I know who did it!

As many of you will know I have been playing around with the idea of being an author. I like the idea – it is just all the writing stuff that is a problem. Anyway I have been submitting stories every month to the Student Discussion Group that I belong to that includes other aspiring authors and the tutors from the Writing Stories for Children course I did a while back.

New Zealand Institute of Business Studies

Each month the tutor sets a ‘competition’ by giving a story title, a target audience and word count limit. The students write the story and then everybody votes on their favourite. This month I won! The story I wrote was a bit last minute too… I had been busy doing other writing for the BBC3 End-Of-Story competition. The title I found to be a bit confrontational, and some of the other stories written were focused on how it is not nice to tell tales. I think there is a fine line between telling kids not to be snitches and making sure they do tell the authorities if there is a real problem. My solution was to write a deliberately old-fashioned style of story that tried to be positive. Here it is…


I know who did it!
For children ages 6 to 8 years old.
400 words max

My name is Rosie and today is my seventh birthday.

I couldn’t wait for the school day to finish. I was so excited because my Granddad was throwing a party for me and all my friends would be coming.

Where I sat at my desk in class I could see out the window onto the High Street. Lots of people had been walking up and down all day.

As soon as the school bell rang I ran down to Granddads place. He greeted me at the door all dressed up in his best suit. He gave me a big hug and said, “Come and look at the front room.”
It was all decorated beautifully. In the middle of the table was the biggest birthday cake I had ever seen.

“Who made that?” I asked.

“Guess.”

Well, I remembered that I saw Mr. Bobble walking down the road carrying a big box. His hands were all covered with different colours, just like the icing on the cake.

“Was it Mr. Bobble?”

“No. Mr. Bobble made the banner.” It was a wonderful Happy Birthday Rosie banner painted in many different colours.

I also saw Mrs. Tinker cycle down the road with her basket on her bike. She was waving at bees that buzzed after her. They could have smelled sugar like that in the cake.

“Was it Mrs. Tinker?”

“No. Mrs. Tinker brought the flowers.” There was a lovely smelling bunch of roses in a vase.

I did see Mrs. Fannaker-Pants walk down the road pushing her trolley. I am sure I saw some ribbon sticking out of the top, just like that around the cake.

“Was it Mrs. Fannaker-Pants?”

“No. Mrs. Fannaker-Pants made you a party dress.” There hanging behind the door was a pretty pink dress with a ribbon bow at the middle.

“Put it on before everybody turns up." Granddad said. “I’ll be in the kitchen.”

I was just fastening my party dress up, when I noticed white footprints on the carpet. I followed them to the kitchen and when I opened the door there was Granddad at the sink. He was washing a big bowl and a big tin. There was a packet of currents on the bench and flour all over the floor.

“I know who did it!” I shouted, “It was you Granddad. You made my birthday cake!”

“I did, just for my special little Rosie.”