Only SEVEN days left to enter the Name the Turtle Contest! First prize is the first edition of [Turtle] or one of our other themes; second prize is a gift certificate good toward any of the Storybook Quilts.
This excerpt from the story draft tells how Sam meets Stanley and Turtle.
“My own castle! Cool!” Sam thought. She sat down in the resting spot, tipped her head back, closed her eyes and imagined herself as a princess in a real castle far away. Suddenly, someone yelled “Hey! Move your bottom!” Sam jumped up. She saw a starfish squashed up against the wall of the castle. He looked very angry and shook each arm at Sam in turn. “This is MY sand and MY beach. I claim this castle as mine! Beat it!” said the starfish. “Not so fast, Mr. Starfish,” Sam said. “My Auntie and I built this castle.” “Yeah and she told you a lot of stories about pirates, too, didn’t she?” said the starfish. “I bet she has never even MET a pirate! Hmph! And as for that treasure, shoot, I know exactly where it is!” “You DO?!” said Sam, very surprised. “Yep, I grew up on the beach by the pirate caves. If you let me have the castle, I’ll take you there.” “You WILL?” Sam said, even more surprised. “DEAL!”
“Follow me. Oh, by the way, may name is Stanley,” said the starfish. Sam thought it was very 
strange for a starfish to talk, but she followed anyway. “I am Sam,” she said. Stanley ignored her and headed straight for the water. He slapped the sand three times—SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!—and waited. Nothing. So he did it again, this time harder—SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! Ever so slowly, a nose emerged from the water, then two flippers and then . . . what do you think this was? Why, it was a huge sea turtle, nearly as big as Sam!
Enter the contest to give [Turtle] a name and find out how the story ends!
