CCF is a 501(c)3 educational nonprofit. You help support the work of CCF when you purchase from vendors via the links posted on our site.
Home | About | Subscribe | Postcards | Polls | Translate | BookSense | BookCloseouts | Blog | | Contact Us | Add to My Yahoo! RSS feed

Home
 
 PRESS RELEASE
 CCF Top Picks
 
 NEWS
 
 SCIENCE
 
 CHILDREN
 CCF Kids
 Reporters
 CCF Youth
 
 HEALTH & FITNESS
 
 PARENTS
 Education
 
 WRITING
 Contests
 Tibbetts' POV
 Workshops
 Authors
 Publishing
 Resources
 Books4Children
 
 BOOKS
 Awards
 Book Clubs
 Reviews
 Bestsellers
 
 ABOUT CCF
 Bulletin
 Services
 Donations
 Affiliates
 Links
 Recommends
 
 BLOG
 
 Holiday Favorites

Shipping & Returns
Privacy Notice
Conditions of Use
Contact Us

Home > CHILDREN                           Share this article with others!
It was a dark and stormy night
by staff writer, October writing contest theme information
Printer-friendly page Printer page
Email this Page Email article

The first line for October's writing contest is, "It was a dark and stormy night..." The contest is ongoing, with a different first line chosen each month, and is open to kids of all ages The rules are simple: Write a short story using the first line we give you and submit it to CCF.

Without doing a Google or Internet search, do you know where this first line came from? First take the following survey and then scroll down the page and read more about it.


Facts about the phrase, "It was a dark and stormy night..."
Vote and let us know what you think!
[an error occurred while processing this directive]

AFTER you vote, check more information on each of the poll questions: 

  • Question #1: NO. Even though Charles M. Schulz did write "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night, Snoopy", the phrase was not original to Schulz. [See question #4 below].
  • Question #2: YES. Nik Peachey has designed a language learning activity where students start out using the famous phrase. The activity's instructions are available online at the British Council's website.
  • Question #3: YES. NASA posted a photo of one such night in their Astronomy Picture of the Day archives where T. Credner & S. Kohle of AlltheSky.com write, "It was a dark and stormy night. But on August 29th the red planet Mars, near its closest approach to Earth in almost 60,000 years, shone brightly in the sky against a background of stars in the constellation Aquarius." [More space images available at: NASA's APOD home page].
  • Question #4: NO. "The words are actually from the 1830 novel, 'Paul Clifford' by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, widely held to contain the worst opening sentence of any novel in the English language." [abc.net.au]
  • Question #5: YES. Since 1982, The Department of Englisn & Comparative Literature at San Jose State University in California has sponsored the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest where entrants are challenged to submit bad opening sentences.
  • Question #6: NO. The phrase was original to Bulwer-Lytton, as mentioned in question #4 above. We're using the phrase as the first line of our online writing contest this month.
  • Question #7: YES. Chris Vollmer, one of our site's visitors, wrote us saying, "The phrase is also the first line in the Newbery Award Winner of 1963, A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L'Engle.


URL: http://www.childrencomefirst.com/stormy.shtml

Top of PageTop of Page



 SEARCH
Advanced Search
click to subscribe and get the CCF bulletin click to subscribe and get the CCF bulletin
GET OUR BULLETIN

Click to blog image

What's New
The real zoo behind the movie "We Bought a Zoo"
How many types of bikes can you name?
More planets than stars found in the Milky Way
Criminal Penguins - Frozen Planet - BBC One
Inside the White House
Save the Tiger Month
What's the Worst Thing About Being an Astronaut?
Answering 64 Job Interview Questions: General Guidelines
Can you get published if you're under 18?
It was a dark and stormy night
National Nothing Day
Jacquie Lawson's Card of the Month
Maximum Ride
The War of Mirrors
The Kraken: Is this mythical creature real?
Be Ugly in 2007: Find ugly in "beauty"

© 1998-2008 Children Come First. All rights reserved.
spacer