THE MAGICIAN AND THE MAGIC UMBRELLA

Legend has it that many, many years ago there was a wizard who had always wanted to fly like a bird to see what it felt like to soar through the air. Arion, for that was the wizard’s name, hoped that one day he would finally manage to fly, so every day as soon as he got up he would set to work in his laboratory searching for the magic formula.

One day, as the wizard was doing his experiments and inventing new potions, his cat Dabra arrived in the laboratory. He was so happy to see the wizard that in his haste he broke into a run and knocked over some of the potions Arion had made.

The wizard got very annoyed with Dabra and said: “Naughty cat!! I don’t want to see you ever again, get out of this house!!” And so Dabra went sadly out onto the street.

Short stories -the magician and the magic umbrella

Arion the wizard went round cleaning up all the liquid that had fallen on the floor and on top of an old umbrella that the wizard had had since he was a boy, for it had been a gift from his grandfather. Arion couldn’t believe it – the umbrella had been stained multicoloured by the potions! “Oh no!” he cried, “That cat has destroyed my grandfather’s umbrella, it’s ruined!”

But just as Arion the wizard was about to throw the umbrella in the bin, he accidentally opened it up and saw a blaze of colourful lights surrounding him. And then he noticed that his feet weren’t touching the floor – they were in the air!

In a flash, Arion realised that the umbrella was magic, and that by holding it he could fly. Excited, he shouted: “I’m flying like a bird at last!!” Continue reading…

THE LOCH NESS MONSTER

A long, long time ago there was a legend about a monster that lived in a lake called Ness, by the side of a little village in Scotland. No one had ever seen the Loch Ness Monster, but the whole world talked about her. People said that the monster in the lake was as big as a football pitch, that she had four eyes and ate all the little children who went near the lake.

Jake, for that was the name of an adventurous little boy from the area, decided to investigate and set off to explore the area around Loch Ness. Jake knew that if the rumours of the monster were true, he wouldn’t come out of his adventure alive. But there was something inside him that made him think that what people said was false.

Jake believed that if there really was a monster in Loch Ness, she couldn’t be as bad as the villagers said, for he believed that all living beings had their good and bad points, and that we should try to get the best out of each other.

Short stories - the loch ness monster

So Jake went off with his backpack full of food. When he reached the banks of the lake, he began throwing the food to attract the Loch Ness Monster. Continue reading…

THE SEASONS OF THE YEAR

There were once four seasons in the year called Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Each season was very different, but two of them didn’t get on very well at all. Which two were they? I hear you asking. Well, Winter and Summer, that’s who.

From the moment they met, Winter and Summer had clashed, for Winter liked the cold, rain and snow, but Summer preferred sunshine, dryness and heat. In fact, they were polar opposites.

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So one day the four seasons got together to resolve the problem. Spring comes after Winter, and with her the trees and fields begin to flower and it stops being so cold. And Autumn, who follows Summer, brings with him the falling leaves, the start of the cold weather and a few rain showers.

Short stories - the seasons of the year

At their meeting, Spring and Autumn tried to explain to Winter and Summer that they should get along, for all four of them are needed to complete the circle of life on Earth. Continue reading…

THE BRAVE LITTLE FARM PIG

There was once a farm situated on the outskirts of a village, called Bimbo’s Farm.

There were lots of animals there – cows, sheep, chickens and a little piggy called Pinky, who had been the last to arrive as he was only two months’ old.

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Pinky was a very playful little pig, who liked spending time with the sheep grazing out on the meadows. He would run behind them until Pluto the sheepdog told him off for not letting the sheep eat in peace. So he would stop bothering them – until Pluto’s attention was turned elsewhere…

For all his peskiness, Pinky was a very brave little pig, for one day when the sheep were out on the field he saw a wolf creep up in the bushes and pass unnoticed in front of the napping Pluto.

Short stories - the brave little farm pig

All at once, the wolf bounded out of the bushes and made straight for the sheep, but Pinky Continue reading…

THE LITTLE BOY AND THE ALMONDS

Once upon a time there was a little boy called Marco who lived in a village near Madrid, in Spain. Marco was a very observant little boy and loved nature. He especially loved flowers, and he had realised that the only time almond trees blossom is in spring.

Every spring day, he liked to look at the blossoms and see the pretty colours that appeared in this season. But the little boy got very sad when spring passed into summer and he could no longer see the almond blossoms.

One day, his wise old grandfather told him something very important: “You should look on the positive side of things,” he said, and continued, “Almond trees may not flower in summer, but you can sit under them for shade. Almond trees may not flower in autumn, but they produce the almonds that you can eat if you break the shells between two stones. And almond trees may not flower in winter, but their branches are full of snow and look beautiful.”

Short stories - The little boy and the almonds

That was how Marco understood the greatness of nature and decided not to get sad at any time of year, because there are always beautiful things to admire.

THE END

THE BRIGHTLY COLOURED BEACH UMBRELLA

Just as they did every summer, Charlie, his sister and his parents were off to their beach house where they would spend the whole summer until Charlie and Laura began school again in September.

Every day they would go to the beach, so the idea was to get up very early so as to be first on the beach and be able to choose a spot without a single beach umbrella to spoil their view.

But unfortunately they were never the first to arrive, for Charlie was a lazy-bones. Even though he had an alarm that was so loud it would wake up their neighbours, it was never enough to get him out of bed.

When his mother saw that Charlie hadn’t got up, she would march into his room to tell him that if he didn’t get up they would go to the beach without him. Well, that always made him leap out of bed like a flash of lightning…

Charlie liked playing with his sister on the shore by the waves; he especially loved making sand castles, but his parents wouldn’t let him go because their beach umbrella was right at the back of the beach and their view of the shore was blocked by hundreds more parasols.

This made Charlie very angry with his parents, so he spent all morning under their beach umbrella staring at all the people in front of them and not saying a word. Continue reading…

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…