Kid Stories

  T here was once a little jackal who lived in the jungle. He was a greedy little jackal, and one of his favourite meals was fresh crabs from the river. One day he went down to the big river near his home and put his paw in the water to pull out a crab.   Snap! A large, lazy crocodile who had been lying in the water snapped his jaws and caught the jackal's paw. The little jackal did not cry out, although he was very frightened. Instead he laughed.   "Ha! Ha! That crocodile in the river thinks he has caught my paw, but the stupid animal does not realize he has snapped up a piece of wood and is holding it in his jaws".   The crocodile immediately opened his mouth for he did not want to be seen with a log of wood in his jaws. Quickly the little jackal danced away and called cheekily from a safe distance:   "I'll catch some crabs another day, Mr. Crocodile".   The crocodile lashed his tail with rage and resolved to catch the little jackal and eat ...

O ne winter a beautiful queen sat sewing by a window. As she gazed down at the snow-covered garden she saw a black raven and, at the same moment, she happened to prick her finger on her needle - a drop of blood fell on the snow. The colours were so strong that the queen said to herself'. If only I could have a child whose skin was as white as snow, with hair as black as a raven and lips as red as blood.   Not long afterwards the queen had a baby daughter, and when she saw her jet black hair, snowy white skin and red lips she remembered her strange wish on that winter's day and named her Snow White.   But after a few years Snow Whites mother died and her father married again. The new queen, Snow White's stepmother, was beautiful too, but she was also proud and vain. She had a magic mirror and each day she would admire herself in it and ask,   "Mirror, mirror, on the wall,   Who is the fairest one of all?"   and the mirror would always reply,  ...

  T his story is one of the tales that the ancient Greeks told about their gods. It is the story of Persephone, the lovely daughter of Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest.   Demeter travelled around the world with Persephone, visiting all the trees and plants that produce food. As she passed by, they grew and flourished, and their fruit ripened. On hot days as she walked through a field of corn, the husks would swell and the corn would turn golden. Whenever she visited orchards and vineyards, the apples, peaches, pears and grapes would be sweet and ready to eat. Persephone would dance with joy to see how lovely the flowers looked when Demeter touched them.   One day Persephone asked her mother if she could go and play with her friends on the mountainside. Demeter agreed, but warned her not to stray too far. While Demeter visited some valleys where the harvest was late, Persephone and her friends scrambled happily over the mountainside. They found many flowers growin...

A n old woman was baking one day, and she made some gingerbread. She had some dough left over, so she made the shape of a little man. She made eyes for him, a nose and a smiling mouth all of currants, and put currants down his front to look like buttons. Then she laid him on a baking tray and put him in the oven. After a little while, she heard something rattling at the oven door. She opened it and to her surprise out jumped the little gingerbread man. She tried to catch him, but he slipped past her, calling as he ran, "Run, run, as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" She chased after him into the garden where her husband was digging. He put down his spade and tried to catch him too, but the gingerbread man ran past him, calling "Run, run, as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" He ran down the road with the old woman and the old man following. Soon he passed a cow. The cow called ou...

O ne dark and stormy night, a tramp knocked on the door of a cottage and asked for shelter. An old woman answered the door and told the tramp sourly that he could come in if he wanted, but he must not expect any food for she had none in the house. "And don't think you'll get a bed to sleep on either", she added, "as I only have one and that is where I sleep". The tramp was hungry, but he could see he wasn't going to get any food, so he sat by the fire and took an old nail out of his pocket and tossed it from hand to hand. "Do you see this nail here?" he said at last. "You'd never believe it, but last night I made the finest soup I have ever eaten by cooking this nail, and what is more I still have it to make more tonight. Would you like me to make you some nail soup?" "Nail soup!" snorted the old woman. "I have never heard of such a thing. Don't talk nonsense". But the tramp could see she was curiou...

Once upon a time there was a shoemaker who made very good shoes. But though he worked hard in his shop, times were difficult and he became poorer and poorer. One evening he realized he had only enough leather to make one more pair of shoes. He cut up the leather and laid the pieces out on his workbench to sew in the morning when the light was better. "I may never make another pair of shoes", he sighed as he put up the shutters over his shop window. The next morning when he went back to his workbench he found a beautiful pair of shoes. He examined them carefully and discovered they were made from the leather he had cut out the night before. The stitches were exquisite, very tiny and neat, and he knew the shoes were far better than any he could have made. Quickly he took down his shutters and placed the shoes in his shop window. Soon the door opened and in came a grand gentleman. He bought the shoes and paid four times more than the price of an ordinary pair. Wit...

There was once a gentleman who lived in a fine house, with his kind and gentle wife and their pretty daughter. His wife died, so the gentleman married again. His new wife was not at all kind or pretty. She had been married before and had two daughters who were known, behind their backs, as the Ugly Sisters. Although they had no reason to be unkind, the two sisters were horrid to their new stepsister. They ordered her about, scolded her and made her do all the work in the big house. Her clothes became ragged and thin and far too small. The poor girl was always cold and tired. In the evenings she would rest on a stool close to the fire, almost in the cinders and ashes. "Cinderella, That's the perfect name for you", jeered the stepsisters when they saw her trying to keep warm. Now the king and queen of their country had a son, and they planned a big ball for the prince in the hope that he might find a bride. Invitations were sent to all the big houses. When ...

One summer's day, when the corn was golden yellow and the hay was being dried in the fields, a mother duck was sitting on her nest of eggs. She sat in the rushes of a deep moat that surrounded a lovely country manor and waited for her eggs to hatch. They were taking a very long time and she was getting very tired. At last she felt a movement beneath her. The eggs began to crack and out popped tiny fluffy ducklings. All the eggs hatched except for one, which was larger than the rest. The mother duck was impatient to take her new ducklings swimming but could not leave the last egg unhatched. She sat, and she sat, and she sat, and just as she was about to give up, she heard a tap. Out of the egg tumbled the oddest ugliest duckling imaginable. She took the babies into the water and proudly watched as they all swam straightaway, even the ugly duckling. She led them in a procession around the moat, showing them off to the other ducks. As they bobbed along behind her she heard many...

Have you ever watched a bird flying gracefully through the air and wished that you could do the same?   Some years ago two American boys dreamed of flying, too. Today because of their hard work, you can fly much faster and farther than any bird in a machine much heavier than air. This machine is called an aeroplane.   Wilbur and Orville Wright had always wanted to fly. As children they loved the old story about a Greek boy, Icarus, who flew with wings that were held to his arms by wax. But, so the story goes, he flew so high that the wax melted in the heat of the sun. His wings fell off and he dropped into the sea.   "What we need to fly are wings with a machine," said Wilbur. And so the young Orville Wright brothers began to think about how they could build an aeroplane. They owned a bicycle shop. All the money they made from selling and mending bicycles was used in trying to build aeroplanes.   In 1896 a german man named Otto Lilienthal was killed while ...

"Be a lady dear. That's what we want! " How many times pretty young Florence Nightingale heard these words from her father and mother! But for her, being a lady was not enough. She wanted to do something for others. Florence's father was a very rich man. Florence took lessons in music and drawing, and read great books. She could speak French, German, and Italian as well as English. And she travelled a great deal with her mother and father. As a child she felt that visiting sick people was both a duty and a pleasure. She enjoyed helping them. As often as she could, she visited hospitals in others countries. She saw so much suffering that she knew she must help. At last her mind was made up: "I'm going to be a nurse," she decided. "Nursing isn't the right work for a lady," her father told her. "Then I will make it so," she smile. And she went to learn nursing in Germany and France. When she returned to England, Florence,...

"What a country!" says the Russian immigrant and popular comedian, Yakov Smirnoff. This exclamation expresses his surprise, delight, confusion, or disapproval as he learns something new about the U.S.A. Most new comers to the United States probably share his mixed emotions. It's a wonderful country, they realize, but it's not heaven. Most new corners arrive in one of the large urban areas. Some find the crowds, high-rise buildings, and noisy traffic overwhelming: however, they usually adjust to the urban environment rather quickly. It is the American people-their customs and their language-that remain a long-term mystery. This book attempts to uncover some of the mystery, beginning with the attitudes that most Americans share. What do Americans love, hate, want and believe in? Any statement about the American outlook must take into consideration the nations' great size and geographic diversity, and the fact that it is (as John F. Kennedy said) "a nati...

The beast of Bodmin: whether it is a native cat, previously thought extinct, or an escaped exotic pet, the Beast of Bodmin is a creature that refuses to disappear. Indeed, sightings of the panther-like creature continue apace and, unlike other mysterious beasts, modern technology is actually helping to prove its existence. Bodmin Moor is an area of National Park land in Cornwall, southwest England. Since 1983 there have been over sixty sightings of big cats in the area, and some experts suggest there may be a whole breeding population on the moors. In fact, one recent sighting was of a mother cat and her cub together. Despite wide-ranging testimonials from reliable witnesses, a British government report in 1995 concluded that there was no evidence of big cats on the moors. However, since 1995 some quite startling, tangible evidence has been produced. A 20-second video released in July 1998 clearly shows a large black animal roaming the moor. Experts believe the footage is the...

     Once upon a time there were three bears who lived in a house in the forest. There was a great big father bear, a middle-sized mother bear and a tiny little baby bear.   One morning, their breakfast porridge was too hot to eat, so they went for a walk in the forest. While they were out, a little girl called Goldilocks came through the trees and found their house. She knocked on the door and, as there was no answer, she pushed it open and went in.   In front of her was a table with three chairs, one great big chair, one middle-sized chair and one tiny little chair. On the table were three bowls of porridge, one great big bowl, one middle-sized bowl and one tiny little bowl - and three spoons.   Goldilocks was hungry, so she sat in the great big chair, picked up the biggest spoon and tried some of the porridge from the great big bowl. But the chair was far too big and hard, the spoon was too heavy and the porridge too hot.   So Goldilocks ...

*   Dave married   Dave married, and when his new wife saw the clothes in his cupboard, she said, "Dave, you have only got one good shirt. The other are very old, and they've got holes in them. I'm going to buy you a new one this afternoon".   Dave liked his shirts, but he loved his wife too, so he said, "All right, Beryl, but please don't throw any of the old ones away".   Dave went to work, and when he came back in the evening, Beryl said to him, "Look, Dave, I've bought you a nice shirt. Here it is. Put it on".   Dave put the shirt on, and then he said, "Look at the sleeves, Beryl. They're too long".   "That's all right," Beryl answered. "They'll get shorter when I wash the shirt".   Then Dave said, "But the neck's too small".   "That's all right," Beryl answered. "It'll get bigger when you wear the shirt, Dave". _______________________...