"Ender's Stocking" is a story by Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card is an American author, critic, public speaker, essayist, columnist, and political activist. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his science fiction. His novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the...

 set in his Ender's Game universe

Ender's Game series

The Ender's Game series is a series of science fiction books by Orson Scott Card. The series started with the novelette "Ender's Game", which was later expanded into the novel Ender's Game. It currently consists of eleven novels and ten short stories...

. It tells the story of how Ender’s brother Peter figures out how he can get people to do what he wants. It appears in Card's Webzine InterGalactic Medicine Show

Intergalactic Medicine Show

InterGalactic Medicine Show is an American online fantasy and science fiction magazine. It was founded by multiple award-winning author Orson Scott Card. An anthology also called Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show was published by Tor in August, 2008, featuring selected stories from...

.

Plot summary

"Ender's Stocking" is the story of Peter Wiggin

Peter Wiggin

Peter Wiggin is a fictional character in the science fiction novel Ender's Game and its sequels, written by Orson Scott Card. He has appeared in the novels Ender's Game, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind and in an upcoming short story to...

 while he was a boy in high school. Two days before Christmas Peter was in the library and he decided to try and act friendly to one of his classmates. After the girl rejected him, Peter went home and had a fight with his mother because she was sad about Ender

Ender Wiggin

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is a fictional character from Orson Scott Card's science fiction story Ender's Game and its sequels , as well as in the first part of the spin-off series, Ender's Shadow...

 being away at Battle School. Later that day Peter went for a walk and began to think about why people didn't like him. He came to the conclusion that people hated him because they were afraid of him and because he frequently tried to use force to get people to do what he wanted. It then occurred to Peter that the best way to get people to do what he wanted was to convince them that he cared about them and that he wanted to help them. He tried this out on his family and found that it worked. As a result he started doing it to other people as well.

Characters

• Peter Wiggin
• Father – unnamed in this story
• Mother – unnamed in this story
• Valentine Wiggin - Peter's sister
• Mirabella "Bell" - Peter's classmate
• Bell's friends - unnamed
• Classmates - mostly unnamed
• Teachers - unnamed
• Principal - unnamed

Connection to A War of Gifts

The first part of this short story where Peter fights with his mother over the Christmas stocking she has prepared for Ender while he is away at Battle School became Chapter 2 Ender’s Stocking of Card’s book A War of Gifts

A War of Gifts: An Ender Story

A War of Gifts: An Ender Story is a science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card. This book is set in Card's Ender's Game series and takes place during Ender Wiggin's time at Battle School as described in Card's novels Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow.-Plot summary:A War of Gifts begins in North...

. However, this chapter seems to be unrelated to the rest of the book and has been criticized for detracting from the rest of the story.

Publication

"Ender's Stocking" was published in the October 2007 issue of Intergalactic Medicine Show.