Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2018 i Storytime

It was Prince Henry’s birthday soon and he was starting to get excited. He had big plans for his celebrations. “I want the biggest birthday party ever!” he declared. “I want piles of presents, bumper-sized burgers, big bouncy balloons and a jumbo jumping castle too.” “I’ll see what I can do,” said the Queen. Henry’s guest list was long. He wrote 201 invitations and signed each one with a huge ‘H’. His present list grew and grew too. He wrote on it, “I want a box of farm animals, a scooter with flashing wheels, a helicopter, a football pitch… and a pet elephant.” He handed it to the Queen. She said, “I’ll see what I can do.” Henry found Cook in the royal kitchen. “For my party I would like…

We meet Boo and Bonnie, curious to see What the animal beginning with X will be. “It’s the xerus!” says Boo. “Squirrel of the ground, And Africa’s the only place where it’s found.” They’re best mates with meerkats, but scared of snakes. If they see one, they’ll block it with a bushy tail shake. They also use their tails as shade from the sun, Or they’ll dive in a burrow and chirp with everyone. Now let’s meet the yak – a great hairy hulk, Its long shaggy hair makes up most of its bulk. It wears woolly thermals under its hair, Which help it survive the cold mountain air. It lives in Tibet, where it huddles in herds, And grazes on grasses, flowers and herbs. For water, it eats the…

Somewhere in India in a village on the edge of a forest, a golden bell rang out from the temple twice a day to scare away bad spirits. The villagers thought the bell was their most precious possession and took it in turns to clean it and make it sparkle and shine, but a golden bell attracts attention and, one night, a greedy robber decided to steal it. The robber carried it into the forest, but he didn’t get far because the jangling of the bell aroused the curiosity of a hungry tiger, which chased him. The robber dropped the bell in terror and ran for his life. That same night, a troop of mischievous monkeys found the bell and carried it to their forest hideaway. When the villagers woke…

I was a Pirate once. A brave swashbuckler with sharp cutlass, Scouring the seas with my fine eyeglass. From a ship with a rum-filled water tank I made the enemy walk the plank. I marooned a man on an island bare, Dropped anchor at places no one dared. Took treasure, such heaps of it, fortunes untold, Bright bars of silver and coins of gold. And my flag waved proudly in the breeze, I was the terror of all the seas! I was a Fairy once. I swung in the boughs of the sturdy oak, And the harebells rang to the words I spoke, And my wings were fashioned of silver gauze, And I knew no grief and no human laws. No tasks to learn, and no bothering rules, No nagging…

Once upon a time, there was a giant called Cormoran who lived in a cave at the top of a mountain in Cornwall. From here, he terrorised all the villages around him. The people were scared of Cormoran, and why wouldn’t they be? He was three times the height of the tallest man and his belly was so huge, it took ten minutes to run around him. When he walked, he made the ground shake. But, worst of all, he had an enormous appetite and was always hungry. Several times a day, Cormoran thundered down the mountain to steal cattle from nearby farms. No sooner had he digested one meal than he wanted another. There was only one person who wasn’t afraid of the giant and that was Jack, a…

Long ago in Egypt, Prince Thutmose – the son of the great Pharaoh Amenhotep II – was next in line to the throne. This made his brothers seethe with jealousy, as each of them wanted to be the next pharaoh, so they did everything they could to make his life difficult and even plotted to overthrow him. Thutmose’s brothers were so scheming and cruel, Thutmose began to avoid them and spend as little time as he could in the royal court at Memphis. Instead, the young prince spent his days exploring the desert with his servants. He especially liked to visit the wonderful pyramids. Early one morning, at the beginning of a feast to celebrate the sun god Ra, Thutmose suspected his brothers were scheming again, so he rode away…

In the olden days, long before washing machines were invented, there were washermen and women who would come to your home and collect your dirty clothes to clean them for you. Nancy Newell did just that. Rain or shine, she would walk over hill and moor to pick up clothes that needed washing and return them crisp, clean and neatly folded. Nancy worked long hours, but she liked her job and she never complained. The only thing that made her grumble was how much her husband worried when she walked home in the dark. Every day he would say, “Be careful of the pixies. Make sure they don’t try to lead you away to Fairyland.” And if she came home late, he’d say, “Thank goodness you’re home. I thought the…

How to Play To play, you’ll need two or more players, a dice, one Giant Killer Counter per player and our Giant Killer Card, which you can download from storytimemagazine.com/free Decide who will roll the dice first. Player 1 rolls the dice and moves his or her counter forward the correct number of spaces. Players take it in turns to roll and follow the instructions on each square. Each player has to slay all four giants to move round the board. See our Giant Slaying Instructions below for how to do this. The first player to slay all four giants and cross the finish line wins the Giant Killer Card. Giant Slaying InstructioNS To beat each giant, you’ll need to complete a different challenge. Have you got what…