Second Front

My son Elliott (5) dictated this story to me tonight. The words are his. He was extremely excited throughout the process. He stood in front of me and jumped up and down with delight as he spun his yarn for 30 minutes.

This was part of a writing class he participates in through our homeschooling cooperative. It is a role playing game that requires the students to write in order to advance in the game. This exercise was for learning the literary components of the "The Heroes Journey". I loved going through this exercise with him and I could tell he delighted in the attention.

The Heroic Journey of Harry Potter

A very important guy named Bill was giving out newspapers and came to me one day. He gave me a newspaper and he asked me if I could free the queen from the castle. I had met her once before. I knew that castle because I had been there once before. I was really really really really really worried about the queen. I was so scared that I started vibrating and my teeth chattered.

I was at home when this happened, at the front door. When I found all this out, I got my gorilla and wand. I got on my megaclothes – a checkered white shirt, jeans, and yellow shoes. I was scared for both me and for the queen. There is this place called the haunted woods. There is one thing you have to avoid. The trees are like humans. They stay in the ground but they can bend down and whack at you. That is why they call it the haunted woods. But my gorilla was in front and he just kept snapping them.

After the haunted woods we got to the castle. There are these big ax choppers that go ker-klunk ching. These hit an opponent and they immediately die. There are big spinning axes on wheels. And there are also big dropping anvils. There was a person who tried to kill me while I was on the spinning ax. I did my fireball spell right at his chest. He fell to the ground. I zipped on a vine across a pit of tigers. Big gates shut in front of me. But before one closed I got through.

I found two crystals. The crystals were magical and they helped my pet gorilla. I fed my gorilla lots of fruit outside and then gave him the yellow banana shaped crystal and the red apple shaped crystal and this gave him giga-strength. The gorilla held open the castle entry as they were trying to close it and we got in. My gorilla walked in while holding the gate open, it was the kind that closes from the top, and we entered the castle.

I’m in a castle made out of stone with a floor covered in bones. Torches on the sides light the place – it is a very spooky place. I got to the queen, a castle queen, with a wand and wings. She is looking at me very surprised. She is glad I am here. They trapped her here for a punishment and they tried to kill her. But they hadn’t killed her yet. They were trying to kill her by giving her no food. It is a bad guy’s castle.

I have my pet gorilla with me. I use his muscle and strength to break the bars on the cage that the queen is in. The queen says ‘thank you’.

I take the queen back through the castle and I take her to my campsite.

I get a big reward for doing all this spooky krooky stuff and saving the queen – the beautiful one.