THE SQUIRREL AND THE FOREST FIRE

There was once a young squirrel called Nutty, who lived in a wooden house high up in a tree in the middle of a forest. The forest where Nutty the squirrel lived was a beautiful place; it was full of plants, trees and bushes of all sizes. All of this beautiful vegetation was possible thanks to the river that burbled through the area and filled the place with life. For as Nutty the squirrel well knew, water is life.

One day, when Nutty was resting in his tree house, he heard some shouts coming from inside the forest. So he scrambled out to have a look around…

Nutty leapt from tree to tree to reach the place the shouts were coming from as quick as he could. When he arrived, he found a group of people lighting a fire on the ground for a barbecue.

Short stories - The squirrel and the forest fire

The poor squirrel was very frightened, for he knew that today – the first day of summer – people weren’t allowed to light fires in the forest because of the danger of starting a huge blaze. Continue reading…

THE GARDEN SCARECROW

My name is Laura, I’m 9 years old and I live in the city. In summer, when it’s school holidays, I go to my grandparents’ house in a little village.

One day, I walked through the orchard to visit Mr. Anselmo, one of my grandparents’ neighbours, so he could teach me how to grow tomatoes and carrots. I wanted to plant my own little vegetable garden at home. There were all sorts of vegetables and fruit in Mr. Anselmo’s garden, because he was the best gardener I had ever met.

“Hello Mr. Anselmo!! How are you?” I asked.

“Well good day to you, miss, ready to learn where most of my food comes from?” he replied.

“Yes! I’m impatient because I want to be a gardener,” I said. Continue reading…

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…

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…

THE DAY OF THE TREE

Matthew had woken up before his alarm went off, which was very unusual because normally he was a real sleepyhead. He jumped out of bed, put on his explorer costume, made his bed, pulled on his boots and went down to the kitchen for breakfast.

Matthew’s mother and father were busy making breakfast, and were very surprised to see Matthew appear at the door… “Good morning, son, what’s up with you today? How come you’re up so early?!” laughed his father.

“Well, I woke up before the alarm, so I wasn’t sleepy,” answered Matthew.

For Matthew, today was a very special day. It was the day of the tree, and they had bought a small tree to plant in the field as a symbol of respect for nature.

Short stories - The day of the tree

After breakfast, they set off. They took the necessary tools to plant the tree: a hoe, gloves and a hose for watering it.

When they got to the field, Matthew’s mouth fell open: they weren’t the only ones who had thought of planting a tree! There were lots of other children doing the same thing and also writing little cards to go with them, with the date and their name on it.

Matthew was sad to discover that his idea wasn’t new, and that lots of other people had had the same thought.

“Matthew, your idea to plant a tree in the field was lovely so there’s no reason to be sad,” remarked his mother. Continue reading…

CLEMENTINY AND THE VALENCIAN ORANGE TREE

There was once an orange called Clementiny who lived in the biggest and prettiest orange tree in the field. The field where Clementiny lived was in the city of Valencia, Spain, where the best oranges in the world are grown.

Clementiny was very happy living in that tree, for he had everything he needed: sunlight to grow, water to drink and other orange friends with whom to share happy days.

But for some while now, the climate hadn’t been quite the same… Clementiny’s friend the rain no longer visited the field as often as before. And the sun seemed to be lazy and no longer shone as she had before.

Short stories-Clementiny and the valencian orange tree

One day Clementiny asked the orange tree: “What’s wrong, orange tree? Are you feeling all right? Your branches are all slumping…”

“I’m okay,” replied the orange tree, “but I feel a bit weak because it hasn’t rained for many days and I can’t do my photosynthesis very well, which is why I have no strength in my branches. I hope it rains soon!”

Clementiny grew thoughtful, for although it wasn’t raining, he himself felt strong and healthy. So he asked an old orange who lived next-door: “Why is the orange tree so tired, while we oranges are all ok?” The old orange answered: “Clementiny, we get all our energy from the tree, because it is the tree that supplies us with food. It hasn’t rained for a long time now, so the tree is gradually dying - because he is giving the little energy he has to us.”

Clementiny’s mouth fell open at hearing these words, and he began to think about what he could do to help the orange tree… Continue reading…

THE GROUCHY LIGHTBULB

Once upon a time there was a low-energy light bulb who sometimes got annoyed when he was switched on… Mr. Graham, the owner of the house, couldn’t understand its behaviour, because he had been told it would last a long time and save energy.

One day, he invited some friends to dinner, Robert and Isa. It was quite a sunny day, but the Graham family had switched on all the living room lights for the meal, and the grouchy light bulb was among them.

Robert realised that the light bulb looked angry, for it flicked on and off constantly. So he asked: “Hey, Graham, I think your light bulb is annoyed. Have you noticed?!”

Childrens stories - the grouchy lightbulb

Mr. Graham replied: “He gets annoyed and goes out every time we switch him on. I don’t know why, because we only bought him a little while ago…” Continue reading…

THE CLOUD AND THE WIND

Claudia the cloud was feeling very happy because she was out with her friend the sun. It was a beautiful day and the birds were singing their hearts out.

Suddenly, the wind began to blow and the poor little Claudia couldn’t stop moving about, for the wind was pushing her from side to side.

Childrens stories - The cloud and wind

Then Claudia shouted at the wind: “Why are you blowing so strongly?“

And the wind answered:

Continue reading…