The monkey puppet’s tale

The monkey puppet

Monkey sat in the pretend tree on the back of the chair and watched the other puppets fighting on the ground below him.

Frog was green and bouncy and trying to land blows on Koala’s head. Koala wasn’t bothered. He just laughed and jumped aside. “Ha ha! See if I care. I’m faster than you. You’ll never catch me!”

Rabbit was dodging round Lion’s paws as Lion tried to stamp on him. Lion got more and more cross. “Stand still and let me get you,” he shouted. “This is supposed to be a fight!”

Cat was chasing Dog’s tail, faster and faster, round and round, and then pouncing on Dog when he stopped for a minute. “Ouch, that hurt,” barked Dog.

Monkey wished he was playing too. But Jake had put his arm in the pretend tree on the back of the chair and Monkey had to stay there, on Jake’s hand, till Jake decided to join in. It wasn’t much fun.

Jake’s friends, Mark, Leona and Natalie, were shouting so much that Jake had to yell really loudly to make himself heard. “Listen everyone. I don’t want a puppet fight. I want to play hide and seek with them.”

Everyone stopped their puppets from fighting and looked at Jake.

Natalie asked, “How can we do that? They’re on our hands and we all know where we are.”

The children thought for a moment.

Then Mark said, “Why don’t we let one of us hide the puppets somewhere and then the rest of us go find them?”

Jake grabbed all the puppets. “Me first,” he said.

The other children left the room. Monkey found himself being carried all round the room while Jake hid the other puppets. Then Jake whispered to Monkey, “No one will find you where I’m putting you. You’re the best puppet ever so I want you to win. Make sure you keep quiet so they don’t hear you!” And Monkey found himself being put in a very odd place!

“Come in!” called Jake to Leona, Mark and Natalie. “Start looking now! The last puppet to be found is the winner.”

Leona found Lion straight away. His paw was poking out from behind the chair! Then Mark found Rabbit on the window ledge.

Monkey watched from his hiding place as Natalie crept round the room looking under and over and behind everything. Where were Cat and Dog?

“Gotcha!” she shouted. Both of them were behind the sand tray. That left Koala, Frog and himself, Monkey. He kept very quiet, just as Jake had told him.

Mark walked into Koala by mistake. “Ouch!” he shouted. He’d stubbed his toe on Koala who was stuffed against the bean bag.

The Leona found Frog. Frog had been sitting in the box of bricks trying not to be seen.

Monkey shook with excitement. He’d won the game! He saw Jake looking at him and winked back.

It was bedtime before the other children found him. He’d been lying inside the doll house on a lovely soft bed and had fallen asleep while waiting! “Love you,” he said sleepily to Jake. “That was much better than fighting.”

The moral of this story is that people can often think up better ideas for interesting things to do.