Monster Launch MONSTER Giveaway

Hello friends! Can you believe we’re well into October?? And do you know that what that means??? It is officially LAUNCH MONTH for my debut picture book, THE MONSTER ABOVE THE BED. Written by me, illustrated by the incomparable Steph Lew, this book is one of many layers. With a fun twist on a classic fear, Blossom will help you find out what the monsters under our beds think of US! You’ll see layers of courage, friendship, judgments/othering, and more. I hope this book brings joy to young readers everywhere!

Now… in the spirit of Launch Month, I am offering a MONSTERLY HUGE GIVEAWAY!

One grand prize winner will be able to CHOOSE between:

• Mini PB Mentorship with Kailei Pew: two (1.5 hour each) zoom calls to discuss anything and everything publishing PLUS three rounds of extensive revision on one PB manuscript PLUS work on pitches and queries

• Virtual full day author visit. A school may choose up to four presentations plus a “lunch with an author” to be given virtually.

• In person full day author visit (available only in the Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and San Diego area). Schools may choose up to four presentations plus a “lunch with an author” in one full day, in person visit.

Two additional winners will receive signed copies of THE MONSTER ABOVE THE BED with stickers and bookmarks.

Two ADDITIONAL winners will receive a 20 min AMA phone call OR virtual classroom reading with Kailei.

That means 5 total prize winners!

And those are some exciting prizes!!!

So… how do you enter??

There are 10 different ways to rack up entries PLUS some MAJOR optional bonus entries... and some of them can be completed multiple times!

Even once a day.

The only required entry is to provide your name and email address on the raffle copter below and tell me which prize you would choose if selected. But if you want a better chance of winning, make sure to compete the additional entries below! (PLEASE NOTE: Rafflecopter is not working on mobile devices for some reason. Please enter on a computer, or contact me if you cannot do that and I will record your entries manually. SO sorry for the inconvenience).

1. Required (worth one entry): enter your info and tell me which prize you would choose in the raffle copter below so that I know how to contact you if you win.

2. 3 bonus entries: Subscribe to Kailei’s email list at kaileipewbooks.com/subscribe (and mark that you did on the rafflecopter below).

3. 1 bonus entry (can be completed every day for up to 20 bonus entries): post about THE MONSTER ABOVE THE BED on social media (and mark that you did on the rafflecopter below)

4. 1 bonus entry (can be completed every day for up to 20 total bonus entries): send a text message to a friend with a suggestion to purchase THE MONSTER ABOVE THE BED. If you want to make it extra easy, you can copy and paste this message: Hi! There's a brand new picture book coming out this month that I think you will love. It's called THE MONSTER ABOVE THE BED and flips the traditional story in a really cute way that gets kids asking what the monsters under our beds think of US. You can check it out at KaileiPewBooks.com/monster

5. 5 bonus entries: request that your local bookstore carry THE MONSTER ABOVE THE BED (and mark that you did in the rafflecopter below)

6. 5 bonus entries (complete after reading the book on or after October 24th): leave an honest Goodreads review HERE (and mark that you did in the rafflecopter below)

7. 5 bonus entries (complete after reading the book on or after October 24th): leave an honest Amazon review HERE (and mark that you did in the rafflecopter below)

8. 1 bonus entry: Follow @KaileiPewBooks on Instragram

9. 1 bonus entry: Follow @KaileiPew on Twitter

10. 1 bonus entry: Leave a comment on this blog post below!

Bonus BONUS entries.

Note: rafflecopter only allows up to 5 Bonus points for an action, so Kailei will enter these manually. All orders already made through Literally, A Bookshop have been counted and if you already submitted a receipt through my webinar campaign, you also have been entered already!

1. 20 bonus entries: Order THE MONSTER ABOVE THE BED OR request it from your local library and upload proof of purchase HERE. (You may do BOTH, preorder AND library request for 40 bonus entries).

2. 25 bonus entries: donate a copy of THE MONSTER ABOVE THE BED to a child in need HERE

3. Donate funds toward getting THE MONSTER ABOVE THE BED into Title I Schools HERE (1 bonus entry per dollar donated)

And remember, Preordering the Book ALSO gets you free seats into one of my webinars! So this is a GREAT deal! Make sure to ALSO register for one of those events HERE.

WHOO! This is exciting!

The giveaway is open NOW through October 31st! You have 21 days to log those entries. And I honestly am SO grateful for you helping me spread the word about my debut picture book. I hope that this is just a small way that I can give back and I hope that it gets people really excited!

So... GOOD LUCK! And THANK YOU for entering. I hope this is really fun for everyone!

Kids Summer Writing Challenge Submissions

Hello, wonderful readers. Wow, do I have a treat for you today!!

Over the month of July, I hosted a Kids Writing Challenge and it was an absolute blast! Kids had the opportunity to choose from a number of options and write something totally new. Some chose to create and edit one single story. Others chose to do a daily writing task, following a calendar I provided. (This included personal narratives, poems, funny stories, journal entries, letters, and fictional prompts). And some chose to do a BINGO challenge and finish five different writing projects over the course of the month. And these kids really got into it! It has been an absolute joy to read their work and I am thrilled to share it with you now.

We had over 30 kids participate this first year, which was REALLY fun! Not everyone chose to share their stories, and that is absolutely okay too! Your work is just as valuable and I hope you celebrate yourself!

Readers, I hope that you will take the time to read and comment on these awesome stories. I am posting them here in the body of my blog for ease of reading, but then I will post each one individually in a comment below so that you can comment on each specific entry. Let's show these kids how proud we are of their work. I truly hope that we can shower them with praise!

(Please note, I am using only initials to protect the children. If you recognize one, please do NOT name them here).

And now, I give you the submissions in the 2023 Kids' Summer Writing Challenge!

The Bunny That Couldn't Hop

By E.B.

Rosie was a bunny. She looked like every other bunny. She had floppy ears, a fluffy tail, and long whiskers. But she couldn’t hop. She couldn’t play with her friends and dance with her friends. She always felt left out. But one day her friends were going to do a hopping talent show, and Rosie wanted to join in, but she didn’t know what to do. “That’s it I’m going to learn how to hop” she said. She got ready and “Oh no!” she did a roly-poly into a bush. But she wasn’t going to give up. She got ready and “AAAAAAAA” she skidded into a tree. But she still wasn’t going to give up. She got ready and “Wow” she was walking on her paws. She could do a walking paw stand! Just then one of her bunny friends saw and she said “That is brilliant. Can you please teach us how to do that for the talent show? “Of course,” said Rosie. She was so happy. So, on the day of the talent show Rosie and the other bunnies did amazing paw stands and everyone clapped.

The Enchanted Door

By A.B.

There was a boy called Joey. He moved to a new school and had no friends. Joey felt lonely and sad. No one would play with him. One day he heard some other kids talking about an enchanted door in the library. “There is a gremlin behind the enchanted door” said Billy. ‘’If you go though, it you never come back!” said Lily. “There was this kid called Noah who went in there and was never seen again.” Joey thought and thought. If he went in and came out again, the other kids would think he was cool. When his mum picked him up after school, he thought about the enchanted door all the way home in the car. He thought about it when he was having his dinner. He thought about it when he was brushing his teeth. He even thought about it when he was lying in bed. But what if he did get stuck there forever? What if the gremlins got him? He needed to find out some more information. The next day, he went to the library. He got out all the books he could about gremlins. He found out these facts. 1. Gremlins like butter. 2. Gremlins are scared of bright lights. 3. Gremlins don’t like children. They are too loud. Joey planned. Joey packed his bag. He remembered to put in plenty of butter and a bright torch. Dressed in a cunning disguise, it was time to for an adventure. The next day he decided to sneak into the library and as soon as he opened the enchanted door it shined bright in his eyes. As he looked DEEPLY into the dark creepy room, he suddenly saw a wrench on the celling. What was it for? He took the wrench and looked around. He realised it was to unlock another door. The door creaked open and EEEEK, there was a GREMLIN staring deeply into his eyes. He was frightened so he grabbed his torch and shined it into his eyes. “Aaah” shouted the gremlin “I can’t see!” Then, he threw all the butter at him, shouted and ran away. As he hid in a corner of the pitch-black room, another Gremlin appeared and said “hi.” ‘’Stay away’’ said Joey. “Oh” said the Gremlin. “Okay” he sniffed. Picking up his torch, he shined the light and realised it was not a gremlin at all! “Wait, are you the missing boy called Noah?’’ ‘’Yes I am. I’ve been stuck here for such a long time. There is no way out of here. “We can’t give up,” said Joey. “Follow me” and they crept around looking for a way out. Soon Joey said ‘’ Look, there’s a vent on the celling we can climb into.” ‘’Oh well for all these years I haven’t found that,” said Noah. As they were leaving, they saw something glinting on the floor. It was a golden shiny crown. They picked it up and Joey put it on his head. As they climbed out of the vent everybody shouted ‘’HOORAY TO KING JOEY.’’ Everyone thought he was cool now that he saved Noah and got the golden crown. THE END.

Spikes

By T.A.

Marylee has always loved lizards. Her parents gave her a pet lizard when she turned eight. Well, it’s mostly the family pet; everyone takes turns to take care of her bearded dragon, Spikes. But Marylee, nor her parents,nor her sister knew that Spikes could turn into a monster. A monster that eats kids ages 5-12!

Marylee was happily reading in her room, in her bean bag chair, when she heard a loud thump. No one else heard it. Her older sister, Alliah, was out grocery shopping with her dad, and her mom was having a meeting in the home office; so. Marylee peeked out the door, unsure who or what was making the loud noise. Still unsure, she propped the door open with one of her stuffed animals, and went back to reading. She heard another thump, this time louder. This time determined to find out who is making the sound, Marylee grabbed her flashlight from her dresser and stepped out of her room. She followed the sound, which led her to the basement. She flicked her flashlight on and slowly went down the steps.

“ Hello?” Marylee asked, kind of hoping to get a response.

She waved the flashlight around, and noticed that Spikes was out. She looked around, looking for Spikes, then she heard two loud thumps. Marylee felt something breathing on her neck. She started to breathe quickly as fear swept over her. Marylee turned around, and there he was, Spikes. She screamed, but no one heard her. Spikes painfully grabbed Marylee and the entire house shook. Marylee tried to get up, but the pain in her back was too strong. She heard footsteps coming down the steps. Help was here!

Or so she thought.

It was her mom! “ Marylee!” Her mom yelled. Just as Marylee’s mom was running towards her, Spikes picked her up and ate her. “ Momma!” Marylee. Marylee was in a fit of rage. She tried to talk to Spikes, but he just wasn’t listening. Marylee had two choices: she could get swallowed up by her pet, no monster, lizard; or, she could make a run for it and make it alive and see her sister and dad. She chose the second option. Marylee ran as fast as her legs could carry her, and she made it to the stairwell. Spikes shrunk into his normal bearded dragon so he could go up the stairs.

She stopped to see if he was right behind her and she said, almost as if she forgot about Spikes eating her mother, “ Aw.” Spikes got faster. Marylee ran up the stairs and led Spikes, who went back to his monster size, into the kitchen. She started to throw things at him, even a knife. But, he didn’t flinch at all. Marylee opened the fridge, hoping something would work. She saw a carton of eggs and threw one at him. He swallowed it and fell to the ground, turning to ashes. Marylee went to the living room and looked out the window. She saw multiple lizards, all chasing kids, even teenagers, around the neighborhood. She wondered if her sister and dad would come back. She plopped down on the couch. She sighed.

THE END (for now…)

THE BEAUTY IN MY NAME

By T.A

There’s so much beauty in my name. In Yoruba, Tolani means “God owns tomorrow,” but it also means:

Talented and bright

Once in a lifetime

Laughing and happy

Amazing

Nature is my jam

Imagination for days

California Acrostic

By: SJ

California Acrostic Can you guess which state I’m discussing? An agricultural superpower Largest university system in the country In 1850, gained statehood Fifth largest economy in the world Only state to recall a governor since 1921 Rains, not snows, in winter NorCal and SoCal: two different regions Immigrant-friendly sanctuary state America’s most populous state

Title: Haikus

By: SJ

Haikus Normal Summer Day It is sweltering outside My hibiscus blooms Writing a haiku Is much harder than it looks But is also fun The Constitution It grants fundamental rights To all citizens Title: Summer

By: SJ

Summer The sky Bright blue Shining A dome above Our heads The midday heat Still and dry Cool mornings, cool evenings The sun Rising early Not setting until late night Warm and bright All day long Filtering through Leaves of trees Lighting the earth Beneath my feet This is A Summer Day

Title: Light Pollution

By: S.J.

At night The moon is bright They say the stars shine From their far height But in the city Such is the plight That we only see The city lights

Pokémon Part 1

By A.

I love Pokémon.

Favorite is Miraidon.

Gotta catch ‘em all.

Dragon and Me

By C. R.

Once upon a time there was me and a dragon.

We were friends.

We played together.

We also had a cup of tea.

We loved playing.

Now, we need to make a recipe to make brownies!

PETE THE DJ

By M.H.

DJ Pete has sick beats. The fans loved his songs. The fans were his friends. He made a new song for his friends.

“Playing with my friends is so much fun.

I wish this day would never be done.”

“The Princess and the Unicorn”

By C.

Once upon a time, there was a princess named Sara and a unicorn named Olivia.

Sara told Olivia that her parents didn’t like unicorns, so they had to play in the forest in secret so her parents wouldn’t spot them. They could only play on Fridays, but on this Friday it was rainy! Sara’s parents didn’t let her go outside when it rained for fear she would get her dress all dirty.

So Sara told her parents she was planning a play date with her friends, but really she was going to play with Olivia. She borrowed a big umbrella and set out to the forest to meet Olivia and accidentally played too close to Sara’s castle and her parents saw them in the forest.

Sara told her parents Unicorns were the best of friends and told them unicorns could give them anything they wanted as long as they asked nicely. Sara’s parents tried it by asking if Olivia could give them cake and she did!

They all ate cake and lived happily ever after. The end.

“The Monster Mash”

By M.

Once upon a time, there was a haunted house that Frankenstein lived in. His friends, Skeleton, Bat, and Jack-O-Lantern were coming over for his birthday party.

But, oh no! The road was blocked by a knocked over tree, and they couldn’t get through.

Frankenstein came to the rescue and helped clear the tree so they could get to his house. They made a fort for a spooky sleepover, went through an obstacle course outside of the haunted house, ate pizza, cake and ice cream.

They all gathered around Frankenstein and sang “Happy Birthday” to their friend. The end.

WINGLETS: MATRIARCH (synopsis, wrote 26 composition notebook pages)

By J.

Glacier has what it takes to be a good queen. Heirs? Check. Queenly spirit? Check. An alliance in the war? Check. But when the dragons she loves the most are threatened, she must make a choice: her kingdom or her kin.

Fans of the WINGS OF FIRE series won't want to miss the fifth installment in the WINGLETS collection!

Series and characters are owned by Tui T. Sutherland. I (J.) am just a fan writing a fan-made installment of the series.

Casey's Pet Palace (summary)

By T.

Casey is a 12 year old girl with her own dog sitting business. She faces family and professional challenges in this exhilarating story.

My Smile List

By D.H.

*Swimming

*Art

*Eating

*Running

*Playing piano

*Playing with my sister

*Candy

*Playing board games

*Birthdays

*Road trips

*Beach

*Reading

*Telling jokes

*Playing with Legos

Snow Blanket

By O.H.

One day I when I woke up and looked out the window, "Snow!" I said. "Whoa, the snow is a white blanket." I grabbed my boots and coat and ran outside. Whoops, I ran back inside. I forgot breakfast. I had a waffle and zoomed back outside.

Oops. I forgot to brush my teeth. I ran inside. I went to the bathroom and put toothpaste on my toothbrush. Scrub, swish, spit. "Ok, I'm finally ready." I whooshed outside.

I did snow angels and played. I got hungry, so I went inside. I had a sandwich. Hmm. My dad set up a fire outside. The best snow day ever!

Water Slide

By B.F.

This summer, I went to a water park with some really tall slides. Two of them were fifty feet tall!

My heart started to race as I went down the slide. It felt like I was flying as the water flew into my face.

At first, I was scared. But when I did it, it was super fun.

MISSION: POUND ESCAPE

By G.

Once upon a time, there was a small town called Mission.

It wasn’t a really small town or not a big one either. Cars were zooming down the street to get to work and there were nature hikes that would take you on adventures. In that town lived a lot of cats. There were Big ones, small ones, skinny ones, and chubby ones. But four particular cats were living in that town: Cortez, Ammo, Bean-a, and Quaza. Ammo was four, Cortez was seven, Bean-a was four, and Quaza was four. Cortez and Ammo lived with their humans. Bean-a and Quaza with theirs in a different house. But these heroic cats once didn’t have a home and weren’t friends! This is the story of how they came together.

Time travelling to 2019.

At a house in Vancouver, there lived a cat called Stella. She had just had a kitten named Ammo.

Meanwhile, in a town called Langley, another mother looked after her kittens. There were four girls and five boys. One of those kittens was Cortez. He was born first and was already three years old.

Meanwhile, in a town called Mission, a kitten named Quaza and another kitten named Bean-a lived peacefully with their mother.

Until one day, a horrific tragedy came. Humans came and took these four cats and their siblings away because their owners couldn’t find anyone to adopt them and decided to call the pound. They took them to a place in Mission called The Cat Pound, the absolute worst place for cats to live. They locked you up in a small cage and only gave you an old beat-up cat toy. The halls were just plain concrete and piles of cat cages filled them.

Cortez snuggled up in a little ball next to his singular toy: an old dusty yarn ball. He had named it Jimmy because he liked that name.

He watched as Ammo, who lived across from him, played with his little piece of string. Whenever Cortez saw Ammo being so happy in a place so bad like this, it made him feel better, so that’s what he did most of the day.

Bean-a lived next to Cortez. He would mainly just sleep all day and twitch in his dreams.

There was also Quaza, who was next to Ammo. She seemed like she always had something to play with. She would always play it, whether it was chasing pretend butterflies or fighting imaginary evil dogs.

One day, Bean-a started talking to Cortez.

“Hey, Orangey!” the small brown kitten said.

“What is it?” Cortez asked.

“Do you have any dreams?” the kitten curiously asked.

“Oh yeah. Last night I had this one where I was chasing evil baby ducks with a mini-human in my paw and my paws were cracking,” Cortez replied.

“No, not that kind of dream! I dream that one day I can escape this horrible place and have a home with humans!” Bean-a declared.

“But humans are awful! They’re the ones that locked us up in this place!” Cortez told Bean-a.

“No, some of them are nice!” Ammo shouted. “I lived with humans for a bit. They fed me yummy food and gave me a comfy bed,” added Ammo.

“And my humans did that too!” Quaza chirped in.

“Hey, what if we all escape together? We could all find humans!” Ammo stated.

“Do you mean us? But we just started talking to each other a few seconds ago!” Cortez said.

“No! Bean-a and I are siblings,” Quaza said.

“So, are we going to make up a plan?” Bean-a said.

“We want to escape too,” one of the mean cats named Claw said.

“We all want to,” another mean cat named Knight said.

“Well, us four will escape and return for you later,” Ammo said.

“Selfish!” a grey cat named Oliver said.

“So, what are we gonna do?” Cortez asked.

“I know! We’ll ride a unicorn!” Quaza proclaimed happily.

“Unicorns don’t exist, Quaza,” Ammo said.

Quaza stared at Ammo in disbelief.

“We need to figure out how to get out of these cages first of all,” Bean-a said.

“I can help you with that,” a brown cat said. He wasn't in one of the cages and was wandering around in the cold hallway.

He looked to be about the same age as Cortez.

“My name is B. I’m an expert escape artist. I could get you out if you promise to help me find a home,” B. said.

“Don’t sting me!” Quaza loudly yelped.

“Not that kind of B, the letter B,” B. said.

“Oh,” Quaza said. “What’s a letter?”

“Just, trust me, it’s not the bee you know,” B. said.

“Sure,” all of the cats said.

“Hey, why don’t you let us go?” one of Cortez’s brothers said.

“We’ll come back for you later,” Cortez said.

B. put his claw in Cortez, Ammo, Bean-a, and Quaza’s cage’s lock and opened the doors.

“We’ll be back for you, I promise,” Cortez said.

“Don’t trust my brother! He’s using you!” a cat named Max said.

“Don’t listen to that guy. He’s nonsense,” B. said as they walked into the lobby.

THE BATTLE STADIUM WARS

By W.

Once upon a time, there was a gang of frogs.

These frogs’ names were Billy, Lilly, and Dilly.

One morning the gang went up to their bedrooms in their cozy home at the end of Meringe River.

Billy’s room was painted blue, Lilly’s room was painted pink, and Dilly’s room was painted green.

“I think it’s the morning,” Billy said, yawning.

“I’d say we go to sleep,” said Dilly. He jumped up onto his fuzzy bed and tucked himself into his blanket.

Billy and Lilly did the same as Dilly, except for the fact that they were tucking themselves into their own blankets.

“Hope I have a dream about sheep!” Lilly exclaimed to Billy and Dilly, who were on opposite sides of her.

Billy was interested in dark colours, such as black, brown, red, or navy blue.

Lilly was interested in sheep, and Dilly was interested in toothbrushes.

They all loved yummy flies, but they all hated glasses.

Okay, so now all three frogs were fast asleep.

Little did they know, the mail horse delivered unordinary mail during the night.

The mail horse went to every house delivering the same mail to every animal.

Lilly woke from her dream to the sound of hooves running fast. Lilly went to Billy’s room first to wake him up.

“Wake up, Billy,” Lilly said to Billy.

Billy didn’t move an inch.

“Billy, wake up!” Lilly shouted.

Now Billy bounced out of his bed.

The scream also woke Dilly up from bed. Dilly hopped toward Billy and Lilly.

“The mail horse came by!” exclaimed Lilly.

“Wait, what?” asked Dilly.

“The mail horse came by!” Lilly re-exclaimed.

All the frogs leaped down the carpeted stairs and opened the door to look in their mailbox.

Billy pulled the paper out of it and rushed back inside.

“The battle stadium wars, what’s that?” Lilly asked.

“I don’t know,” said Billy, “but it sounds fun to me!”

“How ‘bout we read the paragraph down below to see what it’s all about,” Dilly suggested.

Billy read the paragraph. “Enter into the Battle Stadium Wars! This is our second battling tournament, our first one was won by a team of three cats and one snake. Unlike the Animal Battle League, this one is always open to battle anyone you’d like to in the stadium. The last team standing wins ten frog figures and the title of The Battle Warriors!”

“Ten frog figures could complete our goal of having 100 frog figures!” shouted Dilly. “We have to enter!”

“Where is the actual stadium?” asked Lilly.

“Seems like it’s pretty close to here,” Billy said.

“I hope we get extra powers to beat a crocodile or a walrus that might enter or something,” said Dilly.

“I want to get the frog figures,” Lilly said, changing the topic. “So I will beat everyone including you guys.”

“Don’t you remember that there are teams, Lilly?” Billy asked. “This newspaper says that it’s teams of three.”

“So,” said Dilly. “We’re all gonna be on the same team, right?”

“Yep,” replied Billy.

“Team Sheep!” shouted Lilly.

“How about Team Frog?” Dilly asked.

“Good idea, Dilly,” responded Billy. “Let’s get out of this house and get going toward the Battle Stadium!”

Lilly opened the door for Billy and Dilly to go outside, then she went outside and closed the door.

Billy pointed to the west. “This way!” he exclaimed. He quickly leaped to the west, with Lilly and Dilly hopping behind him.

After a while, a large structure came into sight.

“At last,” said Billy. “It’s the Battle Stadium!” Billy leaped even quicker than before toward the Battle Stadium.

“Wait up!” Dilly and Lilly shouted.

“If the flies can do it, we can do it too!” shouted Billy.

Dilly and Lilly hopped quicker to catch up with Billy.

Once all three of the frogs were about ten meters away from the Battle Stadium, they looked up.

It was just so tall, probably tall enough for a giraffe to say that.

“Let’s go inside!” shouted Billy.

When the gang entered inside, they were surprised to see a crocodile standing behind a desk.

The desk had lots of sheets of paper and a pen on it.

“Hi, are you here as a contestant for the Battle Stadium Wars?” the crocodile asked.

“Yes,” Billy said.

“What is your team name?” asked the crocodile.

“Team Frog!” exclaimed Billy, jumping really high so the crocodile could see him.

“You are officially entered in as Team Frog, the twenty-second team to sign in to the Battle Stadium Wars,” the crocodile said. “Make your way left where all the powers are.”

Billy, Lilly, and Dilly walked into a fairly large room and saw tons of spheres on shelves.

The spheres contained the powers.

The powers Billy, Lilly, and Dilly could choose from were super speed, plasma beams, lightning, invisibility, rapid punches, and becoming 2X their normal size.

“I want plasma beams!” exclaimed Billy.

“I’ll take rapid punches,” said Dilly.

“Being two times my normal size sounds cool,” said Lilly.

There was a wolf there that was looking at everything they did.

“So you want plasma beams, rapid punches, and two times your size, right?” the wolf asked.

“Yep,” Billy, Lilly, and Dilly all said.

“I’ll give you them later when the battle actually starts,” said the wolf.

“When does it start?” Dilly asked.

“About one and a half hours,” the wolf said. His voice always sounded sort of grumpy. But that’s just how he normally talked.

“Can we go to the battlefield?” Lilly asked.

“Yes you can go,” said the wolf.

Billy, Lilly, and Dilly walked out of the power room, and into the battling area.

The battlefield was huge, sixty-six contestants were in it, all ready to win. That means twenty-two teams were gonna compete right now.

It was finally an hour and a half from when they had picked out their powers, the wolf was sprinting to deliver all the powers to the contestants. There were thirty-four teams competing in this tournament, which meant 102 powers to deliver.

After ten more minutes, all the powers had been delivered.

A walrus stepped to the center of the arena. “Three, two, one, go!”

Dragon Bear

By R.L.

Frida lay awake in her bed at summer camp unable to fall asleep. Earlier that day an older kid had told her about a monster called a Dragon Bear that took people from the top bunks. He had said that last part after she had specifically told him she had a top bunk. That made her a little less scared but she was still a paranoid kid. She knew she shouldn’t be scared of

monsters, especially one an older kid who has a knack for trouble tells a 12 year old to make

them scared. But well this one was different. Whenever she thought about it she had a flutter

in her stomach, not the type you get when looking at someone like Taylor Swift but more like

the feeling when you get to the top of a rollercoaster and suddenly realize how tall the drop is but by then it’s too late. She had told the rest of her cabin about this and they all came to the same conclusion that Frida was just paranoid and a scaredy cat which wasn't completely wrong but it still hurt. She wished she could overcome her fear and be as brave as the rest of her cabin. Frida grunted and turned over in her sleeping bag. When she caught a glimpse of something moving outside the window and immediately sat up. Lucy in the bed beside her stirred then sleepily sat up raising an eyebrow with a judgy look. Frida quietly shrugged, careful not to wake up the others. Lucy rolled her eyes and lay back down. Frida cautiously looked out the window but the only thing she saw was a tree swaying in the wind that must have been what she saw except she wasn’t fully convinced. Frida lay back down drifting into a deep sleep, maybe this was her chance to be brave. Frida woke up to Lucy’s morning squeal. Lucy always woke up with a very loud and annoying squeal. She was the type of person most people liked 80% of the time the other 20% of the time was spent being mildly annoyed by her but Frida got annoyed very easily and only liked her about 50% of the time. Frida slowly sat up and hopped off her bed searching in her messy pile of clothes. Then brushed her teeth waiting for the bathroom to be unoccupied. Once she had finished she hastily grabbed her clothes and rushed to the bathroom. Frida was not used to waking up at 7:00 and fell asleep at the table after she had finished eating. Then Macy started poking her but Frida had prepared for this she had made notes specifically for Lucy, Macy, and Carly saying something along the lines of shut up and stop just in case she didn’t have enough energy to lift her head or say something. Macy and Carly were slightly less annoying than Lucy but still got on Frida's nerves often. Frida quietly handed Macy one of her stop notes and settled back down. “Get up we're leaving”, Macy said clearly very annoyed. It was true everyone seemed to be waiting on her “Oh sorry”, Frida said embarrassed. There were 2 cabins left hers and one of the boy's cabins they all looked very frantic. “Are they looking for something?”Carly asked, confused. “Where is he!”, one of the boys said frantically looking under the table. “Or someone”, Frida said, petrified. They learned later that day that someone had gone missing from the bathroom. Everyone had been sent to their cabins until further notice. Their cabin had been quiet well, everyone except Lucy who had been nagging their counselors about what was going on. Then Elley burst out that one of the kid’s shoes had been found on the far side of the forest. At this, Lucy quietly climbed onto her bed and looked at pictures of her dog. Some time passed and their cabin resulted in playing 20 questions when that got boring they moved on to card games and so on. They had been let out for meals and had to bring buddies if they needed to go anywhere without their cabin. This whole thing had taken a toll on Frida and she again lay awake unable to sleep. Frida had just started slowly drifting to sleep when she felt something cold wrap around her ankle slowly pulling her off the bed. Frida sat up and stared directly into wide eyes. Frida looked around fully taking in what was happening and sure enough a giant rainbow bear with wings was pulling Frida off her bed; this was the monster the older boy had told her about. Frida screamed as loud as she could, which wasn’t very loud considering her throat was very dry. Lucy, Macy, Carly, and Ila all looked up eyes wide. Frida wondered why no

one else in the cabin had looked up and that's when she realized both of the counselors, Violet, Rosi, and Abbey were all gone. Frida suddenly snapped back to reality the rest of her cabin had left and she quickly broke free of the Dragon Bears' grip. Then sprinted out the back door trying to catch up with the others. Frida was a relatively fast runner but ran out of breath quickly. When she had finally caught up with the others it suddenly struck how much she had been taking the others for granted. Ila always understood if you were having a bad day, Lucy could always hold the group together, Carly was understanding of boundaries, and Macy could always make you laugh. That’s when she realized what she needed to do. Frida sprinted in the opposite direction making sure she would pass by the Dragon Bear that was still following close behind them. “What are you doing?”, Ila called out sounding very scared. Frida turned around and started running backward. “Saving your lives!”, Frida called back as she passed the Dragon Bear. The last thing she thought was I hope the others escape as she got dropped into the Dragon Bears’ gaping mouth.

***

WOW! Let's give it up for these AMAZING kid authors! I am going to paste each entry into a comment below so that you can leave specific praise, or feel free to leave general praise in the comments. Please do note that this is NOT a space to leave any sort of criticism, even if you feel it "constructive." I am only looking to uplift young writers with this event, and thank you for keeping all comments positive.

And to our kids writers, I hope you are SO proud of yourselves! It takes courage to put yourself out there like this and I hope you are feeling absolutely thrilled with your work. I am so incredibly proud of you and will be leaving individualized comments on each of your entries over the next two weeks. I hope you all keep writing and I can't wait to see the work you put out in the world!

Now, readers... before I let you go, I just want to give a quick reminder that I am hosting a VERY in depth webinar about How To Stand Out In the Query Trenches on August 15th. (Coming up FAST!) You can attend the event for FREE by preordering my upcoming book, THE MONSTER ABOVE THE BED and submitting proof of purchase HERE. I still have about 15 spots for FREE Query critiques after the event as well, so get those receipts uploaded ASAP! I am going to be covering:

Query Voice

Pitches that SELL (new formulas that you can use right away)

Driving an agent to your manuscript

The purpose of Comp titles and how to use them effectively

Delivering clarity instead of causing confusion

Why to avoid questions in a query

Finding agents who are the best fit for you

Standing out in a VERY crowded pool

It's going to be jam packed and absolutely worth the $20 book. (Plus, if I do say so myself, you are going to want this book!) BUT, I also want this webinar to be complete accessible to all creators, so if you aren't in a position to preorder, no worries! You can still attend the event for free by uploading proof of a library request for my book. (Free to do this!)

Don't delay. Register by MONDAY night (8/14/23), 11:59 PM Pacific Time to ensure you get a spot.

Okay... salesy stuff DONE! Head on down to the comments to uplift these amazing kid writers!

About Kailei Pew

Kailei Pew is a wife, mother, and children's book author represented by the amazing Emily Forney of Bookends Literary. Kailei's upcoming books include THE MONSTER ABOVE THE BED, illustrated by Steph Lew, KID-VENTORS, illustrated by Shannon Wright, and I SEE COLOR, co-authored with Valerie Bolling and illustrated by Laylie Frazier. Kailei cannot wait to get her books into your hands!

Kids Summer Writing Challenge

Hello, wonderful readers! And happy summer! If you're in AZ like me, you are about half way through your summer... even more in some districts who are on a modified year round schedule! Others of you might just be starting on your summer breaks. And if you're in the southern hemisphere, you're not even close to summer! But this challenge is for ALL kids, no matter where you are!!

As a companion to the Kids' Choice KidLit Writing Contest, I'm hopeful that this writing challenge will get kids excited about creating their own stories.

Here's how it will work:

1. A responsible grownup registers each kid writer.

2. Kids write throughout July, following one of the three options below.

3. A responsible grown up fills out the final form, logging points.

4. OPTIONAL: share your story with Kailei to be posted on her blog.

5. ALL participants receive a virtual author visit with author Kailei Pew and a certificate of completion.

6. Additional drawings for prizes will be held based on points logged.

Pretty simple, right?

And now, for the three options for our kid writers:

1. Summer Story Writing Challenge: Write, revise, edit, and complete one story of your choice.

2. Writing BINGO: complete 5 writing activities from the bingo board below.

3. Writing Calendar: write every day of July, following the calendar provided below.

If you want to complete the Summer Story Writing Challenge, here are some story mapping worksheets that I created that might help! I'll also be sending out tips and ideas throughout the month of July.

Or maybe you're more interested in smaller writing prompts, a few times throughout the summer. Then the Writing BINGO challenge might be best for you!

Or, maybe you're REALLY excited to write in July and you want to write a LOT of different things. Then grab a new notebook and get ready to write your little hearts out with a new a different challenge every day of July! Then the calendar challenge might be right for you!

All of the images above are linked to downloadable, printable versions. You can print just the black and white pages, skipping the cover page. Unless of course you want to display that challenge page somewhere! Whatever works for you.

If you have any questions at all, please type them in the comments below and I will answer them here.

Thank you so much for taking the time to participate in this writing challenge! I can't wait to see the amazing stories these kids create.

Register for the Kids Summer Writing Challenge Here

About Kailei Pew

Kailei Pew is a wife, mother, and children's book author represented by the amazing Emily Forney of Bookends Literary. Kailei's upcoming books include THE MONSTER ABOVE THE BED, illustrated by Steph Lew, KID-VENTORS, illustrated by Shannon Wright, and I SEE COLOR, co-authored with Valerie Bolling and illustrated by Laylie Frazier. Kailei cannot wait to get her books into your hands!