“It was a dark and stormy night”. These now-clichéd words were penned by Sir Arthur Bulwer-Lytton, a famous 19th-century novelist who gave us The Last Days of Pompeii. Now, however, he is the namesake of a contest for the world’s worst opening sentence. Hundreds of contestants from around the world submit their own efforts in various genres and become, for a moment, famous. This month we will feature some of these classic duds.
Here is the 2016 Winner in the Children’s Literature section:
When your home smells like a three-week-old buffalo carcass, your Mom is constantly being mistaken for a guy, and your sisters keep using your ears as their personal chew toys, life is no laughing matter—at least that’s how it seemed to Hubert, the baby Hyena.
— Anna McDougald, Winnipeg, Manitoba