Our Dragon Story Contest Winners

Earlier this year, young writers ages 3–18 were invited to submit original stories to ASI that featured dragons or were inspired by ASI’s exhibition Paper Dialogues: The Dragon and Our Stories. One winning story was selected from each of four categories.

The competition was as fierce, and many creative and exceptional stories were submitted for consideration. The winning four stories have been published in their entirety at asimn.org. Preschool category (age 3–5):

By Reegan Carl, age 5, with Grandma Chris Cairl Reegan, CJ and Charlie were eating knäckebröd in their playhouse. They were laughing and gasping for air. The group calmed down and Reegan spread the secret treasures from the pouch on the table.

Thorvald the little dumpy dragon was lurking outside the window peering in. He was very lonely and wanted to be prat of their play. He was sad that they were laughing and he wasn’t. He thought their treasures would make him happy.

The treasures on the table were a dala horse meaning courage, a crystal stone for pureness and honesty, and a gold pocket watch owned by great

grandmother Linnea who sailed to America long ago.

The children carefully hid the pouch under the blankets in the folk trunk. They stood by their ideals of the treasures.

As Thorvald was peering in the window, he was getting jealous of their friendship. With the pouch, life would be better. (story continued at asimn.org) Elementary School category (age 6–10):

By Lucas Fortman, age 9 Once there was a dragon named Wruff. When he hatched, he was part dog part dragon, because he loves dogs so much! His parents were Beauty, the jewelry dragon, and Buff, the strong dragon.

The parents were bewildered when Wruff hatched. Beauty thought that Wruff would be handsome and polite, like her. And Buff thought he would be strong, like him. Wruff had a dog face, with scales and tufts of fur across his body. He could also smell and hear and talk like a dog. But Wruff's parents weren't happy about Wruff. (story continued at asimn.org)

Middle School Category (age 11–13):

By Hazel Alexander, age 13 The dragon soared over the white building, flicking his pale blue tail. There were huge posters on its walls advertising the launch to Mars. He blinked slowly, sadly. The humans on this planet used to be respectful, he thought. Used to care for the planet and use resources wisely. But now they were cutting trees, melting ice that used to be his home. He had lived there with his partner, now gone from all the pollution in the atmosphere. He remembered how they had flown together, carefree and joyous, dancing in the crisp, cold air of the north. He remembered their last days, fighting to stay alive, fighting to stay together. But the unrelenting poison in the air continued, flowing in a steady stream from their cars and planes and boats. Now almost everywhere he went, he could catch the scent of gasoline. He knew why they were leaving, of course. This planet was almost dead and so the humans continued on their path of destruction, heading elsewhere to spread filth and disease. (story continued at asimn.org) High School category (age 14–18):

By Anna Christensen, age 14 There once lived a little girl named Annabelle in the years of the Renaissance. Annabelle was known to be the most winsome and sweet little girl in her small village known as Camelot. But she was haunted by something. All of her life she felt forced into perfection because she always had a figure looming over her shoulder. She knew it as “the dragon”. It was a handsome creature straight from the higher-ups with the flashiest of scales and the perfect smile to charm lesser creatures into its unyielding and firm grip, and it owned Annabelle. Annabelle refused to fall for the fake charm. She was a clever girl and once the dragon realized that he could no longer control this young maiden he was furious.

But little Annabelle with her long blonde hair and her petite but strong frame knew that this man would rupture eventually. She was prepared for what was to come. So, Annabelle devised a plan. She would just have to slay the dragon before more harm could come to her village. Meanwhile, the dragon with all of his forthcoming rage was hurting all of the other little children in Camelot. He would tempt them into his cave with hopes of a cup of tea and a conversation knowing he was an important man. (story continued at asimn.org)