Tales from the Wish Zone

Find amazing short stories by kids featured from June 2020 at The Story Tree.

The Story Tree brings innovative and magical stories from children's book authors to kids--and to anyone of any age who loves a good story. In a special feature in the summer of 2020, each story was narrated by voice artist, author, and producer Nina B. If you write for kids, or just love to hear to their stories, check out their website to submit and listen to our episodes at www.thestorytree.org

Nina writes, “At The Story Tree, we want to support the children’s book writing community by getting more stories out into the world. There are so many important and beautiful narratives that don’t reach an audience because they are in oral or folk tradition, or they are local interest stories or cultural tales that don’t fit the traditional publishing market. Audio publishing is a new way to share that wonderful tradition to a wider audience in a beautiful, creative, and unique way through audio podcasts. That’s where we come in. Find us on all your listening devices.”

Nina Bricko has an MFA in Creative Writing for Children from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. A former Amazon publishing Associate Editor and Project Manager for Amazon Crossing (the translation imprint dedicated to bringing diverse voices to English speakers) she teaches at Madison College and serves as the co-founder and director of Mighty Seeds Forest School and Outdoor Daycare in Madison, Wisconsin.

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Short Stories by Kids for Kids

Tales from the Wish Zone is a collection of stories for kids by kids from age 7 all the way to 8th grade. This collection features winning stories from our annual contest which includes children from across the globe writing in English. These adventures boast all the greats: elves, dragons, detectives, and school principals along with young heroes who not only share their creative writing with you, they share their “Wish for the World.” Read work by the next-gen and catch their vision for the future. Included are 9 writers prompts for young writers and a place for them to make their wish and write their story.

This book project was inspired by working with young writers. We want writers of all ages to share their creativity and imagination with the world. Story sharing is something we all need. It empowers writers and audiences. That's why we started a small press for short stories and poetry. Short stories are a huge tradition in every culture. They are something that can stick with you over time, something that fits into your pocket, that you can take anywhere.

We wanted a chance to share with young people how fun it is to write a story and even better to share one. Thank you to these brave kids from around the world who entered their stories into our contest in 2018. We chose stories from a variety of age groups and each story highlights a different genre. In December of 2019, the collection was published as an interactive book. Inside, the wishes of these authors for the world with prompts and space for you to write your own story and your own wishes.

What the next generation believes and hopes for their world is important, and when we listen to each other we can help our wishes come true!

Polly Alice McCann, Managing Editor of Flying Ketchup Press

Our next contest is called Tales from Castle Keep. Send us your stories about magic, adventure, royalty, or mysterious castles, palaces, and ancient places. The contest will end on June 30th at Midnight Central Standard Time. If you'd like to be published in the next collection, please send us your writing or art. The link to our submittable entry page is on our website.