Tag Archives: book

‘Luke Walker and the saved up money’ starts now!

By

For the first 6 chapters click here 🙂

Chapter 7:

Luke Walker and the saved up money

Luke didn’t complain about helping Dad on the allotment because it was part of their agreement.  After he’d commandeered the vegetable patch for the damsons, Dad had made a deal with him.  He said the damsons could stay there if Luke agreed to help him every week on a new allotment.

The allotment cost Dad ÂŁ80 a year, which seemed a heck of a lot of money to Luke, but Dad said it was a good deal because it gave him plenty of room to grow things – much more than he’d had in the damson patch.  It would be a lot of work so Luke had to help.  Luke thought that was fair, and earning the damsons’ keep made him feel like a bread-winner.  So everyone was happy.

On this particular Saturday he was in an especially good mood.  He had finally saved enough money to buy his bike.  The pocket money he had been given that very morning brought his total up to ÂŁ100.  £100!  He had been saving for ever.  Actually, for a year.  But it felt like forever.  And now he had enough.  He could buy the bike; the blue one; the blue one he’d seen in the bike shop window; the blue one that was perfect for him; the blue one that was meant to be his.  Dad said they could go and get it when they’d done the morning’s digging and weeding.  They were going that afternoon.

After lunch Luke rushed up to his bedroom and emptied his money box.  Mum had changed his coins for notes every time he saved ÂŁ10 so now he held ten crisp, or rather soft and tatty, ÂŁ10 notes in his hands.  Never before had he held so much money!  He tucked it carefully into his wallet, the Batman one with the keyring attached, tucked his wallet into his front right trouser pocket, and padlocked the keyring to his belt loop.  He wasn’t taking any chances.  Then he waited in the car for Dad.

“Where have you been?” Luke asked him when he finally arrived.

“You know where I’ve been Luke.  You saw me.  You passed me, eating my lunch, on your way out to sit in the car.”

He turned the key and the engine coughed to life.  Luke could hardly contain his excitement.

****************

Continues tomorrow 😉

**********************************************

vegan children’s story, children’s book, books, children

Chatting away non-stop

By

Story continues from yesterday:

****

In a few short minutes Luke and Emma were crossing the meadow side by side, heading for the woods.  Luke chatted away non-stop while Emma swished her tail and listened contentedly.

“Truth is Emma,” he explained, “I’d love to take you home with me but I really don’t think me dad’d let me.  Honestly, you should ‘ave ‘eard the fuss ‘e made over a couple o’ rabbits.”

On the other side of the wood was another meadow, even more beautiful, with trees here and there and, to Luke’s delight, something else.

“Ooh quick Emma, over here!  It looks like a lake or somethin’!”

Luke rushed ahead laughing and calling her to follow.  Cautiously, she did.  It was such a lovely hot day that Luke couldn’t resist getting into the clear, cool water.

“Come on, it’s ok, it’s not deep,” he called, “come in with me, it’s fun!”

Emma tentatively dipped her trunk into the water and had a good long drink.  Luke grinned.

“Yeah, that’s it!  Now come all the way in and play with me.”

He laughed and sloshed about and splashed her so that soon she wanted to join in.  She reached out her trunk to him and he put his hand out to her and she trod heavily, slowly, down into the lake.  She drew up a big trunk full of water and showered it all over herself, and Luke.  She splashed and she played and felt free.  And so did Luke.  It was just the best afternoon.

When they got out of the water Emma laid down on the warm grass to be dried by the sun, and Luke sat with her, leaning against her chest.  Eventually, reluctantly, he looked at his watch. 4.32.

“I have to go now,” he told her sadly, “but I will come back if I can.”

He didn’t know when that might be.

“You do like it here don’t you?”

He knew she must and was satisfied his outlawing had paid off again – she’d be much happier here than in that concrete enclosure.  She’d have freedom; she’d have space; he only wished she wouldn’t be on her own.

“There’s prob’ly rabbits here,” he told her, “rabbits make good friends.  The thing with rabbits is, you ‘ave to be patient.  They might seem a bit stand-offish at first but once they get to know you they’re very friendly.”

He stood up and said goodbye, confident she’d understood.  

He slipped back in to the zoo and locked the gate so that everything, well, almost everything, was as he’d found it.  He decided it would be a good idea to hang on to the keys – he’d need them next time he visited Emma.  

It was 4.57 when he arrived at the coach so he was in good time for Mrs Tebbut’s prompt 5pm departure, but for some reason she was crosser than he’d ever seen her.

“Luke Walker!  Do you have any idea what you’ve put us through?  You have disrupted the day for the whole class!  You are a selfish, thoughtless child and I will be sending a letter home to your parents!”

“For what?” thought Luke.

_______________________________________________

Unbeknown to Luke, seven months later, in a national newspaper:

THE DAILY NEWS

Elephant Finds Sanctuary At Last

Emma in newspaper for web page

Seven months after the 24-hour disappearance of the lonely elephant at Dillingsgate Zoo, she has been found a place at The Elephant Sanctuary.  ‘Companions for Nelly’ campaign organiser, Joanne Russell said she cannot adequately express her joy at today’s outcome.

“We can only thank God for bringing to light Nelly’s lonely existence by causing her to wander off by herself and ignite a media storm. If it hadn’t been for the zoo’s mishap of leaving her gate open, the world might never have been aware of her miserable solitary confinement.”

Seven months ago the alarm was raised at Dillingsgate zoo when keepers discovered that Nelly was missing. She was found the following day in neighbouring woodlands but not before the news was reported in local, national and international media.  This put the spotlight on conditions in which Nelly was kept.

“Elephants are very social animals,” said Ms Russell, “and it was heartbreaking to learn that Nelly had been without any companionship of her own kind for almost twenty years.”

Thanks to the overwhelming public support for Ms Russell’s campaign, Nelly has now been found a place at the award winning Elephant Sanctuary where she will be able to live out her days in natural surroundings in the company of her own kind.

*********

You can read the whole of Luke Walker: animal stick up for-er Chapter 2 here.

Chapter 3 coming to this site soon!

Want it now? No problem – just order the paperback from Amazon! (It’s got the first eight chapters) 😀

Recommended Reading: Ladybird’s Remarkable Relaxation

By

ladybird 1

Here is another lovely yoga book for children from Michael Chissick and Sarah Peacock.  This one is designed to be used by teachers and parents to help children use yoga relaxation to cope with stress, grief, bullying and lack of confidence.

ladybird 1a

The book begins with guidance for teachers and parents, explaining the aims of the book, how children can benefit from and enjoy Ladybird Relaxation and giving advice on how to teach it to children.  Then the story begins.

ladybird 2

Ladybird’s friends are all stressed or unhappy about different things – stress from a heavy workload, bereavement, bullying and feeling they’re rubbish at something.  Ladybird sympathises and tells them she is going to give them a special gift that will help them all.

ladybird 3

ladybird 4

Beautifully illustrated, it is a joy to read and makes you feel more relaxed as you turn the pages 🙂

The final part of the book explains how to teach Ladybird Relaxation including a script to read while using a ladybird puppet or little bell (outlined in the guidance at the beginning) to symbolise the ladybird landing on different children as they relax on their mats with eyes closed.

It sounds really therapeutic and I can’t wait to try it myself.

Available on Amazon here

Recommended Reading: Frog’s Breathtaking Speech

By

frog 1

Frog’s Breathtaking Speech is a gorgeous book for children – and teachers, and parents – to help them cope with tension and stress.

frog 2

Michael Chissick is a children’s yoga teacher and Sarah Peacock is a primary school teacher and they have both found the frog’s story very useful when helping children to relax.

frog 3

This beautifully illustrated story is about a frog who is very sad because he is worried about a speech he has to give at school the next day.  When he explains this to his friends, they all tell him about their own special ways of breathing which release tension and anger and enable them to feel happy and relaxed.

frog 4

frog 5

frog 6

At the beginning of the book there is guidance for teachers on how best to use these techniques to help children and at the end there are simple instructions, accompanied by lovely illustrations, about the yoga postures which accompany each type of breathing.

frog 7

A lovely book.

You can buy it here 😀

Vegan Children’s Book – Arktel: The Planet Only Children Could Save

By

Find out more at http://www.planetarktel.com/About_the_book.html

Arktel: The planet only children could save is a beautifully illustrated book by Menkit Prince.

It’s about three planets: Tarjez, Arktel and Earth. On planet Tarjez, we fast forward to what could happen if we keep going the way we are on Earth i.e. total destruction.

Children from Arktel witnessed the destruction of Tarjez and decided to take action because they saw similar trends happening in their world that could lead to Arktel’s destruction.

The Arktel website is not only about the book but also about how children here can save our planet.  It’s honest and straight-forward as well as being a brilliant educational resource for children, their carers  and their teachers.  It’s a heavy subject but unless we look it straight in the eye and acknowledge the crisis we are facing, we will never overcome it.  This book and its associated website challenges us not to get depressed but to do something about it.

shapeimage_8

We can you know 🙂