Story Starters are pages with an illustration and a sentence or two on them designed to inspire children to write stories. They provide a creative and enjoyable way for children to strengthen writing and reading skills. Children who are too young to write by themselves can dictate their stories to parents or older children. Here are five Story Starters. You can find many more, plus examples of stories written by more than 40 children at the Young Writers Workshop on www.meddybemps.com. Loose monkeys What's in the bag? Girl and cat Cowboy Who's in my house? Moms in park Sometimes, one page is not enough. Also, some children prefer to draw their own artwork. So here's a blank page for them to use.