Storytelling Week 11: The Mystery of the Poptart

The bus just dropped my brother and me off after school and we both ran, heading towards our house. 

We couldn’t be more excited to get home because there was a special surprise waiting for us when we got there.  Before we left for school this morning, we had our normal breakfast that consisted of toast and eggs but Mom told us that when we got home, we could have a snack and we were very excited for that since this wasn't a common occurrence.  The snack we both wanted so badly was the most delicious blueberry poptart with icing and sprinkles.  We had seen it in the pantry but knew it was off limits and we could only eat it on special occasions.  That’s why we were so surprised Mom said we could have it because it wasn’t a special occasion at all.  It was just a regular Tuesday. 

Finally we got to the house and ran inside to the kitchen where Mom was waiting for us.  When we saw her, though, she had this sad look in her eyes. 

“Boys, I’m sorry to tell you but the poptart is gone,” she said.

Shocked, my brother and I looked at each other.  “What happened to it, Mom? We didn’t eat it!”

“I don’t know what happened to it.  It was here when I left for work this morning and gone when I got home.  I’m sorry, boys, I don’t know what to tell you.”

I was particularly puzzled because I knew that I didn’t eat the poptart and there’s no way my brother could have eaten it either because we were both at school today.  But then I started thinking, who could have eaten it?  I was at school, my brother was at school, my mom was at work, and my sister was at school too. 

I was going to get to the bottom of this.

I ran up to my sister’s room and busted open the door yelling, “Megan! Did you eat the last poptart? We can’t find it and someone had to have eaten it!” 

“I didn’t eat your stupid poptart. I don’t even like them anyways.  Get out of my room!” she yelled.

I didn’t believe her!  She loves poptarts!  I’ve seen her eat them all the time.  I knew she had to be lying to me.

Back into the kitchen I went, calling for my mom on the way. 

“Megan said she didn’t eat the poptart but no one else could have done it and Megan was the first one home from school today.  It had to be her.”

“Son, there’s nothing we can do about it now.  The poptart is gone.  I’ll get you two something else tomorrow,” She said.

My brother and I were disappointed and weren’t willing to give up hope of finding out who ate our poptart. 

I decided to check, before I went back up to my sister's room, to see if the poptart could possibly be in the pantry somewhere. 

I went over and opened up the pantry and lifted nearly every box and can to see if it was hiding underneath something and nope, nothing. 

But then, there it was.  I saw it.  Its shiny silver package was peeking through the cracks of all the boxes in the back.  It must have fallen from the top shelf and become lodged in the back!  I couldn’t be more excited! 

My brother watched the whole thing and was equally as excited for the find as I was.  I brought the poptart over to the table and opened the package, giving my brother half and half to myself.  We sat there and savored every bite.  It just might have been the best thing I’ve ever eaten. 

Blueberry Poptart

Author’s Note: I based this story off of the original story, Who Stole the Tarts?  in the Alice in Wonderland unit.  I chose to retell a story from this unit because it contains some of my favorite childhood stories and I thought they were all so fun as a kid and still do now.  In the original story, the characters stood before a judge and pleaded their case as to why they weren’t guilty of stealing the tarts.  I mostly gathered my idea for this new spin on the story from the title of the original story, Who Stole the Tarts? which reminded me of poptarts for some reason.  Maybe I’m hungry.  Anyways, I decided to keep certain aspects of the original in mine like a hunt to find out what happened to the tarts and question all those involved.  I decided to have the poptart be hidden the whole time because that happens often to me with food and things in general.  I had similar experiences as a kid when I thought I lost something and it was there all along.  Typically, though, my mom was the one who always found it so I switched it up a bit in this story and had the boys find it instead.  

Reading Diary B: British Isles Unit

Who Stole the Tarts? Was one of my favorite stories from the second half of Alice in Wonderland.  My favorite part of the story comes towards the end when the White Rabbit unrolled the scroll that read, “The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts, All on a summer day: The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts, and took them quite away!”  There was another part that really stuck out to me in this story and that was when the Hatter took a bite out of his teacup.  “…looking uneasily at the Queen, and in his confusion he bit a large piece out of his teacup instead of the bread-and-butter.”  As I finished reading, I remembered how much I enjoyed this part of the story and the movie.  It also reminds me of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where Willy Wonka takes a bit of the teacup in the movie.  It’s ironic since he also plays the Mad Hatter in the new Alice in Wonderland as well. 

I think these stories were brilliantly written.  The dialogue between all the characters seemed very realistic and the use of such short remarks seems like something I would hear in a normal conversation about whether someone is guilty of something or not.  In the second part of the story it goes on to say:

“I didn’t” the March Hare interrupted in a great hurry.

“You did!” said the March Hare.

“He denies it,” said the King: leave out that part.”

The short conversation made me laugh and it was just fun to read.  Like in the first half, I really enjoyed all of the images that went along with the stories and thought there were a lot more images in this particular unit than in previous ones which I enjoyed.  

Mad Hatter, Alice in Wonderland

Reading Diary A: British Isles unit

One of the stories I really liked in the first half of this unit was Advice from a Caterpillar.  I remember reading stories of Alice in Wonderland as a kid and of course I saw the movie as well.  It was helpful when reading the stories because I could associate them with images I remember from the most recent movie.  In this story, it was really easy to see how the characters developed. 

I also really liked the second part of the story.  I particularly liked the way the story was structured.  There were a lot of images and I liked how it went back and forth between anecdotes and images. 

My favorite story was that of Pig and Pepper.  These two were my favorite characters from the movie and I was looking forward to reading these stories in this unit! 

I really enjoyed all of the stories in this unit, at least the first half anyways!  I am really excited to use one of these stories to for my storytelling post this week.  I am not sure what story I want to use yet but I am hoping I find one in the second half that I like as well. 

I thought all of the images attached to the stories were really fun too!  Like I mentioned before, it was easy to associate stories with the movie and the images made it even easier too. 

Alice in Wonderland