Books and audio stories for children
A 28 page booklet describing how Jack was hoping to enjoy feeding the birds in his new garden.
24 pictures and the story told page by page.
In colour and page size is A5.
Jack was very surprised to find that there were no small birds, like sparrows, robins or even blackbirds.
Jack had to find out what the problem was and solve it!
July 2022
I decided to revisit this short booklet by using my Affinity Publisher software, being a regular user of Affinity Photo, which is great for resizing photos and other images, as well as altering resolution (DPI).
It occurred to me that it would be quite easy for you the reader, to print out all of the pages (8 x A4 =16 pages) or 4 xA4 if double sided.
The pages are numbered, so assembly is not too much of a puzzle!
You would then be the proud owner of a downloaded PDF, digital copy of the book, but also a hard copy produced from your printer! This would be somewhat loose leaf, unless you happen to have a suitably sized stapler.
It's story time!
A true story, told as if by my granddaughter!
Another bird story, but with a happy ending ....
Another happy ending, this time, my sister's budgie!
And last, but not least, a hen with a problem!
Will it be another happy ending?
Off we go
Down the road, in the pushchair
Looking for birds, big birds, black birds.
Grandad said they are crows
And sometimes we see pigeons.
And cars. Lots of cars.
Then we cross the road
To go and see the water.
Sometimes we see ducks.
Today they were quacking and
Chasing each other
And making lots of splashing.
I was excited and I shouted at the ducks,
Because they made me laugh.
We saw dogs and a cat asleep
Under the tree, in the sunshine.
Next we saw some black baby cows.
One of them came up to the fence
And she was eating leaves off a bush.
I could see her tongue.
Grandad asked me if I had
Leaves for breakfast!
Then we went to the churchyard
And I looked for some flowers.
We went into the church and
I saw the pretty coloured windows.
Then we walked around the church
I was whacking the leaves of the bushes
With my stick and trying to reach the big tree,
With my stick.
Then we went home to see Mummy.
Written as homage to my youngest grandson, then aged one.
9 October 2018
Alice and the Cat
One day when Daddy was taking Alice to playschool in the car, Daddy saw a cat which was walking in a very strange way. As Daddy slowed the car down, he said to Alice, “There’s a cat over there that looks as if it has been hurt.” Alice, who had been busy sorting out her doll’s hair on the back seat, looked up and said, “Where is it?” Daddy told her he had just seen the cat crawl under a parked car in the playschool car park. Alice was a bit puzzled by all of this and didn’t really know what to say.
Daddy did not like cats, especially when they made a mess in his garden! Alice did like them and stroked them if she got the chance. Daddy did not like to think that the cat was in any pain though, so he parked the car carefully and got Alice out of her seatbelt. They walked over to where the cat had been, but it suddenly crawled awkwardly out from under a car and headed for the old stone wall next to the playschool hut, disappearing into some bushes. Daddy and Alice looked to see where it had gone but it was impossible, as the bushes were so tangled. Daddy decided he should take Alice into playschool or she would be late.
Going through the gates set into the wall they walked along the other side of the wall which had lots of trees hanging over it. All of a sudden, Alice pointed up at one of the trees and said “Look Daddy there’s the cat!” Alice’s Daddy looked up at the big old tree but he could not see anything, however hard he tried. Perhaps Alice was imagining it, because the cat did not look as if it was capable of getting up a tree. Alice still said she could see it so Daddy moved closer to the wall and looked right up the tree. This time he could see the cat!
“Oh dear, Alice, I don’t know what I can do about this, but I think you should go into playschool now and I will see what I can do.” After leaving Alice, Daddy had another look and to his surprise realised that the cat had moved even higher up the tree. He was sure now that the cat was injured and frightened and must be trying to run away from its pain by climbing up this tree.
Alice’s Daddy knew that the police station was just across the car park where he was, so he went over to see if anyone could help. The lady behind the enquiry desk said the best thing to do was to go over to the vet’s, which was on the other side of the car park.
The vet himself and one of his assistants, with a special basket came over to the tree and after borrowing a stepladder, the vet managed to carefully remove the cat from the tree and placed it in the basket. He said that it would probably be alright, although it had been hit on its head and side.
When Daddy collected Alice from playschool at lunchtime, he told her all about the cat and said that it would probably be alright now. Alice seemed quite happy about this.
The next day, Alice’s Daddy popped into the vet’s to ask about the cat. The lady told him that the cat had a dislocated hip and now had a big bandage on, but would be alright in a few weeks and that its owner had been found.
When Alice heard this she was very pleased, especially when Daddy told her what a clever girl she had been to find the cat’s hiding place. If she hadn’t the poor cat might never been found. Alice was quite pleased with herself.
THE END
5 February 1990
