THE LITTLE SHEPHERD AND HIS SHEEP

Short Story written by: Mila

There was once a little shepherd boy called Nino, who lived in a little village at the foot of a mountain, with green meadows and a plentiful river. But it wasn’t just the beautiful nature that made the village a charming place, it was also the kindness of its one hundred inhabitants.

The little shepherd boy was always with his flock of sheep, his dog and his little donkey. Every day before the sun came up, Nino the little shepherd boy was already ready to milk the sheep and goats in his flock and then go out onto the meadows with them.

Although he was a little older now, Nino the little shepherd boy still spent all day outside, returning just before it grew dark as tired as his flock. Being a shepherd was indeed a very selfless job, for you needed to be strong and fit to spend all day every day walking through the fields. And there was the milking to be done too, so that people could have milk and cheese.

Short stories - the little shepherd and his sheep

Whenever there was too much milk from milking the sheep and goats, the little shepherd boy would usually share it out among the villagers. 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 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…

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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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…

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…

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…