The hero’s journey is one of the oldest and most celebrated types of story, and it can be told in so many different ways! Adventures and quests are exciting tales that can also teach us much about ourselves.
Fourteen-year-old Zach Harriman lives in New York City with his mother and father. He has been living the life of a typical teen until his father is killed under mysterious circumstances. In Mike Lupica's book Hero, Zach decides that following the devastating loss of his father, he wants to get to the bottom of the story. He knows that his father was powerful and had the ear of the President of the United States. He knows that his father was very skilled in his job of "getting things done." Zach suspects that his father's death was no accident but a premeditated murder by an organization known as the "bads."
It’s one of life’s ironies that you don’t realize how much someone’s impacted your life until they’re gone. More specifically, you realize that you never told that person how much they meant. It isn’t until they pass that you think, “Oh! I wish I had said something!” You think about how that person shaped who you are, in major or even subtle ways, and sometimes realize that you wouldn’t be you if it weren’t for that person’s influence, guidance, or mere presence in your life.
The Rumpelstiltskin Problem by Vivian Vande Velde
What's wrong with this story:
A father tells the authorities his daughter can do impossible things AND the authorities believe him.
A soon-to-be bride promises to give her future baby away to a TROLL.
Said bride agrees to marry the man who's threatened to kill her if she can't keep doing the impossible.
What would a troll do with a baby anyhow, and why would he give her all that spun gold for a tiny ring?
Why doesn't the heroine do ANYTHING to get herself out of this predicament?!