The School Bus Jungle
One morning, your school bus takes a wrong turn and ends up in a fantastical jungle that seems to go on forever. With your classmates and the bus driver, you must find a way back home. During this unexpected adventure, what strange creatures do you encounter, and how do you cooperate to overcome challenges?
Suggested length: A middle grade story: 2,000 to 5,000 words
Start the clock
Pick a sprint, press start and keep going until it stops. Momentum beats polish on a first draft.
Make it yours
Three ways to take this prompt somewhere nobody else will.
- Use a repeated line young readers can join in on.
- Make the ending warm, safe and a little bit funny.
- Keep it to one problem and one place.
Writing middle grade books
Ages 8 to 12: friendship, family and figuring out who you are.
Middle grade novels are written for readers around 8 to 12, with heroes usually 10 to 13. The stakes are huge to the characters, the focus stays on their world, and any romance stops at a crush.
What readers expect
- A hero aged about 10 to 13
- Family, friends and school
- Humor and heart
- Hope, even in hard stories
A tip before you start
Kids read up. Make your hero as old as your oldest readers, or a little older.
More Middle Grade prompts
- Grandparent's Unfinished DiaryYou find an old diary in your attic that belonged to your grandparent when they were your age. The diary entries stop abruptly with a mystery that was…
- The Talking Dog's TreasureYou invent a gadget for your science project that can translate animal thoughts into human language. After hooking it up to your pet dog, you're…
- The Pencil Every Child GetsPicture a world where every child gets a magical pencil at the age of 10. Whatever they draw becomes real for one day. Write about the drawing that…
- The Scrap-Built Flying MachineEvery year, your town holds a legendary race where competitors use homemade flying machines. This year, you and your friends decide to enter with a…
Fifteen minutes in? Keep going.
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