Winners of the HFR Elementary School Writing Contest (2 of 4)

compiled by Marissa Grondin

Welcome to our continuation of Stories Inspired by HFR. We received over 60 submissions to our Elementary Creative Writing Contest from talented students first through eighth grade at Dobson Montessori School in Mesa, Arizona. We’ve selected here just a few of our favorites. Though young, these writers are already well aware of how to craft compelling characters and unique storylines.

In our next installment, we will feature stories from Meera, Zane, and Holly, who all chose to write their stories in response to Caleb Charland’s “Silhouette with Matches” (HFR #52). But before we get to those, let’s take a look at a story from Cooper, a second grader who wrote this thriller in response to Leonie Hampton’s photograph “Our Home, 2007” (see image below), featured in HFR #51.

By Cooper, Second Grade
In the Wisconsin Mountains there was a haunted house. It was being investigated by a team of five: Ben, Jack, Bill, James, and Paul. They were living in the house at the time. They were creeped out, especially Bill, because he was lazy and always ate hamburgers.

Ben was in the attic bedroom. That’s always the worst place to be. He looked under the bed to see if there were any strange things, and a werewolf came out. Ben was so scared that he ran down the hall to the others. They all tried to run away, but Jack was pulled away by the werewolf. The smart one, James, knew there was more coming.

They went downstairs to the basement to look around. Paul found a bag of Skittles, and James found Jack’s jacket. Then James saw hamburgers and soda cans falling down the stairs. Bill had also been taken by the werewolf. So now, only James, Ben, and Paul were left. James went up to the attic and looked under the bed, but there was nothing there. He looked in the closet, and there was Jack, tied up.

He untied Jack, and they all went to find Bill. Ben and James were scared. They opened another closet and Bill was not there either, but there was a blue, circular ruby. James took it to research. He saw that it was a werewolf egg, and he broke it. The boys tracked down the other werewolves. They found another werewolf, and Paul threw Skittles at it.

James knocked out the werewolf with a punch. He was surprised he could do that. He sent it to the Phoenix Zoo. He then looked for Bill with Paul and Ben, but they were never able to find him. They left the house and gave up the investigation.