At the end of term 3, we encouraged students from the Prep School to take part in a writing competition over the school holidays. The only requirements were that it needed to be less than 300 words and fit under the title, The Intriguing Book. We had hoped to have one winner who would receive a $50 Scholastic Book Voucher, but ended up choosing two winners, one from infants, Lewis, and the second from primary, Rory. Below are the two stories for you to enjoy.
The Mirror on the Universe by Lewis, Year Two
Boom! A rocket launched into space on course to “Super Earth”. Earth scientists had discovered “Super Earth” with all evidence suggesting the planet could support life. The astronauts were Lewis the palaeontologist, Luke the physicist, and Tristan the weather scientist.
As they approached “Super Earth”, their surroundings started to shimmer, and there was a lot of reflection like you would see in a mirror. As they passed through, the rocket shook violently. After that, it crash-landed on the planet, and the three people got out.
Lewis looked around. The planet was nothing like the scientists described. There were mammoths, and lots of snow. Tristan noticed the snow was not falling, but rising back up into the clouds. He thought maybe it was a gravity distortion – but “Super Earth” was large, and meant to have strong gravity.
As they prepared for night sleep, the group noticed the sun star was setting in the east, not the west. Perhaps this was because the planet’s orbit around its star was different to earth’s orbit around the sun.
The next day, Lewis looked around and asked “Where are the mammoths and snow?” Instead, he saw dinosaurs and green land. It looked a lot like the Cretaceous period, while the previous day looked like the Ice Age.
After talking with Luke, the group theorised there was a mirror portal in space they had passed through to get to “Super Earth”. It was reflecting on the galaxy, causing time and space to go backwards. Perhaps the mirror was created by scientists investigating time travel, but the experiment went wrong. If they were correct, they were in deep trouble, because either dinosaurs would eat them, or the planet would disappear.
Luke suggested the planet had resources they could use to fuel their rocket and return through the portal. They extracted fuel from what was available and repaired their rocket to take off.
When they got to the portal, it shrunk. As they passed through it, it collapsed.
It was not clear whether the team survived. But a voice said “Let there be” …
The Intriguing Book, by Rory, Year Four
Conor was a shy boy. He always thought about how good it would be if he could have some confidence. He always looked lonely, especially at school. He was never confident enough to talk to people and make friends because people might not like him.
One day, Conor was at the library. He looked at the bookshelf. One book caught his eye. He approached the book excitedly. It was called ‘The Great Wizard’. Once Conor started reading the book, he couldn’t stop. He read for hours. Until…
“BOOM!” Suddenly, the book exploded. Pages started to flash ominously. Then the cover opened a portal and sucked Conor into it. Conor disappeared from the library. ‘Thud!’ Conor fell straight onto the floor. It looked like he was in the land where The Great Wizard lives. He was excited but at the same time worried.
This all made no sense! He kept thinking about how he could just magically get transferred into this majestic land. He decided to walk on until he found someone to help him. Eventually he walked into someone. Conor didn’t know who it was until they turned around…
It was The Great Wizard. Then the wizard said “Welcome Conor, our biggest fan! Let me show you my castle.”
“Thank you,” mumbled Conor.
When they arrived at the castle, everyone greeted Conor like he was a king.
“Why are you so shy?” asked the wizard.
“ It’s because I’m afraid I might make a mistake,’’ muttered Conor.
“Well little boy, stop being afraid of what can go wrong and start being excited about what can go well,” said the wizard encouragingly.
The wizard teleported Conor back home. The next day at school the teacher asked Conor to tell a story. Conor told everyone about the wizard with confidence and everyone was very intrigued.
