Elora students win short story contest

WELLINGTON COUNTY – A Grade 4 student and a Grade 5 student, both from Elora, are the winners of the seventh annual Olive and Fred Robins Junior Short Story Contest.

The Wellington County Library contest is held each October, inviting county students in Grades 4 to 6 to submit original short stories between 500 and 750 words.

Entries are judged anonymously and winners are selected based on creativity and originality, story structure, style and quality of writing, including spelling and grammar.

Elora’s Everlee Williams and Jace Moore are the two 2025 top prize winners, earning $150 cash prizes. Williams’ winning entry follows.

The Enchanted Forest

By Everlee Williams

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Dorthy. One day Dorthy was walking down her favourite path, one she had traveled many times before. Suddenly the path magically split in two! Dorthy was shocked.

She looked down at her stuffed cat and said, “Which one should I choose?” But just then one of the paths glowed a bright yellow.

She decided to take that path. Dorthy hugged her cat tightly because behind her was a ginormous creature! Dorthy ran as fast as she could but the figure kept following her.

At the end of the trail there was a tiny blue cabin. Dorthy ran inside and locked the doors.

When she turned around it was a humongous library! She was so exited! As Dorthy headed towards a big green book, she heard keys jangling at the door. Her heart sped up.

She wondered what was on the other side. The door creaked open but the creature was nothing Dorthy could have ever imagined. It was a giant Troll!

“H-hello,” she said. “My name is Dorthy.”

“Mine is Otto,” replied the Troll. “Do you want to be friends?” Otto said.

“Sure! I’ve never been friends with a Troll before,” Dorthy said.

“How do you like my library?” said Otto.

“This is your library? I love it!”

“Really?” said Otto. “If you like it so much keep it. You can be the librarian of Magic Path Library.”

“Really?” Dorthy said, surprised and full of wonder.

Otto nodded.

They spent day and night reading all the books in Magic Path Library. Finally, Dorthy went to grab the last book in the library that hadn’t been read.

The book was in a beautiful box with engravings on it like flowers and fairies. When Dorthy opened the box, the book was gone.

She heard fluttering noises behind her.

Dorthy turned around as slowly as she could. She looked up and there was the book flying in mid air.

Dorthy let out the loudest scream ever, and Otto rushed towards her.

“Shh,” he said. “Some of the books are alive and have feelings so if they don’t know you or you don’t have fairy dust they will fly into the air! If you’re no longer scared of the book we have some catching to do!”

Dorthy and Otto spent all day and night trying to catch the book. Finally, the book seemed to be getting a little tired.

Dorthy managed to climb the ladder and catch it by surprise.

She gave the book to Otto. Otto sprinkled beautiful golden pixie dust on the book and put the book back in its beautiful box.

“Dorthy, because you are the keeper of Magic Path Library, I think it’s time you get your own pixie dust.”

They walked to the nearest pixie tree and Otto asked if the pixie had any pixie dust. The pixie said she did. She quickly flew inside and came out with a bottle of golden dust that sparkled in the sunlight.

She whispered in Dorthy’s ear, “Do you promise to protect this dust with your life?”

Dorthy nodded and said “I do!”

The pixie gave Dorthy the dust and she and Otto went back to the beautiful library.

Back at the library, Otto turned the bottle full of dust into a necklace so she would never lose it.

Dorthy and Otto spent many years living at the library and making new friends with all the wonderful and magical creatures that visited.

When Dorthy went to sleep that night she dreamed about the library.

When she woke up, she was back at her house with her mom, dad, and brother, but she promised herself she would never forget the friends she had made and she would definitely never forget Otto.

The end.

The Tech World vs. Grandpa and Leo

By Jace Moore

My name is Leo and I’m very excited because I get to spend the day with my grandpa.

I biked over to Grandpa’s, pressed his doorbell, waited 20 seconds then I opened the door and yelled,

“Hi Grandpa, are you ready for our day?”

Grandpa said, “I’ve been looking forward to it Leo!”

I told Grandpa that I don’t think his video doorbell is working.

Grandpa laughed and said, “I unplugged it. The crazy thing kept talking to me and my phone kept beeping. Whatever happened to knocking?”

We went into the kitchen. Grandpa walked over to the sink and waved his hand under the tap, but nothing happened. I didn’t know what was wrong, but I waved my hand under tap and the water turned on.

“What! I did the exact same thing,” my grandpa said.

I grinned and told him, “I guess it just likes me better”. That made him laugh.

At lunch time I asked grandpa if we could go to my favourite burger place. Grandpa agreed.  As he drove us there, he told me all about the good old days when you had to start a car with a real key.

When we arrived, Grandpa looked around and shouted, “Hello, where do we order?”

“Grandpa, Grandpa, we order on the screen here,” I said quietly.

I explained how to click on what you want to eat.

Grandpa started pressing buttons and said, “Ok, well I don’t want fries. Ugh! Why does it say that’s what I want!”

I offered to do it and picked food for the both of us.

“Thanks Leo,” said Grandpa as we sat down to eat.

After we finished eating, Grandpa asked me if I would like to go to the grocery store with him.

I said, “Ok Grandpa I’ll come, but can I get some ice cream?”

Grandpa nodded. When we were ready to pay for our stuff there was only one pay counter open and there was a huge line up. So I showed Grandpa the self-checkout area.

It was pretty frustrating, especially when Grandpa was trying to scan the bananas.

Twenty minutes later we walked out of the store and Grandpa was shocked.

“Why did no one check my groceries? I could have walked out with a whole chicken” he said.

When Grandpa and I finished putting his groceries away at his house, I asked, “Can we go watch a movie at the theater, Grandpa?”

“Why not, get in the car,” he said.

We walked into the cinema but we couldn’t find a line to get tickets for Super Spider. We saw some teenagers using their phones to get movie tickets.

I told Grandpa, “I think you have to buy the tickets on your phone.”

Grandpa’s reply was one of his funny old sayings. “Da’burn it, ok young buck here’s my phone and wallet. I need to go wash my mitts before we get some snacks.”

I soon figured it out, and was waiting in line for popcorn when grandpa came back.

We walked into the theater and found some good seats when a kid yelled, “Who’s got seat 67?”

Grandpa looked down and said surprised, “I do.”

Then every kid in the theatre yelled “6, 7.”

Grandpa smiled and asked, “Who has seat 41?”

I started to laugh and so did the other kids after they repeated the number, “41.”

I looked up at Grandpa very confused.

He shrugged and said, “I heard those kids in the hall saying it. What does it mean?” he asked.

“It’s a meme and it means the same thing as 6,7, so really nothing, it’s just fun to say.”

“Oh,” Grandpa said and we sat back to watch the movie together.

The next day at school our teacher assigned a project to build something creative.

My first thought was of Grandpa. My grandpa can build anything and every summer we do a woodworking project together.

I ran over to Grandpa’s and asked if he could help me get started on a wooden spinning top in his workshop.

Grandpa smiled and said, “All right Leo, we need some pine, tools and time. Come along and I’ll teach you the steps”.

I got an A+ on my project, and Grandpa and I started a woodworking channel on YouTube called Leo and Grandpa’s Workshop.

So far we have 67 subscribers and counting.