As promised, here are the other prize winning stories from our Sherlock Holmes Mystery Writing Contest. We hope you enjoy these as much as our judges did!\n\nThe second place prize winning story from Vitalena L.\n
The Race Car Mystery
\n Once upon a time there was a squirrel named Ryan. He had a nice little home in Funderland park. Everything was great till one day somebody took his favorite toy – red race car. Ryan did not know who did that but he wanted to take his toy back. So he decided to solve that mystery. He was looking all around the city and could not find it. He was very sad and did not know what to do. So he called his friend, a girl squirrel June. She was a detective.\n\n“Hi June, it’s Ryan. Somebody stole my favorite toy. I have looked everywhere and couldn’t find it! Could you help me solve this mystery?”\n\n“Hi Ryan, I’ll be glad to help you find your toy! Glad you called! Let’s meet in Funderland Park.”\n\nJune brought her magnifying glass to the park and started looking for clues. She was wearing a detective hat. She looked, and looked, and looked. Finally she found a first clue – paw prints of some animal by the tree where Ryan lived.\n\n“Ryan, do you know whose those paw prints are?” said June.\n\n“No, I have never seen paw prints like that before,” Ryan answered. “How are we going to find out who stole my toy?”\n\n“I’m working on it,” replied June. “Don’t worry; I know what I’m doing. Let’s open my book of paw prints and try to find who the mystery guest is.”\n\nThey opened the book of paw prints and looked inside. But they couldn’t find the paw prints that would look like the ones by the Ryan’s tree.\n\n“Strange. I thought I could solve this mystery right away. What animal could leave paw prints like that?” said June. “I guess we will have to find out later. Let’s look for more clues!”\n\nRyan and June were walking around the tree when they saw a new squirrel. She was making her house in the tree close by. She smiled at Ryan and June and said hi.\n\n“let’s find out who that is.” Said June.\n\nRyan and June came up to the squirrel and introduced themselves.\n\n“My name is Vita”, said the squirrel. “It is very nice to meet you. I’m new here, just moved from Ukraine. Will you be my friends? Do you want to play together?”\n\nRyan really liked Vita, but June thought that Vita could be the one who had stolen Ryan’s race car. She was new there and nobody knew her yet. Although the paw prints they found did not match Vita’s paw prints she felt like something was very suspicious about her.\n\n“What game are you playing?” asked Vita.\n\n“We are looking for my toy race car. I lost it somewhere and can’t find it anywhere!” answered Ryan.\n\n“Have you seen anyone here today, Vita?” asked June.\n\nVita looked surprised. “NO, I haven’t seen anyone at all. I was busy all day unpacking. I have to go now! It was nice to meet you.” Said Vita and ran to her tree. She jumped inside her little house.\n\n“Ryan”, said June. “I think Vita acts strange. She wanted to play with us, but when I asked her if she saw anyone today, she ran away. Do you think she could have taken your toy?”\n\n“No”, replied Ryan. “I think Vita is too nice to be able to steal something. Why would she do something like that?”\n\n“I don’t know. But I’ll find out!” said June.\n\nThat night June decided to hide in the bushes by Vita’s house. She wanted to know more about Ryan’s new neighbor. It was 3 o’clock in the morning when June saw Vita coming out of her little house. It was dark, but June thought Vita looked scared. She was holding something that looked like a car. June thought that she was right. She jumped out of the bushes and caught Vita’s hand.\n\n“What do you have here Vita?” asked June. Vita screamed! “I didn’t steal this car! It was a dragon. I saw him taking the car from Ryan’s house this morning. He was holding the car when he saw Ryan coming back home. The dragon threw the car in my house and told me to hide it or he would eat me! He told me to bring it tonight to the zoo. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I was scared.”\n\n“Ok,” replied June. “I believe you. I saw the paw prints of some animal that was not in my book. Now I understand that those were dragon’s paw prints. Let’s call policeman Bear. He will catch that sneaky dragon.”\n\nThe policemen Bear was sleeping when he received a call from detective June. “I’ll be right there! Thank you detective!”\n\nHe rushed to the zoo and there he saw a dragon. He caught the dragon and put him in a cage. “Don’t steal things from others. You have to ask if you want to play with someone’s toy. It’s not nice. Why did you take Ryan’s toy?”\n\n“I’m sorry”, said the dragon. ”I really liked it.”\n\n“You have to apologize to Ryan!” said Bear.\n\nSquirrel Ryan was very happy to get his race car back. He rushed out of his house to see June and Vita. “Thank you so much, June, for helping me find my toy. Vita, don’t worry; I can still be your friend. I know you did not steal it. It was the dragon’s fault.”\n\n“I’m sorry Ryan” said Vita. “Thank you for being a good friend.”\n\nBy Vitalena L.\nAge: 5\n\nAnd here is the third place prize winning story from Sara S.\n
Mystery of the Lost Treasure Chest
\nHi my name is Emma Pierre, I have red hair, blue eyes and I’m ten years old.\n\nI live in Elko on Pillsbury Street and my story starts right here at school. “Class, today I would like you to write a five paragraph essays about your… “, pssst,” Emma, let’s go on a trip after school.” “Well, I don’t know Kayley.” “C’mon it’ll be fun.” “I still don’t know Kayley.” “I’ll think about it Kay.” “Emma, Kayley pay attention please.” “Yes Mrs. Gitsgey.”\n\nAfter school Kayley said, C’mon over to my house I want to show you something. This map belonged to my great grandfather. I want to go to this island. It has a jungle. That’s where a pot of gold is hidden. “Great, we’ll go Saturday.” “I still don’t know Kayley.” “Come on, where’s your sense of adventure.” What, are you chicken?” “NO! I am not chicken!” Ok I’ll go. “ALL RIGHT!” Let’s start packing, whoa; whoa, Kayley your sense of adventure is much too big. We’ll pack on Friday.\n\nFinally it was Saturday, we were each packed and ready to go, we were going to “borrow” my dad’s motorboat. All right lets go. Kayley, do you even know where we’re going? Oh sure. First I want to go to the pet shop to get a dog to help protect us. I want a dog Emma; I’ll name the dog Poppy. After we purchased the dog, Emma said sorry Kayley but I forgot the food. What? I guess we’ll be going to the food store. When we arrived at the food store we found that there was no food. When we got back we found a picnic basket. Where’d you find it? In the boat. Do you know how to drive the boat? Oh yeah, it’s easy. You tell me where to go and I’ll go there. All right, let’s go. When we got there we were both very hungry. But the picnic basket was gone. Lucky for us there was fruit in the jungle on the island. But we hadn’t expected anyone but us to be here. We were scared half to death when we heard a guitar outside. When we saw who it was we were speechless. It was the janitor from our school! Kayley thought she knew why he was there, but we needed proof before he got away.\n\nToday we were going to look for the pot of gold. We looked everywhere for Kayleys shovel but we just couldn’t find it. When we finally got in the tunnel we realized we forgot our headlamps, suddenly there was a rock avalanche, and it was on top of Kayley! Then a squirrel appeared and started chirping, Kayley followed him right out. We were scared because the school janitor was there. Kayley catch! Now let’s find that gold Emma. Ok but I already found it. How did you find it?! Well I just kept digging until I heard a big KATHUNK! I just knew it was the gold. But Kayley how did you know a pot of gold was here? My mom’s mom told me.\n
The End
\nBy Sara S.\nAge: 8\n
