Osnovna škola Ljudevita Gaja Nova Gradiška

U ožujku 2018. izdavačka kuća Profil Klett objavila je natječaj Let's build a story!, koji je osmišljen kako bi kod učenika potaknuo kreativno izražavanje na stranom jeziku te razvoj zdravih čitalačkih navika.

Zadatak je bio napisati priču od 800-1000 riječi na engleskom jeziku na temu 9 zadanih sličica. Učenici od 5. do 8. razreda pokazali su veliku zainteresiranost te je na natječaj pristiglo 468 priča hrvatskih osnovnoškolaca. Među njima su bile i priče učenika naše škole, Lane Ivičić (7.c), Josipa Balint-Feudvarskog (7.d) i Kristijana Kneževića (6.d), koji su uz podršku mentorice Mirele Tomić uronili u fantastičan svijet mašte. 13 najboljih priča bit će objavljeno u knjizi. Članice stručnog žirija - Paula Accattoli, ime koje stoji iza uspješne serije prilagođenih lektira izdavačke kuće ELI; zatim Mirela Priselac Remi, pjesnikinja, prevoditeljica i frontwoman banda Elemental te Tena Štivičić, nagrađivana dramaturginja i autorica s londonskom adresom, imale su nimalo lak zadatak i odlučile da priča The Forest of Joy and a Mad Scientist, autora Kristijana Kneževića te priča Saving the Fox, autora Josipa Balint-Feudvarskog zaslužuju posebnu pohvalu i priznanje. Oni su pokazali zavidno znanje engleskoga jezika, kreativnost i iznimne spisateljske sposobnosti. Čestitke ovim mladim autorima, a evo i njhovih priča.

Let's build a story!

The Forest of Joy and a Mad Scientist

by KRISTIJAN KNEŽEVIĆ, grade 6

Once there was a group of friends who called themselves The Guardians of Nature. They really liked playing in the forest and around it. There was Bill Tableson, his sister Lisa Tableson and their friends, Barr the Bear, Zippy the Squirel and Olivia the Bunny. They were very happy playing together and exploring the forest.

Meanwhile, in a secret lab deep below the ground lived a very crazy man. He had no friends or family, but that's the way he liked it. He built deadly lasers, plotted evil pland and descoverd new ways of causing destruction on daily basis. His name was Radogen Cogner. The Guardins of Nature were unaware of his existence at that point in time. 

Some more time passed and Halloween came. Out friendly group decided to go Trick-or-treating. Bill was a dragon, Lisa an Indian, Barr was a pirate, Zippy was a Bat Squirrel and Olivia was a knight.They all had funny weapons like an umbrella, a broom and whatnot. As they always do, they had fun Trick-or-treating. They got a lot of candies. Three full baskets.

While the friends were collecting goodies, Radogen was making a breakthrough. Three days of no sleep, but he did it. He made a hypnotic ray. With his new weapon he could hypnotise anyone anywhere to do anythyng he wanted. He laughed for a while and then he activated the ray. Among other evil plots he hypnotized some woodmen to cut down the forest where The Guardians of nature played every day. When our funny lot came back from Trick-or-treating all they saw was a bunch of stumps and workers.

One of the workers dropped some papers so they snatched them. They found out everything about the destruction of the forest and they decided to avange the whole town because everyone had nice memories from the forest. In a matter of hours there were news of the strange and sudden incident. The group immediatelly decided to take action about the destroyed forest.

They went to Bill and Lisa's attic where they had a lot of stuff that could help. Actually, the only thing that could help in this situation was a pair of binoculars. It was evening so they decided to search for Radogen the next day.

In the morning they met up and went to search for Radogen following the papers that the worker dropped. After hours of search they stumbled upon a hatch. Well, it was actually thirty meters away when they noticed it with the binoculars.

They entered the hatch and found a secret lab and Radogen himself. He started chasing them, laughing like a maniac. However, they escaped and hid successfully. Barr realised that they were hiding in a time machine, one of Radogan's incentions. It took them a while to figure out how to use the magnificent machine. They travelled back in time to three days before the hypnotic ray was invented. They appeared at the same place in the lab. The mad scientist noticed them so he got angry again. They tricked him into going into the time machine that was set to 300 B.C. Radogen travelled to even greater past and The Guardians of Nature travelled back to the present. When they came back to their town, the forest was where it had always been. They were all happy about what they have done.

Everything was good except for one thing. Since the time had been altered there were bound to be consequences. But that's a story for another day.

Saving the Fox

by JOSIP BALINT-FEUDVARSKI, grade 7

Once upon a time a fox lived in a large forest. His name was Foxy. He liked to climb trees and play all day. He had five best friends: a bear called Bob, a squirrel named Eevee, a bunny called Lola, a boy called Jesse and a girl named Petra.The kids slept with the animals because they thought their parents were dead.

One day something  terrible happened. When Foxy the fox woke up, he saw a lot of dredges that were removing the trees from the forest. By the time he got closer, the forest was gone. The only thing that was left were stumps. He was scared. He wanted to get to his friends but suddenly a big man looking like his friend Jesse grabbed him and took him into a big cage with a lot of other animals.

“Hello! My name is Foxy! Does anyone know what’s happening?” - Foxy asked politely.

“No, we don’t.” – a strange white fox answered.

Then she started telling a story:

“I was sleeping in my house when I heard loud sounds. I came out of my house and saw big dredges that were cutting down the trees and taking them away. I panicked. Then, I got caught. And then they took me to this cage.” - she finished her story.

I hope my friends come to help me! - Foxy thought.

Foxy was really scared. He thought his friends didn’t see him being taken away in a cage.

But his friends DID see him. Jesse saw everything with his binoculars and told his friends about it. They looked frightened. Then, Jesse made up a plan.

“We have to save Foxy! He’s our friend.” - Jesse said.

“But what if we get caught?” - Petra asked him.

“I don’t know. But we  HAVE to save him. If we don’t save him, who knows what could happen to him!” - Jesse said.

Bob just gave them a thumbs-up, and Lola continued to eat her carrot.

“We first have to prepare! We need to put on some costumes!” - Jesse said.

After about ten minutes, they had their costumes on, a dragon, a warrior, Batman, a pirate and an Indian.Then they set off to save the fox.

Meanwhile, an old man was looking at his photo album. He was looking at pictures of his children. 7 years ago they had gone missing in a National Park. He was really sad. He wanted to hug his kids. If only his wife didn’t die in a car accident, he would have someone!

“Ahh… I wish my children were here so I could play with them. That would be awesome.” - he said sadly.

While that was going on, Foxy was talking to other animals, but nobody seemed to know what was happening. As they were passing by a big structure, Foxy overheard a high voice yelling at the workers:

“Hurry up! We have to have the wood by tomorrow and we don’t even have half of what we need!”

“Yes, boss! We’re on our way!” -the workers said.

Then, they left.

Our five heroes were on their way to save Foxy. They were all ready for whatever they might face. When they arrived they spied on the boss of the camp. He was a scientist. They had to get rid of him if they wanted to save Foxy, so they made a plan. In the shadows they looked like monsters. Then, they came to the scientist’s door and scared him to death! He  freaked out and ran away. TThey went to the cages, and Bob unlocked them. But they didn’t find Foxy. Other animals told them he was taken away by the humans as a test subject. They quickly ran into the building and went looking for Foxy. They found just a map. The map showed a big castle with a mark that said: FOX. They immediately knew that that was Foxy.

“Let’s go!” - Jesse said happily.

They travelled for two days. On their way, they found a big forest. They marked the forest on their map and wrote: THE NEW FOREST. Then, they proceeded to the big castle. When they made it to the castle, they saw big statues of foxes. When they came in, they saw a lot of foxes walking around. Then, one of them yelled:

“Hey, you! Foxy is expecting you!”

While Bob was translating to them the thing the fox said, they followed the fox into a giant room. At the end of the room, there was a throne and Foxy was sitting on it. They couldn’t believe their eyes.

“Come, my friends!” - Foxy said happily.

They approached Foxy. Then Foxy started telling his story:

“I was waiting in the cage hoping that you would come, when suddenly a big fox took me out of the cage. He told me I was the long lost King’s Son. They took me to meet him. I was really happy.” -Foxy said with great joy.

Then, Jesse and Petra remembered that they also missed their parents. When Foxy realized what he had said, he felt sorry. A fox came into the room and whispered something to Foxy. The second Foxy heard what he said, he smiled.

“Your father! He also lives in this castle!” - Foxy said.

The next second, the children were running to the room their father was in. When he saw them, he was so happy that he started smiling. They were so joyful.

“I have something for you in the attic!” - their father said.

They went to the attic and found a big chest. When they opened it, they saw a lot of toys. They took off to have new adventures in the woods they marked on the map.

As for the scientist, he didn’t return to the woods because he thought there were monsters there. He started creating light bulbs and nice stuff like that. And that’s where the story ends.

Save the Wood

by LANA IVIČIĆ, grade 7

In a little town, near a big wood lived a boy named Jack. He lived with his parents and his little sister Emma. Jack and Emma were very playful and every day they went to the wood to play. Why there? Because there lived a witty bear called Ted who always made them laugh, a little white rabbit Oscar who was so cute, probably because of his size and a brave squirrel Olivia, she has always wanted to be a super squirrel. Life for them was easy and fun: just playing, listening to Ted’s jokes and Olivia’s stories about bravery and watching cute Oscar. Everything was great until something bad happened...

It was Monday like all the others, Jack and Emma woke up, had breakfast and then they went to the woods. But before they took off their father had shown them the photo album. In the album there were pictures of him as a child. They saw how he used to play in the wood where they play, too and he told them: "Always protect that wood,it means so much to me." After that they went away.

On the way to the wood they met Oscar, Olivia and Ted. They were worried and scared so Jack asked them what had happened. They told him that some people are cutting their wood. Jack immediately took the binoculars and look through them to see the wood, he was terrified and he couldn’t believe what he saw. Emma grabbed the binoculars to see what happened, when she looked she almost started crying. Everything that Oscar, Olivia and Ted said was true. Jack said that they would protect the wood as his father had told them to do, they would fight to the last moment!

When they came to the wood they saw a terrible scene: there were three big machines which were taking the trees away. There was also a fox who was crying because she lost her home. Then they realized that they really have to do something.

For the first time Emma and her brother came home with their wood friends. They went to the attic of the house. There was a big chest in the middle of the attic. Emma, Jack and their friends came to the chest and opened it. They found a lot of old things. They took some of that for the battle (Oliva dressed up as a supersquirrel, of course). They also found a very interesting map but they didn’t know what it meant. They thought a little and then Jack said : "Maybe my father knows what it means!" They quickly ran out to the yard and Emma screamed: "Daddy, look what we've found!" When she showed him the map he just said: "Ah, it’s a long story." But Emma didn’t give up: "Tell us daddy, please." After a while he gave in and started a story...

He told them about a man his age. His name was Henry. Even as a child he always wanted to explore space. His biggest wish was to go to the Moon. All his life he was trying to find a way how to do it . He knew everything about space and planets. Emma’s father and him were good friends until that flight... Well, how to put it, after he invented his first rocket that he tried to fly. But it wasn’t successful. He crashed. Everyone was laughing because he hadn't succeeded. He was ashamed. Every day they were teasing him. Emma’s father didn’t hang out with him anymore because if he did they would tease him, too. Henry was sad and angry and he swore that he would go to the Moon and then he would be gone, forever. But before that he showed Emma’s father a map. On the map there was  red cross and he said that he will fly from there. Emma and her friends recognized their wood. They realized why the wood was cut down.

They took a map and went to Henry. He was working in his lab. They entered the lab and attacked Henry. He was scared and asked what was happening. They told him that they would defeat him to protect their wood. He said: „I don’t want to fight with you, we can solve this calmly.“ Emma and her friends were suprised, they thought he was bad but he told them that he was just a poor sciencist who wasn't lucky and that they could make a deal if they wanted. They said yes, so the story finished well. They all went to the wood and they planted trees, after that Emma and her friends helped Henry to make his rocket. After a long time they succeed and Henry went to the Moon. He was so happy. Emma and her friends were happy, too because they had their wood again.