THE CHILDREN’S SWING

There was once a green swing in a very big playground, which was inside a school. It was a very special swing, for adults couldn’t see it. But the children would play on it every day. They could see it from anywhere in the playground, for it shone a radiant green even at night-time.

One day, twelve-year-old Joshua decided to go and play on the swing as he did every day, but this afternoon he felt rather an odd sensation as he walked nearer. It was almost like he didn’t feel like playing…

The next day, to his horror, he could no longer see the swing. And even though he wasn’t sure what had happened to it, he began to cry…

Short stories - the childrens swing

Joshua was so worried about this turn of events that he went to tell his friends, but none of them knew what had happened either. They tried to reassure him: “We don’t know what’s wrong with you, but we can see the swing…Maybe it’s because you’ve got older…” Continue reading…

THE DAY AND THE NIGHT

There was once a planet called Earth, half of which was night and the other half was day.

Five-year-old Julia had realised that during the day there was light but that at night everything went dark. One evening, Julia was reading a bed-time story when her mother came to give her a kiss and wish her goodnight. “Night night, Julia, sweet dreams,” said her mother as she tucked her in. “Mummy, why is everything dark at night and there’s no sun?” asked Julia.

So Julia’s mother sat on the edge of the bed beside her and said: “Ok, tonight I’ll tell you a story about night and day, and then I’m sure you’ll understand why they exist.”

Short stories - The day and the nigth

Julia was very eager to hear the story, because it would help her understand lots of the questions she had about the sun and the moon.

Julia’s mother started her tale. “A long time ago, the planets were created and among them was the planet where we live, called Earth. Our planet is like a spinning top, but there’s one difference: Earth spins more slowly; in fact, it takes 24 hours to go round once. That’s why it’s called earth rotation.”

All this while, Julia was listening hard to everything her mother told her, for she had never heard anything about the planets and the sun. Julia’s mother continued: “So as Earth spins around, the sun will shine its light on one side of it and it will be day. But the side facing away from the sun will be dark, and that means it’s night-time. So while it’s day on one side of the Earth, it’s night-time on the other.”

After the story, Julia understood that day-time is when the sun gives us light because we are facing it, and it becomes night-time as we move away from the sun’s rays.

Today Julia had learned something she didn’t know before, and even though she was only a little girl she sensed that what her mother had told her was very important for all the inhabitants of Earth, for thanks to the sun there is life on our planet.

THE END

THE MAGIC BINS

Once upon a time there were six hard-working rubbish bins, each a different colour depending on the rubbish that was to be thrown into it. The green one was called Glassy (he was in charge of glass for recycling); the blue one was called Papius (he was in charge of paper for recycling); Oilo was charge of collecting the used oil bottles; the yellow one was called Plastica (she was in charge of plastic for recycling); Batterius was in charge of used batteries and finally there was Generalia who was in charge of the rest of the rubbish, particularly food waste.

Whenever someone put the rubbish in the wrong place, the bins would pass it into the correct one for they were very good friends. That way, the rubbish was always correctly divided so that it could be recycled properly and help after the environment.

Every so often, the rubbish van would come along to empty them and was always happy to see the right kind of waste going into the right rubbish bin.

Short stories - the magic bins

But after a few days, the bins grew tired of ordering the rubbish because it was such hard work. They can’t move around very well, as you can imagine.

Soon Batterius, the youngest of all the bins, began to feel sick and very upset. He spat out everything that wasn’t a battery into the street, for he was so tired he could no longer contain it.

It wasn’t long before Plastica began to experience the same symptoms and spat out anything that wasn’t plastic. She was soon followed by Oilo, and finally all the bins began to toss out the rubbish that didn’t belong to them… Continue reading…

DELFI, THE LONELY DOLPHIN

Delfi was a dolphin who lived in a sea called the Mediterranean.  Unlike other dolphins, he preferred to travel alone so that he could go wherever he wanted and no one could tell him what to do. The disadvantage of this was that Delfi didn’t really have any friends.

One day as he was swimming in the open sea, he encountered a very beautiful dolphin who looked so friendly that he stopped and said: “Hello, are you from around here?”

They talked for a long while and Delfi felt a special fluttering in his stomach as he listened to her speak. So he invited the new dolphin, whose name was Katie, to go with him on his travels.

Short stories - Delfi the lonely dolphin

In the end, Delfi fell in love with Katie, and Katie fell in love with him. And they travelled together their whole life long. Continue reading…

THE HELPFUL BUS

A long time ago in a little village called Four Houses, there lived a red bus whose job it was to take the children to school.

Normally, the bus would stop in the village square to collect them and take them to another village a few kilometres away, for there was no school in Four Houses.

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Watch this children’s story and connect English subtitles:

Each journey cost ninety-nine cents, but one day the red bus decided that he wasn’t going to charge the children anything at all, for many of their parents had no job and it was difficult to save money, and he thought it would be a good way of helping them.

The red bus was delighted to take the children for free, but after a few months his wheels were so worn out that he couldn’t even turn around and it was very difficult to move.

Short stories - The helpful bus

One morning, the mothers and fathers were ready as usual in the main square of Four Houses waiting for the red bus. But this was no ordinary day, for the red bus was twenty minutes’ late… Very slowly, he came chugging along but once he got to the square he collapsed from exhaustion. There was no way he could take the children to school today…

Seeing that all the red bus wanted to do was help them help their children get a good education, the villagers decided that each family would put forward some money according to how much they could afford. Then the helpful bus could go to a garage to be repaired and be as good as new. Continue reading…

CUTHBERT, THE FIREMAN CLOWN

There was once a clown called Cuthbert who would often ask a child from the audience to come up on stage with him.

Every day before starting the show, Cuthbert the clown would put on his red shoes, which were twice as big as his feet, and stick on his red nose. The circus music started to play and the procession of clowns began. A whole pile of clowns began streaming out of a fire engine – one, two, three, as many as fifteen clowns!! They were all dressed up as firemen and when they were all on stage, Cuthbert ordered all the lights to go off and just one spotlight to choose which child would come on stage today. There was a drum roll, and the spotlight fell on its chosen child.

Charlie, for that was the name of the lucky boy, ran out on stage to the clowns. Cuthbert asked him, “Are you ready to start the mission?” to which Charlie answered: “Yes I am!!”

Short stories - Cuthbert the fireman clown

At that moment, Cuthbert took out a red sponge nose and put it on Charlie’s face. Such was his surprise when all the audience started to laugh at the funny sight of the little boy and the big red nose.

But suddenly the little boy began to look upset, for he felt as though everyone was laughing at him. In another moment, he had burst into tears and tore off the nose that Cuthbert the clown had given him, running out of the circus as fast as he could.

Everyone waited to see what would happen next. But the clowns went on with the show, whilst Cuthbert went to look for Charlie whom he found hiding at the back of the big top.

“Charlie, why are you crying?” asked Cuthbert the clown kindly.

“Because everyone was laughing at me!” replied Charlie between sobs.

Then Cuthbert understood why Charlie was feeling so upset and said: “Charlie, when I come out on stage to act, do you laugh?” Continue reading…

THE GREEN GOBLIN

There was once a goblin called Godfrey who lived on a plot of land outside a very small village. There was a house on the plot, in which a family lived: a mother, father, son, daughter and a cat called Meow.

Godfrey the goblin usually lived among the bushes in the garden, but sometimes he would go into the garage for a while. The family had no idea that they were sharing their home with a goblin.

One day, Godfrey went to the garage for a change of scene, like he often did, but this time he suddenly bumped into the cat Meow.

Stories-magic-goblin

Meow went very quiet when she spotted the little green goblin, and Godfrey did the same. They stared at each other until they heard the voice of one of the children coming down to the garage. Then Godfrey ran off at full speed, and not even Meow knew where he had gone. Meow started to look for him, sniffing the ground to follow his tracks, but she didn’t know that goblins don’t leave any scent behind and that’s why you can’t find them.

Godfrey was very shy and only let animals see him, never people, which was why he always ran away when a human approached. But Godfrey had a little secret: he knew how to talk to cats. So he decided to go back and look for Meow so they could become friends.

And that was exactly what happened… Continue reading…

WESLEY, THE BOY WIZARD

A long, long time ago there was a family who spent all their time doing magic. Wesley’s parents and grandparents were all wizards, and Wesley wanted to be a great wizard, too.

He already knew how to turn a frog into a snake with his magic wand. He could also stop time by saying the magic words: “Tempo stoppus, abracadabra!”

One day Wesley was on his way to school when he saw a couple of hooligans tormenting a little dog who had been trotting down the street.

Short stories - Wesley the boy wizard

Wesley uttered the magic words and stopped time in order to rescue the dog and take him out of reach of the horrible louts. But when he started time again, one of the hooligans caught sight of him scooping up the little dog in his arms and disappearing Continue reading…

PLUTO, THE SWIMMING DOG

Once upon a time there was a dog called Pluto, whose fur was brown and whose eyes were black, and whose shape was slender and sleek.

Pluto lived with his master, Philip, a somewhat absent-minded student at the university, whom Pluto occasionally had to get out of trouble…

Yesterday was no different. Can you guess what happened to Pluto and Philip when they went into the country for a day out?

Well, it was a Sunday when Philip liked to take Pluto out to run around as much as he pleased. The field they usually went to was very pretty, full of trees with big pastures, and there was even a river where Philip would settle into a boat to read and relax.

Short stories - Pluto the swimming dog

Like always, Pluto was dashing around here and there and everywhere, while Philip lay in the boat by the riverbank and read his book. Suddenly, a strong wind began to blow, the boat began to tilt madly from side to side until eventually it turned over and tipped Philip into the water with a splash.

Philip yelled for help because he didn’t know how to swim… Continue reading…

SPRINGTIME AND THE FLOWERS

Today was a beautiful spring day and two school friends, Laura and Sarah, decided to go out into the countryside. As usual for this time of year, there were lots of flowers and the trees were blossoming.

So after school, the two friends went to play in the fields beside the school, for the sun shone so gloriously that the fields looked even lovelier than usual and the meadows were like an ocean of deep green.

Laura said to her friend: “Sarah, I’m going to pick a bunch of really big flowers for my mum.” And Sarah replied: “Great idea, Laura, I’ll do one for my mum too.”

The two girls were excited about making a bunch of flowers from the field to take home to their mothers. In fact, Laura went on to say: “We have to make a really pretty and big bunch of flowers. We’ll pick flowers of different colours, like yellow, red, white, and we’ll make a bunch that shows off the colours of spring.”

Short stories - Springtime and the flowers

As she was making her bunch, Sarah thought of her class teacher – how well she taught and all the times she had helped Laura and Sarah when they found something difficult. So she stopped and thought for a moment and then said: “Laura, shall we also do a bunch of flowers for Mrs. Cooper?” “Great idea!” answered Laura.

So the two friends made the bunch of flowers for their teacher and when Continue reading…