Aaaand. . . they’re in the starting gate!
It’s time for Week #2 of the 2023 Mix ‘n’ Match Mini Writing Challenge!
HUZZAH!!!
Mix ‘n’ Match Mini is a writing challenge for anyone who needs a little boost or a little encouragement to get writing….or maybe just a little fun!
You get to write your own story, enjoy and be entertained by everyone else’s stories, and get yourself in the running for some awesome prizes (please see the end of the blog post for a list of all the prize goodies…which keeps getting added to!)
For a full description of the challenge or to enter your Week #1 entry, please go HERE.
Let’s jump into Week #2!
Mix ‘n’ Match Mini Writing Prompt #2 for Week of May 15:
Today, we’re going to write an Origin Story! (At least, the origin of certain characteristics if not exactly the origin of the creature itself.) In the tradition of Rudyard Kipling’s “How The Camel Got Its Hump” and “How The Leopard Got Its Spots”, we’re going to give some characteristics to some other members of the animal kingdom.
Will we stick to exact facts? Only if we want to! Be as factual or as imaginative as you like! Maybe sea horses got their home in the ocean because they complained about the dry heat of the desert… but as a result they lost the breathtaking speed of their four-legged, land-living horse counterparts!
Choose a critter from Column A, a verb from Column B, and a characteristic from Column C and write a story entitled How The _______ _______ His/Her/Its _______ (i.e. How The Camel Got Its Hump, How The Turtle Lost His Speed, How The Tsetse Fly Found Her Home . . )
| Column A | Column B | Column C |
| Rhinoceros | Got | Wings |
| Jaguar | Lost | Color |
| Butterfly | Found | Name |
| Owl | Home | |
| Rattlesnake | Temper | |
| Snail | Pattern | |
| Ladybug | Speed | |
| Whale | Voice |
- Stories can rhyme or not – totally up to you!
- You can go under or over 100 words if you want to – also totally up to you! – 100 is just a guideline
- If you’re deeply inspired by another set of words, go for it! – the purpose here is inspiration and to get you writing! Just tell us what words you’re using!
- For simplicity’s sake (and to aid skimming readers who might be interested in a particular thing) please say which column items you’re using at the top of your entry along with your name, title, and word count.
For example:
How The Camel Got His Hump
by Marcia Writer
107 words
camel, got, hump
So come join the fun! Get some writing done! Encourage your kids (or students) to give it a try! Or just have a good time together reading what other folks have written!
Post your Week #2 story in the comment section below, or, if you have trouble for any reason and can’t post yourself you may email it to me using the Contact Form and I will post it for you.
Ready, set, WRITE! 😊
(And remember, for full details on the 7 week challenge you can check HERE.)
Check out the Week #2 stories!
How the Jaguar Got His Wings – Elizabeth Meyer zu Heringdorf
How the Owl Lost Her Voice – Katie McEnaney
How the Owl Lost His Voice – Elyse Trevers
How the Rattlesnake Got Her Voice – Kelly Clasen
I Am Rafi – Dianne Borowski
How The Rattlesnake Got His Name – Tomi Rues
How Whale Lost His Voice – Leslie Degnan
How Gail The Snail Found Home – B. Holland Paley
How Bubbles Butterfly Got Her Wings – Dawn Renee Young
How Dung Beetle Lost His Dinner – Ryann Jones
How Snail Lost His Speed – Kelly Kates
How the Butterfly Got Its Name – Debbie J. Arnn
How The Snail Got Her Wings – Tiffany Hanson
The Ugly Caterpillar – Ellie Langford
How the Rhinoceros “Found” His Temper – Susan E. Schipper
How the Rhinoceros Got His Temper – Elizabeth Thoms Charles
How The Ladybug Got Its Dots – Haley Hendrickson
How The Ladybug Got Her Wings – Julie Hauswirth
How Sloth Lost Her Speed – Sara Kruger
Ladybug Finds Her Temper – Linda Schueler
How Snail Found A Home – Lyn Jekowsky
How Crow Lost its Song – Marie Prins
How Snail Got His Temper – Angel Gantnier
How Rhino Lost His Wings (…And Got His Horns) – Bri Lawyer
How to be a Snail: a Kid’s Perspective – Lauren N. Simmons
How The Rhino Got His Spots – Marta Cutler
Jaguar’s Spotty Dotty Pattern – Jill Lambert
How Sydney Snail Lost his Home (and Found Freedom) – Patricia Nozell
How Roberta The Rhino Found Her Temper – by Colleen Murphy
Snail Finds A Home – Penny Taub
How the Animals Got Their Voices – Sarah Meade
How The Barn Owl Found His Home – Stephanie Maksymiw
How Whale Found His Home – Jenna Elyse Johnson
How Jaguar Found His Spots – Mary Zychowicz
How Ladybugs Got Their Name – Bev Schellenberg
How Owls Got Their Hoo – Ashley Sierra
How Butterflies Got Their Patterns – Julie Kurtz
How the Ladybug Got Its Spots – Julie Kurtz
How the Snail Lost its Speed – Ben Jeder
How Sully Snail Lost His Speed – Michelle S. Kennedy
Hedgehog Needs A Hobby – Krithika Santhanam
Why The Ladybug Kept Her Spots – Elizabeth Muster
How The Snail Found Her Speed – Isabel C. Rodriguez
How Snail Lost His Speed – Sara Petersohn
How Snail Got Its Home – Beth Volkmann
How The Train Got Its Toot – Lauri Meyers
Whale Song – Jen Subra
How Rhinoceros Got Her Wings: A Story of John and Delphinium – Sally Yorke-Viney
Whale Wings – Deb Buschman
How The Rhinoceros Lost Its Wings (or Where The Unicorns Went) – Royal Baysinger
When it comes time for prizes, names of all those who completed the challenge will be drawn randomly and matched with prizes drawn randomly until we run out! 😊
⭐️ Picture Book Manuscript Critique from Penny Parker Klostermann, talented author of THERE WAS AN OLD DRAGON WHO SWALLOWED A KNIGHT (Random House 2015) and A COOKED-UP FAIRY TALE (Random House 2017) as well as the forthcoming SPIDER LADY: Nan Songer and Her Arachnid WWII Army (Astra/Calkins Creek 2025) and another as yet unannounced 😊
⭐️ Mary Munson and Kate Talbot are offering a “Love Bundle”. They are the author and illustrator of LOVE WILL TURN YOU AROUND. Mary will sign the book and send swag (US only), and Kate will offer a critique (picture book manuscript OR art, winner’s choice!)
⭐️ Picture Book Manuscript Critique OR Ask-Me-Anything Chat OR a signed copy of SCIENCE, MATTER AND THE BASEBALL PARK (winner’s choice!) from author Catherine Ciocchi. Catherine is a multi-published author and a teacher with a knack for STEM-themed rhyming texts. Her books include SCIENCE, MATTER AND THE BASEBALL PARK (Gnome Road Publishing, March 28, 2023) and THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND (Arbordale Publishing, May 2015)
⭐️ a 20 minute Zoom or phone Ask Me Anything with Jilanne Hoffman, author of 2 board books, THE HONEY BEAR HIVE (Mudpuppy January 2023), HAPPY CAMPER (Mudpuppy January 2022), and the forthcoming picture book A RIVER OF DUST
⭐️ Copy Editing/Proofreading Of Up To 5 Picture Book Texts (All Types and Lengths) from Elizabeth Meyer zu Heringdorf, professional technical writer and copy editor.
Elizabeth Meyer zu Heringdorf
⭐️ a first read-through recording package from children’s author and poet Sarah Meade, contributor to HOP TO IT: POEMS TO GET YOU MOVING (Pomelo Books, 2020!) where she will read aloud and record up to five PB manuscripts for one author (1,000 words or less each, fiction or nonfiction, rhyming or non-rhyming) so you can hear how your stories sound to someone who is unfamiliar with them on a first read-through! Very helpful and emlightening!
⭐️ Ask Infowoman: A Library Consult Regardless of where you are in your writing career – brand new or seasoned author – Kathy Halsey has a wealth of information to help you! From insight into what books school librarians need/want in their collections (which can help you target your writing for success) to helping you create an engaging school visit and all kinds of things between…and beyond… check out her website to see what this fantastic prize can offer you!
Kathy Halsey currently serves on the State Library of Ohio’s “Choose to Read Ohio” program and writes curricular toolkits for SLO’s award-winning children’s books. She is a former K-12 school librarian, seventh grade English teacher, and bookseller for a children’s independent bookstore. Her first work for hire board book releases fall, 2023.
2019 PBChat Mentorship
SCBWI Ohio Central-South Co-Assistant Regional Advisor
Former Community Manager, Storyteller Academy
Ohio Educational Library Media Association Past President
⭐️ a signed copy of ANIMALS IN SURPRISING SHADES: POEMS ABOUT EARTH’S COLORFUL CREATURES (Gnome Road Publishing, March 28, 2023)from author Susan Johnston Taylor! This book is great for classrooms and recommended by SLJ!
⭐️ a copy of Becky Scharnhorst‘s brand new picture book – just coming out tomorrow! – HOW TO GET YOUR OCTOPUS TO SCHOOL (Flamingo Books, May 16, 2023)
⭐️ A signed copy of Susanna Leonard Hill’s ALPHABEDTIME (Nancy Paulsen Books/PRH, October 25, 2022), generously sponsored by a very kind anonymous donor! Thank you so much for your donation, You Know Who You Are 😊
⭐️ A copy of Mary Kole’s Writing Irresistible Kidlit: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Fiction for Young Adult and Middle Grade Writers
⭐️ A copy of Making A Living Writing Books For Kids by Laura Purdie Salas
⭐️ Making Picture Book Magic Self Study Class (any month)
⭐️ Magnetic Poetry – Little Box of Happiness
Susanna Leonard Hill 
Deb Buschman
Week 2
Whale/Got/Wings
172 words
WHALE WINGS
By Deb Buschman
Wally Whale swam super-fast and launched into the air. He landed with a ginormous splash.
Wally wished he had wings.
“Hi Sally Seagull,” called Wally. “I wish I could fly.”
“Whales do fly,” said Sally.
“No we don’t.”
“You fly through the water.”
“It’s not the same,” said Wally.
“I will grant your wish,” said Sally. “Are you sure you want to leave the ocean?”
“Yes!” shouted Wally.
Poof! Wings sprouted.
He flapped and flapped. “I’m flying!”
He and Sally flew far away.
“I’m tired,” said Wally.
“We have to find land,” said Sally.
All around them was water. Soon Sally spotted an island.
“I’m hungry,” said Wally.
He gazed at the ocean.
“I wish I could swim,” said Wally.
“If you go back to the ocean, you can never fly again,” said Sally. Wally looked at his wings and then at the sparkling water.
“I think I will leave the flying to you,” said Wally.
Poof!
Wally flew through the ocean. Launched into the air and landed with a ginormous— SPLASH!
HOW THE RHINOCEROS LOST ITS WINGS (OR WHERE THE UNICORNS WENT)
By Royal Baysinger
359 words
Rhinoceros / Lost / Wings
Rhinoceroses were once glimmering black unicorns that soared the skies of Africa!
But the dry season was difficult for everyone, even unicorns. Their sleek black skin turned ashen gray and their large wings would start to wither. And so, each dry season they would need to fly across the wide savanna, over the mighty forests, and up, up, up the eastern highlands, where they grazed on the magical ice that sits atop Mount Kilimanjaro. The ice that does not fade.
They would crush it with their great horn, pluck it up with their lips, and crunch on it with their massive teeth. And after many months, their coats would change from gray to black and their wings would grow back in, nice and full. Only eating the ice could renew their power of flight.
But one year, the rains did not come. There was a terrible drought! All across the wide savanna, animals were dying of thirst.
High on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, the unicorns had not yet regained their full strength, but they were desperate to save their friends. They shook their withered wings into action.
For months they crushed the ice with their powerful horns, but instead of eating it themselves to replenish their own powers, they carried each mouthful back down, down, down the eastern highlands, over the mighty forests, and across the wide savanna.
By then, it was nothing more than water which dropped from their mouths onto the savanna below as they raced back to Kilimanjaro for more. Mouthfuls turned to puddles, and puddles turned to pools, and pools turned to great watering holes, all over drought-ridden Africa.
The gasping animals staggered to the water’s edge and drank their fill. Everyone was saved!
But the unicorns were forever changed.
Without grazing on the magical ice themselves, their wings had faded to nothingness, their once splendid black skin remained a dull gray. They would never fly again, but their sacrifice was not in vain. Even through the driest of dry seasons, the magical watering holes they transported from Mount Kilimanjaro remain today to quench the thirst of every African creature across the wide savanna.