked at the key. It was
now even smaller, like his eye. Tom
was thinking when suddenly, a little
cat jumped in from the window, took
the key, and ran away from the tree
house. Tom jumped from the hole in the floor and struck the ground. He
didn't care about the pain. He stood up and ran after the cat.
The pursuit after the cat was
long, but Tom recognized it because
of its white hair and black tail. It
was a special cat. After ten minutes
the cat flung the key away and dis-
appeared. Tom, exhausted and tired
from running, stopped to catch his
breath. Between his legs, he found
the key waiting. This time, it was
bigger.
Tom looked around him and
saw a big house. The house was
huge and in the entrance had a little
lock on it. Tom thought to himself,
"Maybe the key opens this house?"
He approached to the door and tried to open it, but the door didn't open and
a loud alarm started to ring. Tom ran away as fast how he could.
When Tom came home, he
climbed into his window from the
emergency steps the same way he es-
caped. The minute Tom reached into
his room, his father called him for
dinner.
The next day, Tom woke up and
went to school. In school there was a
new student. Tom was the only one
who talked to the new student, Char-
ley. Soon, Tom and Charley were
best friends. They met after school and did homework together. One day,
Tom's father got a phone call from the principal who said that Tom started to
invest in his studies. When Tom came back from school his father said,
"Your principal called."
"But I didn't do anything!" Tom defended himself.
‛No! She said you are investing in your school work and I'm proud of
you," his father said.
The next day, at lunch, Tom felt that his pocket was close to rupturing.
He pushed his hand into his pocket and he grabbed the key. It was huge like
his palm. Tom understood! When he succeeds at something, the key grows
larger and larger.
Months after the phone call Tom was on his Hanukah vacation. One
day, Tom decided to find out what the key opened. He looked at the key and
saw an arrow on the key. He started to go to where the arrow pointed. After
a long time, Tom came to an old house. Tom was scared to enter because he
thought the house was full of spiders. Tom was brave and entered the house
anyway. The key signaled to Tom to go up to the second floor. When Tom
climbed, the steps were close to breaking. In the second floor, there was just
one room. Tom entered the room and saw a little box. He inserted the key
into the lock and opened the box. In the box, there was a note. It read:
The End
If you read this note it means you
succeeded
Well Done!
By: Goffer Oded
Mike was a young boy that lived in a small town near the ocean. He
had two big brothers that were in the army, and they didn't live at home.
His parents worked all the time and came home late at night. This situation
taught him to be very independent; he made his own food and watched TV
alone after school. Because of this he created an imaginary dog that relieved
his loneliness.
One sunny day, some boy in
Mike's class invited him to see a movie
with him.
"Go with him," said Mike's
imaginary dog.
"No, I can't, I'm too shy," mum-
bled Mike.
"Do it!" screamed Mike's imagi-
nary dog.
"I can't come to your house to-
day," said Mike to the boy. "I< I< I
have a family dinner today, maybe to-
morrow," he stuttered. The boy said
goodbye to Mike and went home, and
Mike was lonely again that day.
Some other day Mike's parents
came home early because his brothers
came for a vacation from the army and
they all ate a family dinner together.
"So Mike, how was school?" asked
Mike's father, giving a look straight into
Mike's eyes.
"Okay," replied Mike without even
looking at his father's face.
"Why don't you go to sleep at one
of your friend's house tomorrow? Dad
and I are going to come home very late
tomorrow, and we don't want you to
sleep all alone in our big house," said Mike's mom looking at Mike, trying to
get a clue about his answer.
"Um< Um<, I will think about it," murmured Mike.
Late in the evening, when Mike and his imaginary dog went to sleep,
his imaginary dog asked him, "Would you promise me that you will go
sleep at someone's house tomorrow? Don't be afraid, I will come with you
and help you talk to him."
"I promise," said Mike and
he began dreaming. Mike woke
up in the morning and got
dressed up for school. He was
very nervous because of what
he promised his imaginary dog.
"Look! Here is Ike! Ask
him if you can go sleep over his
house tonight," said Mike's
imaginary dog loudly.
"No, he is too evil," replied
Mike while he was trying to get
out of his promise.
And that went over and over again until Mike didn't agree to ask
someone if he can sleep over his house. Then, the bell rang for the end of
the day and Mike had to find someone to sleep at his house.
"Here is Dan!" said the imaginary dog, "the guy that invited you last
week! Ask him! He is your last chance!"
Mike gathered all his
courage and started talking to
Dan. Dan said that he would
love it if Mike sleeps over his
house and they decided that
Mike will come to Dan's
house at eight o'clock. Mike
started to become friends with
Dan and the imaginary dog
started to fade.
At eight o'clock exactly,
Mike stood at Dan's front
door. Dan opened the door and Mike didn't know what to do.
"What should I do?" asked Mike to his imaginary dog, hoping for an
answer.
"Just start talking to him," said the dog, and Mike started talking to
Dan without stopping. He didn't even notice that his imaginary dog almost
disappeared.
In the morning when Mike woke
up and went home he realized that he
didn't see his imaginary dog! He
called him all day long and he found
nothing.
At night, when he was very tired
from searching and went to sleep, he
found a note on the bed. It said, "Dear
Mike, I was very glad when I found
out that you have a friend. My job is to
go to every lonely boy in the world and
make him feel better. Now that you
have a friend there is some other boy
that needs me. I had a very good time
with you and I'm sure that we'll meet
again. Your loyal friend, The Dog.‛
The End
By: Katya Mogilevsky
Missy was the favorite kitten in the house. All the kids loved her,
stroked her and gave her treats. She was very smart and funny, she had a
puffy red fur and a long cute tail. She never shared anything with the other
cats, Milky, Rosy and Cindy. She always ate the treats she got alone, and she
never left a place for the other cats on the cozy bed the kids bought for her.
All the other cats never liked her. They were very jealous.
One day, Missy took a walk in the
yard, looking for a quiet place to eat the
giant piece of fish she just got. Suddenly,
she heard a barking noise. A giant dog
was running her way; Missy hated dogs.
She was so afraid she literally flew up the
nearest tree, and then stuck her claws in
the trunk and waited for the dog to go
away. When the dog left Missy still wasn't
safe. She looked down and the ground
seemed so far away. She tried to climb
down but her legs couldn't move – she
was too scared.
"Help!" She cried. "Help!" but no one heard her. Everyone was inside
the house. So she waited for someone to come. And then she tried to call for
help again and the other cats heard her and came to see where she was.
"I'm stuck on the tree!" she cried. "You know how to climb, help me to
get down!"
"Why would we help you?" Rosy said. "You never helped us even once.
You never shared your treats with us. You never let us sleep a little on your
bed! You always bragged about being the favorite cat. Now we won't help
you." And they left Missy alone on the tree and went inside.
Missy was sad, tired and hungry. But after a few minutes past the kids
found her and took her down. "Poor kitten! She was stuck on the tree for so
much time, she must be so hungry!" They went inside and gave her a few
pieces of salami. Missy took the salami and went to the room where the
other kittens always rested. Then she gave everyone salami and they rested
together, ate, chatted and everyone was happy. And since that day the cats
always shared treats, rested together and played together, and the kids loved
them all the same.
The End
By: Nithay Yarnitsky
Our story happens in a kitchen, a regular kitchen, like the one you
have at home. In this kitchen, there are lots of fruits.
I’m going to tell you a secret so don’t tell anyone else. If you look very
carefully at the fruits you will see little people.
All the people live peacefully together except one—the man in the
lemon. The man in the lemon is sad because everybody else lives in a sweet
fruit, and he has the only sour one.
One day, all the fruits decided to make a birthday surprise party for
the lady in the cherry. They invited everyone to the sweet cherry, except
one—the man in the lemon. No one wanted the sour guy to ruin the sweet
party. The man in the lemon didn’t know about the party but when he saw
everyone else going to the cherry he was very, very sad.
The man in the lemon didn’t know what to do. He was very sour and
his personality was also sour. He didn’t want to listen to the others because
he knew that he was right and they were wrong.
‚What is bad about being sour? They should be sad, because in the
end they will all want to be like me. I have a better life,‛ said the main in the
lemon.
The man in the lemon decided to go far away to a place without an-
noying people.
He walked in the street and then he found another lemon. ‚Hey,‛ he
thought, ‚Here is someone with whom I can talk.‛
‚What do you want from me?‛ muttered the other main the lemon.
‚I want to be with someone, I do not want to be alone,‛ explained the
first man in the lemon.
‚And do you want me to help you with this?‛ the other man in the
lemon asked. ‚I am the loneliest man in the world and I am happy with it,‛
he said. ‚And you are not welcome in my home, so leave!‛
The original man in the lemon went back home. ‚I don’t want to be l
ike him,‛ he thought to himself. ‚Now I realize that’s who I am. I have to
change myself immediately.‛
‚I don’t know what to do,‛ the man in the lemon thought to himself.
‚How can I make myself sweeter?‛ The man in the lemon could not sleep.
‚What can I do?‛ But after a while, it came to him. ‚I should make my
lemon into lemonade!‛
The man in the lemon started to cut and squash the lemon, and in the
end he made a beautiful glass of lemonade. It was so sweet that all the other
fruits wanted to go there.
And, one day, when the man in the lemonade had his birthday, every-
body came to him home and made him a surprise party.
The End
By: Avshalom Cohen
Our story begins in the 1940's of the previous century in New York
City. Jake was a white boy, his family had a lot of money. It is really impor-
tant to tell that in those times, the difference between whites and blacks was
huge.
One day, Jake schemed a little trick just for his
own fun. He came to the class earlier than usual, he
took a baseball bat out of his bag, and he crashed and
destroyed all the equipment in the class. After he fin-
ished he went back home.
Later
that morn-
ing, when
Jake and all
his friends
and the teachers came to class,
they saw the disaster. The teacher
asked if someone knew who did
this. Jake, because he hated black
people, blamed a black boy
named Josh for what happened.
Because Josh was a
black boy, the teacher
believed Jack.
Josh was ex-
pelled from school
and Jack was very
happy.
The next morning,
when Jake walked to
school something
weird happened.
When he looked at
the park the grass
wasn't green. It was
grey, and so was the
tree. Jake saw every-
thing that should be green as grey, but the rest of the colors he saw normally.
Jake didn’t understand this but he guessed that it only his imagination.
During the afternoon of that
day, Jake went with his
buddy to the park to play
baseball. There they meet
two Latino boys. Jake and
his friend hit them and
made them leave the park,
all because they were differ-
ent from them in color and
origin.
The next morning was
even weirder than the last.
Jake woke up and opened
the window. He looked at the tree and he was surprised to find out that it
still looked grey, the same as the grass. When he looked up, he was so
shocked, he had to
step back and sit on
his bed. Now not
only what should
be green looked
grey, but so were
the sky and every-
thing else that
should be blue.
And so it con-
tinued, day after
day. Jake hurt people without reason just because they were different. He
hurt blacks, Latinos, Jews, Chinese and others. And each time he hurt some-
one, he lost one color from his sight, even black and white.
Until one day when Jake woke up, every-
thing was grey. He even couldn’t tell black
and white people apart. Jake went to the
park, he sat on one of the benches and he
started crying.
Suddenly a man appeared from no-
where. He got close to Jake, and Jake could
recognize that this man was old, and that it
looked like the old man had a halo around
his body.
This old man sat next to Jake, and said, ‚Listen to me Jake.‛
Jake was surprised. ‚How do you know my name?‛ he asked.
‚It doesn’t matter,‛ answered the old guy. ‚Now you can see the
truth,‛ said the weird man.
Jake thought a little bit and then looked around himself and at
all the people in the park. They all looked just the same. And then Jake
screamed, ‚Now I understand. Now I can see the truth that all the people
are the same. It doesn't matter what their color, religion or origin it!‛
From this forward Jake was a different person. And today, he works
for Amnesty International.
The End
By: Nithay Duek
Once upon a time, beyond the great green forest, there was a small
country. In the country there was a small town with small houses and small
children. But one of the children was different. He was a tractor. His name
was Timmy.
Timmy didn’t have legs; he had
wheels. And Timmy didn’t have hands; he
had a lever. Timmy also made weird noises
while he spoke. Noises like, ‚trrrrrrrrrrr
chu chu chu, trrrrrrrrrr chu chu chu.‛
The other children didn’t like Timmy
because of these differences. But mostly,
they didn’t like him because of the noises he
made while he spoke.
When the children were playing, Timmy
usually couldn’t play with the kids. He was able
to play only in the sandbox. He was barely able
to play ‚hide and seek,‛ because of his size and
the noises he made.
So, when the kids were playing, he usually
watched them and was sad and jealous. The kids
laughed at him, and they teased him.
Timmy was all alone and he didn’t have
friends at all. But, there was a fgirl that didn’t
just laugh and tease like all the other kids. She
especially annoyed him on purpose to make him
feel even more sad and lonely. Her name was
Gloria, and Timmy hated her for her behavior to-
wards him.
One night, when Gloria fell asleep,
she had a dream. When Gloria came back
to the playground, she told all the other
kids about the dream. And the kids
called Timmy.
From that day forward, all the kids
and Timmy played only games that kids
and tractors could play as one.
The End
By: Osher Ninno
Two hundred miles under the sea level, there was a great kingdom.
In this magical kingdom there were a lot of sea creatures like fish, starfish
and jellyfish. They had a shop, an office, and a school, just like on land.
In the school there were some students. One of them, called Star, was
a big starfish. Star was a good friend of Fishy, another student. Mister Octo-
pus was the teacher of the underwa-
ter sea class in this school.
Fishy had an interesting book.
Star wanted to read the book so he
borrowed it from Fishy. Star was
reading the fascinating book for a
few days until he finished it. After
he finished the book, he wanted to
return the book to Fishy, but he
couldn’t remember where he put it.
He was looking for the book but he
couldn't find it anywhere.
At school, Fishy asked
Star about the book. Star didn't
want to tell Fishy that he lost the
book, so he told him that the book
is interesting and that he is still
reading it. Fishy really wanted his
book so he asked Star to bring the
book in the next day.
The next day, Star told Fishy
another lie. Star was sad because he
didn't like lying to Fishy. After one
of the lessons Mister Octopus asked
Star what happened, because he saw
that Star was sad.
Star told him about the book.
Mister Octopus talked with Star and
explained to him that he would have
liked to know about the book, even if
it is gone.
The next day, Star told Fishy
the truth about the book. He apolo-
gized to Fishy. Fishy was upset
because the book was lost. He was
angry with Star for losing it and
lying, but he saw that Star really
regretted lying and felt sorry
about the book.
After school Fishy went to Star's
house. They found the book to-
gether under Star's bed. They
were both happy and they were
still good friends.
The End
By: Yotam Hod, Teacher
10 Steps to Creating Children’s Stories The following steps document the process used to achieve these stories.
Though there are 10 steps described here; in sum the project took roughly 20 non-
consecutive class periods (about 15 hours of class time). Some steps require more
time than others, from one period to at least several periods. Providing an exact
timeline is moot because every class learns and works at a different pace. The
teacher should follow each step and only continue once they are convinced that most
students have sufficiently progressed. As this project is broad and creative, in my
opinion it is best to not enforce strict deadlines, but rather to frequently suggest
rough benchmarks (saying, “you should be about here by now”) throughout the pro-
ject. While it is a good idea for students to submit their work for periodic review, al-
lowing them to work at their own pace is a key ingredient of making a safe, nurtur-
ing classroom where they can produce such imaginative work.
STEP 1: Introduction to Children’s Stories
After introducing the unit idea and sharing the aim of authoring, illus-
trating, and designing their own children’s stories, read several famous chil-
dren’s stories to them. Make sure these stories have some sort of moral to
them, which they usually do, as well as a symbol that somehow represents
the value. As you read the story, ask students both basic comprehension
questions, such as, ‚What happened?‛ as well as higher-ordered questions,
such as ‚What does the tree represent?‛ Two suggested stories are, ‚Finding
the Green Stone‛ by Alice Walker, and ‚The Giving Tree‛ by Shel Silverstein.
STEP 2: Identify Values
Recall the read stories and point out that children’s stories often teach a
lesson, always connected to some value. Everyone has values, and you are
interested in hearing theirs. They will use these values when creating their
own stories, so should start thinking about what is important to them.
Generate a list of values with the students on the board. Then, give
them a ‚Values List‛ (Attachment A), followed by the ‚Value Ma-
trix‛ (Attachment B) to help them identify their 3 most important personal
values. Follow the instructions on the worksheets.
Have students share what their values are with the class and why they
are important to them. Give them a homework assignment of asking their
families how they exemplify these values. They should write one or two
sentences for each value.
STEP 3: Generating Symbols
Symbols are used to give meaning to values so that readers can better
understand them in a story. Have students think of a symbol for each one of
their three most important values. How does the symbol change when the
value is and isn’t manifested? Have students draw symbols for each value
(see Attachment C – Symbols). Take turns with the class sharing what they
have come up with. Be sensitive with this activity and remember to honor
students’ viewpoints. Before having them share, you may want to talk to the
class about the importance of respecting one another.
Students that have trouble generating symbols should be encouraged
to think and develop ones on their own time. At the end of the lesson, tell
students they will ultimately have to settle down on one symbol and value,
so they should think more about the one they see as best for their story. No
final decisions need to be made just yet, though many students may already
have story plots worked out in their heads. Just remember that the creative
process works at a different rate for everybody.
STEP 4: Character Development
Every story has characters, and often there is one lead character and
several supporting characters. (The symbol can even be one of the charac-
ters, or something that influences the character somehow, such as the tree in
‚The Giving Tree‛). For readers to connect to a story, they need to identify
with the character’s thoughts, feelings, struggles, etc. Look back at the sto-
ries and characters you read at the beginning of the unit. Who are they?
What were their thoughts, feelings, and struggles? Choose two or three dif-
ferent characters that you read about, and complete a character analysis
chart together with the class, on the board (Reference Attachment D – Char-
acter Analysis Chart).
Have students think of 4 characters for their own stories. They should
complete the character chart (Attachment D) either in class or for homework.
STEP 5: Plot and the Shape of a Story
Look over one of the stories that your class read, and prepare a one
sentence description of the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action,
and resolution (See Attachment E – Shape of a Story). Write these on the
board in a mixed order, and have students work out the correct order.
After completing this task, draw the ‚Shape of a Story‛ graph on the
board and label the 5 main parts. Now, read the second story together and
have students decide which what events in the story’s plot match the shape.
Finally, have students complete their own plots (Attachment E) based
on the shape of a story covered in class. Have them submit this to you and
look it over to make sure they include all 5 parts. Give them feedback in the
form of questions and encouraging comments.
STEP 6: Writing a Strong Introduction/ “Show Don’t Tell”
Read the introduction to one of your stories. Ask students what is the
purpose of an introduction, or exposition, which includes providing a set-
ting. Reread the introductions to the stories that you chose, and ask them to
point out how it was written. Make the point that good writers follow the
idea, ‚Show, Don’t Tell.‛ Ask them how they could change sentences into
ones that show and don’t tell (Attachment F – Show Don’t Tell)
Have students write an introductory paragraph that explains the set-
ting of their story whilst showing and not telling details. Have them share
their introductory paragraphs, with the rest of the class looking for the de-
tails of who, where, what, when, and also examples of ‚showing and not
telling.‛
STEP 7: Dialogue
Read the dialogue attachment together with the students, having them
point out the differences between each section (Attachment G). Have them
write a sample dialogue between two or three (if they are up to the chal-
lenge) characters in their story.
After they have completed it, read through a section of one of your sto-
ries that has dialogue with the class. Have students point out the various
dialogue tags used. Discuss with students the reasons for using various dia-
logue tags.
Hand out the dialogue tags sheet (Attachment H), and have them re-
write their dialogue using some of the tags. You may need to translate (or
have them translate) many of the tags before beginning.
STEP 8: Story Draft
Assign students a firm due date to write a first draft of their story.
Give them approximately one week to hand it in. Review the drafts and
provide feedback for the students. You may want to have two rounds of
drafting. The first round of drafting should focus on their value, symbol,
characters, ‚showing‛ details, introduction, and dialogue. After they have
made these corrections, then have a second round that works on their Eng-
lish (spelling, grammar, mechanics, formatting, etc.)
STEP 9: Illustrations
While they are working on their stories (at home), use in class time for
students to illustrate their books. You may need to bring in supplies such as
paper and markers. Students that absolutely refuse, often citing poor artistic
skills, can either find pictures from the internet or have a friend draw for
them for extra credit (to the friend). Bring in several books and show them
examples of good illustrations.
Before students get started, have them decide on 5 parts of their story
that they would like to illustrate. Have them complete an ‚Illustration
Draft‛ before getting permission to draw their final versions.
To keep the focus and momentum on getting their stories submitted on
time, have volunteer students at the beginning of each class read or share
both their pictures and parts of their story.
STEP 10: Putting it all together
Scan in the students’ photos (or have them do it). Bring the class to the
computer lab and give them a quick tutorial of Microsoft Publisher. Have
their work (stories and pictures) available on the computers. Have them for-
mat their stories, with the images, to make a final product. You can collect
their documents at the end and put finishing touches on it (or have inter-
ested student volunteers do that for extra credit). This section requires a lot
of work, but seeing all the students’ work together is a great motivator. Once
put together, it can be sent to the Principal, parents, all the students, etc.
Have a class day or two when students read their stories to each other. Or, if
you are ambitious, invite students and parents for a reading one night after
school.
Attachment A— Values List
Attachment B— Values Matrix
Attachment C— Symbols
Attachment D— Character Analysis Chart
Attachment E— Shape of a Story
Attachment F— Show Don’t Tell
Attachment G— Writing Effective Dialogue (1 of 2)
Attachment G— Writing Effective Dialogue (2 of 2)
Attachment H— Dialogue Tags
Attachment I— Illustration Draft
For questions or comments
about this publication,
please contact Yotam Hod at