金賞：The Teddy Bear

銀賞

：Blue Virus

銀賞：Hide and Seek

銀賞

：The Fountain

銀賞：Takuya and the Socks

The Teddy Bear
Kaoru
There once was a pretty teddy bear. He had lovely button
eyes, and his tail was cute. But the teddy bear didn’t care about
that. He only thought about a child who would love him.

For a long time, he lived in the toy corner of a store, but sad tosay, nobody become interested in him. Everyone thought thatkind of teddy bear was behind the times.

One day, a little girl came into the store. She looked at theteddy bear and said, “He is very sweet. His eyes look smart,
don’t they?”
From that day, the teddy bear was the girl’s.
Every day, the bear played with her.
They built a sand castle, and they
played hide and seek. They spent a very happy time.

But one day, the teddy bear woke up
and found the girl wasn’t sleeping next to him. He looked
around, but he couldn’t find her
anywhere.
And then, a stranger came into theroom. He started to put all the playthings into a sack. Getting
scared, the teddy bear sat quietly on the bed. The stranger
noticed the bear. He said, “This must be thrown away too.”
And he put the teddy bear into the sack.

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The teddy bear was taken to a dumping ground. The next morning, a garbage truck
would take him away. In the sack, he felt very lonely. He looked up the sky,remembering good old memories with the girl. “I want to go home,” he said to himself.
“I don’t want to go anywhere else. I miss her.” At that time, one small shining star fell
from the night sky.

Then, a cat came to the dumping ground. The cat found thebear and said “Oh. There’s a teddy bear. Maybe my children
will play with it.” The cat took the teddy bear to its house.

The cat’s house was in the corner of the teddy bear’s house!
That night, the girl found the teddy bear in the cat’s house andwas very surprised. “Why! It’s my teddy. Where have you
been? I missed you so much!”
The girl hugged him tightly.
So, they all lived happily ever after.

3Blue VirusMM
There was a woman called Hanako Yoshida. She lived in Japan.
She had beautiful black eyes and brown hair. One day, she woke
up and looked at herself in the washroom mirror, and she wasvery surprised because her brown hair had turned blue. The
unexpected change made her worried. So she went to hospitaland saw a doctor. The doctor said, “It’s a strange virus. I
haven’t ever seen anything like it. You need many
examinations.”

Hanako’s son lived in Los Angeles. He was called TaroYoshida. He had a beautiful wife and a baby. He was called byHanako and found out about her problem.. He was very worried
about her. So, he went to Japan with his family to see her.
He was in front of Hanako’s house, and he was very surprised.
Her house had a tinge of blue. He thought, “What’shappening?”
He ran into the house and saw Hanako. He was shocked.
Hanako’s hands were blue, her legs were blue, and, her face wasblue. She was dyed blue. “Are you OK?” he said. “Yes. But I’mtired.” she said. “Why?” “I have many examinations every day,”she said.
“Taro” she said. “What?” he said.
“Thank you for coming.” she said.
Hanako looked so tired. So, Taro decided to come back to Los
Angeles. He got into a taxi.
He looked back many times at his mother. He went home byairplane and by car.

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The next evening, he thought, “Will my mother die?” and hefelt very sad. “Why was my mother dyed blue? Did she dosomething wrong?” he said to himself.
The next year, Japan was dyed blue and the virus crossed theocean. Hanako attracted criticism. The crowd said to her, ”Youare the god of death.”
Hanako was lonely. The lonely old woman was sorry about theblue virus. 3 years later, the earth was dyed blue. Plants wereblue, animals were blue, buildings were blue, and all people
were blue. But, they had no other problems. And they got used
to their blue bodies.
After the crowd was calm, Taro visited his mother. She wasblue, and he was blue, too. Now, she wasn’t lonely, because
everyone was blue, too.
Then Hanako and Taro and his family lived in Los Angeles.
They lived a very happy life together.

5Hide and Seek
わかめ犬

There was a house on a hill. Jack was a high school student
who lived in the house. He lived there with his father. His
mother had been killed in a traffic accident 15 years ago, so hedidn’t remember her.
One day, when Jack was doing his
homework, early in the morning, a woman appeared suddenly andsaid, “You! Play hide and seek with me!”Jack was surprised. He wanted to refuse herrequest, but she continued, “You are it. You
count to 60. Then, you can seek me.”Jack thought, “That’s the way it goes. Onlyonce. I’ll find her at once!”
He closed his eyes and counted from 1 to 60.
“1,2,3….60!”
First, Jack went to his father’s library.
He was still sleeping. Jack looked roundthe room, but the woman wasn’t there. He got
out of the library.

Next, he went to the toilet. To his surprise, a red liquid wasspreading. “What’s that?! Is it blood?” He
smelled it, but it wasn’t blood. “It’s tomatojuice!!” He realized.

Jack went into the bathroom. He searched for the woman, but she
wasn’t there. “Where is she?” Suddenly, something showered on hishead. It was tomato juice again!

6Jack heard the woman’s voice. She was giggling.
But she was angry. “You’re toolate to find me!” “I’m sorry,” Jack
said “but who are you?” The woman
looked shocked and said, “You don’tremember me?! I’m your mother!”Jack was amazed at that, and he fainted.
He woke up to find himself in the dining room. His father
was across the table. Jack told him all about hide and seek.
When his father finished listening, he said “You don’t know
about her, do you? That was your mother’s ghost. She liked
tomato juice very much. Maybe she wanted to play with youagain!”

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The Fountain
Taiki
There was a little boy in a small village. He was living in ahouse in the forest with his mother. One day his mother said tohim “Why don’t you go and play outside? You can see beautifulflowers.”
The boy opened the door, and he wasgreeted by Mother Nature. He could see
many trees and flowers, he could hear thesounds of insects and animals, and hecould smell flowers, too. He ran afterbutterflies and he came to a fountainwithout realizing it.
He had found a fountain!

It was a very small fountain filled withclear fresh water. The boy drank the water. And then a strange
thing happened.
He saw something reflected in thewater. It looked like a big city. Deep-black smoke was coming
out of the chimneys.
Then the scene changed.
There was a young man who looked
just like the boy himself. The young man passed away quietly.
Actually, he was seeing his future. But he wondered, “Who ishe?”

8Luckily it did not make sense to him at that time. And then thereflection disappeared. He touched the water and leaned hishead to one side.
Suddenly the birds and the butterflies
flew away quickly.
The boy was worried about something. He started to run, andhe went back home.

Two years later, the boy moved to a big city. And the fountainbecame famous for fortune telling about people’s deaths. Is theboy alive now?
Nobody knows.

9Takuya and the Socks
Edel ☆ Love
There was a boy named Takuya. He lost his right sock two days before, and he hadn’t
found it yet.
Takuya put on his left sock and went to bed.
At night, Takuya felt something strange and woke up. When he looked around, hefound a boy on his bed. The boy really looked like him. But he had no brother! So he
was really afraid of the boy.
The boy looked at Takuya with angry eyes. He said, “What are you doing in my room?
And why are you wearing my left sock? It’s mine!” Takuya tried to talk, but he could
say nothing.
Suddenly, the boy got up. He ran toward Takuya. Takuya was upset and escaped fromhim. But he was faster than Takuya. Takuya was pushed to the wall.
Takuya didn’t know what to do. He was confused. “Who is this boy? Why is he angry
with me?” he thought.
Then the boy jumped and Takuya was almost kicked.
“Ahh!” Takuya shouted. And he was surprised. He was on his bed. Nobody was in hisroom. Then he understood. It was just a dream.
It was five o’clock in the morning. Takuya left his room and went to the toilet. He wasthinking, “It was really scary, and it was a strange dream. I’m glad the dream wasn’t real.
But, why did I dream such a strange dream?”
When he went back to his room, he was really surprised. There was his right sock he
had lost two days before on his bed!
“It is a mystery,” he thought.

10Mike 先生からのコメント
The Teddy Bear
This is a very sweet story, with a happy ending after some sad and scary times.

Just likethe movie Toy Story, it made me think of the period when I was a child and thought my toys
were like real people. I especially like this story because you show the teddy bear's feelings
very well, and also because you include interesting details, such as the teddy bear's buttoneyes and the games that the bear and the little girl played.

Blue Virus
This is a very original story, completely different from the model in New Storyteller. At
first it sounds like a horror story about the end of the world because of a new virus, but then it
has a happy ending.

The story also describes the relationship between Taro and his mothervery well.

Takuya and the Socks
This is a mysterious and imaginative story. You describe Takuya's feelings during hisfrightening dream very well. I wonder who the other boy was. Maybe he was Takuya's twinfrom another world, and maybe he was also looking for a missing sock.

Hide and Seek
I like this story because it is a ghost story, but unlike most ghosts, the ghost in this story isfriendly and just wants to play. The red liquid is not blood but tomato juice. This story
really has many surprises. I think Jack must have felt happy to get this special visit from hismother.

The Fountain
This story has many excellent descriptions, for example, the descriptions of the natural
world in the forest and of the polluted big city in the fountain. I agree with you that the boy
was lucky not to understand that he was seeing the future in the fountain, and I hope that heis still alive now.

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