Childrens Stories

Elsa lived in the warm and sunny land of Australia. Her family were runner birds and they never flew through the air, or settled in a high tree to sing on a lovely day.
“We have no need to fly from danger” her mother said, and she showed Elsa how to hide among the grass tussocks.
“See they are almost the same colours as yourself. If a clever little emu bird keeps very still she won’t be spotted,” her big sister smiled. But Elsa didn’t think it was much fun playing hide and seek on the ground when all the other birds could play hide and seek in the trees.

When she was just little, the Kookaburra made the woodlands ring with the sound of his laughter, as Elsa dashed about the ground with her long legs and funny little wings. He was always telling her how he flew to the gardens of the houses beyond the forest and how the people all liked to spot him there. The lyre bird was often heard singing the loveliest songs of the summer.

But Elsa never went far from the woodland. ‘A bird dashing about near the houses would look an odd sight,’ she sighed. Instead she practiced her running till she got faster and faster. So swiftly covering the ground that she wasn’t afraid to go down to the river bank were the other birds gathered. To rest from their flight and keep an eye out for a hungery crocodile pretending to be a harmless log. They knew that they could rise into the air and fly to the tree tops where no crocodile could follow.

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One bright and sunny spring day, Leonard came into the world. He wasn’t a baby robin, or a baby mouse, or a baby cricket. Leonard was a baby leaf, growing on the big oak tree on Mr. Johnson’s farm.

The tree had been there since Mr. Johnson’s great-grandfather had planted it with his father, when he was still a boy. The tree had seen many years as it grew between the big red barn and the white clapboard house.

All the ‘Mr. Johnsons’ through the years have said “Good morning” to the tree, as they walked to the barn each morning, and “Good evening” to the tree, as they walked back to the house each night. The tree grew-up hearing this and even tried a “Good morning” or “Good evening” of it’s own, on many occasions, with a wave of it’s branches or a creak from it’s trunk, but none of the ‘Mr. Johnsons’ ever really understood. Leonard, as I said, was a leaf who growing on the big oak tree.

He was a bright spring-green and had strong veins starting at his base, and shooting up to his edges. He lived about half-way up the big oak tree, neither at the top, nor at the bottom, but at a very good height for a leaf. He felt the strong spring sun on his face and thought there can not be anything greater than being a leaf. Continue Reading →

Aunt Hary, whose real name is Harriet, hollered; “Come and get it!” from the back-door of the farmhouse. Me and my brother, Eddie, are from a city that’s one state away from here. Our parents thought we needed to breathe some fresh country air, so we were dropped-off at Uncle Frank and Aunt Hary’s ranch yesterday. I think they just wanted to get rid of us for the summer. For breakfast, Aunt Hary baked some warm, flaky biscuits, in a special stove that burns wood. We ate them wonderful biscuits, with eggs and sausage: it was the best breakfast I ever had in my life! I took my third biscuit outside and sat on the back step. I savored it, bit-by-bit.

Suddenly, I got these squawking beaks and flapping wings in my face. I jumped up and ran, like my pants was on fire! I ran to a tree that Uncle Frank calls a “pee-can” tree. I don’t know how, but I got up that tree! Those chickens kept squawking and bock-bocking at me, so I threw the rest of my biscuit; at them hateful chickens. I kept climbing until the branches got wobbly. Looking down at them rotten chickens, I started to cry, because I was scared and my knees stung. Continue Reading →

Caroline and Sinead were sitting scrunched up in the cupboard under the stairs. A lighted candle, wobbling on a box, threw more shadows than light around them. On the outside of the door a notice said: WALLACE AND REILLY: DETECTIVES. STAY AWAY.

But Catherine leaned against the door, listening to the muffled voices inside.
“What’s the use of being detectives if we have nothing to detect,” grumbled Sinead. She felt that a week was long enough to be a detective without cases. Caroline sat frowning, thinking it over.
“Well,” she decided at last, “if people won’t bring cases to us to solve, we’ll have to go out and find them ourselves.”
There was another long silence and Catherine grew so tired of waiting that she leaned too heavily against the door and it creaked.
“Go away, Catherine!” called Caroline crossly.

Catherine stepped back a bit and waited. The voices started up again and she leaned closer.
“I heard Mammy talking about that house outside town you know, the one where no one lives – “, Caroline was saying.
“What about it?” asked Sinead, shifting to try to make herself more comfortable and almost knocking the candle off the box. The shadows leaped around the cupboard.
Caroline grabbed the candle and hot wax splashed from it. She yelped and flapped her burning hand.

“Can’t you be more careful? What do you want to go jumping around for?”
“There’s no room,” grumbled Sinead. “I’ve got pins and needles all over me from sitting like this. This is an awful place for an office.”
“Can you get a better place?”
Sinead sighed and rubbed her leg. Continue Reading →

There once was a little girl named Katie who had a kitty named Fluffy. Fluffy was a very lovable cat whose hair was long and bushed out in every direction. Katie was six years old and loved Fluffy and thought of him as her best friend in the whole world.

She told bedtime stories to him every night. Stretched out across the bed, Katie told Fluffy stories about anything and everything, as she stroked him from head to tail and Fluffy purred and purred during story-time. Katie’s long ripples of golden-brown hair flopped over one of her rosy cheeks as she snuggled close to Fluffy and she jabbered constantly, until they both fell asleep. Bright sunshine rays shone across Katie’s face and woke her.

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