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Story Jungle Writing Competition 2013
“Once Upon a Time…An Adapted Fairy Tale”
(The stories have not been edited.)
1st Place for 8-10 age group
Julian Owen Yip (Age 8, Chinese International School)
The Frog Prince
A long time ago, a prince was born. He was very handsome. But as he grew, he
started smoking a lot, killing lots of animals through hunting and cutting lots of trees
to make space for his palaces and battlefields.
Everybody in that country was upset about this but nobody dared to complain
because they were all scared of the king. The king loved the prince so much that he
didn't even try to stop him. The prince made the country very gloomy, dirty and
smelly.
There was a wizard in the village who decided to stop the prince's behaviours. He
turned himself invisible and slipped silently into the castle. He reached the prince's
room and pointed his wand at him. He said quietly (as he didn't want to let the king
hear him), "Wakawaza!" ZAP! The next thing he knew, the prince found himself
sitting on a lily pad in a pond. As for the wizard, he escaped the castle without a
trace.
When the king realized that the prince was gone, he was furious. The next day, he
immediately gathered all citizens in the country. Once everybody was there, he
thundered, "Who kidnapped my son!" Nobody raised his hand. Instead, everyone put
on frowns and started murmuring. But deep down, everyone was extremely happy
that the prince was gone.
Meanwhile, the prince was lying on the rock unconscious. He had fainted because
he looked down and saw that he was all green with webbed feet and hands….. he
was an ugly, slimy frog!!!
After a while, he recovered and started crying days and nights. Soon, he realized
that it didn't help at all. He started thinking about the problem instead. Before long,
Story Jungle Writing Competition 2013
“Once Upon a Time…An Adapted Fairy Tale”
(The stories have not been edited.)
he realized the reason why the wizard had changed him into a frog. He looked
around. The air was humid and dirty and the sky was filled with pollution. He decided
to remedy his mistakes.
He called every remaining frog who survived the pollution in the village to come. The
prince told the frogs the plan for his mission. They supported his idea. Quickly, they
split and gathered every frog in the whole country who immediately got on to work in
accordance with the prince's directions. They scooped up huge piles of soil. Then,
they smothered the soil onto stones to create a message. They lined the stones
along the coast of the pond, ready for the blazing sun to dry up the soil. After two
days, the messages were finally set on the stones. They gathered up some huge,
wide leaves and loaded them with the stones. They set the leaves on the long,
flowing river and then they went off, passing stones to every house they came by.
Soon, all the people in the country read the messages and decided to carry out the
prince's mission.
After months of hard work of the frogs and the people in the country, the air finally
became clean and the country was completely different! There were no more wars
and battles. Everybody had filtered the air by planting lots of trees and cycled
reusable materials. There were grass and plants everywhere. The smell of flowers
spread miles away!
The people attributed the success of the mission to the frog prince. Some of the
people went to the pond to thank the prince, some sent him thank you notes, and
some gave him flowers. Everybody was happy, especially the frog prince. This was
the first time the prince ever had so many friends. He felt so strange, but in a good
way.
There was a princess who especially liked the change and would like to meet the
legendary frog. She spent a day finding the pond where the frog prince lived. By the
time the sun was setting, she found the pond. She shouted, "Mr. Frog? Where are
you?"A little green frog came hopping to her feet. "Thanks for what you have done!"
She kissed the frog prince. There was a gigantic flash and suddenly the frog prince
turned back into a human! The spell was broken!
Story Jungle Writing Competition 2013
“Once Upon a Time…An Adapted Fairy Tale”
(The stories have not been edited.)
Soon the prince and the princess fell in love and got married. But the prince never
forgot the frogs who helped him succeed his mission. Every afternoon the prince
would go to the pond to see them. After the prince died, people still often found a
bunch of frogs hopping around the prince's grave.
BONUS FEATURES
This story is adapted from the famous fairy tale, "The Frog Prince". I want to bring
out the message that sometimes a person has to do something deeper (unlike
simply picking up a golden ball in a pond) to earn respect from others. If you are very
kind, people will respect and love you, no matter how ugly and slimy you are.