First prize 10 and under
Samuel Jiang-Yu, age 10Hingham, MA
Ladybug’s Mustache
Pudding zipped all over the walls of the library, hanging streamers everywhere she went. All around her, every-buggy was getting George and Tail’s birthday party ready. Zoot and Pudding were in charge of decorating, Marty and Tater were preparing cake and pizza, and Muffin and Sluggo were the gift wrappers. Ladybug was yelling “Hurry up, wimps!” and “We don’t have all day!” Cricket was telling her to stop. Neither was contributing much.
Suddenly, a commotion happened in the room. Zoot was lifted into the air as he grabbed and detached a balloon from the weight it was held to. As the poor shrew was whisked up, Zoot’s spectacles fell off, leaving him blindly hanging from the balloon on the ceiling.
Everybuggy in the room rushed to Zoot’s aid. As all seven bugs ran toward Zoot, Ladybug stumbled over a bookshelf, knocking over Muffin, who flew into Sluggo, who sailed into the wall, knocking down streamers and popping balloons. Meanwhile, Marty tossed a pin to Pudding, who snatched Zoot’s glasses.
As Zoot writhed about, Pudding jammed his glasses on his face and stabbed his balloon. The balloon exploded so forcefully that it flew around the room. Zoot lost the grip of the balloon and was thrown into the wall, which caused more streamers and decorations to fall.
Cricket ran up. “Oh no!” he said. “What will we do? The party starts soon!”
Tater started to mumble something. Then he stopped. Cricket
