Menu

More apps built by Reedsy

reedsymarketplace

Assemble a team of professionals

reedsystudio

The writing app for authors

reedsylearning

Writing courses, events and memberships

reedsydiscovery

Get your book reviewed

reedsyprompts

Weekly writing prompts and contests

Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Featured stories

Activity feed

Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of kids short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

150+ Kids Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Whether you plan to read them aloud or just indulge your own childlike imagination, look no further! The most magical tales live in this collection of free short stories for kids.

Kids Short Stories – Page 2 of 10

Railway memories

Weekly Contest #345

07/03/1995Dear diary,today I would like to talk to you about how precious memories are and how they are never in vain. Edith Arbour has always been a girl who cherished moments. She liked to remember past events as precious memories; for example, she loved to collect objects related to specific events.Furthermore, no one could separate her from her old camera. She believed that every little thought of everyone was precious, because in a certain sense it reflected their personality, and gave a glimpse of some of the nuances of their mind.She ...

6 likes

Read story

Lucy Turns 6

Eric Manske

Weekly Contest #345

Lucy packed Paulina, her favorite doll, in her suitcase. She had already packed her birthday dress, her pajamas, her favorite shirt, one pair of shorts, a Pull-Up, socks, and a pair of underwear. For shoes, she figured she would use what she wore for the trip. Gigi and Papa already had all the bathroom items, so she did not pack any of those, except her bubble gum Princess toothpaste. They did not have that.Mama and Dad explained yesterday that they were all going over to Gigi’s and Papa’s tomorrow for her birthday party. Lucy had wanted a s...

12 likes

Read story

Field Trip to Ko Ma

Weekly Contest #344

This is the story of the day that didn’t happen.It began like any other day, with Emily’s breakfast. She went to breakfast right away after waking up from bed, not stopping to put on slippers or even her glasses. She jumped out of bed and went straight to the kitchen — her bedroom door leads directly into the kitchen — to pour herself some cereal and milk. She knows her cereal because it comes in a red box. She knows the milk because it comes in a big jug with a little handle. Sometimes the milk is almost too heavy for Emily to lift, but she...

16 likes

Read story

The Great Wizard War. . . according to whomever tells it.

Weekly Contest #344

The Wizard War (According to Whom You Ask) I was warming my old bones by the hearth when the hatchlings burst through the door, all long limbs and elbows, screeching, “Pop Pop! Pop Pop! Tell us a story!”“Maybe if I sit still enough,” I thought, “they won’t try to ride me again.” I still have a bruise from when the youngest plopped down on my head shouting “Giddyap!” as though I were a common beast. I am not a common beast. I am Cyclura lewisi, descended from the last of the thunder lizards. You might call me iguana.You may call me Louie.To m...

15 likes

Read story

Wish You Weren't Here

Weekly Contest #343

It was the day of my 13th birthday. I had invited nine of my best friends to celebrate with me at the small park down the lane from my little farmhouse, but all of a sudden, one of my friends, Anabel Artisan, looked to the sky. “What is that?” She screamed! “Ahhh! Is the world ending?” Replied Octavia Smith. “Everyone, stay calm!” I heard Barbra Barberton shout. “How do you expect us to stay calm? This could be the end of the world.” Judy Campbell answered loudly. The sky looked as if someone had thrown a thousand black and white pom-poms...

8 likes

Read story

Coda

Jennifer Luckett

Weekly Contest #343

As it turns out, it doesn’t really hurt to die.This is a feast that can’t possibly satisfy me. The crisp attar of pine and brilliant, ethereal sunbeams mesmerize me, not unlike a swirl of icy flakes on a wintry day. I snag my fingertip on a spoke, jagged and twisted, a live wire that threatens to ignite me to my marrow. When I see them, it’s magic. The brush of his lips on mine, her tiny fingers curled around my pinkie—adoration wrapped in a velvety promise of forever. But it’s not enough, and the tap-tap-tap warns me, the unstoppable, crims...

11 likes

Read story

"Three Minutes and Twenty-seven Seconds on the Scoreboard Clock"

Murray Burns

Weekly Contest #343

Three Minutes and Twenty-seven Seconds on the Scoreboard Clock“Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments.”-Rose Kennedy It is one of the things that makes us human; a child’s pain hurts the parent even more.The scoreboard clock told Marty there were only three minutes and twenty-seven seconds remaining of such suffering. It was the last game of his son’s eighth-grade season, and soon it would all be over. A sit-down meal at Wendy’s after the game, a hamburger, fries, and a large Frosty, Timmy’s favorite combo, and his painful basketb...

17 likes

Read story

The Enormous Pressure of Impending Despair

Eric E

Weekly Contest #342

Around a month ago, I found a lump on my son’s wrist. After his bath one night I was drying him off and we were having our usual post-bath giggles. I held his arms up to get him into his pajamas and stopped. A lump on his wrist - small, but big enough to notice. He has chubby wrists, so I suppose it kind of blended in. It was weird noticing it, because I see him so much and hadn’t noticed it before. When I finally did, it was so sudden and abrupt it would have been like seeing a pimple on the Mona Lisa. An Xray was ordered and an ultrasoun...

6 likes

Read story

The Metal Man

Isaac Nash

Weekly Contest #341

At the midnight hour, in a home no bigger than a shoebox, there lived a small metal man.He tick tick ticked away as he diligently worked. He was fashioning new pieces for himself, as he was always breaking.He was fixing the joints of his legs. He clicked one out of its socket and placed it on his workspace.More rust than he would have liked had started to build up, so he cleaned that.Then he noticed a few screws had stripped, so he placed in some new ones.He was growing weary at the rate he had to fix himself.Last week he coughed up a cloud ...

13 likes

Read story

Percy's Plan

Weekly Contest #340

Percy was having the worst morning of his life, and absolutely everyone would be hearing about it. In fact, according to him, he couldn’t possibly meow too loudly for the severity of the situation. He stormed into the bedroom and, after a well-timed back end wiggle, hopped onto the bed. “Wake up, Mom!” He meowed at the top of his little lungs. His mother didn’t budge. “Wake up!” Percy batted her feet with his paw. Groaning, she rolled onto her side. He grumbled, circling around before flopping down at his mother’s feet. Despite his best ...

5 likes

Read story

Hollow Cravings

Weekly Contest #340

Hollow Cravings Walter was hungry. He was always hungry. The hunger drove him. The hunger lived with him at all times, all he could think about while swimming in endless circles. Fed off scrapes as his true dream sat just out of reach. As the pet goldfish for Room 5 of Mountain Valley School his greatest desire was grubby sticky delicious little children fingers. All day walking past him tapping their little hands against the glass, drawing hearts on his tank, and dangerously dangling their fingers as they sprinkled his food into the t...

4 likes

Read story

The World of Foxy Patch

VJ Hamilton

Weekly Contest #340

For weeks I was hanging out at the Takapuna Market on a long metal rack with dozens of friends and acquaintances. “Hey, zzzzip!” we called out to each other. There were the Camo bros, decked out in splotchy green and gray; the Hello Kitty kids, looking cute in pink-white-red canvas; the North Face squad, looking seriously professional; and the various Disney crews, from Aladdin to Frozen, sporting all colors of canvas. All of us with our shiny zip fasteners, our strong adjustable straps, and rows of perfect teeth that promised never to get j...

4 likes

Read story

Mittens: Vignettes of Vengeance

Kelly Burke

Weekly Contest #340

Mittens is not having it. Mittens is finished with all of this holiday hullabaloo. Every year, he fools himself into thinking it won’t be like the year before. Surely, the colossi will bore of this nonsense. Surely, their thunderous enthusiasm shall shrink as the monotony of this merriment wears on. Ever year Mittens is wrong. Each holiday season feels longer than the last. The colossi grow more colossal, all the taller to string more lights in higher places. Their voices become louder to sing songs over Mittens’ flattened ears. And they ...

5 likes

Read story

Babylon's Littlest Lion

Lila Guzman

Weekly Contest #340

Babylon’s Littlest Lion It was a normal day in Babylon. Hot. Dry. Dusty. The sun had just peeped over the horizon but the palace already felt like an oven. I jumped up on a window ledge and searched for signs of smoke. From here, I could see all of Babylon and the plain that stretched to the far horizon. Babylon! The greatest city in the world. It was the capital of Babylonia and was square, four miles wide by four miles long, and surrounded by tall brick walls. The Euphrates River flowed through it. Every morning, I sat here and waited to...

8 likes

Read story

Greyhound Trilogy

Ian Wynne

Weekly Contest #340

GREYHOUND TRILOGY – early reader series. PART 1: How my greyhound got his name. – By Billy Mum and Dad have decided we need a dog.‘At last,’ I say.But they can’t make up their minds about what sort of dog we should get.Picture of parents in a dog park surrounded by breeds ‘I want a dog I can look up to,’ says DadPicture of Dad with a great dane standing up with its paws on his shoulders. ‘I want a dog that’s quiet and kind,’ says Mum.Picture of a spaniel curled up on her lap ‘I want a dog that can run really fast,’ I say.Picture of lots of d...

7 likes

Read story