Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2016 i Storytime

Mummy crab perched on a rock with her friend, the seagull, and watched her baby clamber out through the seaweed and over the rocks, and then scuttle sideways across the sand. The baby crab was so excited by the new sights and sounds around her and the sensation of the soft sand beneath her claws, she whooped for joy. Round and round in circles she went with her speedy sideways scurry. What an adventure! “Oh dear!” sighed the mummy crab to the seagull. “How clumsy and awkward she looks! How embarrassing! Please excuse us.” The mother shouted to her excited little baby, “No, no, dear! That’s not how it’s done. Don’t you know the proper, grown-up way to walk? The way the seagulls do it? You have to walk forwards…

Of his six daughters, the youngest was the quietest. While her sisters played, she tended to the special garden she had planted, which was filled with beautiful sea flowers. Her favourite part of the garden was a statue of a man she had found in a shipwreck. She would sit by the statue for many hours, dreaming of the world above the sea and what it might be like to be human. Sometimes, her grandmother would tell her tales of the places she had seen in her youth – tales of animals, magnificent buildings and fragrant blooms; bathing on warm beaches in the moonlight, and listening to human voices in the distance. “I wish I could see it,” sighed the little mermaid, and her grandmother would always give the same…

This meant that Hercules had extraordinary strength and, sometimes, a temper to match. What he didn’t know was that his fits of anger were caused by the goddess Hera, who was the wife of Zeus and had always been jealous of Hercules. For a long time, Hera had secretly been using her powers to get Hercules into trouble. As he grew older, Hercules became so worried by his outbursts of rage that he visited his local temple for advice. The oracle there told him that he must serve the cruel and cold-hearted King Eurystheus for twelve years. In that time, if he could complete the missions set for him by the king, he would put his anger and strength to good use and win the gift of immortality. Before Hercules…

It was a large square house, white, with green blinds, and had a porch in front, over which roses and clematis grew. On one side of the house was an orchard; on the other side were woodpiles and barns, and an icehouse. Behind was a kitchen garden and a pasture with a brook and four cows. There were six Carr children – four girls and two boys. Katy, the oldest, was twelve years old; little Phil, the youngest, was four, and the rest fitted in between. Dr Carr, their Papa, was a dear, kind, busy man, who was away from home all day, and sometimes all night, taking care of sick people. The children hadn’t any Mamma. She had died when Phil was a baby, four years before my story…

So they went to the market in Venice, where they lived, and bought themselves a big fat chicken. On the way home, they bumped into their neighbour and invited him to dinner too. “I’ll bring a nice tart for pudding!” said the neighbour. Everyone was looking forward to it. At home, they took garlic and herbs from their garden and put them in a big pot with the chicken, then they went out for a nice walk, leaving their cat and dog in the kitchen. They had been gone a few minutes, when the dog sidled up to the oven and said, “Mmmm… that smells good.” The cat miaowed in agreement. “What a delicious smell it is,” sighed the dog. “Do you think you could push the lid off with…

They loved her so much, they barely let her out of their sight and she rarely left the castle, so it was a great surprise when the princess suddenly had a baby. The king was outraged and demanded to know who the father was, but the princess just answered, “I don’t know, Father. The baby just appeared – like a gift!” But the king wouldn’t rest until he had discovered the true identity of the father. He consulted the wisest minds in the land, and then summoned the wealthiest suitors to the castle. He also told the princess to come along with her new baby. When everybody was there, the king announced, “Now I will present this child with an enchanted lemon, given to me by a wise old wizard.…