Left to right: Elise Takaesu wrote about Detective Chicken
and Assistant Peep. Jason Fowler's detective explains all in
the case of "Chicken Catch-a-Tori." Christina Sundberg put it
all on the set of the movie "Attack of the Killer Surfer Chickens."

They know
WHODUNIT!

Young writers explain the
KO! mystery writing contest illustration

Star-Bulletin

Where in the world do young mystery writers get their inspiration? Quite a few have picked up tips from the chase for Carmen Sandiego, leader of a gang of thieves, whose exploits fuel a public television game show, video and computer games and a host of related products.

At least, that's what the evidence, 74 entries in the Kids Only! Mystery writing contest, suggests.

Youthful scribes had to work in the story elements laid out in our contest entry coupon. These are a pair of chickens with surfboards, a broken vase, a broken TV, a man (oblivious to his surroundings) reading in an armchair, and a murder (indicated by the outline of the victim's body). Most entries displayed the same tongue-in-cheek humor of the Sandiego saga.

Elise Takaesu, age 9, won the grades 1-3 contest with her tale of Detective Chicken and his Assistant Peep. The Pearl Harbor Kai Elementary third-grader put the birds on vacation at the beach, surfing, when they were called on the case.

The oblivious man is a neighbor who came to investigate strange noises then saw the Sunday comics and entered a comic-induced trance.

Elise sent her crime solvers on the trail of evidence, "down the fire escape and across the road.

"That answers that question: Why did the chicken cross the road? To solve the murder mystery!" Elise wrote.

The guilty party turns out to be a dog, who broke the vase and TV while committing his murder. Elise concludes her crime story with "Detective Chicken and Assistant Peep got a reward of $101. They spent it on a trip to Maui and some Chicken Feed."

Jason Fowler, an appropriately named 11-year-old, won the grades 4-6 contest. Jason, who is a sixth-grader at Kainalu Elementary School, submitted a pun-laden tale narrated by Jason Fowler, Megadetective, about his adventures tracking master criminal Victoria Byrd.

Jason writes that his "case involved a murder, two chickens and the Hope Diamond. I called this case ... Chicken Catch-a-Tori."

It turns out that Tori Byrd and her partner N.O. Good had stolen the Hope Diamond.

Good tried to double cross his partner. But, Jason, writes, "He should have known better than to count his chickens before they hatched ... Tori found out about this double crossing. She hypnotized two chickens to not only get the Hope Diamond back, but also to send him to that big chicken coop in the sky."

In the process of killing Good, the chickens made a mess of the TV and vase. Our hero is at the crime scene when the chickens return, carrying surfboards. The detective freezes in the chair so the hypnotized birds won't spot him.

Fortunately the police arrive in time to arrest the chickens. The diamond is hidden in one of the surfboards. The case is wrapped up, "but Tori is still on the loose. As for the chickens, well, they will always be hypnotized ... But I found a nice man who said he would take the chickens and try to make them turn around from their bad ways. At least, I think that's what he meant when he said he'd huli them."

The grades 6-9 winner, eighth-grader Christina Sundberg, placed her story on the set of a movie, "Attack of the Killer Surfer Chickens." The chickens are actually cardboard. The man in the armchair is a wax dummy in the movie scene.

Less-than-committed actor Jesse Donovan is found murdered on the set.

Christina has Detective Clark and his assistant Ford explain that the murder is the work of Marshal Green, whose sister Barbara is the female lead in the movie. Green kills Donovan because the actor wasn't taking his role seriously and is ruining the movie.

Barbara Green broke the vase and TV when she lost her temper and threw the vase at a figure she thought was Donovan.

However, Christina poses her own mystery in return:

" 'As I was coming in today, I had a huge fright!' The voice of Ms. Green was shrill and frantic. 'I walked onto the set, and the chickens have grown bigger!'," she writes.

How and why did the cardboard chickens get bigger?

"Everyone shook their heads.

" 'I guess that is a mystery that still needs to be solved," said Detective Clark."

The three winners each receive a $50 savings bond, a gift certificate from Borders Books & Music and an official KO! T-shirt.