Muse

Hey, Story Pirates podcast listeners, Lee here. Welcome to Story Pirates Summer. But before we get to today's very special bonus episode, I wanted to let you know, season eight may be over, but that doesn't mean we're done releasing episodes. Nope. We'll have brand new stories for you on Thursdays per usual. And on Mondays, we'll have special bonus episodes for Creator Club members only. And speaking of Creator Club, the Summer Story Challenge is getting ready to heat up. This Thursday, June 18th, we'll be publishing our very first leaderboard on our website of who has sent us the most stories so far this summer. So start sending in those stories right now. all summer long the top 10 kids who send us the most stories will show up on the leaderboard on our website and at the end of the summer the top 10 will be invited to a very exclusive pizza party Zoom with me where we'll talk about the amazing things that you wrote bring your own pizza of course I can't just give you pizza over Zoom plus I'll be shouting out kids all summer on the podcast and all kids who send us stories as part of the challenge will get a certificate it at the end of the summer. And of course, story love from us, telling you how much we loved your stories. And if you need help writing your stories, grownups can download our free summer survival kit chock full of so many activities and story sparks. You can find the summer survival kit and sign up for the summer story challenge at storypirates.com slash podcast. And now on with the show after a few more words for the grown-ups.

I just crumble all over the place. I definitely think I can be more creative now. I'm the champion. The Story Pirates.

It's the Story Pirates podcast. I am so excited for today's bonus episode. You may remember that a little while ago, we asked all of our listeners to send us stories around the theme, you are what you eat. in order to celebrate a brand new children's book we're really excited about called Spaghetti Head and Chicken Fingers. Well, you did not disappoint. We got so many amazing stories from you. Stories like My Sister the Picky Dinosaur from Alexander in the Netherlands, One Bite Too Far by Audrey in Arkansas, and Nothing Sandwiches by Gus in Canada, and so many more. Thank you so much to everyone that sent in stories We read and loved all of them, and we're sending all of you some story love to tell you just how much we love them. However, we could only pick one story to adapt for today's bonus episode, and it's also a great one. Here's the author to introduce it.

Hi, my name is Laurel. I'm Penn, and I live in New Jersey. This is my story, What Do I Eat?

Um, excuse me, grocery store employee? Yes, how can I help you, young man? Where might I find the oatmeal? Oh, that would be in our cereal section. Next aisle over. Thanks so much. But I'd be careful. They say that that aisle is haunted. Haunted?

Who says that?

No one. I've said too much. Good luck!

That was weird. Okay, let's see. Here it is, the cereal aisle. And here's the oatmeal shelf all the way on the bottom. Hmm, instant oats, one-minute oats. Ah, five-minute oats, the best-minute oats. Looks like there's only one left. It's way in the back. I'll have to crawl back in there to reach it, deep into the shelf. Wow, it's cavernous back here. It's like there's more to this grocery store than meets the eye. I'll say.

Who said that?

It's me.

The ghost of the grocery store.

Ghost? The grocery store is haunted?

Fine, I will tell you my story.

Ooh, actually, I don't really have time to...

It all started long ago when I was just a girl.

Oh, we're really doing it, okay? So, yeah, that was the 4th of July office. party to remember. I'll say. What about you, Laura? Do you have any fun dinner table stories for your old mom and dad? Well, today at school, something sort of funny happened. A funny school story? Dish. Today at lunch, Teddy punched his ham sandwich and then said, oh, sorry. Was that a little ham fisted? What a great pun. I always love that, Teddy. His dad packs him ham every day, so he's always making jokes about it.

You know what they say, you are what you eat.

Because that boy is, I am.

Dad, what did you say? Huh? I said you are what you eat.

Well, I've lost my appetite.

Why do you look so concerned?

Why? Because apparently you are what you eat?

Laura, dear, it's a saying. You've never heard that before?

No, and I can't believe that you're just telling me now.

I don't understand. What's the problem? Oh, I don't know. What if I eat the wrong thing?

Laura, I think you're confused. I don't think I am, Mom. Just imagine. Imagine if tomorrow morning I have a bite of bacon and then I try to go to school. Honey, I think... Imagine! Okay, fine.

Lacey.

Here.

Lamar.

Here.

Lance. Here. And Laura. Laura. Where's Laura?

I'm here, I'm here!

Laura, you're here and you're... Ugh! A walking strip of bacon?

I'm sorry, but as we all know, you are what you eat!

We do know that!

I'll just wiggle to my seat and try not to slip on my own grease!

Ah! Ah! She's sliding across the room! Ah! There's bacon grease everywhere!

Everywhere! Pens don't work on greasy paper, Mom. How are we supposed to learn in an environment like that?

Darling, I think you need to take a breath and listen. You see...

Oh, I see, Dad. I see more than you know. Like, what if it's a hot summer day and I decide to eat some ice cream? I think it would be a disaster. Imagine it.

What a great day to be at the beach.

The best place to be on a hot, sunny day. Don't you agree, Laura? I'm melting! I'm melting!

This is my fault. I'm a bad dad.

I'm the worst dad in the history of dads, you'll say.

Honey, why don't you calm down and have some dinner?

What? You want me to eat this salmon now? Imagine, Mom! Okay. Mom, Dad, I'm home from school. From my school of fish, that is. I'm a salmon. Welcome home, dear. Thanks for serving me salmon. I'm finally happy to be what I eat. I'm so glad to hear that. All right, I'm going to go watch TV now. Oh, sorry, but there are no couches or TVs underwater. What? No! Mom! This is the worst one!

Talk about a nightmare! Okay, I think that's enough, Flora.

I've only just begun! Imagine if we all ate different things! Imagine!

It's quite a beautiful day. Hey, hon, why don't you come out here on the deck and enjoy the weather? I can't. Why not? I'm pasta.

You know what happens when pasta gets too humid? I can't show my face at work if I'm limp linguine.

Nonsense. Here, I'll open the screen door. Oh, sorry. Ever since I ate that cupcake, I've been getting frosting everywhere. Really makes it hard to grip things. Mom! Mom! Laura, you're home early from school.

Oh, I see you had a sandwich for lunch. Oh, why would you say that? Because I'm a giant sandwich? Yes, that is why. I had to run home.

Because of the humidity?

Worse, a seagull. What?

I know that seagulls like to steal food, but I can't imagine that one could carry away a giant sandwich the size of a huge...

Oh, it's got me! It's got me! Laura, this is our fault. We deserve all the blame for our negligence.

Okay, that's enough. You aren't literally what you eat. It's just an expression.

It's too late, Mom. Cat's out of the bag. The only question left is, now that I know the truth, what do I eat? If I don't eat anything, will I disappear?

You have to eat something.

What if I ate everything so I couldn't turn into anything? What? What do we have in the fridge? I'm going to have a tiny bite of everything.

Wow, she's really eating everything.

Just let her go. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? She actually becomes what she eats? What's going on? It's happening.

I'm becoming a grocery store.

I guess you really are what you eat.

This is great. I know, but wait, what is it? Now that I'm a grocery store, I'm going to be rich. Are you?

Wow. So did you become rich?

I did. And do you know what I did with that, Madine?

What goes to the grocery store?

I bought all the food there was. I ate it all, and I turned back into a human.

So then you became a ghost and decided to come back to the grocery store and haunt it?

No. For the rest of my life, I continued that cycle of turning into a grocery store, getting rich, buying all the food, eating it, turning back into a girl, and then starting again. And I became the president of a successful grocery store chain and one of its stores. Oh. And then one day, I met a very nice department store, and we had kids who followed in my footsteps.

Of becoming grocery stores?

And when any of us died, we turned into grocery stores frozen in place.

Wait, this was an origin of grocery store story?

It is the origin of grocery store story.

So you're literally the ghost of this grocery store?

Yeah. Huh.

Well, thanks for the story. I gotta go.

Okay, bye.

Bye.

I'm the ghost of a grocery store.

The end!

We'll be right back after a few words for the grown-ups.

Hey, grown-ups. Today's episode is sponsored by Children Incorporated. What if changing the world started right at home? Sponsoring a child through Children Incorporated is a beautiful way to show your own children what kindness in action looks like. Imagine being able to say, we're helping another child go to school. Through trusted local volunteer coordinators who personally know each child, your sponsorship goes directly where it's needed most. Because some of the most important lessons we teach our kids have nothing to do with homework. They come from compassion, empathy, and choosing to help someone else feel seen and supported. Visit childrenincorporated.org today to sponsor and help remove the barriers to education. And now, Lise speaks with the author. Laurel, you wrote the story, What Do I Eat?

Yes.

So did you hear about the story contest on the Story Pirates podcast, or did you hear about it somewhere else?

I heard about it from Good Mythical Morning. I like to watch it with my mom.

Oh, that's amazing. So can you tell me, like, what do you like about Good Mythical Morning and Rhett and Link?

First of all, it's funny. They have, like, a million different games that they play. They've made some of their own games. Like, they'll try food and try to guess where it's from, or they'll rank food from different restaurants.

Are you excited for their new book, Spaghetti Here in Chicken Fingers?

Yeah. My mom just told me that we pre-ordered it.

When you heard from Good Mythical Morning about this story contest, did you immediately know that you wanted to sit down and write? Or did you have to think about it first?

I do enjoy writing a lot. I like to write short stories and poetry. And so it's like, okay, a show I like to watch gave us a prompt to write. I'm going to write. That's how my brain's spinning.

I'm wondering if you, Laurel, have a favorite food that if one day you turned into that food, it might cause a problem for you.

Well, I do enjoy brownies a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot. But if I turn into a brownie, I pretty much just crumble all over the place. Like, you can't really be a baked good without crumbling everywhere.

Do you then become all the different crumbs and you're, like, separated from yourself? Or do you stay where the most brownie is?

I'd probably stay where the most brownie is and then take it to a place where they could make a super dough to make the brownie extra strong so it wouldn't fall apart everywhere. And then it would just be a super strong brownie that didn't crumble into pieces.

Incredible. Laurel, thank you so much For sending us your story

Thank you for choosing my story

Do you want to give a shout out To Rhett and Link before we go?

Tell them that me and my mom Are their biggest fans

Okay, I will. Bye, Laurel. Bye. That's it for today's bonus episode. Thanks to today's author, Laurel, and everyone that sent us stories for our collaboration with Good Mythical Morning. We really wish we could have performed them all. We'll be back Thursday with our first official summer episode. And in the meantime, grownups, remember to get your summer survival kit and join the summer story Challenge at storypirates.com slash podcast. And of course, grownups can pre-order Spaghetti Head and Chicken Fingers by Rhett and Link in the show notes for today's episode. Okay, we'll see you soon. Until then, stay creative and stay kind. Bye!