Innehållsförteckning för September 2021 från Storytime

The peacock was a favourite of the goddess Juno. He went before her and bowed so low that his beak touched the ground. Juno smiled and said, “Welcome, my dear peacock! What can I do for you?” The peacock replied, “O lovely goddess, I am your most faithful worshipper. Would you bless me with feathers more beautiful than those of any other bird?” Juno thought for a while and said, “Normally I do not approve of vanity – but since you asked so nicely, I will give you new feathers. What colour would you like them to be?” “Oh, they should definitely be blue!” said the peacock. “Blue is nice!” Juno agreed. “I will give you nice blue feathers, then.” “But they should shine like metal!” the peacock continued. “Anything…

Her father taught physics and maths at a college, and Maria soon showed that she had a gift for these subjects. Her parents made sure that learning was fun for their kids! They would come up with cool projects that the whole family could enjoy. One day they might make their own huge map of the world. The next, they would make a collage of historical events. Maria’s favourite room was her father’s office, where he had a cabinet full of the most amazing things. There were barometers, scales and many other finely made devices of brass and steel. Maria loved looking at them. “What are they all for?” she asked, her eyes wide. ~Doing science experiments!” her father replied. “With experiments, we can discover how the universe works…” “Oh!…

One day, she called for her children and told them some thrilling news. “Your uncle and aunt, Thunder and Lightning, have invited you to dinner! Be polite, and remember your table manners!” The Sun, the Moon and the Wind were most excited. Thunder and Lightning put on a great feast with many dishes – chicken with almonds, juicy lamb, and platters of rice and vegetables flavoured with herbs. The Sun and the Wind were greedy and selfish. They gobbled as much as they could, and left nothing behind. The Moon was much more thoughtful. She made sure to tuck a little bit of each dish in her napkin, as she wanted to bring some food home for her mother. When the meal was over, all of the plates and platters…

A doctor from a far-away land gave him this advice: “The magical Golden Blackbird can make you better. Send someone to get it for you!” The lord sent his eldest son on a quest to find the Golden Blackbird, but the boy was lazy and greedy. After walking for a few miles, he came to a fine inn. “Why should I go all over the world, looking for some magical bird?” he thought to himself. “I will stay here and enjoy myself. If my father dies, I will inherit his lands, anyway!” A week later, the lord sent his middle son to find the Golden Blackbird. When the lad passed the inn, his elder brother invited him to stay instead of continuing on his quest. The middle brother was lazy…

Maria went to France and changed her name to ‘Marie’. She studied physics and maths at the famous Sorbonne university. Scientists had discovered that a kind of energy called ‘x-rays’ could be detected around a metal called ‘uranium’ – but nobody knew why this was. Marie teamed up with a French student named Pierre Curie, and they decided to study x-rays together. They also got married! Working in a tiny, draughty shed, Marie and Pierre Curie studied tiny bits of uranium. She worked out that energy was released by the uranium atoms themselves, and called this energy ‘radio-activity’. She also found other radioactive metals, including radium and polonium. Pierre and Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for their discoveries. Marie also helped to create x-ray machines…

1 ATOMIC MATCHS! Different atoms have different numbers of particles called ‘protons’ in them. Can you solve these puzzles, based on the number of protons that each of these atoms has? Hint: An atom’s ‘atomic number’ tells you how many protons it has. A. A Uranium atom has 92 protons in it. How many Palladium atoms would have the same number of protons? B. A Polonium atom has 84 protons. How many Silicon atoms would have the same number of protons? C. A Radium atom has 88 protons. How many Oxygen atoms would have the same number of protons? 2 GET MY GOATS! Uh-oh! The queen from the story ‘The Happy Lady’ has lost her goats! Can you find them all on the Playbox pages? Write how many…

Grumpy slammed the door of the Seven Dwarfs’ cottage. He was holding a big red-and-green apple in one hand, and rubbing a big bump on his head with the other! His six friends nodded, which made their beards waggle. It had been a wonderful summer, and the apple trees in their orchard had produced crisp, juicy apples by the hundreds. The dwarfs picked as many as they could, but there were always more! Bashful went to the cupboard to get the first aid kit, but more apples tumbled out. The dwarfs had filled every nook and cranny with the fruit, and they were at their wits’ end! Sleepy had insomnia because of the apples stuffed under his mattress. The smell of the fruit was triggering Sneezy’s allergies. Even Bashful was…

BOOKS OF THE MONTH LEAVES by Stephen Hogtun (Bloomsbury) is a haunting and beautiful story told from an unusual point of view: the characters in it are trees! The dreamlike art takes us through the seasons, and makes us think about life from a new perspective. THE LAST SEAWEED PIE by Wenda Shurety, illustrated by Paddy Donnelly (Storyhouse) is about pollution and learning to cooperate – but the imaginative world of the Tree-ple and Sea-ple is so creative and wonderfully illustrated that you might not even notice the message at first! WHEN I SEE RED by Britta Teckentr is all about how anger makes us feel, a pictures and rhyming words explode ac A beautiful and unusual book that ends message that even our worst rages will IF I WERE…