The fairy’s tale

The fairies

Mark sat cross-legged on the floor and scowled at Jodi. “We are NOT going to play with fairies!” he said. “Fairies are for girls.”

Jodi looked up from the sand where she was arranging her three favourite fairies. “I AM a girl,” she said. “You can play with me or get something else to play with.”

Angelina spread her beautiful yellow wings and looked up at Jodi. She hoped they were going to have an exciting game in the sand. It was ages since the children had taken the fairies out and played with them. “I hope Marc doesn’t stop Jodi playing with us,” she said to her friends.

Patty was sitting quietly on her toadstool as usual. “Sometimes children make other people do things they don’t want to. I’m glad we’re friends and stick together.”

“Yes,” said Gabby, flapping her bright pink wings. “We’ve been friends ever since we were born in fairyland.”

“I wish we could visit our fairy palace again,” sighed Angelina. “It was so big and beautiful.”

Suddenly the three fairies found themselves picked up and tossed in a pile at the end of the sandpit. “OW!” said Patty. “That hurt.”

But before they could complain, they heard Jodi say, “Come on Mark, get the wooden blocks. We’re going to make something fantastic.”

“Bother,” muttered Angelina. “They’re not going to play with us after all.”

Mark brought the blocks over, and Jodi and he started building something in the sand. They built walls and roofs and stables and garages. Quite soon the building looked like a huge castle with battlements and a drawbridge.

“We still need someone to live in it,” said Jodi.

“Well, what about the fairies?” asked Mark.

Jodi looked at him in surprise and the three fairies held their breath. What would Jodi say? It wasn’t a palace, but a castle might be quite interesting. It would definitely be better than sitting in a heap in the corner!

Jodi stood Patty and her toadstool on the battlements. “She can be the look-out,” she said, “and tell us when the enemy is coming.”

Patty nodded. She liked watching everything that happened – there was always someone doing something interesting.

Mark opened the stable and put Angelina inside. “She’s looking after the fairy horses,” he said.

Jodi found a white horse with fancy reins and put it in the stable with Angelina. “There, that’s her favourite horse,” she said.

Angelina smiled happily. “This isn’t like our fairy palace,” she said, “but I’ve never looked after a horse before and it’s going to be fun!”

Jodi looked round. “What shall we do with the other fairy?” she asked Mark.

Mark frowned. Then he said: “She can stand here at the door and say hello to any visitors.” He put her near the drawbridge.

“Ooooh,” said Gabby. “I’m going to show visitors round the castle and make them a drink and something to eat. I wonder if they’ll like fairy food?”

Of course, Mark and Jodi couldn’t hear her talking, so Gabby nearly fell over in surprise when Jodi said, “She can give them cakes. Everyone likes fairy cakes.”

So the fairies lived in the castle until bedtime. Everything was exciting and new, and when they fell asleep, they realised they hadn’t thought of their own fairy palace for ages.

The moral of this Tale is that  you can get really interested in anything if you give it a chance.

The Ace of Clubs’ tale

Ace of Clubs

The Ace of Clubs was in a pile with the other playing cards. Kaylee had been doing magic tricks. She wasn’t very good at it and Ace of Clubs laughed out loud as he remembered Kaylee’s bungled attempts to make him appear out of the rest of the pack.

“I’m a Club, CLUB, CLUB,” he said to the others. “No one plays magic games with me. I’m strong. I am a weapon. I club dragons and monsters to death.”

“That’s not very nice,” said Kaylee coming back. “You could be the sort of club where people go to make friends or play football.”

“I don’t need friends,” Ace of Clubs said rudely. “Friends are for wimps like Diamonds and Spades and Hearts.” He snorted loudly at the other Aces in the pack and slid away from them.

Kaylee picked him up and put him on the floor behind the table. “I shalln’t play with you any more,” she said. “You’re too rough and rude.”

The Ace of Clubs was furious. But he had to sit there and listen as Kaylee played and talked with the other playing cards.

“I like Diamonds,” she said, picking up the Ace of Diamonds. “You make beautiful bracelets. And I like Spades,” she added. “I can dig in the garden with you. You’re really useful.”

She looked at the Ace of Hearts. “You,” she said, “are super important. I draw a heart every time I write messages to my best friends.”

Ace of Clubs snorted again as he sat alone behind the table leg. Best friends! Love! What did Kaylee know about real life?

Suddenly, he found himself surrounded by animals. Big, strong, fierce, frightening animals.

“Where did you come from?” he gasped.

“The magician sent us to teach you a lesson,” said the lion. “If you’re such a great Club, fight me!”

“If you’re such a heavy Club, squash me flat!” said a quieter voice. Ace of Clubs looked down and saw a huge spider, waving eight hairy legs at him.

“If you’re such a strong club, let me chew you,” said a large grey shark. “Then we’ll see how strong you really are.”

Ace of Clubs suddenly felt very weak, very scared and very silly. He wasn’t any of those things he’d boasted about. He  was just a thin, small piece of card used for card tricks and playing SNAP.

“It was only a joke,” he said in a small voice. “I’d really rather be a club where people make friends. Er… would you be my friends?”

Just then, Ace of Clubs heard a shout from Kaylee – and woke up! He looked around. There were no animals near him. Just a table leg blocking his view of Kaylee and her new card trick.

He breathed a sigh of relief. I was only dreaming, he said to himself.

A voice came from the toy tray. “Let that be a lesson to you,” he heard the magician say. “Or I’ll make it happen for real.”

When Kaylee gathered up the cards and put them in their box, Ace of Clubs was so well-behaved that he agreed to be shoved into the box without saying anything. Kaylee looked surprised. But Ace of Clubs was too tired to explain. As he fell asleep, he thought how glad he was to be a playing card and not a wooden club fighting monsters in the forest.

The moral of the Tale is that it s best to be proud of exactly who you are and not pretend to be something different.

The bathroom mirror’s tale

The bathroom mirror

Matilda lay in the bath in the doll house and soaked herself in the warm water. It was her favourite thing to do before bed. Every night, before she stepped into the bath, she would look in the mirror over the basin and said, “Mirror, mirror, round and bright, who’s the nicest girl tonight?”

And the mirror always showed her her own reflection and said, “Why you, of course. No one is as nice as you.”

But tonight, something bad had happened, and Matilda was not feeling happy as she lay in the bath.

She’d asked the mirror the same question: “Mirror, mirror, round and bright, who’s the nicest girl tonight?” But the mirror had shown her a person with a scowl on her face and black sticky-out hair, looking very angry and fed up. The mirror would only say, “Well, it’s not you, so it must be someone else.”

So Matilda lay in her bath and fumed. Then she slowly climbed out and put on her dressing gown. She opened the bathroom door and peeped out. She could hear her mum downstairs watching the television. Her dad was rattling dishes in the kitchen and her brother was making whizzy, zooming noises on his games console in the bedroom next door.

The only other person in the doll house was a little girl in the spare bedroom. Her cousin.

Matilda glanced at the spare room door and scowled again. Her cousin had come to stay for three days and Matilda was NOT PLEASED. Her cousin had long wavy blond hair and everyone made a great fuss of her. Matilda hated her the minute she walked through the door with her little basket of toys. She hoped her horrid cousin would have nightmares and go home!

Suddenly, Matilda heard something. She crept over to the spare room door and listened. Her cousin was crying! Not just crying, but sobbing. Why would anyone sob if they had long wavy beautiful hair? Not black sticky-up hair like her own?

She pushed open the door and went in. Her cousin was curled up on the bed. Her toy basket was still packed with her toys. And her lovely hair covered her face as she cried.

“What’s wrong?” Matilda asked. “Don’t you want to play with your toys? Can’t you sleep?” She wasn’t feeling very kind and she didn’t really want to hear the answer, but the sobbing was making her feel bad, so she wanted it to stop.

Her cousin looked up. “My mum’s in hospital having a baby. I miss her. She always reads to me at night.”

Matilda suddenly thought of her own mum downstairs watching television. She would be coming up soon to read Matilda a story. She would hate it if her mum didn’t come.

“Would you like me to tell you a story?” she said. “It won’t be as good as your mum’s, but I could try.”

Her cousin nodded, and Matilda told her the best story she could think of. It was all about a mummy who brought home a funny little baby boy as a present for his sister.

Then she pulled the bedclothes round her cousin, kissed her good night and crept back to the bathroom to clean her teeth.

She asked the mirror again: “Mirror, mirror, round and bright, who’s the nicest girl tonight?”

The face that looked back at her was clean and shining, smiley and kind. The black sticky-up hair even looked less horrid.

“Why you are, of course,” said the mirror immediately. “No one is as nice as you. Sleep tight!”

The moral of this tale is that when you look in a mirror, you sometimes see what you are really like inside!

The paper plate’s tale

Paper Plate

The paper plate was desperate for some excitement. Marc and Jodi often put something on her, such as sand or cut-up coloured paper or glitter or even lumps of play-doh when they were making cakes and biscuits and sprouts and beef burgers. Right now she was sitting under a pile of lolly sticks and their colours were so bright she felt invisible.

“I do wish I could do something really nice,” she sighed. “Like become a ski slope or an ice rink or a moon or… just something exciting.”

A voice spoke from nearby. “You are something. You’re a boring old paper plate. What do you expect? Plates have stuff dumped on them. That’s life.”

Paper plate was upset. She knew that, but wanted more. She sat sadly and watched as Marc and Jodi folded paper aeroplanes. She even tried to be interested in whose plane went furthest and fastest as they threw them down the playroom.

Marc suddenly said, “Hey! I’m going to make a Stealth Invader. It’ll beat your plane any day!”

And Paper Plate found herself lifted out from under the lolly sticks and held up in front of Marc’s eyes. She couldn’t believe what she had heard. A Stealth Invader? From a boring old white paper plate like she was?

But it happened! Marc first of all painted her black and then held her up to dry in the breeze from the window. “This will be the best plane ever,” he said, gazing at her. If she hadn’t been black all over, Paper Plate would have gone red with embarrassment.

Then Marc started folding her in strange ways, until there she sat – a perfect Stealth Invader.

“That’s good at flying against the enemy,” said Jodi. She’d been painting patterns on the wings of her own paper plane. “But will it go faster than mine?”

“Start the contest!” said Marc. “And we’ll see!”

They stood side by side at one end of the playroom and counted: 3…2…1… Paper Plate was shivering with excitement. She didn’t want to let Marc down.

GO!!!!

She flew into space so fast that she could feel the breeze rushing past her. It was exhilarating, fantastic, brilliant! She was really happy.

And as she flew past Jodi’s plane, she also felt a bit sorry for the little paper jet. “It’s only a game,” she called back. “Taking part is what matters.”

But just as she was about to reach the other end of the room, she suddenly felt ill and crumpled up and fell to the floor.

“Oh no!” shouted Marc.

“Oh yes!” shouted Jodi. “Mine’s the winner! The best plane.”

Paper Plate lay on the floor in agony – but there was a huge grin on her face. She looked over at Jodi’s paper plane and said, “Well done.”

“It’s only a game,” said Jodi’s plane kindly.

“I know, I know. And I had such fun. I wanted some excitement and I got it. But I think I’ll just be a boring old paper plate for a while. My sides are killing me.”

“And I’m ready for a sleep,” said Jodi’s plane. “See you in the morning!”

The only sound as Paper Plate fell asleep beside Jodi’s plane was the rattling of the lolly sticks as they laughed and laughed at her. But she didn’t mind. She was the one going to have even more fun in her dreams. Let them laugh if they wanted.

The moral of this Tale is that taking part is the best way of having fun even if you don’t win.

The white owl’s tale

White Owl

White Owl spread her wings and said to Little Owl, “Hop on my head and I’ll do the flying today. That way, we can go exploring in far-away places.”

Little Owl fluttered onto his mum’s head. And White Owl set off to show him proudly to everyone who would listen.

First they visited the cave under the table. Ben was there, making all the dinosaurs run around and attack each other.

“Little Owl is growing big and strong,” said White Owl. “See how well she holds her wings out!”

“Show off!” said Ben, and went back to his dinosaur fight.

White Owl twittered crossly. Ben was being horrible today.

She flew out of the cave and soared into the air. She loved the feel of the wind under her wings. Soon Little Owl would be able to fly as well as she could. “Hold tight, Little Owl!” she said. “We’re coming in to land.”

And she folded her claws in and landed on the doll house roof.

Jodi was helping the dolls cook tea. “Don’t land there,” she scolded White Owl. “You’ve rattled everything and made it fall over.”

“Sorry!” said White Owl. “I just wanted you to see how Little Owl is growing so big and strong.”

“I’ll visit you another day” said Jodi. “I’m busy now.”

White Owl felt cross again. Nobody wanted to talk to her.

Well, maybe the puppets would like to see Little Owl…

“Hold tight!” she said to Little Owl. “We’re off to see Lion and Koala. They’re always friendly.”

White Owl flexed her wings – it was a long way across the room to puppet land.

The puppets were all busy. Lion and Tiger were talking about their hunting trip. Frog and Rabbit were having a competition to see who could hop the highest. Dog and Cat were chasing each other round in circles. No one even saw White Owl and Little Owl land.

“Er… HELLO!” called White Owl. “We’ve come to visit!”

No one answered.

Little Owl fluttered down off White Owl’s head and wobbled over to where Wolf and Monkey were huddled in the corner, discussing something loudly.

“Don’t go far!” White Owl called. “I want everyone to see how big and strong you’ve grown.” She was so proud of him, she didn’t notice anyone else.

Suddenly, Little Owl called, “Twit-twoo, Mum! Come here! Quickly!”

White Owl went to see what all the fuss was about. And what she saw was terrible.

“Oh twit-twoo, twit TWOO” she cried, looking over the ledge down to the floor. “Poor Giraffe. How did he fall?”

“He tripped on this rock,” said Wolf, pointing to a huge brown stone. “It’s too far down for me to jump.”

“And it’s too steep for me to climb,” said Monkey.

“Well, that’s easily sorted,” said White Owl. “I will fly down and carry him back in my strong claws.”

And she did. The puppets all clapped when she set Giraffe back on the ledge. “Thank you, White Owl,” they said.

And then, while Wolf and Monkey gave Giraffe some leaves to eat, Little Owl looked at his mum.

“You were the star of the show,” he said. “But can we go home to bed now? I’m too tired to visit anyone else.”

So White Owl flew them quickly back to their tree, and they slept for the rest of the day, as owls do.

The moral of this tale is that if you want friends, it’s best to be interested in other people and not yourself.

The red paper’s tale

Red Paper

The piece of red paper lay on the table in the playroom with all the other sheets of paper – blue and orange, black and white, cream and pale brown. Large pieces and smaller pieces.

Red Paper looked round at the others.

“I’m the brightest and best piece of paper here,” she said. “Marc will choose me to draw on, and then he’ll hang me on the wall for everyone to look at.”

“Shut up!” said Black Paper. “You’re just a bit of paper like all the rest of us. Marc could draw fireworks and a bonfire on me. Black is perfect for that.”

“Yes,” said Blue Paper. “And Marc might let me be the sky when he draws his house.”

“Or I could be a sandy beach,” said Orange Paper. “But I expect Marc will choose for himself.”

At that moment, Marc raced into the playroom with his friend Jodi.

“What shall we draw?” Marc asked Jodi. “Houses? The seaside? Bonfire night?”

Red Paper held her breath and crossed her fingers. What would Jodi say?

“Actually,” Jodi said slowly, “My dad has been showing me how to fold paper to make tiny models. You don’t have to cut anything. Shall I show you how?”

Make tiny models?

Red Paper was furious. She got redder and redder as she thought about being folded and squashed and creased and bent. Paper was for drawing on! How dare they ruin her?

But before she could say “paper plane”, Marc and Jodi sat down at the table and Jodi picked her up. She flapped and flipped in Jody’s hand, trying to escape.

“Bother!” said Jodi. “This red paper is too bendy and floppy. Let’s try the black piece first.”

Red Paper sat and fumed. She didn’t want to be folded and creased – but she didn’t want to be put down either. She was the best!

Red Paper had to sit and watch as Jodi folded and creased Black Paper. But after a while, she grew so interested that she forgot to be cross. Jodi’s hands were very careful as she made each fold, and she kept waiting so that Marc could copy with his piece of orange paper.

When they had both finished, Red Paper couldn’t believe her eyes. There, in front of them, sat two little birds.

“Mine’s a blackbird,” said Jodi. “What’s yours, Marc?”

“An orange bird, of course,” he said with a giggle.

Red Paper felt left out now. So she flapped and flipped in the breeze that wafted through the window, and hoped that someone would let her join in.

Jody noticed and picked her up.“Let’s try with this bendy bit now,” she said. “See if you can guess what I’m making.”

Marc watched as Red Paper let herself be folded this way and that, until she stood on the table, proud and upright, feeling very important.

“Why, it’s a butterfly!” Marc exclaimed.

A butterfly? Red Paper flexed her wings up and down excitedly. And the breeze suddenly caught her and carried her up to the window ledge. She was flying! She was beautiful. “Come up here,” she said to the blackbird and the orange bird. “It’s fun to fly!”

“Good night, little butterfly,” Marc and Jody called as they switched out the light in the playroom. “You can sleep up there tonight. See you in the morning!”

The moral of this tale is that life is not much fun if you refuse to take part!

The rowing boat’s tale

The little rowing boat

The little rowing boat bobbed up and down in the sun on the pond that Leona had made in the large plastic tray.

“It’s is so good here,” thought the boat. “I want it to go on for ever! The sun is shining. The wind is warm. Everything is perfect.”

Suddenly, someone jumped into the boat, and it rocked wildly from side to side. The boat opened its eyes and found that Leona had let an old man get in. “Bother, bother,” the boat groaned. “Now I’m going to be rowed somewhere else. And it’s bound to be a horrid place. I hate change!”

The old man picked up the oars and started pulling on them. The boat skimmed along the edge of the shore for a long time, then came to a stop.

“Where am I now?” thought the boat crossly. “I won’t know anyone here. I’m fed up of being moved around.”

The man spoke up in a gruff voice. “Thanks, little boat. You did a good job there. And just look at all these palm trees! We’ll take some coconuts back with us and everyone will be really pleased.”

He filled the boat with coconuts and went off for a walk.

The boat was just dropping asleep on the sandy shore when a bump jolted him awake. Leona had stood a pirate captain next to him. And the pirate was pulling the little boat down to the water.

“Not again,” groaned the boat. “I want to stay here.”

This time the journey was longer. Leona splashed her hands in the pond, and made huge waves that rocked the boat from side to side. The boat was very tired by the time the pirate pulled it out onto another stretch of shore.

“I hate travelling,” the boat said. “I just want to lie here and dry out in peace.”

But the pirate’s friends arrived and lit a fire with branches and logs. The warmth gradually made the boat feel lazy, and it lay there listening to the pirates as they told tales of all the treasure they’d found on their journeys. Then the fire went out and the pirates went home. The boat fell asleep.

Suddenly, a voice said, “Mummy, Mummy, look, a boat!”

The little boat jerked awake. A lady and a boy climbed inside him and took up the oars. “What a brilliant boat,” the lady said. “We can row across the lake to school today. That will be much more fun than walking.”

“Bother, bother,” groaned the boat. “Why will no one let me sleep?”

“What will happen in school today?” asked the boy as they started rowing across the pond.

His mother said, “Oooh… you might sing, or play a new game, or learn how to dance… And you could take in one of these coconuts to show your teacher.”

They jumped out and tied the little boat to some railings, and it bobbed up and down in the sun.

“Thank you, little boat,” they said as they walked away.

The little boat was really tired now, but he realised it wasn’t so bad having to travel round the pond all day. His dreams would be full of the wonderful things he’d done: carrying coconuts, and listening to pirate stories, and imagining all those exciting things that happen in school. Perhaps Leona would let him do it again tomorrow. It was a good life!

The moral of this tale is that new things can be fun when you stop complaining and take a positive attitude