Our class decided to write a different version to Stella Louella’s Runaway Book. In this story, Stella Louella has lost her library book that is due at 5pm that day. She begins to look for it in her backyard where her brother Sam is playing. Sam read the book and left it on the front porch. Stella Louella then finds out that the book has been passed along to several different people she knows in her neighborhood. Each time she finds the next person who might have it, they tell Stella Louella what they liked best about the book…giving a clue as to what book Stella may have taken out of the library. These clues helped us figure out what book Stella Louella actually took out from the library!

We decided to keep the same characters and change some of their roles in the story. We chose a different book for Stella Louella to lose instead of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
As a class, we read Stella Louella’s Runaway Book several times, and with our shared writing and thinking, we thought what each character might have said about the book we chose for Stella Louella to lose. See if you can figure out what book she lost!

Multiage’s Version:

On Saturday morning, Stella realized her library book was missing and it was due by 5pm that day! She remembered that the last place she saw it was outside on the hammock.

Stella’s brother Sam who was playing outside with his stuffed pig said, “It was a good book. I liked the pigs. I left it on the front porch by the mailbox.”

When Stella got to the mailbox, Wally Hanson the mailman said, “Oh, your book got mixed in with the mail. Good book though, especially when they go to seek their fortune. I left it at the house on the corner.”

When Stella, Sam, and Wally got to the corner house, Tiffany Anne was combing her long blonde hair on the steps.
She said, “Hey, great book. I loved the part when he said, ‘not by the hair on my chinny, chin, chin’! I thought it was missing so I gave it to Officer Tim.”

Stella, Sam, Wally, and Tiffany Anne raced to the police station to see Officer Tim. He said, “Interesting book- a classic case of unlawful entry through the chimney! I stopped by Wanda Lynn’s apple orchard to have a slice of apple pie and I must have left it there.”

When they all found Wanda Lynn at the apple orchard and asked her if she had seen the book, she said, “It was here a minute ago, loved the part about the apples. I remember Sal from the fix-it shop picking it up.”

Stella, Sam, Wally, Tiffany Anne, Officer Tim, and Wanda Lynn ran over to Sal’s fix-it shop. He said, “I liked the part when the stick house was wrecked, I’d sure like to fix that up again. I gave the book to Morty from Home Depot when he stopped in.”

The seven people ran to Home Depot where Morty worked and asked him for Stella’s book. “A baby carried it off not ten minutes ago! We might be able to catch her. It was a terrific book. I loved how they built their houses out of straw, sticks, and bricks!”

When they found the baby with her mother on Elm Street, they shouted to her to turn around. The mother said, “I’m so sorry dear,” she said to Stella. “It was a lovely book, especially the part about the nap. We gave it to a troop of scouts on Sycamore Street.”

It was now three o’clock and Stella had to find her book! Stella, Sam, Wally, Tiffany Anne, Officer Tim, Wanda Lynn, Sal, Morty, and the Mother and her baby raced to Sycamore Street to catch up with the troop of tired scouts returning from their nature walk. When they got to them and asked them about Stella’s book they said, “We don’t have it. It was a good one though, especially the part when the pigs were all safe and sound at the brick house.” We left it with Duff Morten who was working on his bug badge.

They all ran to find Duff who was looking into his magnifying glass. Duff said, “Excellent book, especially the part when the wolf discovered the brick house was too strong to blow down. But I gave the book to Miss Flynn, the gym teacher, when she ran by.”

Stella was now getting really nervous, it was almost 5 o’clock! All eleven people now ran to find Miss Flynn. Miss Flynn who was still jogging said, “I loved the ending, when the wolf ran away from the brick house as fast as he could. I left the book at the bench on the corner. Maybe it’s still there!”

So they all ran to the corner. Stella’s book was not there! They did discover that the bench was smack dab in front of the library. Stella decided that she needed to go in to tell Mrs. Graham, the librarian, that she had lost her library book. When she got to the counter, Stella whispered, “I’m so very sorry.”

Mrs. Graham just smiled and said, “I found this on the bench outside.” Stella shouted with happiness along with Sam, Wally, Tiffany Anne, Officer Tim, Wanda Lynn, Sal, Morty, the mother and baby, the troop of scouts, Duff Morten, and Miss Flynn behind her. At five minutes to five, her runaway book had been returned.

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