Young Writers Project

Each week, Young Writers Project receives several hundred submissions from students in Vermont and New Hampshire in response to writing prompts, and the best are selected for publication here and in 21 other newspapers and on vpr.net.

This week’s prompts were “Myth: Create the new urban legend” and general writing.

Candles

By Lily Carleu

Grade 6, Fayston Elementary School

Inferno, the goddess of fire, was a goddess to be feared. She had no friends, not even Blaze, who was a pyromaniac. One day, Inferno realized that no mortals even knew her name. That angered her, for she was greedy and believed that she deserved fame. Inferno decided that she would go down to Earth as a mortal and claim her fame.

Inferno made herself look very beautiful, with hair like the sun and a dress to match it. Her dress billowed as she walked down the long and winding stairway to Earth. When she entered Earth, all eyes turned to her.

Many people asked questions and exclaimed, “You are beautiful.” “Are you a goddess?” “Have you brought good fortune?”

“SILENCE!” yelled Inferno, and everyone stopped talking, “I am Inferno, the goddess of fire! I am more powerful than all the other gods and goddesses put together! You all should bow down to me! Build me temples! I will be back in 60 moonrises and they better be done!”

“What?!” “Why us?” “We can’t build that fast!” “You are no goddess that we respect!” The mortals did not want to be the goddess’s slaves.

Inferno suddenly got quiet, “If you finish by the deadline, you will have good fortune forever! If you don’t finish in time, you will have bad fortune and my wrath!”

The people worked long and hard. By the sixtieth moonrise, they were done.

Sure enough, Inferno came right as the moon became visible over the horizon. She surveyed the temples. They were made out of beautiful cherry wood. All seemed great to Inferno. Just a little too great.

As she inspected them more closely, she saw little wax figures of herself. Most of them were as gorgeous as Inferno herself. But a few were ugly. Inferno caught all the figures on fire in a rage. The figures burned and burned and burned. We now call those ‘candles.’

To read the complete story, go to youngwritersproject.org/node/88203.

White and still

By Jessica Lamb

Grade 7, Crossett Brook Middle School

The bitter winter freezes me to the ground

where I can’t move.

Everything around me is white.

The world around me is frozen to the core.

The harder I struggle, the colder I become.

My world is now ice.

Your world is ice.

One powerful move, I get up.

Snowflakes fall on me like rain,

pouring, pouring, pouring.

Everything is dead.

You can’t stop it from spreading.

Feel the cold swipe your eyes.

You turn and look for a sign,

a sign of life

or movement.

The world is still.

No movement or thought.

Just still!