Eleven-year-old Mason Gagne and nine-year-old Eurykah Watanabe Aggabao have some wild imaginations.
The James Bay Elementary School students wrote two short stories about characters who face a host of unlikely events and get themselves into trouble all at well-known places in Victoria.
Watanabe Aggabao's short story takes place in Ogden Point, where two girls, Sally and Casey find their enemy throwing pop cans into the ocean.
The two characters try and collect the cans, but end up falling into the ocean.
“She wakes up and tries to get to shore. But there were only two ways to get back to shore: through a black hole or by training the dragon,” said the Grade 4 student.
After being swallowed whole by the dragon, they make it back to shore and arrest the person throwing the garbage cans into the ocean.
Watanabe Aggabao wrote the story to emphasize the need to keep the environment clean.
“Don't throw anything into the ocean,” she said.
Gagne's story also features animals with an unusual twist.
His story takes place in Beacon Hill Park where a kid is riding his bike.
“When he went there, he felt something strange. There was no one there because it's usually crowded,” he said. “He went to seed the ducks but they had half metal faces and one big glowing eye.”
This sets off a chain of action-packed events that eventually leads the ducks heads to shoot off their bodies in a fireworks on the fourth of July style celebration.
“I had no idea this would be published so I wanted to write something so obnoxious,” said Gagne.
Their stories are part of a book called Victoria Imagined: Stories by Local Kids, that is being published by Friesen Press in collaboration with the Story Studio Writing Society
Twenty stories by 15 kids from five schools in the school district were chosen by a panel of judges to be printed in the book.
“It shows how their imagination develops. It shows them having fun with twisting things and letting things grow,” said Paisley Aiken, founder and chair of the Story Studio.
“These kids bring them back and share them with their families so it promotes family literacy and it shows that they have pride in what they've finished.”
On Friday, May 8, the society is celebrating the launch of the book with book signings, crafts and performances by well-known children's artists at the Parkside Hotel, 810 Humboldt St. From 6-9:30 p.m.
To RSVP to the event, email victoriaimagined@gmail.com.