Home-seek, My project for course: Children’s Fiction: Write Compelling Adventure Stories

Home-seek

Children Fantasy Novel
Age range 8-12 Years old
Illustrated with a few sketches

Inspiration

I was inspired by my childhood toys and started thinking about what would happen if suddenly all of the world’s animals disappeared and were trapped inside the stuffed animals. I thought of my stuffed gorilla holding a banana and it was quite funny to think that he was trapped right before he could eat it. He would be furious. So I decided to play a little with this idea.
I didn’t want my villain to be a baddie, I wanted to reveal a just cause at the end, make them regret and give them a chance to make things right. Adam may be the hero here, but Mr. Spoks is the only one who has the power to make things right. Because he will understand his mistake. I had this idea on my previous course, but in this one during the exercises I saw some plot holes, some mistakes I’ve made. So I developed it and I feel that it makes more sense now.

Character arc
The hero of this story is Adam, a 10 year old boy, tall and chubby, with reckless brown hair and scraped knees. He feels that he has no luck at all. This is why he always finds himself in accidents. Zero luck. He will trip on even ground, he is going to be the one to break the fine china that are reserved for guests, and hurt his little toe on the edge of the couch. Everyone knows it and probably that is the real reason that his parents don’t seem to care about him. Living with his grandma, who he loves dearly, he is dreaming of his family whole and happy. He struggles with no close friends and spends most of his time reading with his grandma about the environmental disasters.
As the story goes on he will bond with the stuffed Polar bear, Pol, and form a true friendship with him. This will help him see things from a different perspective. Maybe he is not unlucky. Maybe he has both good and bad elements in his life, and he just focuses on the bad things.
When he will find out that Mr. Spoks is not a bad man, but was just trying to help, he will learn that not all that we see is true. Sometimes there are qualities in a person that are hidden. We must not judge anyone and always hear them out. Love can be a just cause but we should never forget that everyone has a right to choose what is best for them. And he finally understands that home is where your loved ones are. It can be many places, it can be a person. So at the end of the story Adam will be able to make his choice and leave behind what is supposed to be.

My Synopsis

Home-seek is about a young boy’s efforts to unravel a secret magic mystery and find out where one’s true home is.

Adam’s parents work all day, and this means they don’t have time for him. Or perhaps they simply don’t want to deal with the mess that comes from living with him. He is clumsy and extremely unlucky. Adam knows he is too much to handle, and so does everyone else. He tries to be more careful, but accidents keep happening. So he is stuck living with his grandparents and pretending it doesn’t’ pain him. He loves them, but there is a certain amount of Bingo nights and Planet Earth with Beth on a Saturday morning, a child can endure.

Adam’s bad luck plays tricks on him and he finds himself locked up in Spoky Land, Mr. Spoks’ toy store, after hours. He decides to sleep in Mr. Spoks’ office and explain in the morning. Already he dreads this conversation; everyone in town knows how weird and antisocial Mr. Spoks (80) is. But when he hears whispers and strange sounds from the store downstairs, he finds out that all of the stuffed animals are very much alive and talking. A grey polar bear, named Pol, informs him that they are real animals trapped in cotton since they lost their true home to environmental disasters. They can talk and move only during the night. He rambles about his old life and asks a million questions about Adam’s life and Adam has to lock him in a room to get away from him. Adam realizes that he sees himself in all of those animals, trapped away from home, and decides to help them. He searches Mr Spoks’ office and comes across notes about transfiguration and the existence of a magical object that holds the enchantment. When he is safely at home he discovers Pol inside his backpack. Fascinated with the human world, Pol begs him to let him help. Adam reluctantly agrees, thinking that he just has to endure the nights. They work together to become the shadow of Mr Spoks and learn more about the object. It’s not an easy job, since Mr Spoks has realized that someone is watching him. Pol is certain that the bell of Mr. Spoks’ cat is the object they are looking for. But when they break into the mansion and destroy the bell only the cat turns into her true form, a tiger. When the tiger refuses to leave Mr. Spoks, Adam and Pol realize that maybe the situation isn’t as they thought. Mr Spoks explains that he only wanted to help those animals to a loving home. It was the best way to help them without everyone knowing about his secret abilities. But Adam makes him realize that, even though his intentions were good, he can’t make the decision for them. So Mr Spoks offers every animal the choice to get back to their real form. As Pol and Adam have grown closer at their journey, Adam finally feels lucky when Pol decides to stay with him.

Back home, his Grandma tells him that his parents are coming to visit and he can go back with them. This is what he always wanted but now that he can finally be with them, Adam realizes he doesn’t want to. He chooses to stay where it feels like home, and that is with his Grandma.