Thursday, October 09, 2008

Your Backyard Adventures

Write about 200 to 400 words about your backyard or outdoor adventures as a child. Write in the 3rd person (he or she, not I).

Use what you know about good storytelling in your work. Make sure your settings are interesting and, perhaps, try using parts of the 8 point "arc" to tell a better story.

13 comments:

hyunni's place said...

Hello, this is my writing about 'backyard advanture' in 3rd person, i hope u like it...^^*
____________________________________
Smell of morning dew, the smell of freshly mowed grass, and the smells of widely opened flowers always wake Tim up and want him to jump off to the grass and swim. It was after the morning dew has just begun.

"Wow, it’s beautiful. I want to jump! Can I go, mom? Huh, can I?" asks Tim excitedly to his mom who forcefully wake up by his son, Tim, always. Whenever Tim wants to go out in his pajamas, he, too, wants the next door neighbour to wake up to play with him because they understand him and play with him. Tim has autism, and rarely goes out to play with other children, only with his mom, and the next door neighbour.

When he goes out to play, he swims, swims, and swims on the grass. Sometimes, he pretends to be a merman who goes out of the water and play, sometimes pretends to be a fish who swims freely, and never get caught because, as you know, he is “the best” fish of the whole. And, sometimes he pretends to be a fish policeman who catches a bad fish, and always catches because he is “the best” fish policeman of the whole.

Some people say ‘poor Tim, he has no friends,’ but guess what? He has so many friends and when you have him as a friend, you’re lucky to have him.

Words: 238.

Brad said...

Brad’s mom said, “It’s a lovely day. I’ve made you a lunch. See you at dinnertime!”

The nine year old boy ran out the door and headed down the street to his best friend’s house. Along the way, he stopped in the back lane.

A wooden fence rail looked inviting. Brad fished around in the pocket of his pants and retrieved his magnifying glass, the best present he’d received at Christmas the year before. It was an odd shape, square, and tucked into a false leather carrying case.

On the case were burn marks. He and his friends had discovered that a good magnifying glass could be used to concentrate the rays of the sun. Looking around carefully to see if any neighbours were watching, Brad turned his back to the sun and started to work.

Ah, the sun was perfect today. Not a cloud in the sky, so the pinpoint of light was strong as he focused it on the graying fence. Soon, a wisp of smoke appeared and the wood began to blacken.

He concentrated as he made the first line, starting at the top and moving down to make the beginning of the letter “b.” Brad had learned that if he held the point of light on one spot for too long, the wood burned too deeply, spoiling the effect.

Soon, his initials were there: B.H. Being nine, the thought had never occurred to him that anyone might connect those letters to him, the little boy now running down the lane to the rambling old house of his friend.

As he entered, Ronnie’s mother offered him one of her scrumptious Welsh cakes filled with currants. Mmm, he thought to himself—today is going to be a great day.

Ronnie gave him a friendly nudge on the shoulder and off the two went, heading for a forest trail that started behind the house, hoping to find a frog or two in the pond along the way.

—328 words

snow said...

His backyard

After he tossed and turned in bed last night, he got up early this morning, tiptoed through the living room to his paradise – the backyard. It has accompanied him for twelve years since he was born. Last night, he overheard his parents talking about the backyard being requisitioned as a Parking Lot, he couldn’t believe his private playground would be changed into a public parking area with the cold and hard tarred-ground and many noisy sounds being made by starting and stopping cars. But there were two huge bulldozers parking outside of his backyard, just like two cold-blood animals, ruthlessly and silently, are waiting outside.

He looked around the backyard which was enveloped in the dim light of the early sun. The green color of fence was enclosing the backyard, as if a row of grim solders were guarding for the yard. The tall and thick maple-tree stood in one side of the yard, trying to show off its unique good-looking with its colorful leaves in this autumn. The blades of lawn glistened with dewdrops, fresh and crystal-clear, look-like the tears of grass weeping silently.

He frowned, and his mind flashed back the enjoyable things in the backyard. Birds and squirrels were accustomed to be feed by him in many mornings; the delicious smell spread all over the yard while mom was preparing barbecue food in many afternoons; father always sat under the tree and read stories to him in the bright light of the moon that shone through chinks of leaves.

When he thought all of happy things would disappear through the action of razing to the ground, his tears couldn’t help gusting out of his eyes. Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind. He quickly took out his painting easel , fixed it on the ground, laid a snow-white of paper on the easel, hold his crayon, he wanted to draw a picture, as like as the view facing in front of him.

The rising sun began to cast the golden light over the yard. The view of the yard was a great source of inspiration to him to finish his painting without stopping. To his surprise, his picture was as same as the sight of his backyard. This was the best picture he had never drawn before. He suddenly realized that his paradise had already been in his heart, deeply and forever.

397 words

a crazy couple said...

She called her yellow cat, “Danni!” Suddenly, he woke up from his place hidden after a short brick wall under an ancient Indian fig.

“He was waiting for me,” she thought. A senior student, grade twelve of the high school, and she was just grade six. With a glimpse of that thought, she hid behind the wall of the backyard and softly entered in.

She used to look at the boy from the ridges between the bricks of the backyard while he was preparing for the graduation exam. Passing through the strawberry and tomato and green pepper bushes, she was hiding to not being catch by anybody’s attention, looking at him during his walking study. She was keeping her breathe to avoid resounding the song risen from her heart. She even didn’t know what was singing.

She moved a little bit, and the dried leaves crashed under her weight. He stopped again and listened carefully. His eyes zoomed on the ridges of the wall.

“Does he see me?” She jumped back. Her heart was beating badly. She became angry at herself, “you are a week fool!” She pinched herself and with a loud voice called again her missing cat, “Danni!” and his last name was Danielley.

mia said...

“Mom, I need to go to Yang’s home to ask him a math question.” Ming said to his mother, who was preparing her dinner in the kitchen.

“Go ahead. Don’t stay too long. The dinner is ready in half hour.” Mom returned.

The eight years old boy flied toward his classmate’s house, which was only two blocks from his own home. He urged to ask Yang a question, but not about math. He wanted to ask him how he could catch a dragonfly with a stick since in the class break he said he didn’t catch dragonflies with net anymore.

Ming got to yang’s home. Learning his purpose, Yang showed his “secret weapons”---a slender but strong one-yard long willow branch and a small bottle of so called “magic glue.” After talking about the “weapon” for a while, Ming put the small bottle in his pocket, held the stick in his hand, leaving Yang’s home with a great interest.

Ming came to the playground, which was an abandoned factory, not far from his home. The factory was a worn two-story workshop and much more flourishing bushes surrounding the building. It was one of Ming and other children favorite places to go after school.

Ming stood in the middle of the bushes, carefully looking around to find his targets. There were a great deal of dragonflies and other insects like butterflies and ladybugs. He had a satisfactory smile on his face. Fishing out the small bottle from his pocket and removed the lid, he placed an end of the stick into the bottle, dipping glue on the tip. Meanwhile, a red dragonfly called “red chili” flied low to a bush which was about 5yards away from Ming, and landed on it. The boy crept cautiously in the bushes trying to avoid as much noise as possible. He approached his target and it still stood there. He slowly and carefully extended the stick with glue to the dragonfly. The tip of stick touched the back of the dragonfly and it stuck to the stick, fluttering its wings to manage to get away. “What a capture it is”, Ming thought. He continued catching dragonflies one by one and completely forgot his dinner.

Catherine said...

Stir up a Nest of Hornets

“Min-min, min-min…” cicadas sang the same song over and over on the top of the old walnut tree. In the backyard, a nine-year-old girl named YanYan was showing her new discovery to a boy at her same age.

“Where is it?” The boy with black hair and round eyes asked.

“There, under the eave, near the red tile, see?” She pointed to the roof of her house.

“Wow, it is the biggest nest of hornets I have ever seen!” He exclaimed.

“I found it yesterday, but my mom warned me that they will sting me if I dare to stir it up.”

“Oh, really?” He paused.

“So, do you dare to do it?” She challenged the boy.

“Of course I dare to! I’m a boy!” he was eager to show off.

So the girl went to the corner of the brick wall, took a long bamboo stick, and handed it to the boy. She couldn’t wait to see what would happen!

The boy felt hot and wet. He took the stick, reached to the nest, and stabbed it.

One, two, three.

And then a swarm of hornets flew out, buzzing around like a yellow wind. Immediately, they locked the target and started to attack the boy by their sharp-pointed stings.

“Oh, my face! Oh, my leg!” the poor boy cried out, threw away the stick, and ran away like a rat.

YanYan went down in shock, crouched to the grass ground, and held her face in her hands. She got a creepy feeling.

“Is he going to die?” She thought.

Later of that day, the boy’s mom came and cried and complained in front of YanYan’s parents. When she left, YanYan was beat by her father by a feather duster. It was a nightmare.

Three days later, YanYan met the boy at school, but he just past her without a glance of recognition. His face and arms were still red and swelled here and there.

-334 words

Hongxin Guo said...

Jack was a farmer’s boy, only twelve. However, Little Tom was eight and saw him as a good friend, a versatile and omnipotent and omniscient.
The backyard was a vegetable garden of a Buddha Temple. The vegetable bed lay in the middle regularly. Some trees, willows and mulberries stood close to the walls. There was a well at the corner, and a winch on it.
After the routine irrigating, they are free. Laying on a straw-mat under the shade of a big willow and watching the white clouds float on the blue sky, they were thinking about what would do the next.
“Get some mulberry?” Jack jumped and climbed the tree with a basket. He picked up quickly, for he was good at climbing trees. Soon later, the basket was full of mulberries. Then they ate, ate, and ate. Suddenly both of the two laughed, for they saw their mouths, fingers even clothes were purpled.
At high noon, wind ceased. The fine willow wickers were still. Only the cicadas made a deafening noise on the trees.
“Catch them!” Jack pointed the cicadas.
“How?”--little Tom asked.
“Look this—stick them!” Jack bound a thin bamboo stick together with another and attached a ball of glue on the tip.
At first, Jack caught a cicada on the willow’s bark, and then the second. For a while, we swept out all of the cicadas at the lower. Only some residues remained on the fine twigs and the wickers. So Jack climbed higher and higher.
“Hurray!” Jack shouted cheerily; eventually he caught one at very top. He was so proud of his success, and cheered and slipped down the tree.
“Ouch!” A painful shouting came from Jack. His right thigh was caught by clearance between the tree and the wall. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t move his limb a little, for his weight got him catch in the wedge tighter and tighter.
Little Tom jumped high to rescue, but he was too short, and the tree was too big to topple. At last, Tom ran to the adults for help.
Jack lamed back home with his scratched and bruised leg. The cicada was still struggling and shouting at the tip of the stick. At this time, no one paid any more attention to this living thing.
Words: 386

larry said...

The Bugle Call

When all students reached the top of hill, the teacher announced that it was time to hang out freely. “But don't wander off too far,” said the teacher.“Remember, Kids, you guys must return here as quickly as you can when hearing this…… ” the teacher said putting a trumpet at his mouth and made a huge sound that could be heard even at Mars. A great roar of applause followed, then, the kids disappeared behind the big rocks, the high trees, and deep grass.

What a day it was! In golden October, the hill stretched out under warm sunshine, the golden leaves covered the trail, dancing with the breeze.

Ming, Wei and Xiaoxia walked along the trail into the deep of the bush. Wei was tall and slim with straight nose. Girls gave him a nickname Tom Cruise that showed how welcomed he was with girls.

XiaoXia was rated as the Venus of the school, every boy dreamed to go out with her, included Ming, off course; however, Ming could sense that XiaoXia seemed well disposed towards Wei only.

“Hey, men, I think we’d better not go too far.” Ming said. “I’m afraid we’ll get lost.”

“If you don’t have guts, nobody beg you come.” Wei glared defiance at Ming.

“Ming,” said Xiaoxia. “Wei said there are some extremely beautiful flowers growing in the depths of the woods. Won’t you come?”

“They definitely don’t like me come with them.” Ming said silently to himself. “Ok, you guys go ahead, I’ll return to find others.” With that Ming turned and was about to leave.

Suddenly, a sharp scream from Xiaoxia’s sending shivers up Ming’s spine. He spun around and was scared with what he saw. There was a huge black wolf stood in front of them. A menacing growl rumbled in its throat, and its eyes filled with hatred.

Xiaoxia hidden herself behind Wei, quivered and clung onto Wei’s arms firmly; however, Wei push her off, and run away as fast as a rat.

Without thinking, Ming bent to ground, picked up a thick log, and threw it at the dog-like thing. The log hit at its back, it whined and darted to the deep woods.

Ming heaved a sigh of relief. Now, he found that Xiaoxia was in his arms. At same time, the wind carried the bugle into their ears.

399 words

steed said...

John’s mom said,” Don’t come back too late. I will make dinner for you.”

The mischievous boy, who was enjoying his summer vacation, rushed out the door and dart into the street like a bird flies into the sky. Along the way, he wandered, and a peach tree in a backyard caught his eyes.

The backyard was a big garden which had a new fence with its own gate. John looked into the backyard. It was big lot overgrown with brambles, honeysuckles, and wild roses. The roses were in full bloom, and the fragrance of the flowers saturated in the air. The peach tree with the big juicy fruits looked inviting.

The gate was locked, so that John had to climb over the fence in order to approach the peach tree. John hugged himself to think it is so lucky without a dog in the backyard. Looking around carefully to see if anybody were watching, he started to work.

The wooden fence rail was twisted with crimson glory veins, hundreds of red blossoms showing against the dark shrubby growth. He climbed over the fence like a cat, and stepped into a rose bush. His ankles and lower legs were pricked by the rose thorns, but he concentrated on the inviting fruit without caring that. What he had learned was that he couldn’t make any sounds out, although his legs and paws hurt a lot.

Soon, he climbed on the peach tree, starting to pick the fruits and putting the bigger ones into his pocket. Taking several fruits, there was no room for more. The smart little boy took off his pants, knotting the pants legs to make a bag with double pipes like pantyhose.

As his “bag” was full, John thought to himself—today is going to be a great day. He threw the “bag” on the right shoulder and down the tree to find a way out of the backyard. Trekking through the pricking roses with the naked legs, he climbed over the fence again with the heavy “bag”.

John’s mother offered John a wonderful dinner. The little boy enjoyed the dinner, itched by the peach fuzz in his pants, but he did not care. What he thought was the next adventure in a backyard.

-383 words

Makassia said...

Sugar canes were in a straight row, putting a boundary between Nadia and her neighbours. Standing in her rectangular backyard, were two tall mango trees and about four feet away from the backyard was her grandmother’s garden, full with fresh corns, dark green cucumbers, large pumpkins and shiny red tomatoes.

“Nadia can you go help your granny in the garden because I have something to do,” her mom said.

“I’d love to,” she said happily.

Nadia rolled the sleeves of the purple sweater she was wearing, took the silver color watering can and dashed toward the garden.

“Just start getting water from our neighbours’ well and bring it in a bucket so we can hurry, darling,” her grandma said.
What Nadia hated was getting water from that well, where she had once saw a green snake and cracked her mother’s new silver pot on the hard ground and ran screaming. “Ah snake!”

She shuddered by the thought and hesitated whether to say no to her granny, but “I will break her heart,” she murmured sadly.

“Okay, grandma, I will go only once and that’s it.”
“One bucket is not enough for this large garden, Nadia.”

“Oh. Well, then we can continue tomorrow,” she said, looking hopefully at her grandma.

“Do not even think about that because the garden hasn’t been watered for two days, so we must water it today.”

The ten years old girl grabbed the bucket and hurried toward the well, but suddenly stopped when she could no longer see her grandma. She put the bucket down, took the shovel her brother had thrown in the swamp a few days ago and started to dig a hole right near the swamp, by her granny’s garden. She widened it just enough for the small ice cream bucket to fit in and dug it deep enough for non-stop water to come into the well. To her surprise, after digging for a few seconds, clean water started to fill the well.

“So it’s true that if you dig a hole near or in a swamp, you’d get a well full with clean water,” she smiled proudly, filled the bucket and returned to the garden.

“Grandma I’m back.” She put the water in the watering can and said softly, “I won’t complain anymore about bringing you more water, grandma. She excitedly took the bucket and headed toward the well again.

398 words

connie said...

Joe was focusing on tracing crickets at the foot of the hill. Across a large crop field, Joe could descry the two-floor house where his grandmother lived. He could recognize the trail he and his cousin had adventured recently, so Joe was confident even though he was a stranger.

Trees scattered. Weeds sprawled randomly around rough rocks. Joe cautiously turned over a moss-covered brick. A dark stout cricket leaped over so quickly that he couldn’t give his reaction. He jumped after the fleeing cricket, while it disappeared into a hole under a huge leave-withered tree. Joe studied the hole, digging it. Suddenly, a big hollow opening into the huge root appeared. Joe stretched his head into it, darkness, and saw nothing, but felt a large room inside.

“What are you doing?” A child’s voice drifted in the air.

Joe dragged back his head, looked up. A little boy at 5-6 age, dressed in gray and wore a gown looked weird and a black baseball cap back to front on his head. Joe stood up and found he was as twice tall as that boy.

“Curious about my home?” the boy asked again.

“Catching crickets. What? Your home?” Joe puzzled, looking around. Houses all were meters away.

“My home. ” Pointing to the hollow, the boy grinned, being a little proud.

“Are you joking?” Joe sniffed, “If you were lost, I would like to take you back to your parents.”

“You look me down.” said the boy angrily. He bent down and, all of a sudden, disappeared into the hollow, leaving his words lingering, “I’ll show you.”

In a second minute, the boy appeared again with lots of nut cakes in his hands. He invited astonished Joe to taste, “My mum made them.”

“Catching crickets? For the stupid contest in the town? ”

“Just for my cousin. He likes it. I am not local. I’m visiting my grandmother.”

“Ha, a piece of cake.” The boy jumped off the rock they sit on. Stretching out his hands, he cooped a mighty cricket simultaneously. Joe even didn`t see the procedure.

The rest of that afternoon, Joe had a great fun playing with the little boy.

Seeing the full bottle of crickets, Joe’s cousin couldn’t believe his eyes. The more incredible was that boy. Next day, they hurried ahead the hill, but nothing about the little boy was discovered.

--396 words

Shadow Shu--Beatirce said...

“I bet you dare not.” Bob said this to Lily and everybody.

“Yes, I do. Come tomorrow to the bush outside and we’ll do it there.” Lily snapped.

“Okay, I’ll be more than happy to put you down,” said Bob.

Lily, the eleven-year-old girl, looked almost like a boy, coverd by curly, short hair. Bob was fourteen, the strongest and the oldest kid in the community and automatically the head of everyone, except Lily.

The second day after the dinner, Lily told mom she was going to Peggy’s house to do homework and mom agreed. Grabbing the wines hidden in her bag which she stole from her father’s collection, she reached the bush nearby her community.

Everybody was there, including Peggy, her best friend, looking at her and worried. “Did you call the ambulance to wait for you somewhere?” Bob teased her and grinned. All boys burst into laughter.

“I called them for you already.” Lily could hear the quiver in her own voice. She passed Bob one bottle of the wine.

“Did you bring the glasses?” Bob asked.

“Glasses for what? Toss it off.” Lily opened her own bottle. She saw Bob’s face turned pale and felt satisfied. For last whole year, this nasty Bob and his buddies baited all the girls in the community. They muttered and giggled whenever girls passed by. They called all girls “coward” and grabbed their hair when someone had a pony tail. Yesterday he said only boy could drink alcohol and girls could only drink pops which caused the bet.

The taste of the wine was terrible, it was bitter and spicy. Lily felt her throat was burning then followed by her stomach. She coughed badly with her tears coming out. She never drank before. She saw Bob’s face and knew he wouldn’t felt any better. Peggy just had a feeling wanted to cry.

After finishing the bottle, Lily felt her head doubled both in size and weight. She tried so hard to hold the urge of puke. “Lily, what’s the hell you are doing here?” A familiar voice appeared and a raged face with a bald-head. Dad was called by Peggy. “Are you drinking here? What? My Martell? 1965? Jesus!” Lily’s father found the empty bottles and turned like a bull at a gate. Meanwhile, Lily opened her mouth wanted to say something, and started vomiting.

395 words

Eve Yan said...

Boys and girls spread around the back and front alley of the stone house after school. The brick lane alley is twisting around the stone wall like a snake crawling around. Boys are running around, battling with each other as usual. Girls imagine flying with stretched arms; scarf waving in the afternoon sun.

266 words
Suddenly, ten boys surrounded Cindy and other two girls. “I am the king of pirate, now you are all under my capture, and will be my slave wives” A butterfly was flying in Cindy’s heart, for the first time in her life; Cindy realized she had a sex identify. Just like the story on the TV, she thought, the beautiful fairy lady is captured by the pirate, waiting for the prince to rescue them.

“Go to the corner of that wall.” Joseph commended. Girls are standing at the hidden corner of the brick alley under the supervision of the guard.

“I want to go home” Linda cried out. “You are not going anywhere, you all soon be my wife and cuncubines.”

Another group of boys soon run over, Cindy heard the screaming of boys, weapon flashing in the air. The guard tried push the girls further into the corners to prevent them from rescuing. The battle lasted about ten minutes.

“Run, we are going to lose” Joseph commended, and they run away. Just like the story, the good force is always winning against bad force.

Cindy will never forget that day and the strange feeling of feminism in her stomach. She hoped to play that again, but that doesn’t seem to happen anymore.