PAPPY THE PAPER BAG

Plastic bags are used all over the world to carry everyday items such as bread, shopping, clothes, toys and lots of other things. But Pappy, the hero of our story, wasn’t a plastic bag like all the rest – he was a very special paper bag. And Pappy had a mission to complete…

Pappy knew that all over the world there were millions of plastic bags that had been abandoned by people and ended up floating in the seas and oceans, contaminating the water and causing damage to the creatures that lived nearby.

Pappy didn’t want things to go on this way, so he came up with a plan to put an end to plastic bags being thrown away. One day he went to visit a big supermarket to talk to the manager.

“Hello Mr. Manager, my name is Pappy and as you can see I’m a paper bag. I wanted to propose an idea to avoid using plastic bags in shopping,” Pappy declared. Continue reading…

THE LION AND THE WIND

There was once a very special lion called Simba who lived on the African savannah. Simba would play in the plains, running and jumping with his friends the leopards and other lions in the area. Simba had a very special gift, for every time he roared he created such a strong wing it seemed like a hurricane.

On the savannah where Simba lived there were lots of kinds of animals: giraffes, elephants, hyenas, etc. and even though it wasn’t a particularly green place, there were lots of species of tree and plants.

One day, as Simba was playing with his friends, they saw enormous machines destroying part of the plain by digging into the earth. “The humans are building oil wells…” said one of the wisest lions.

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Day by day, the men built more and more oil wells, destroying the local nature in the process.

Simba had fewer and fewer friends with whom to play, and fewer plains in which to run about, and he knew that it was the men that were causing it all.

So he decided to ask the wisest lion in the area for a solution. The wise old lion said: “The only solution is for the men to stop using petrol, and use renewable energies such as wind instead…” Continue reading…

MARIO THE ELECTRIC CAR

Once upon a time, there was a very close family who lived in a humble house in the countryside. They had worked hard to build the house themselves, for they had always wanted to have a nice home that was energy efficient.

Most of their neighbours had all-terrain vehicles, so eight-year-old Mario, who was the oldest child in the family, had often asked his parents to swap their own car, which was now very old, for a 4X4.

Eventually, Mario’s parents went off to buy a new car, for their own had stopped working. When they got home, Mario was waiting for them in the garden, impatient to see what 4×4 his parents had bought. He thought: “I bet they’ve bought the biggest and fastest 4X4! Now I can show off the new car in front of the neighbours!”

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But to his great surprise and disappointment, the new car driving up the road wasn’t a 4×4. Mario immediately ran to the car.

“Dad! Mum! Is this our new car?” asked Mario, looking anguished.

“Yes, darling. Do you like it?” answered his mother.

“No I don’t! It’s not a 4X4! It’s a rubbish old electric car, why did you buy it?” asked Mario angrily. Continue reading…

BERTIE AND THE LABYRINTH

There was once a very wise man called Robert, though everyone called him Bertie for everyone loved him a great deal. Bertie had lived all his life in a small village, but two years ago when he was seventy years old he had gone to live in the big city with his daughter Ana. Bertie had always loved history and on his bedside table there were always exciting adventure books about historical figures.

One day as he was browsing his daughter’s bookshelves, he came across a well worn book that looked very old. Bertie realised that this was no ordinary book; it was a special book, and that inside its pages there could be a great secret.

On the front page were Egyptian hieroglyphics that Bertie had seen somewhere before, though he couldn’t quite remember where. So he set his spectacles on the tip of his nose and began reading the first few pages. It soon became clear that this was indeed a very old book – it had been written by an Egyptian historian who had described in precise detail the steps the reader had to follow to cross through the labyrinth and reach the treasure that was hidden there.

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Bertie spent the whole night reading that mysterious book and deciphering the riddles that he came across. He finished it just before dawn, but he still hadn’t managed to find the answer that would lead him to the Egyptian treasure. But then, on the very last page, he found an unfinished phrase that was the key he needed to solve the riddle.

After a few minutes in which Bertie thought hard about everything he had read, he found the answer to the unfinished phrase! Not wasting a single second more, he took a pen from his pocket and finished the phrase in the book. Continue reading…

THE TRAINER AND THE THREE CHILDREN

Once upon a time there was a children’s football trainer called Vincent, in whose team there were three boys who all played as forwards. In every game, the trainer could only put one forward on the pitch, so he sometimes had difficulty choosing which forward should play. By coincidence, the three forwards were the best players in the team, so it was bad luck that only one of them could play in each match.

However hard Vincent looked for a solution, he couldn’t find one. He also found it very difficult to ask for help, for he believed that people would think he was stupid for not being able to resolve the problem himself.

But one day, the three forwards came to him and said: “Vincent, sometimes when we can’t fix something ourselves, it’s best to ask someone else for help…”

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So Vincent remembered an old friend of his whom he could trust,someone with a lot of experience in training children’s football teams – the previous trainer, in fact.

So he decided to go to the former trainer, for he was very wise as he was older and more experienced. The old trainer was called Julian, and he welcomed Vincent with pleasure: “How are you, Vincent? How’s the team?” he asked. And Vincent replied: “That’s exactly what I’ve come to talk to you about.” Continue reading…

THE HAMBURGER BOY

Once upon a time, there was a thirteen-year-old boy who loved to eat hamburgers and chips in fast-food restaurants. Every week, Joe and his friend Daniel would meet up to go to the local McDonalds, and order a Big Mac with fries and a fizzy drink.

Joe liked hamburgers so much that during the week he couldn’t stop thinking about the burger he would be eating the following weekend. One night, he even dreamed about a burger because he’d been thinking about it so much…

In Joe’s dream there appeared a freshly made burger with grated cheese, which said to him: “Eat burgers, they’re delicious!!” So Joe took the two enormous hamburgers that had appeared in his dream, and gobbled them down in one mouthful. But suddenly he began to feel sick, for he had eaten too much too quickly and his tummy was hurting. Just before waking up, Joe looked at himself in the mirror and saw that he had developed a belly as big as Santa Claus’, so he shouted: “Noooooo!!”

Well, this woke Joe up with a start and he ran to the bathroom mirror to check his tummy. Phew! It had all been a dream.

The next day, like every Sunday, Joe and Daniel met up by the park to go for a burger, but today something unexpected was about to happen. Continue reading…

JOEY’S SOCKS

There was once a little boy called Joey, who played a lot of sport. Every day he went through three pairs of socks – all of them sports socks.

He wore sports socks when he went to play basketball and sports socks when he went to play football. All that was normal. But Joey also wore sports socks when he went to school, and when he went to visit his grandparents, and in fact any time he left the house.

But in his drawers there were all sorts of other socks, including ordinary socks.

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One morning when Joey got up, he saw a sock jump onto his pillow and squeak: “Joey, me and my friends in the drawer, the ordinary socks, well, we’re very worried that you’re not wearing us.”

Joey quickly recognised the sock – it was one his mother had given him two years ago now. Continue reading…

THE WICKED FAIRY KIDNAPPER

There was once a wicked man who wanted to kill all the good in the world, so he went around looking for all the fairies on the planet to lock them in a room from which they would never be able to escape. That way, good things would never exist again, and there would be only wickedness and darkness.

Randor, for that was the wicked man’s name, had managed to kidnap two fairies, Maria and Victoria, who were now imprisoned in that cold room where the sun’s rays never entered, for there were no windows and hardly any light came through the door.

Every day, the wicked Randor would go searching for the other fairies in the world. But the fairies knew that he was trying to kidnap them and kill all the good in the world, so they cast spells to become invisible and that way he wouldn’t find them.

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Christie was a young fairy in charge of looking after the animals on the planet. Thanks to her magic potions, she created the necessary balance for them to survive any misfortunes. But unfortunately the young fairy didn’t know that the wicked Randor was pursuing all the fairies in the world, for she was a little scatterbrained.

So when Christie went into the forest to check on the animals and share her magic potions among them, Randor found her. He crept silently up to where she was, then leapt out at her and stuffed her into a sack to take back to the dark room from which she would never come out again. Continue reading…

THE MONKEY AND THE ROCKS

There was once a monkey called Monty who lived on an island that was largely inhabited by other monkeys. The most important scientists on the planet had figured out that climate change would affect this island very badly, almost sinking it completely.

So each of the monkeys decided to build a house on the highest part of the island to protect themselves from the floods on the day the disaster would come. Monty had designed his house to withstand a very big flood, and this required very big rocks.

All the monkeys built their houses in just one day, and then spent the rest of their time playing cards and enjoying their new homes. They all laughed at Monty, because while they had already built their houses, Monty had only drawn some plans. But Monty was convinced that his house could survive any flood and although it might take a long time to build, it was worth the wait.

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So Monty moved only one big stone a day, which meant that his house took shape very slowly and the other monkeys continued to laugh at him. But Monty didn’t care, and went on building his house stone by stone.

After a few months, when the other monkeys had got tired of playing cards, Monty finished his house and very proudly threw a big party to which he invited all the monkeys on the island. Continue reading…

THE BRAVE PIZZA DELIVERY BOY

There was once a pizza delivery boy called Pizzo, whose job it was to take dinner to customers’ homes so they could eat and relax. The pizzas were put into a case, and he would put them in a box that was behind his seat on the moped. But Pizzo usually left the pizza box unlocked, because that way he could make his deliveries faster.

One day, as he was motoring around from home to home as usual, two cars suddenly appeared and stole the pizzas.

Pizzo secretly followed them, and saw them pretend to be pizza delivery men at the next customer’s house. The poor customer opened the door to the thieves, who forced their way in and tied all the members of the house to a chair.

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Watching everything through the window, Pizzo called the police and warned them that a family was in danger. But there was no time to spare. As the police were making their way there, Pizzo pretended to be a policeman and shouted: “You’re surrounded! Come out with your hands up and your eyes shut. You’re under arrest!” Continue reading…