The four ingredients: a boy mummy in an electric factory looking for a cell phone to call his Mummy with a sidekick of a dragon

The story: our hero is a mummy who was buried with a powerful energy dragon in ancient Egypt. When archeologists dig them both up, they bring the dragon to life to use as an energy source. They chain him up in the factory and have wires that lead from him to the machines.

The mummy boy comes to life with the dragon. But he's sad about the dragon being held captive, so he tries to find a way to create a phone that will go back through time and speak to his mother, who I think should be some ancient wizard. She'd have the power to bring them back to their time.

Of course, the question is how she would be able to hear, since they didn't have cell phones then. But maybe that's what the pyramids were -- giant cell phones! You had to go inside to be able to hear calls!

The four ingredients: a bunny in the desert looking for a strawberry up against a dog

The story: Rabbits like to eat vegetables that grow in gardens. Our rabbit, Jackie -- get it, Jackie Rabbit -- eats the prize strawberries in a farmer's yard. When she sees how sad and upset he is, she finds out that he was going to enter them at a county fair.

She feels so bad that she sets out to make things right. From passing birds, she has heard that in the desert are the most amazing strawberries -- cactus strawberries. They're juicy, sweet, and sure to impress the farmer's friends.

She sets off to find them. When she does, she thinks they're easy to pick. But she didn't count on the Desert Dog, who hides in the sand and jumps out to scare off anyone who tries to pick his strawberries!

I think in the end, they're going to be friends. Maybe they'll go back together to the farm and the dog will teach them how to plant cactus strawberries!

In our first workshop, we decided to do a story that had little magical people -- it was St. Patrick's Day, after all. In this tale, we have a elf girls who gets her super-magical powers from the dust of butterfly wings. Not just any butterflies will do, only the evil, dangerous ones.

She's afraid of those butterflies, though, so she raises a caterpillar of that kind so that it will learn to be nice and not bite.

One day, the caterpillar disappears! Someone has kidnapped it. Or, as we said, caternapped it!

Who would do such a thing? Her leprechaun boyfriend! He wants to get her superpowers to use for his own evil plans! So the girl draws the nasty butterflies in to attack him!

When we drew this girl, I made a mistake of a mark on her cheek. We decided it was a scar that she got when she escaped from the dungeon guarded by the ice monster. It cut her with its icicle claws.

Whe has gone to the palace as a spy for a wizard who wants to find out the king's secrets.

Our hero girl has her own goal: to find her mother who disappeared in the king's castle. The king sends her down into the dungeon, which turns out not to be so safe!

What's down there? The Ice Beast! it's guarding her mom! The only thing she has is a note from the wizard that says, "When you are most in need, use this!" It's a spell. But when she says it, the paper bursts into flame. The wizard betrayed her! But wait, maybe not. The fire doesn't burn up the paper. It keeps burning -- scaring away the ice beast!

Finally, we have a funny story about a superhero with a strange skill -- he can chuck toast. His toasts can knock weapons out of evil villains' hands. They can stop all kinds of crime. But they have a hard time stopping his evil nemesis -- Doctor Mold!

Dr. Mold is actually his boss at the diner. He's trying to get people to eat bad food, so that

they will have to eat at his restaurant.

But he didn't count on Toast Man's secret weapon: Pumpernickel! You can also see his sidekick: Bagel Girl!

This book can help!

I've collected 39 of my weekly emails to teachers on creative writing into one downloadable book. Kids Can Love to Write captures the essence of my approach to making writing fun for kids. Whether you have an enthused young writer or one that needs big motivation, this book will show you how to get the most out of their imaginative minds.

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New on my site!

I love random connections! Here's a page that will create random What If Questions to help you start stories!