"Best Family Home Evening Ever!!" is a short 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...

. It appears in his short story collection Maps in a Mirror

Maps in a Mirror

Maps in a Mirror is a collection of short stories by Orson Scott Card. Like Card's novels, most of the stories have a science fiction or fantasy theme...

. Card originally published this story in the January 1978 issue of Friend

The Friend (LDS magazine)

The Friend is the monthly English language children's magazine published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . It is aimed at those of Primary age , approximately ages 3 through 12...

magazine under the pseudonym Byron Walley.

Plot summary

This story is about a nine-year-old boy named Alan whose family frequently gets upset with him. When Alan’s dad announces that they are going to have a family lesson about not getting angry at one another, Alan gets very excited and when his father says that Alan will be the one giving the lesson he gets to work right away. On the day of the lesson he secretly makes a mess out of everyone’s things in the family room and then gets everyone to promise not to get angry. After Alan shows his family the mess, and they pass the test by not getting angry, he explains that he didn’t ruin anyone’s stuff but had carefully scattered the things around the room. When Alan says that he will clean up the mess the family volunteers to help and they tell him that it was a good family lesson.

Characters

• Allan – Main character
• Allan’s Dad - unnamed
• Allan’s Mom - unnamed
• Ryan - Allan’s brother
• Harry - Allan’s brother
• Alice - Allan’s sister

Byron Walley

In the Question and Answer section of his website 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...

 said that the first time he used the name Byron Walley was when he published the short story "Gert Fram

Gert Fram

"Gert Fram" is a short story by Orson Scott Card. It appears in his short story collection Maps in a Mirror. This short story was the first piece of fiction Card ever published...

" in Ensign magazine. Card did this because he had a non-fiction article “Family Art”, a poem “Looking West” and a short play "The Rag Mission" (published under the name Brian Green) appearing in the same issue.

External links

• The official Orson Scott Card website
• "Best Family Home Evening Ever!!" - available online from Friend magazine.