Stories

Gus the goat wanted to fly more than anything in the whole wide world. More than grass. More than climbing. More than eating his farmer’s socks (and he REALLY liked eating socks).

First, Gus flapped his ears as hard as he could. Flap flap flap flap FLAP! He rose exactly zero centimetres into the air, but he did blow his own hat off.

Next, he glued feathers all over his body. He looked like a giant fluffy pillow with legs. He jumped off the haystack, shouted “WHEEEE!”, and landed – SPLOOSH – head-first in the duck pond. The ducks were not impressed. One of them gave him a score of 2 out of 10.

Then Gus tied 47 balloons to his tail. Up, up, up he floated! “I’M FLYING!” he yelled. Then a bird pecked one balloon. POP! Then another. POP! POP! POP! Gus came down like a very surprised, very hairy rain cloud and landed right on top of the farmer.

“GUS!” said the farmer, from underneath a goat. “Why are you on my head?” “Air travel,” said Gus.

In the end, Gus decided flying was overrated. He climbed the tallest mountain instead and shouted, “LOOK! I’M HIGHER THAN THE BIRDS!” The birds flew over and did a poo on his head. Gus sighed. “Worth it.”

The End. ⭐

Rex was a super-clever robot. He could do 10,000 sums a second, tidy a bedroom in four minutes and make toast so perfect that people cried. But Rex could NOT dance.

At the town party, the music started. Rex tried to wiggle. His bottom went left. His head went right. His arms went round and round like a washing machine. Then his left leg fell off and rolled under the cake table.

“I am fine,” said Rex, hopping on one leg. “This is a dance move. It is called The Wobbly Flamingo.” Everybody clapped, because it actually looked brilliant.

Rex got excited. He turned his volume up to MAXIMUM and did The Spinning Toaster. Bread flew out of his ears. Toast landed on the Mayor’s head. Butter went everywhere. A dog called Biscuit ate eleven slices and then did a little dance of his own.

Then Rex did The Malfunction. Sparks flew, smoke puffed out of his nose and his voice box shouted, “BEEP BOOP I LOVE CHEESE,” over and over again.

The crowd went wild. By the end of the night, the whole town was doing The Wobbly Flamingo, the Mayor had toast in her hair, and Rex had won Best Dancer. He still can’t dance. Nobody has told him.

The End. ⭐

Ember the dragon had a very big problem. Every time she sneezed, fire came out of her nose. And Ember was allergic to EVERYTHING. Flowers. Dust. Cats. Sometimes even Tuesdays.

At her friend Barry the Badger’s birthday party, Ember tried her very best not to sneeze. Then somebody brought out a cake with lots of sparkly sprinkles. Ember’s nose started to twitch.

“Ah… ahhh… AHHHHH…” said Ember. Everybody dived behind the sofa. “…ahhh… nope. False alarm,” she said. Everyone climbed out again.

Then Barry leaned over to blow out his candles. Ember’s nose went wibble. It went wobble. It went “AAAAHHHH-CHOOOOOO!”

WHOOOOSH! A giant fireball flew across the room. It lit every single candle at once, toasted all the marshmallows, gave Barry a curly new hairstyle and blasted his party hat into space. (It is still orbiting the Moon. Astronauts wave at it.)

There was a long silence. Then Barry looked at his perfectly toasted marshmallows and said, “That… was the BEST birthday EVER!” Now Ember is hired for every party in the forest. She brings tissues, a pepper pot and a fire extinguisher, just in case.

The End. ⭐

The Mighty Ants were the smallest football team in the world. Their goalkeeper was so tiny he once got lost inside his own glove.

Their football was a pea. Their goalposts were two cocktail sticks. And their kit was made from a single sock, which all eleven ants wore at the same time. It was very hard to run.

Their big match was against the Beetle Bashers, who were enormous and smelled a bit like old cheese. The beetles laughed. “HA! We’ll squash you like… ants!” “We ARE ants,” said Captain Annie. “Exactly,” said the beetles.

The game began. A beetle kicked the pea so hard it bounced off a worm, flew over a fence, and landed in a bowl of soup belonging to a man called Dave. Dave ate it. The match had to stop for twenty minutes while they found a new pea.

In the last second, Annie had a plan. All eleven ants climbed on top of each other to make one tall, wobbly ant tower. They wobbled down the pitch like a jelly on a skateboard and headbutted the pea into the goal. GOOOOOOAL!

The Mighty Ants won 1–0. The beetles were so shocked that one of them fainted into a daisy. Dave is still very confused about his soup.

The End. ⭐

One night, the Moon woke up, stretched and gasped. “OH NO!” she cried. “I’ve lost my favourite pants!” They were silver and sparkly, with little rockets on them. Very important pants.

She asked the stars. “Have you seen my pants?” The stars giggled so hard they twinkled. “Pants? PANTS? Hee hee hee!” They were no help at all.

She asked a passing comet. “Have you seen my pants?” “Sorry, too fast!” shouted the comet, zooming away. “Is that a no?” called the Moon. “YEEEEES!” said the comet, who was now in a different galaxy.

She asked Saturn, who was wearing seven rings and looked very fancy. Saturn said, “Darling, I don’t even WEAR pants.” Which was a lot of information nobody needed.

Meanwhile, down on Earth, a boy called Leo looked out of his window. Hanging on his washing line, between his dad’s socks and a T-shirt that said “I ❤️ Cheese”, were some silver pants with rockets on. Leo held them up to the sky. “ARE THESE YOURS?” he yelled.

The Moon went bright pink. She beamed so hard with happiness (and a tiny bit of embarrassment) that night became day for three whole minutes. And that is why, if you look very closely at a full moon, you can see she’s smiling. And wearing pants.

The End. ⭐

Penny the penguin was bored of ice. Ice for breakfast. Ice for lunch. Ice for her bed. Even her teddy bear was an ice cube called Kevin. So Penny decided to go on a beach holiday.

She packed sun cream, a bucket, a spade and forty-two fish sandwiches. Then she hitched a ride on a whale called Wendell, who burped the whole way there. “Sorry,” said Wendell. BUUURRRP. “It was the prawns.”

The beach was AMAZING. Penny built a sandcastle with fourteen towers. She tried surfing and fell off nineteen times. She ate an ice cream so fast that her brain froze, which was great, because she missed feeling cold.

But the sun was VERY hot. Penny started to sweat. Then she started to puff. Then a seagull said, “Excuse me, why is there a penguin-shaped puddle on my beach?” “I’m not a puddle,” said Penny, sliding slowly into a sun lounger. “I’m relaxing.”

A crab poked her with a claw. “You’re definitely melting,” he said. Penny jumped into the cooler box with all the lollies and refused to come out for two hours. When she finally did, she was blue and covered in strawberry.

Wendell took her home. Penny flopped onto the snow and said, “AHHHHH. Home sweet home.” Then she hugged Kevin the ice cube so hard he squeaked. Next year, she’s going on holiday to the freezer aisle at the supermarket.

The End. ⭐

Terry the T-Rex was the biggest, scariest dinosaur in the whole valley. He had huge teeth, a ROAR that could knock over trees and… teeny-tiny arms.

One morning, Terry’s nose started to itch. Not a little itch. A HUGE itch. A super-mega-tickly itch. He reached up with his tiny arms. They got about halfway and stopped. “NOOOO!” he roared.

He tried rubbing his nose on a tree. The tree fell over. He tried rubbing it on a rock. The rock rolled away. He tried asking a pterodactyl, who flew past, laughed so much she crashed into a volcano, and said “I’M OK!” from inside the smoke.

Then a tiny dinosaur called Doris, about the size of a teapot, climbed up Terry’s tail, ran along his back, tiptoed onto his head and gave his nose a really good scratch. Scritch scratch scratch.

“OHHHH YESSSS,” said Terry, wobbling his leg like a happy dog. “Doris, you are my hero!” Then Terry sneezed. Doris flew all the way to the next valley.

Doris is now Terry’s official Nose Scratcher. She wears a helmet. Just in case.

The End. ⭐

One Monday, the head teacher of Puddlebrook Primary School went on holiday, and nobody could find anyone to take over. Except Biscuit, the school dog. He was wearing a tie. Nobody knew where he got it.

In assembly, Biscuit stood on the stage and said “WOOF.” Everyone agreed this was the best speech a head teacher had ever given.

Then Biscuit made some new rules. Rule 1: Lunch is now every hour. Rule 2: Homework is banned (he ate it all anyway). Rule 3: Everyone must chase their own tail before maths.

By Wednesday, the school was chaos. Children were rolling down the corridor. The dinner ladies were throwing sausages. The PE teacher was fetching sticks. Biscuit thought it was the best school in the world.

On Friday, the real head teacher came back. She opened the door and saw 300 children and 12 teachers all sitting in a circle, panting happily, waiting for Biscuit to throw a ball.

“What on EARTH is going on?” she cried. Biscuit looked up, wagged his tail and gave her a sausage. She thought about it… then she sat down and joined in. Puddlebrook now has Tail-Chasing Tuesday every week.

The End. ⭐

One night, a shiny green spaceship landed in the back garden of number 7, Pickle Lane. Out climbed three small aliens called Zib, Zab and Kevin.

“Take us to your leader!” said Zib. The only one awake was Mr Fluffington, the family cat. He was sitting on the fence, looking very important.

The aliens bowed. “Oh great leader of Earth! We bring gifts!” They gave him a glowing space-crystal. Mr Fluffington sniffed it, then knocked it off the fence. The aliens gasped. “He is not impressed! He is VERY powerful!”

They offered him a moon rock. He sat on it. They played him their national anthem on a space-trumpet. He yawned. Then he coughed up a hairball. “He has sent us a message!” whispered Zab, amazed.

At that moment, the back door opened and a little girl in pyjamas came out holding a tin. “Fluffy! Dinner time!” Mr Fluffington ran to her, purring and rubbing round her legs.

The aliens stared. “The leader… obeys the small human with the tin?” said Kevin. They wrote in their notebook: “Earth is ruled by whoever has the cat food.” Then they flew home. Honestly, they weren’t wrong.

The End. ⭐

At Luigi’s Pizza Palace, Luigi made the most delicious pizza in the world: extra cheese, extra tomato and six slices of pepperoni arranged into a smiley face.

But when he took it out of the oven, the smiley face winked at him. Then the pizza jumped off the plate and shouted, “YOU’LL NEVER EAT ME!” and rolled out of the door like a wheel.

Luigi chased it down the street. “COME BACK, PIZZA!” A dog chased Luigi. A man on a bicycle chased the dog. A seagull chased everyone, because seagulls love a bit of drama.

The pizza rolled down a hill, through a park, across a football pitch (where it scored a goal) and into a library, where everyone said “SHHHHH!” The pizza whispered, “Sorry,” and tiptoed out.

Finally, the pizza rolled into a school playground just as lunch began. Hundreds of hungry children turned around. The pizza froze. “Oh no,” it said. “Too many mouths.”

So the pizza made a deal: it would let itself be eaten, but only if everyone said “thank you, pizza” first. They did. It was the politest lunch in history. Luigi now puts a tiny seatbelt on every pizza.

The End. ⭐

Sparkle was a beautiful unicorn with a rainbow mane, a glittery horn and the WORST singing voice in the entire Magic Kingdom.

When Sparkle sang, flowers closed their petals. Birds put in earplugs. A mountain once moved three metres to the left just to get away from it. It sounded like a goose falling down the stairs while holding a trumpet.

But Sparkle LOVED singing. So when the Magic Kingdom announced the Royal Singing Competition, Sparkle signed up straight away. The king looked worried. The queen hid under the throne.

On the big night, a scary storm troll stomped into the castle. “I’ve come to steal all your gold!” he roared. Everyone screamed. Then Sparkle had an idea. Sparkle took a deep breath… and SANG.

“LA LA LAAAAAAAAA!” The windows rattled. The troll’s ears flapped. His eyebrows flew off. “MAKE IT STOP!” he cried, and ran all the way back to Troll Mountain, never to return.

Sparkle won first prize – not for Best Singing, but for Saving the Kingdom. Now, whenever trouble comes, the king just says, “Fetch Sparkle… and everybody put your earmuffs on.”

The End. ⭐

Boo was a little ghost who lived in a very old, very creaky house. Boo had one big problem: Boo was terrified of people.

Whenever a person walked past, Boo shrieked “AAAAH!” and hid inside the wardrobe. Which was a bit silly, because Boo could walk through walls and nobody could even see him.

The other ghosts laughed. “You’re supposed to say BOO, not AAAAH!” said Uncle Wailing Walter. “Watch me!” He floated up to the window and went “WOOOOO!” A pigeon looked at him and pooed on the windowsill. Walter went home and had a lie down.

One day, a new family moved in, with a girl called Priya. That night, Priya couldn’t sleep, so she got up for a glass of milk – and saw a pair of little glowing eyes peeking out of the wardrobe. “Hello?” she said.

“AAAAAAAAAAAH!” screamed Boo. “AAAAAAAAAAAH!” screamed Priya. Then they both stopped, looked at each other and started giggling so much that Priya snorted milk out of her nose.

Now Boo and Priya are best friends. They play hide-and-seek (Boo always wins) and make spooky noises to scare Priya’s big brother. And Boo isn’t scared of people any more – just of Priya’s brother’s socks.

The End. ⭐