For the rest of the Reflecto Girl episodes, click here 😀
Yikes! Story continues tomorrow 😀
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This comic is made with Comic Life by Plasq
vegan, vegan children, vegan comics, vegan children’s story, vegetarian, veggie kids, vegan superhero,
Our butch friend, Kurt, is eager to share the new Maddicts paperback with you 😀
This portable little A5 book is available from our Lulu shop and, for a limited time only, you can get 40% off!
It can be yours for just £3!!!!
Ok, gotta run – I know a few library shelves that are screaming out for these babies! 😀 Thanks Kurt, you were great 😉
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ps When you go to our Lulu shop, if the prices are not displayed in your country’s currency, just click on the Cart at the top right of the screen and then you can click the flag and select which country you’re shopping from 🙂
Maddicts is a vegan graphic novel, suitable for readers aged 12 and up, also available to read here.
vegan, vegetarian, animals, animal rights, satire, horror, thriller, vegan books, vegan children’s books, vegan story books, books, vegan comics,
Luca! Wake up!
Clarence and Luca’s story continues from Wednesday:
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If you’ve only just joined us and would like to read this story from the beginning, it’s right here 😀
We wish you a very merry vegan Christmas ❤ ❤ ❤
Big Blue Sky continues:
Oh no Luca! Wake up!
Big Blue Sky continues tomorrow but if you can’t wait to find out if Luca’s ok, you can finish it now 🙂
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vegan, vegan Christmas, turkeys, Christmas story, children’s story, vegan children’s story, vegetarian, veggie kids, vegan children, animals, birds,
Clarence’s story continues:
Will Clarence get to see the Big Blue Sky?
Story continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan, vegan Christmas, turkeys, Christmas story, children’s story, vegan children’s story, vegetarian, veggie kids, vegan children, animals, birds,
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Clarence’s story continues tomorrow
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vegan, vegan Christmas, turkeys, Christmas story, children’s story, vegan children’s story, vegetarian, veggie kids, vegan children, animals, birds,
Feeling Christmassy? 😀
Then don’t miss the Be The Future Market Christmas Special!
All you have to do to win a beautiful vegan story book is roll the dice and get an even number 😀
But
they’ll all be wrapped in Christmas paper so you won’t know which one you’ve won 😀
It’s 50p a go and there’s a prize every time!
ie if you roll an odd number you get a booby prize 😀
But of course it’s not just us there – there’ll be loads of stalls filled with wonderful vegan gift ideas and yummy things to eat.
So come on down to Stoke Newington, North London, and have a lovely time at the Be The Future Vegan Christmas Market – we look forward to seeing you there 😀
Click here for full details of how to get there 😀
Have a great weekend! xx
Christmas is just around the corner and if you’re looking for something different, something special for the little ones in your life, you can’t go wrong with these lovely books from our little Lulu shop 😀
There’s the Luke Walker collection – humorous juvenile fiction for readers aged 8 to 108,
Colourful picture books and rhyming stories for the younger set,
and even a colouring book which teaches how nutritious plant food is.
Plus there’s all the Brave Girls comics (Reflecto Girl, Megan & Flos, and Venus Aqueous) not pictured here and more coming soon.
Just pop over to the shop and have a browse – quick before it’s too late! If the prices shown aren’t your national currency, just click on the cart and select what country you’re shopping from by clicking on the appropriate flag.
They are beautiful books – I promise you won’t be disappointed 😀
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vegan, vegan children, vegetarian, vegan children’s books, vegan stories, vegan story books, Christmas, Christmas gift ideas, vegan Christmas
The Princess Who Liked To Be Popular continues from yesterday:
In an effort to reproduce the events of the dream as faithfully as possible, the princess had notice of a public meeting announced as soon as she got home. Then, as in the dream, she asked the people what she could do for them. When they asked for cheaper food and cotton she wrote it all down in her blue book and told them she would do her best. She then returned to the castle and summoned the duke.
However, unlike the dream, when the Duke of Aequitas arrived he brought with him a basket of fruit.
“Your Majesty,” he said, bowing, “please accept this gift from the people of Calidum Terram, with their compliments and best wishes for your twelve month reign.”
The princess smiled and indicated that should place the basket on the table.
“Thank you,” she smiled, “let’s talk trade.”
The princess argued with the duke, just as she’d dreamt, and Aequitas impressively stood his ground. He showed her the king’s decree and she dismissed him. Lady Beatrice, meanwhile, having resumed her miniature stature, was observing to ensure everything went to plan. The wizard could be anywhere, watching, waiting for an opportunity. He wasn’t stupid. He was not stupid.
Suddenly the old fairy was struck by that frightening realisation – “He is not stupid. He’ll know that that fruit is not natural – it doesn’t smell! He’s not going to fall for it!”
By now the princess was slumped over the table complaining about her inability to give the people what they want. And Venustus was climbing in through the window.
Lady Beatrice had to do something!
There was only one thing she could do. She closed her eyes and spoke so quietly that even the mouse couldn’t hear:
“Power of the elements, I call on thee,
From air, earth and water, come forth, help me.
On fruits in the basket, I beg you bestow,
The scents they would have when in nature they grow.”
At the same time the princess was listening to Venustus’s claim that he could get her a better deal.
“I don’t know,” she said, reaching for an apple, “my people are used to top quality produce. I want it cheaper but not if it’s substandard.” She took a bite and smiled at him. “Seriously,” she added, “your stuff can’t be as good as this. Go ahead – try some, then you’ll know what I mean.”
Venustus returned her smile and, with the sweet, mouthwatering smell of fresh fruit in his nostrils, carelessly took a cherry. As soon as it touched his tongue the princess spat out her apple and spoke swiftly:
“sutsunev sutsunev sutsunev”
The wizard’s eyes widened; his sharp intake of breath made him start choking on the cherry; then came a crash of thunder; and he was gone.
“We did it!” The princess was jubilant.
“You were brilliant,” Lady Beatrice told her as the duke returned to the room, “but remember, no one else can know about this. As far as the rest of the world knows – Venustus was never here. There’ll be no public recognition.”
“That’s ok,” the princess smiled, “it’s enough just to know we set things right. Thank you, both of you.”
The following morning, Princess Primrose told her people that she wouldn’t be able to get them cheaper food and fabrics after all.
“I have discovered,” she explained, “that we are already paying a fair price for those goods. The only way for us to get them cheaper would be to cheat the growers out of their hard-earned money; to reduce their quality of life in order to improve ours. And that’s just not right.”
There were some nods of agreement and some grumbles of discontent.
“I thought you would put your own people first,” someone shouted.
“As one young lady said yesterday, my people already have everything they need. They work hard for it, and they don’t have much left over, but they are not short of any essential. Do not the people who grow your food deserve this much? Fair is only fair if it’s fair for everyone.”
The crowd began to disperse and the princess smiled as she noticed Grandfather, still alive, talking cheerfully to one of his neighbours. There were a few disgruntled faces but the princess, understanding her father’s advice now, was not disheartened. As she walked away she overheard a snippet of conversation:
“What is she wearing?! I don’t like her hair.”
“That’s okay,” she said to herself, “I like it.”
And they all lived happily ever after. For the most part 🙂
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Have a great weekend! 😀
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegan fairy tale, illustration, watercolour, fairy tale, children’s story, vegetarian, veggie kids, fair trade
The Princess Who Liked To Be Popular continues:
“But the owl didn’t know his name. Or how to find him. I searched for many years without luck and eventually settled here. And if your mother hadn’t asked me to protect you from yourself; if I hadn’t psychically perused this kingdom’s archives; I may never have discovered his name. Now we not only know that, we also know where he’ll be if you re-enact the beginning of the dream.”
The princess was excited at the prospect of defeating the wizard. “But how will we get him to eat his magic potion?” she asked.
Lady B was excited too. “We know that Venustus takes advantage of the naïve and vulnerable. Now, two months ago King Arnot died, leaving his unworldly son, Albro, in charge. I wouldn’t be surprised if that kingdom is already in receipt of potion-doused produce.”
There was no time to lose. The princess was well known so she dressed in disguise. Then, while she rode to young King Albro’s territory, Lady Beatrice informed the duke of their plan – he would need to be in on it.
Once over the border, Princess Primrose searched for the market place. She needed to make sure that they were indeed selling ‘magic’ produce.
Before long she found the market. Some stalls were piled high with colourful, irregular-shaped, delicious-smelling produce. Others displayed equally enticing goods but they were all uniform in shape, colour and size. And the smell … there was no smell. The unnatural food was cheap and selling fast.
Princess Primrose smiled at the stall holder. “This is just what I need,” she said.
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Ooh, will Lady Beatrice’s plan work? Will they be able to defeat the wizard?
Find out on tomorrow 😀
Unless you don’t want to wait, in which case you can read it now 😀
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegan fairy tale, illustration, watercolour, fairy tale, children’s story, vegetarian, veggie kids, fair trade
The Princess Who Liked To Be Popular continues:
At that moment Princess Primrose sat up in bed. Lady Beatrice was sitting close by, smiling.
“Did you have a bad dream my dear?” she asked.
The princess was dazed. “A dream? It was just a dream? I imagined it all?” she reached for her blue book.
“Well,” said the old lady, “yes, and no.”
“It’s hard to take in, I know, but as you can see from your book, this is your first morning in charge of the kingdom. None of what you dreamt about has happened yet.”
The princess was bewildered. She looked at her last blue book entry and realised that her mother’s friend’s explanation was the only one possible. Relief began to wash over her. Then she tensed.
“Yet?” she asked nervously.
Lady Beatrice explained. “The queen was very concerned about leaving you in charge, given your inexperience and eagerness to please. So I simulated, in your dream, what would happen if you proceeded as she expected. But the monks’ memory rhyme, the fire-damaged arrest record, and Gertrude’s book, all really do exist in the archives. Venustus is horribly real. He just hasn’t come here yet.”
The princess was confused. “But how did you simulate my dream? How did you know what would happen?”
Lady Beatrice hesitated before answering. “Your mother is the only other person who knows this. I hope I can trust your discretion.” The princess nodded and she went on, “I am a fairy, the last of my kind here because the others were long ago poisoned by an evil wizard.”
“Fairies can take any size. When I was a young girl, one thousand years ago, I was as small as a dragonfly. We helped with pollination and feasted on flowers and fruit. It was a beautiful, enchanting, wild life. Then I fell in love with a sailor, assumed human size and travelled the world with him. Being human, he aged much faster than I, and when he passed away I returned home.”
“My exquisite ancestral home had become a contaminated wasteland. Hardly anyone was living there any more so it was difficult to find out what had happened but eventually an old owl, who had been watching me for some time, took pity on me. He described a situation very similar to that depicted in Gertrude’s book, which led to the death of all the pollinating insects and fairies, and the exodus of many other species.”
“Possessed of the knowledge of all of his ancestors, the owl was able to give me some hope. He said that when such a wizard was vanquished, all their evil was undone. But, he said, there was only one way to do it: the wizard must be tricked into tasting his own potion and, while he is doing so, his name must be repeated to him, three times, backwards. Then the world would be as if he had never been born.”
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Story continues tomorrow, but if you don’t want to wait you can read it here now 😀
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegan fairy tale, illustration, watercolour, fairy tale, children’s story, vegetarian, veggie kids, fair trade
The Princess Who Liked To Be Popular continues from last week:
They pleaded with Venustus to let them have the potion on credit, promising to pay him out of the profits from the sale of their produce. Then he tells them that he will sell their produce – as they agreed in the contract they signed – and take his cut before passing to them whatever’s left!
What contract? they said, and he shows them the paper with their signatures on it – the contract had been added above their names.
My goodness girl, there were many there at that moment who could have throttled him but, as the first man lunged, Venustus smiled and said, “Perhaps we can make a deal.”
He ummed and ahhed for a few moments before adding, “Give me your children in return for as much potion as you need,” and while they still reeled from shock he said, “If you starve, they starve. With me they’ll live.”
I swear on my life Gertrude, that’s what he said! Well, according to Elsie, there was no holding people back after that. Many of them flew at the wizard in their desperation at the thought of losing their children, and their anger at having been so cruelly tricked. But Venustus didn’t flinch. He smiled smugly as a glow of light surrounded his body and every strike just bounced off it. He was untouchable.
What could they do? It was too late in the season to sow the seeds from last year which, by next year, would be too old. They had to do as the wizard told them. All children over ten years old were taken to a cocoa farm where they worked from sun up to sun down; slept in windowless sheds; and ate a very poor diet. They were beaten if they didn’t work fast enough.
And Venustus just got richer.
And as if that wasn’t enough for these poor people to cope with, they started to get sick. After eating produce grown from the magic seeds, fed with the magic potions, this normally healthy community began to develop illnesses they’d never seen before. Contamination by magic potions killed the fish in the rivers and the insects of the air and soil. Birds and animals died or moved away. Everything stank.
“Oh stop! Stop!” The princess snatched the book from the duke’s hand and slammed it down. “I can’t listen to any more! It’s horrible! This is the price of our cheap food! This is why my people are sick!” She dropped to the floor, full of remorse, and just sobbed.
“It’s all my fault. I wish I’d listened to you. I wish I’d listened to my father.”
The story continues tomorrow.
Or you can read it here now 🙂
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegan fairy tale, illustration, watercolour, fairy tale, children’s story, vegetarian, veggie kids, fair trade
I’m thrilled to tell you that you can now get quality, organic, frozen veg packaged in nothing but a cardboard box!
It’s really hard to get enough greens when you’re trying to avoid plastic – unless you can grow your own.
But now that I’ve found these we can have our organic greens every day!
And they’re so easy to add to any meal. No washing or chopping. Just put some of these in a saucepan to gently warm – I put them in with my baked beans.
I bought them from the brilliant Sunny Foods Health Food shop in South Street, Eastbourne, but I’ve seen them in the Health Food Shop in Rye and the one in Hastings so hopefully you’ll be able to find them near you.
One thing’s for sure – I’m going to make sure my freezer is always stocked up with healthy, organic, plastic-free veg from the Natural Cool range – check it out! 😀
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vegan, vegetarian, healthy, plastic-free, plastic pollution, plastic packaging, zero waste, organic, organic vegetables,
The Princess Who Liked To Be Popular continues from yesterday:
The fruit and vegetable growers were having troubles. They had had some bad weather which led to their harvest being poor, and some of them were worried that they wouldn’t have enough food to get them through the winter.
Luckily they have a good community and they had a meeting and realised that if they shared what they had, evenly between them, they would each have enough to scrape by.
They also agreed to distribute equally what seeds they had between them for the following year. They wouldn’t be able to sow as much as usual but, again, they knew it would be enough. They would manage.
Satisfied and relieved, they were about to return home when a kindly stranger called their attention back to the meeting. He said he thought he could help.
Oh my word! It would have been better for them if they had pretended not to hear him and walked away! But they didn’t.
He said his name was Venustus and he could provide them with plenty of seed for next year, so that they wouldn’t have to scrape by. He said he had more than he could use in a huge barn on his property, and they could have it for nothing to prevent it going to waste.
Well, he looked so kind, and had such a warm smile, Elsie said, that they couldn’t help but trust him. He asked everyone who wanted his seeds to sign their names on a sheet of paper so that he would know how much to ship to them.
The following spring, as promised, the seeds arrived and everyone was thrilled. They sowed so many seeds that they looked forward to a bountiful harvest.
So, green shoots began to grow and everyone was hopeful until, after a few weeks, they started to wilt. They couldn’t understand why because the weather had been perfect – sunshine and showers and just the right amount of each. So they contacted Venustus to ask his advice. Well! That’s when he tells them he’s a wizard! He made them seeds special so they grow much bigger and faster but …
…. only if they’re fed with his magic potion! Without it they would not survive at all. Of course the people asked if they could have some of his potion and he says: ‘course you can – it’s 20 pieces of silver per vat!
Oh my goodness! You can imagine how the people felt. They had no money. They couldn’t pay for the potion. And they would have no harvest at all without it.
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😮
Story continues on Monday (unless you don’t want to wait)
Have a great weekend 😀
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegan fairy tale, illustration, watercolour, fairy tale, children’s story, vegetarian, veggie kids
The Princess Who Liked To Be Popular continues from yesterday:
When he finished, Aequitas paused and looked at the princess. He hesitated to continue burdening her when she looked so defeated, but there was more, and he had to go on.
Aequitas went on to explain that he had found a record of Venustus among the surviving documents of the Procul County Gaol fire, one hundred and forty seven years previous. It was slightly fire-damaged but the charges made against him were still clearly legible.
“It is uncertain how the fire started but Venustus was the only prisoner not accounted for after it was put out,” the duke added.
“But by far the most useful information I have found is contained in this book,” he said as he placed a small, tattered volume on the table. “It belongs to the estate of an elderly lady who recently passed, named Gertrude. She was deaf her whole life and when she was a little girl her mother would write down every piece of news and gossip for her to enjoy in this book. There is here a detailed account of Venustus.”
Aequitas leafed through the book to find the story of Venustus, as told by Gertrude’s mother, while Princess Primrose looked upon the list of Venustus’s crimes with horror. She nodded sadly at him, and he began to read:
Elsie from across the sea says they’ve had troubles over there. She told a sailor, who told his uncle, who told his wife, and she told me.
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Oooh. Find out what troubles Elsie and friends have suffered, tomorrow.
Or read it now 😀
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegan fairy tale, illustration, watercolour, fairy tale, children’s story, vegetarian, veggie kids
The Princess Who Liked To Be Popular continues from yesterday:
The Duke of Aequitas stood before the princess for the first time in many months. After an embarrassed pause she forced herself to ask: “Worse?”
“When I heard you were dealing with Venustus I tried to find out more about him. He is very hard to track down and I could find only three references to him in our archives, one of which dates back four hundred years.”
“Four hundred years? That must have been a different Venustus.”
“No. There are no others. He’s a wizard Your Highness, he changes his appearance to appeal to whomever he’s attempting to fool. But, apparently, he is unable to change his name, it’s the only thing he’s truthful about.”
The princess was exasperated. “That’s absurd,” she said, “How do you know this?”
The duke continued, “The four hundred year old reference to Venustus was written by the monks of the ancient Lunam Monastery. It is in the form of a rhyme so that everyone would recite it and remember it. When I read it I became very concerned indeed. The monks only created memory rhymes for things they considered extremely dangerous. It was vital to them that this be remembered generation after generation.”
The princess listened apprehensively as the duke read aloud.
“Venustus he was,
Venustus he is,
Venustus he’ll always be.
He’ll lie about everything else in the world,
But truthful ’bout that he’ll be.”
“Venustus is wicked
Venustus is false
Venustus will use and abuse.
Remember his name, remember his name,
Keep thyself safe from his ruse.”
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Gasp! 😮
Learn more about the evil Venustus tomorrow.
Or read it here now 😀
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegan fairy tale, illustration, watercolour, fairy tale, children’s story, vegetarian, veggie kids
The Princess Who Liked To Be Popular continues from yesterday:
The old man had no family of his own but everyone called him Grandfather. He was kind and cheerful and loved to talk. He could talk for hours but no one minded because talking to him always brightened their day.
When news of Grandfather’s death reached the castle, the princess was saddened, but when she then learned that more people were falling ill, a cold chill shivered through her body.
Princess Primrose desperately hoped that this was not her fault; that the sickness afflicting her beloved people was not caused by the cheap fruit and vegetables she had imported through Venustus.
But she couldn’t find Venustus.
The only thing she could do, she decided, was to tell everyone to stop eating the cheap produce; to admit that it might be the cause of their illness.
But the people took no notice. They dismissed as ridiculous the suggestion that the cheap produce might be unhealthy.
“Sickness comes and goes,” they said.
“It’s probably the weather,” they said.
“It will pass,” they said.
The princess was flabbergasted.
“It’s as if they’re under a spell!” she exclaimed.
“It’s worse than that,” said a familiar voice.
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What???!
Story continues tomorrow – or you can read it here now 😀
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegan fairy tale, illustration, watercolour, fairy tale, children’s story, vegetarian, veggie kids
The Princess Who Liked To Be Popular continues from Friday:
The princess seethed. The duke was nervous but stood his ground. They looked at each other in silence for several moments until she, unable to counter his argument, dismissed him. She slumped over the desk and felt very sorry for herself.
“The first thing they ask me for and I can’t deliver!” she said out loud.
“Perhaps you can,” said a strange voice.
“Ahhh! Where did you come from?” The princess jumped and stood up straight, embarrassed to have been overheard and alarmed to be looking at a strange person who had apparently appeared from nowhere.
“I’m sorry Princess, I didn’t mean to startle you.” He smiled warmly.
“Who are you and where did you come from?” she asked again, calmer now but wary.
“I apologise. My name is Venustus. I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation with the duke and I believe I can help.”
“First tell me where you’re from and how you got into the castle!”
As Venustus’s smile broadened, the princess’s mistrust faded away and she forgot her question.
“I can get you what you’re looking for,” he said, “make your trade with me.”
“My father decreed that only Aequitas can make the trade.”
“With Calidum Terram. But what’s to stop you from trading with another party?”
The princess hesitated. “Nothing … I suppose. But we’re already getting a fair deal, so I won’t be able to do better.”
“So says the duke, but how can that be true if I can get you those goods for half the price?”
So Princess Primrose made a deal with Venustus and very soon the cheap goods were on the market. Her people were delighted to find what they needed at such low prices and, as she’d hoped, loved her for listening to them and getting them what they wanted. The princess was very pleased with herself and basked in the adoration of the populace which she read about almost every day.
But not everyone was happy with the new arrangements. The duke was very concerned as the produce from Calidum Terram went bad on the shelves, and he discovered that the princess was dealing with Venustus.
He urgently begged an audience with her but when she refused to see him he wrote to her, daily. The first few letters she binned, but after a while she didn’t even bother to read them.
After all, hadn’t her father told her that it wasn’t possible to please everyone? Well, if the Duke of Aequitas wasn’t pleased then that was something she’d just have to live with – and, since he seemed to be the only one who wasn’t happy, she could be pretty satisfied that she’d done a good job.
And she was.
For a while.
Until Grandfather died.
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Oh no!
Story continues tomorrow – or you can read it here now 😀
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegan fairy tale, illustration, watercolour, fairy tale, children’s story, vegetarian, veggie kids
Tomorrow, 23rd November,
10 ’til 4
Come to the seaside to buy some vegan story books and/or lots of other books! There’s going to be something for everyone so they say!
What fun! 😀
The Brighton and Hove Book Fayre returns on November 23rd to the Brighton Unitarian Church, New Road. Come and meet local authors and browse the huge selection of books on offer, from children’s books to self-help, crime to horror, cookery to romance.
Brighton Unitarian Church is situated at the north end of New Road, close to the Brighton Dome, Royal Pavilion and the Theatre Royal. Exit the library and walk straight ahead until you reach Church Street. Cross it and you will be in New Road which is a restricted access zone and a pedestrianised area.
There is a multi-storey car park nearby in Church Street, although the Churchill Square shoppers’ car park is often more cost effective during the day – the entrance is in Regency Road.
Maybe we’ll see you there?
Story continues from yesterday:
That very afternoon the Duke of Aequitas stood before the princess in her father’s study.
“From whom do we buy cotton, cocoa, fruit and vegetables?” she asked him.
“From the Calidum Terram nation Your Highness. We have traded with their people for many years,” he replied.
“Well it’s time you got us a better deal!”
Aequitas was taken aback.
“Forgive me Your Highness, but we already have a good deal. We pay a fair price for top quality produce. It’s a good deal for us and a good deal for them.”
“My people want it cheaper, so that they can afford more. And I intend to give them what they want. Sir, I insist that you make it happen! Renegotiate the deal!”
Aequitas took a deep breath. “Your Highness, I have in my possession a decree, written by your father, which gives me complete discretion in our trade agreements with Calidum Terram. The king has put his trust in me and I will not be persuaded to betray it. Our trade agreements are long-standing, fair and amicable and I will not renegotiate.”
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Story continues on Monday but if you don’t want to wait you can read it here now 😀
Have a great weekend 😀
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegan fairy tale, illustration, fairy tale, children’s story, vegetarian, veggie kids
The princess’s story continues from yesterday:
Princess Primrose awoke the next morning to the sound of birdsong as sunlight streamed through her open window. She smiled broadly.
“The first thing I’ll do,” she said to herself, “is call a public meeting and ask the people what they want.”
So, right after breakfast, she summoned the town crier and instructed him to announce the meeting.
“At ten o’clock,” she said, “on the green beyond the lake. And I will ask them how I can best serve their needs.”
Thus he announced. And they came.
Princess Primrose addressed the people by simply asking them,
“What can I do for you?”
At first the only response was one small voice.
“Nothing, thank you Princess, we already have everything we need.”
The princess smiled at the child who stood among the sunflowers and smiled back at her.
Then more voices spoke up from the crowd:
“I wish I could afford to buy enough cotton to make two nightdresses, but it is expensive so I can only afford enough for one.”
“I work hard to support my family but most of my money is spent on food. It would be nice if I was able to save some.”
“I have to save up two weeks’ pocket money to afford a bar of chocolate.”
And so the princess wrote it all down in her blue book – her blue book where she kept a record of everything. Everything she did, and everything she planned to do.
She didn’t want to forget a thing.
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Story continues tomorrow but if you want to read it now it’s right here 😀
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegan fairy tale, illustration, fairy tale, children’s story, vegetarian, veggie kids
The story continues from yesterday:
Unbeknown to the princess, her mother saw her expression and guessed what she was thinking. So, Queen Evangeline, on the eve of her departure with her husband, visited her life-long friend and confidante – Lady Beatrice.
Lady Beatrice was very old, very wise, and mostly kept to herself.
She lived in her cottage by the lake at the edge of the woods and the queen, not wanting anyone to know where she was going, visited her incognito. When she returned home later that night, her mind had been put at ease and she was able to set sail happily with her husband the next day.
On Princess Primrose’s first night in charge of the kingdom she went to bed very happy. There were so many changes she wanted to make; so many ways she thought she could improve the happiness of her people; and therefore so many potential opportunities to increase their love for her.
As she closed her eyes a mist rose from the lake and engulfed the castle, causing everyone in it to slip into a sleep so deep that nothing could disturb them. Then Lady Beatrice arrived. She walked past the guards who didn’t wake up. She walked past the dogs who didn’t wake up. She walked through the corridors, past all the bedrooms, and no one woke up. And so, with the ease and confidence of someone who knows they won’t get caught, she entered the princess’s chamber.
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Story continues tomorrow but if you want to read it now it’s right here 😀
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegan fairy tale, illustration, fairy tale, children’s story, vegetarian, veggie kids
The End 😀
If you missed the beginning you can read the whole story here
And if you like rhyming stories generally, there are more on this page 😀
*********************************************
“We’re doomed! We’re doomed!” cried a pink panicked pig.
The other was mute in distress.
“Listen to me,” came a voice down a tree,
“I’ll get you both out of this mess.”
***
“The answer is simple, you need to be brave,
Keep going, walk on, don’t look back.
The forest will feed you and shelter you too.
You will find that for nothing you’ll lack.”
***
So the two little pigs changed direction at last
As they chose to live and be free.
Their salty tears dried on their pink rosy cheeks,
Ever after they lived happily.
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vegan, vegetarian, veggie kids, vegan children, vegan children’s story, rhyming story, poem, animals, animal rights, pigs, birds, magpies, illustration, drawing
The story of The Two Little Pigs continues:
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Oh no! Poor piggies 😦
Join us tomorrow to see how the story ends 😀
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At last the pigs found it, the place of their dreams,
Their home with the farmer they loved.
But their joy was short-lived when they saw what she did.
Just in time her true face was revealed.
***
“What’s wrong?” asked a magpie who watched with her mate,
“Tell us what makes you so sad.”
“The farmer,” said one pig with tears in his eyes,
“We thought she was good but she’s bad.”
***
“Ah yes,” said the magpie, “we’ve seen it before.
She’s lovely to piggies like you.
She keeps them well fed and happy and fat
Till she sends them to him, two by two.”
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vegan, vegetarian, veggie kids, vegan children, vegan children’s story, rhyming story, poem, animals, animal rights, pigs, birds, magpies, illustration, drawing
The story of The Two Little Pigs continues:
Oh my goodness!
Come back tomorrow to see what happens next! 😀
**************************************************
Then the two pigs met a golden stag deer,
He was strong and as tall as the sky.
“Please, oh please, help us find our way home!
We’re afraid if you don’t we might die!”
***
“Well done,” said the deer, “you’ve made your escape,
Now hide where he can’t see you.
If you go that way, I’m telling you true,
In no time at all he will find you!”
***
Again the pigs ran and they stuck to their plan
To go home where they felt safe before.
But the butcher came too, now he realised he knew
Just exactly where they headed for.
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vegan, vegetarian, veggie kids, vegan children, vegan children’s story, rhyming story, poem, animals, animal rights, pigs, deer
The story of The Two Little Pigs continues:
Oh no! 😮
Join us tomorrow to find out what happens next 😀
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Soon after that the pigs met a hare
Who watched them with his gentle eyes.
“Please, oh please, please help us get home,”
They pleaded with sadness and sighs.
***
“It’s not very far,” the hare softly said,
“But it seems to me backward not forward.
If you must go back, go left past the shack,
But I think you had better turn westward.”
***
The pigs did not heed the advice received,
They were young and too green to be wary.
Not looking back, they went left past the shack,
Close pursued by the angry and hairy.
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vegan, vegan children’s story, animals, pigs, vegetarian, vegan children’s book, children’s story, rhyming story, animal rights
The story continues from yesterday 😀
Join us on Monday to find out what happens next 😀
Have a great weekend ❤
*************************************
Before long the two pigs met two robins
Sitting atop a green bush.
“Help us please, to find our way home,
We can’t stand here long so please rush!”
***
“I wouldn’t do that, oh no, oh no,”
The robins were both in agreement.
“You should look for a place of your own,
Unless you want more of this treatment.”
***
The pigs were confused but could not wait,
The butcher was still close behind them.
The big bad butcher still huffed and still puffed,
Still annoyed that he still couldn’t find them.
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The story continues from yesterday 😀
Story continues tomorrow 🙂
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The two little pigs soon met a fox,
They disturbed her sleep as they had to.
“Help us please, to find our way home,
We don’t know the way but hope you do.”
***
The fox sat up slowly, looking confused,
“You’re not from round here,” she concluded.
“The word you use is wrongly applied
To a creature so cold and hard-hearted.”
***
The pigs hurried on as fast as they could,
Resuming their quest for sanctuary.
The butcher was tired but he kept on
In determined pursuit of his property.
The story continues from yesterday 😀
Story continues tomorrow 🙂
****************************************************
The two little pigs met a heron,
A wise and dignified bird,
“Help us please, to find our way home,”
And she listened to every word.
***
“That’s not what I’d do,” said the heron,
“If I had a dilemma like yours.
If I were you I’d get off by myself,
Don’t get stuck behind closed doors.”
***
The butcher was near so the pigs ran on
While the heron tried to distract him.
He paused for breath, returning her gaze
And she prayed he would never catch them.
Story continues from yesterday:
Story continues tomorrow 😀
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The two little pigs met a kitty,
A clever and striped kitty cat.
“Help us, please, to find our way home,”
But the cat wasn’t sure about that.
***
“I wouldn’t go there if I were you,”
Was the kitty’s confusing advice,
“Hurry now, don’t let me keep you,
I hope you end up somewhere nice.”
***
Huffing and puffing were not far behind
So the piglets kept running and running.
The cat kept his mouth shut and didn’t divulge
The direction the two pigs were heading.
Oh no! Run little piggies run!
Story continues tomorrow 😀
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Two little pigs were running,
Running as fast as they could.
Away from the butcher and all his sharp knives
They ran just like anyone would.
***
One hairy butcher was chasing,
Just as fast as he could run.
He huffed and he puffed and he slobbered,
He was crosser than anyone.
For all the Luke Walker: animal stick up for-er chapters, click here 😀
Chapter 24 continues from Tuesday:
Mum smiled. “Looking good. Do you want some furniture? I’ve got a couple of deck chairs and a coffee table you can have.”
“Yeah, maybe,” said Luke, smiling, “thanks Mum.”
“I’ve got some old curtains as well, if you want privacy,” she offered.
“Why? You can’t see in the shed window from the house can you?”
“No, of course not.”
“Okay, good.”
“So you do want privacy. Top secret stuff is it?”
“No, course not, well …. we just don’t wanna be watched, that’s all.”
“I quite understand,” said Mum, trying to suppress a smile. “Do you want lunch? I could bring some sandwiches down here if you like.”
Luke shook his head. “Thanks, yeah, but no, we’ll come up to the house for ’em.”
******
FRIDAY 13 JUNE
When Luke got home from school there was no one else there. The house was silent.
“Dudley? D’you want to go outside?” he asked when he stepped into the kitchen. The clang of an upended stainless steel water bowl was preceded by the sound of four clawed paws hitting the floor. Dudley was at the back door in seconds.
As they walked to the allotments Luke and his oldest friend talked everything over. Well, Luke talked, Dudley couldn’t get a word in edgeways. Luke had always been grateful for good listeners. The best, he’d found, were those who didn’t try to push their own opinions into the discussion; those who let him get out all his jumbled thoughts and feelings without comment or judgement; those who just listened. That left Mum out. And Dad. At one time Luke’s first port of call when he needed to clear his head or puzzle a dilemma was the damson patch. The rabbits’ listening skills were second to none. Sadly Ash and Rusty had grown old and passed away in recent months. Scratcher was still around but she’d moved into the house for company and was often so busy rearranging soft furnishings that it was hard to get her undivided attention. That very morning she’d spent half an hour dragging the back doormat into the dining room. She seemed to prefer it there, no one knew why. Thankfully Dudley was always ready to lend an ear.
“Tomorrow’s C-Day,” said Luke, as if Dudley didn’t already know. “Mum an’ Dad are goin’ to London to help Aunt Clara move so that’s perfect timing. We should be able to get the chickens all tucked in before they get back. As long as Tania’s dad gets ’em here in time. She told him to go early but he said it was a long drive so he doesn’t know how long it’ll take.”
Tania had told her dad a white lie. She didn’t want to but Luke reminded her the chickens would be killed if she didn’t. She told him that Luke’s mum had an ingrowing toenail and his dad had to take her to hospital to have it removed so they wouldn’t be able to pick up the chickens they were adopting. She asked him if he’d mind doing it instead and he kindly agreed. Tania’s dad had never met Luke’s parents and with any luck he never would.
Luke arrived with Dudley at the allotments, unlocked the gate and walked between the immaculate plots en route to his own. The weird thing was, some of them didn’t look quite as immaculate as usual. What was yesterday a neat row of cabbages, now looked as though it had been trampled by a football team. Some were strewn across the path and a couple of them had rolled under someone else’s bean poles. The carrots on an adjacent plot had also been rudely and prematurely unearthed. Dudley attempted to investigate but Luke wouldn’t let him.
“Dudley no!” Luke wound the lead more tightly around his hand. “If anyone sees you doin’ that they’ll think you made this mess. An’ they’ll blame me!”
In fact the blame was fast approaching Luke’s position, as he soon realised. The trail of destruction led all the way back to his own plot, at which the gate was swinging open. There was no sign of Curly and Squirt.
“Curly! Squirt!” he called frantically. He rushed to the shed and looked inside; he looked behind it and under the bushes. They were gone. Dudley started sniffing eagerly. He seemed to be onto something. “Where are they boy?” Luke let go of the lead. “Find them boy, find Curly and Squirt!” Dudley followed his nose across the grass to the open gate, out of the gate and along the path until he arrived back at the scattered carrots. He loved carrots.
“No! Stop it Dudley! We’ve got to find Curly and Squirt!”
“Young man,” Luke was startled by the deep voice behind him. He turned to face Allotment Committee Man, otherwise known as Mr Fred Tipton. “I believe these belong to you.” Mr Tipton offered Luke one end of a long piece of rope. At its other end stood a very curly haired ewe, accompanied by her son.
“Thank you!” said Luke, “where have you been?” he asked them, “you had me worried sick!”
“Where they’ve been,” said Mr Tipton, “is all over these garden plots. They’ve done a heck of a lot of damage.”
“I’m really sorry about that,” said Luke, “I’ll put ’em back now. It won’t happen again.”
“No it won’t because you won’t be keeping them here any more.”
“What? That’s not fair, it wasn’t my fault!”
“Whose fault was it then?”
“I don’t know. Whoever opened the gate!”
“Who checked on them this morning?”
“Me. But I bolted the gate! I know I did! I always bolt the gate!”
“You must have forgotten today.”
“I didn’t!” Luke insisted. “Somebody else must have let ’em out! On purpose to get me in trouble!”
“They’re your responsib…”
“Somebody who wants an allotment! Whoever’s next on your waitin’ list – they’ve got motive!”
Mr Tipton shook his head. “I can’t run the risk of this happening again.”
“It won’t,” said Luke pleadingly, “I’ll get a lock, so no one else can open it! Please don’t make us leave!”
“I’m sorry, the decision’s been made. No more animals are to be kept on these allotments.”
Luke, Curly, Little Squirt and Dudley walked slowly home. They cut through the park and Luke racked his brains for inspiration. Would Mum and Dad let him keep the sheep at home? After all, the garden was big enough. And there was nowhere else they could go. Plus, it wasn’t his fault. He’d bolted the gate that morning, he knew he had. Someone else had let them out, whatever Mr Tipton said.
Half way across the playing field his cogitation was interrupted by someone calling his name.
“Walker! Nice sheep!”
A group of boys by the swings laughed but Luke ignored them. He had more important things to worry about.
“Got kicked off the allotments did ya?” They all laughed again, even louder. Luke kept walking.
“You should’ve kept the gate shut!”
This voice he recognised. Luke stopped and looked across at the laughing boys. At that moment he knew. Butler did it!
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Story continues on Monday but if you don’t want to wait you can read it here now 😀
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Chapter 24 continues from yesterday:
Joe changed the subject. “How do we tell them we want to adopt some. Is there an email address?”
“Er, … oh no, it says we have to phone this number. We’ve got to talk to them.”
“The farmer?”
“No, Wixham Animal Action.” Isabel was concerned. “They’re not going to let us adopt without parental consent are they?”
“You do it,” said Luke.
“Me?” Tania was apprehensive.
“Yeah, you’re good at soundin’ grown up. Like when you did that impression of Mrs Tyler. You sounded just like her.”
Tania smiled. “Okay,” she said, picking up her phone, “what’s the number?”
While she waited for the call to be answered her heart beat hard and fast. She turned away from the others so they wouldn’t make her laugh.
“Hello?” said the woman who eventually picked up.
“Oh, hello,” said Tania in her best Mrs Tyler voice. “I would like to adopt some rescued chickens please.”
“Oh great, hang on a minute, let me get a pen. ….. Right, how many can you take?”
“Erm,” Tania looked at the others and mouthed ‘how many?’ but they didn’t understand her. She put the phone on speaker.
“We like people to take at least three,” the woman advised, “because they’re sociable creatures. Wouldn’t be happy on their own.”
“Oh yes of course,” said Tania, looking at the others for a sign.
“Shall I put you down for three?” the woman suggested, “or have you got room for more?”
Luke held up his open right hand.
“Five?” said Tania uncertainly.
Luke nodded.
“Five?” asked the woman.
“Yes,” Tania smiled, “five please.”
“Good. Okay, now do you have a garden and a house for them?”
“A house?”
“A chicken house for them to sleep in.”
“Oh yes, a shed.”
“It’ll need nesting boxes and perches. And it’ll need to be fox-proof,” the woman explained.
Luke nodded at Tania.
“Yes,” she said, “it will be.”
“Okay then, I’ll just take your name, address and phone number and then we’ll get back to you on the thirteenth to give you a pick up location and time.”
“Pick them up?”
“Yes. Is that a problem?”
“No no, that’ll be fine,” said Tania with feigned confidence. “Absolutely fine.”
******
SATURDAY 7 JUNE
When the doorbell rang Luke rushed to answer it.
“Expecting someone?” asked Mum.
“Joe and the others.”
“Oh. Will you be going out?” she called after him. She’d been hoping to have the house to herself so she could give it a good spring clean.
Luke returned from the front door with his friends in tow. “We’ll be in the garden,” he told his mother as they headed for the back door, “where’s Dad?”
“Working in the garage.”
“Okay, thanks.”
Mum was relieved until she remembered, “oh but you can’t go in there!” she shouted after him as he approached the garage door. Luke stopped and looked back as Mum rushed down the garden path in her slippers. “What do you want Dad for?” she asked, “he’s busy, doesn’t want to be disturbed.”
“Just wanted to borrow a screwdriver.”
“Okay, I’ll get it. Flathead?”
“Phillips.”
“Okay.” She entered the garage and closed the door behind her.
“Dad’s a bit grumpy,” Luke explained to his friends. They nodded. Moments later Mum emerged with the screwdriver and the Society resumed course for the damson patch. They entered the shed.
“Not bad,” said Isabel. “It’s solid. Bit dusty but we can sweep it out no problem. This’ll make a good chicken house.”
“Let’s put this on,” said Tania, “where do you want it?”
Luke showed her the hole he’d hammered in the wall years ago to make a door for the rabbits. “Down here,” he said, moving the boxes that were blocking it.
“Perfect, that’s just the right size,” said Tania, holding the new cat flap up against it. “Once we’ve got this on, the chickens can go in and out during the day and at night you can lock it closed to keep them safe.”
“Great,” said Luke, smiling, “thanks.” He handed Tania the screwdriver and she got to work.
The others swept the floor, dusted off the cobwebs and cleaned the window. In less than an hour, the shed was almost fit for purpose.
“What are you going to do about bedding?” asked Isabel.
“I’ll get straw from the bale in Curly and Squirt’s shed.”
“I thought it was better to use shavings.”
“Straw’s all I’ve got, it’ll have to do.”
“That’ll be fine,” said Tania. “What about nesting boxes?”
“Ahh,” said Luke, smiling. He opened the door and went outside for a moment. When he came back he was dragging an old rabbit hutch. “This was what Butler kept Scratcher in before I rescued her,” he explained. “When he left it out for the dustmen I went and got it.” It was in good clean condition. Luke opened the doors. “I’ll take the doors off and make a straw bed on both sides. They can lay their eggs in there if they want to.”
“There’s only room for two though,” said Isabel.
“Three,” said Luke, “I’m sure three of ’em could fit comfortably in there, and they’re not likely to all wanna lay an egg at the same time are they?”
“Actually,” said Joe, “don’t take the doors off. If you open them wide and fix them open, the chicks can perch on them.”
“Good thinking!” Luke agreed, “What can we fix ’em with?”
At that moment Mum put her head round the door. “Ready for lunch?” she asked. “Ooh, this looks tidy. You have been busy.”
“Muuum! This is a private meeting!” Luke escorted her back outside.
“What are you up to in there?” she asked, “is it going to be your HQ?”
“Er, yeah, that’s right,” it was as good a cover as any.
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Story continues tomorrow 😀
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vegan, vegan children’s stories, humour, animals, animal rights, animal rescue, vegan children, veggie kids, vegetarian, animal farming, chickens, birds
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Chapter 24 continues:
SUNDAY 1 JUNE
An emergency meeting of the Secret Society was held in Luke’s bedroom.
“Did anybody’s parents say yes?” asked Luke. Everyone shook their heads.
“My dad said they’d ruin the garden,” said Tania.
“Yeah, that’s what my mum said,” agreed Isabel.
“Joe? What did yours say?”
“Didn’t ask them.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Why not?” Luke was more than a little affronted.
“To keep ’em at mine I mean, I don’t know what my lot would do to ’em.”
Luke nodded. “There’s on’y one thing we can do then.”
“What?”
“Keep ’em at mine.”
“I thought your mum said no,” said Tania.
“Yeah but the way I see it, I’ve got the perfect place for ’em: the damson patch. It’s fenced, it’s got a shed, and the rabbits don’t live there any more.”
“But if your mum said no …”
“It’s really overgrown now so I don’t think they’d notice.”
“They’re bound to tidy it up one day,” warned Joe, “they’ll see ’em eventually.”
“Yeah but not straight away.”
“But when they do – what will you do then?”
“By then I’ll have proved that I’m lookin’ after ’em properly, and still gettin’ all my homework done, and lookin’ after the other animals. I’ll have proved her wrong so she’ll have to let me keep ’em.”
The others shook their heads again.
“You’ll never get away with it,” said Isabel, “even if you do at first you’ll be in a heck of a lot of trouble when they do find out.”
Luke shrugged. “I’ve been in trouble before.”
“Ookaay. It’s your funeral.” Isabel opened her laptop. “What’s that address again?”
When they reached Wixham Animal Action’s website, the chicken re-homing appeal was on the front page.
“It says here there’s nine thousand!”
“Nine thousand? That’s a big farm! Is it closing down?” asked Tania.
“Erm …. no. They’re just getting new hens.”
“Why?”
“Says here it’s the law. Hens can’t be more than seventy two weeks old because after that their eggs aren’t good enough for supermarkets.”
“So they replace them with new ones?”
“Yeah. Look, it says they would normally go to slaughter at seventy two weeks but this farmer doesn’t want them to be killed.”
“Why is he a farmer then?” asked Luke. Isabel continued to read silently. “Why is he a farmer if he don’t like killin’ animals?” Luke asked again.
“She. Well, they. It’s a family farm,” explained Isabel. “Look at this picture – it’s an organic free-range farm. The chickens look happy don’t they?”
“Yeah but they’re still gonna be killed.”
“Well she’s trying to get them re-homed so they won’t be killed.”
“Let me get this straight,” Luke’s hackles were up. “These are nice farmers who don’t want their chickens to be killed so every seventy two weeks – what’s that, a year and a half? – they’ve got to find homes for nine thousand birds?”
“Yes.”
“But if they can’t find enough homes they go to slaughter anyway?”
“Yes but that’s why …”
“And then they breed another nine thousand new chickens who are gonna need homes the next year otherwise they’ll go to slaughter as well.”
“Yes.”
“So this’ll happen every other year.”
“Erm, I guess so – yeah, it says here they’ve done it eight times before.”
“And in all that time it never occurred to ’em that the best way to make sure your birds don’t get slaughtered is to stop bein’ chicken farmers!”
Isabel did her best to zone him out while she continued to read. “Well, the farmer says that most people won’t go vegan so if she closed down her high welfare, organic, free range farm, people would just buy their eggs from low-welfare factory farms and that would be much worse for the chickens.”
“That’s a rather defeatist attitude,” said Tania.
“She says you should blame the consumer not the farmer,” added Isabel, “if consumers didn’t buy them the farmers wouldn’t produce them.”
“Of course,” said Tania, “the farmers are blameless!” and she winked at Luke. Luke sighed.
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Story continues tomorrow 😀
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Chapter Twenty Four:
Rescue
SATURDAY 31 MAY
“Can I wait for you at the park?”
“No.”
“Can I wait at the library?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m not going to be long.”
“I won’t be long either.”
“Luke. I’ve just got a couple of things to get in here and then we’re going straight home. I haven’t got time to run around after you.”
Luke hated shopping. It was so boring. “I’m waitin’ outside then.”
“Fine. But don’t go anywhere.”
The health food shop was small and crowded so he was glad that at least he didn’t have to follow Mum in. However, time never passed quickly for a person waiting. After standing there for a couple of minutes he decided to read the posters on the window. One in particular interested him very much.
As soon as Mum came out of the shop Luke rushed to help her. “I’ll carry that for you.”
“Oh. Thank you.” They walked back to the car. “I got a big peanut butter this time. You boys get through it so quickly.”
“Great.”
“And I found some mushroom and leek pies that look good. They’re organic and gluten-free.”
“Great.”
“The shop lady says they’re lovely.”
“I bet they are.”
Mrs Walker was pleased that Luke seemed in a better mood than he was ten minutes earlier but there was something odd about him. “You alright Luke?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said absent-mindedly, “jus’ thinkin’ about … the pies.”
“Really?”
“Mmm? Yeah. ….. Er, Mum?”
“Yes?”
“Can we rescue some chickens?”
“No.”
“I’d look after ’em – you wouldn’t have to do anything.”
“Don’t you think you’ve got enough on your plate?” He shook his head but she continued. “You’ve already got Curly and Squirt to look after, and Scratcher, and Dudley.”
“I could do it!”
“Plus you get a lot more homework than you used to.” She started the car.
“Please!”
“No.”
“They’ll kill ’em if we don’t take ’em!”
“I said no!”
When her son dropped the argument Mrs Walker assumed the matter was settled. But really, she should have known better.
*********************************************************************
Story continues tomorrow 😀
************************************************
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Reflecto Girl: Incidental
COMING SOON
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Chapter Twenty Three:
Activists
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Good luck with it. I’m glad someone’s finally taking them to task for this,” the old lady smiled and continued on her way.
“How many does that make?” asked Luke.
“Seven hundred and eighty one.”
“That’s pretty good.”
“Yeah but I’d rather have a thousand.”
“When we’ve got a thousand we should send it to ’em.”
“Yeah. Then they’ll have to listen.” Tania put the petition clipboard into her bag and the Society made their way back along the pedestrianised precinct.
“Sponsor us to do the fun run?” Two small boys dressed in Cubs uniforms sat at a table behind a pile of sponsor forms.
Isabel smiled. “What are you raising money for?”
“Hearts Foundation,” answered one of them.
“The British Heart Foundation,” their Akela corrected him.
Isabel looked at her list. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she told them, “the British Heart Foundation is on the red list. We can’t support them.”
“What’s the red list?” asked the other boy.
Isabel showed him. “Charities on the red list do experiments on animals.”
“What kind of experiments?”
“They poison ’em, give ’em diseases, cut ’em up and then kill ’em,” Luke explained.
The boys looked shocked.
“Why’d they do that?” asked one of them.
“They say they do it because they’re trying to find cures for human diseases,” said Tania, “but it’s pointless because human bodies are not the same as other animals so they don’t react the same to diseases or medicines.”
“I’m not doing it!” said one of the Cubs firmly.
“Nor am I,” agreed the other one.
“Are you sure?” asked the Akela, “The British Heart Foundation? Surely they already know what causes heart disease, and how to prevent it.”
Isabel showed her the list.
“My goodness, there’s a lot of them on here,” she said, making a mental note to cancel her standing order to the Wellcome Trust.
“Shall we pack up?” asked a Cub.
“There’s a list of good charities on the other side,” said Isabel, “you could support one of them instead.”
The woman turned the leaflet over and looked at the green list. “Oh yes, there’s a lot to choose from .…… Lord Dowding Fund for Humane Research …… ooh there’s a heart one – Heart UK, the Cholesterol Charity.”
“Let’s do that one!”
The Akela picked up the sponsor forms and thought for a moment. “Okay,” she said, “this is actually an easy fix. We’ll get some new sponsor forms printed at the library with Heart UK on them instead of British Heart Foundation and then we can come back here and pick up where we left off!”
The boys were slightly disappointed, having reasoned that the abandonment of BHF would mean they could pack up for the day, but they were very pleased that at least they wouldn’t be supporting animal cruelty.
“Where can I get one of those by the way?”
Isabel looked at the small print at the bottom of the list, “Animal Aid makes them,” she said, “animal aid dot org dot UK.”
“Right. Thank you for telling me.” The Akela smiled and escorted her Cubs to the library.
****
“That’s the third time that’s happened to me,” said Isabel.
“Cubs asking you for money?” asked Joe.
“No, someone thanking me for telling them about a charity that’s experimenting on animals. And they all said they won’t support them again.”
“It just goes to show,” said Tania, “most people don’t want their money spent on animal torture.”
“Yeah! So it should be the law that when charities ask for money they have to tell people exactly what it’ll be used for.”
“Yeah,” said Joe, “they should put it on their posters.”
“And on their shop windows and their collectin’ tins and their adverts,” added Luke.
“Yeah!” said Tania, “let’s have some real transparency!”
“If only!” said Isabel.
“If wishes were horses,” said Luke, without really knowing what that meant, “we could make a horse of a different colour!”
“What?”
“We should do it!”
“Do what?”
“Put the truth on their posters.”
“You mean stickers,” said Joe, the only person who could follow Luke’s train of thought.
“I do.”
Isabel and Tania looked at each other and smiled.
“On’y thing is,” said Luke, “where do we get the stickers?”
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Story continues tomorrow 😀
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vegan, vegetarian, animal rights, children, vegan children, vegan activists, short story, humour, juvenile fiction, veggie kids, vegan stories, vegan children’s stories
For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 🙂
Story continues from yesterday:
A few weeks earlier, Luke and Joe had been doing some important work after school.
“Hold the bag open.”
“Hang on.” Joe had let go of the bag while he searched the brambles and weeds. He stepped back to open the bag for Luke who dropped another three half-metre lengths of barbed wire into it. “I want a go with the bolt cutters now,” said Joe.
“In a minute,” said Luke as he went back to the line he was on, “I wanna get all of this, up to the tree.”
The field hadn’t had any crops in it for as long as the boys could remember. It was just grass. Sometimes there were deer, early in the morning, or just after sunset. That’s what made Luke want to get the barbed wire. It had been strung up a long time ago, between the field and the woods, and a lot of it was loose and trailing across the ground, partly hidden by dead leaves. Or it was hanging slackly between the trees. It was a hazard for wild animals and needed to be removed.
“Okay, here you go,” said Luke, generously sharing Joe’s dad’s bolt cutters with Joe.
“Thanks,” Joe cut the strand he’d found into manageable chunks and dropped them into the bag. “Is there any more?”
“I think that’s the worst of it,” said Luke, “there’s plenty of safe gaps for the deer to come through now.” He lifted the bag to test its weight. “I think we’ll have to come back another day for the rest.”
“Okay,” said Joe, making a mental note to be the first with the bolt cutters next time. He tucked the implement under his coat and Luke carried the bag.
“This can prob’ly be recycled,” said Luke as they walked back into the village, “it’s good metal. They could melt it down and do somethin’ useful with it.”
“Yeah, like make …. something,” said Joe when his imagination failed him. “Anyway, see ya.”
Luke turned right into the cul-de-sac and Joe continued for another five minutes before coming to his own house. He usually went in through the front door but because he needed to return the bolt cutters to the garage first, he went in the back. He opened the door just in time to see his mum dividing a tray of minced lamb between the large casserole dish and the small one.
Joe was stunned. “What are you doing?”
“Oh good grief!” exclaimed his mother with her hand on her heart, “you gave me a fright! What are you creeping about for? Make some noise when you sneak into a room!”
Thursday was shepherd’s pie night in the Currant household. Joe’s mum used minced lamb for everybody else but she made him a separate one with soya mince. He loved shepherd’s pie. He’d always loved it. It was his favourite meal. That’s why, in spite of everything she’d said at the beginning, she made a separate one, just for him. It was so nice for Joe to know that his mum was finally listening; finally respecting his choices and doing her best to accommodate them.
“What are you doing?” Joe asked again.
His mum paused briefly before baring her teeth in an embarrassed grin. “Ah, you caught me.”
“Why are you putting lamb in my dish?” Joe’s pained expression made her feel a little bit guilty.
“I’m sorry love, I ran out of soya. I hoped you wouldn’t notice.”
“I would notice!” said Joe angrily, “I absolutely would notice!”
“Is that right?” said Mrs Currant, her sympathy chased away by her son’s insolence, “well you haven’t noticed for the last three months!”
Joe’s jaw dropped. “Three months? You’ve been giving me meat for three months?”
“What’s the difference? You didn’t notice! I ran out of your stuff in December but I knew how disappointed you’d be if you couldn’t have your precious shepherd’s pie so I used real mince. Just this once, I thought. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. And I was right, you couldn’t tell the difference. You loved it! So I took that as a sign.”
“A sign of what? That your son’s an idiot for trusting his mother?”
“I don’t like your tone young man and if you don’t apologise this minute I’m going to tell your father!”
“Me apologise? You lied to me! I can’t believe I’ve been eating meat for three months! I feel sick!”
“Oh stop being so melodramatic! You ate meat for years before you started on this fad. And the rest of us still do. Do you find us disgusting? Is it so disgusting to eat food made in this kitchen?”
“It depends on the food,” said Joe, “and it depends who made it!”
“Really?” Mrs Currant was outraged. She’d never seen this side of Joe before and she didn’t like it one bit. “Well, since I’m the only one in this house who makes the food, that’s going to be a problem for you isn’t it?”
“No,” said Joe firmly, “because you’re not going to make my dinners any more. I’ll make them myself!”
“Will you? Okay, well you can do your own shopping as well then! I’ll give you a food allowance and you can do your own shopping, your own cooking and your own washing up!”
By the following day Joe’s anger had given way to shame. He was ashamed he hadn’t been able to tell he was eating lamb. Even more ashamed that he’d enjoyed it. He decided then and there he could never tell Luke. Not ever.
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Story continues tomorrow, but if you don’t want to wait you can read it here now 😀
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegetarian, short story,
For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 🙂
Chapter 22: Trust
“We should do it with the lights off,” Luke suggested, “have you got any candles?”
“Dinner’s ready!” said Joe happily. It was the first time he’d cooked dinner for anyone else and he was quite pleased with how it had turned out. He put two plates on the coffee table. “Jacket potato with beans and salad,” he announced.
“Thanks,” said Luke, “is there any beetroot?”
“er, yeah,” said Joe and went to fetch it.
“Have you got any?”
“Yes, I’m getting it.”
“Candles?”
“What?” Joe handed Luke the beetroot.
“Candles – thanks – have you got any?”
“erm, I don’t think so,” said Joe, “what d’you want candles for?”
“It says here they’re good for meditatin’,” said Luke, referring to his library book, “but we’ll just have to do it in the dark.”
“What if we mute the telly and leave it on? With the rest of the lights off, that’d probably be like candle light,” suggested Joe.
“Good idea!”
Joe picked up the remote and pressed play.
“I love this bit,” said Luke, waiting for Kathy Bates to say ‘yes, this is our planet’ before replying, in sync with Keanu Reeves and Joe, “No, it is not.”
By the time Keanu had left the building, both diners were ready for dessert. Joe emptied a tin of Fruit Medley into two bowls and brought them to the table.
“Thanks,” said Luke, “have you got any cake?”
“Mmm,” mumbled Joe through a mouthful of peach, pear and pineapple chunks, “there might be some doughnuts in the bread bin.”
“I don’t like pears,” said Luke, scraping the white chunks into Joe’s bowl.
“They taste different in grape juice,” said Joe, “I like ’em.”
“Good,” said Luke, “can I have your pineapple?”
“No.”
“I gave you my pears.”
“Because you didn’t want them.”
“I still gave ’em to you.”
“You’re not getting my pineapple!”
Luke gave up and went in search of doughnuts.
“There’s nothin’ but bread in here,” he called.
Joe put his head round the door. “No, not that bread bin, that bread bin.” He pointed to a large plastic box with a tea towel over it. “That’s my bread bin.”
“You’ve got your own bread bin?”
Joe nodded.
Luke found the paper bag which had once contained ten jam doughnuts. There was one left. “Shall I cut it in half?” he asked.
“No, you can have it,” said Joe, giving the hoped-for response, “I’m full.”
“I’m not surprised if you’ve eaten the other nine.” Luke laughed.
“I didn’t eat ’em today,” said Joe, “they’ve lasted me over a week.”
Luke sucked on the edge of the doughnut until it was soft enough to bite. “Why have you got your own bread bin?” he asked eventually.
“To keep my food separate,” said Joe, “from theirs.”
“You’ve got your own food?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“I just want to.”
“Why?”
Joe changed the subject. “We’d better get on with the meditation before Janet gets home.”
Luke muted the television.
“It says here we should do it outside,” said Joe, “in nature.”
“It’s raining,” said Luke.
“erm, well, I suppose it’ll work inside … yeah, it says you have to be comfortable so you don’t get distracted.” They sat on the floor facing each other and closed their eyes. “We have to empty our minds,” whispered Joe.
Luke jumped up. “Wait! I forgot to turn the lights off!” He switched them off and sat back down. “So what are we supposed to be thinking about?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Nothing. Empty your mind.”
Luke was silent for almost fifty seven seconds. “Shouldn’t we be thinkin’ about aliens?” he whispered, “I mean, shouldn’t we be callin’ them with our minds?”
“Not yet, we’re just learning to meditate. When we get good at it, then we might be able to.”
“How long will that take?” asked Luke, opening his eyes.
“The more questions you ask, the longer it’ll take!” hissed Joe, exasperated. “Close your eyes and empty your mind!”
Luke closed his eyes. The room was silent. Apart from the occasional passing car there was absolutely no noise. Except that trickling sound. What was that? Luke opened one eye but it was too dark to see much. The trickling stopped and he told himself to concentrate on nothing.
“Why have you got your own food?”
Joe tutted and got up to switch on the light. “Do you want to contact the aliens or not?”
“You’re keepin’ somethin’ from me,” said Luke, “you can’t properly meditate when you’re keepin’ secrets. It won’t work if we don’t trust each other.”
“We do trust each other.”
“Well you obviously don’t trust me coz you won’t tell me your secret. An’ if you’re keepin’ secrets from me then maybe I shun’t trust you.” Luke looked gravely at his friend and waited.
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Story continues tomorrow, but if you don’t want to wait you can read it here now 😀
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegetarian, short story,
Here is a gorgeous children’s book by Sarat Colling, with beautiful illustrations by Vicky Bowes and published by Vegan Publishers
Chickpea is a darling baby on a dairy farm who has been taken away from her mother and kept confined in a barn with others like her until it’s time for a frightening journey to somewhere bad. Inspired by numerous real-life tales of cows fleeing captivity, Sarat’s story describes Chickpea’s split second decision to leap the fence and run for her life.
This heart rending story ends happily when Chickpea finds new friends and embarks on a new free and natural life. A touching tale which shines a light on the harsh reality of animal farming without being too graphic, and inspires compassion for all animals.
This copy is available to borrow at Oh My Goodness vegan cafe library, Eastbourne 😀
Available in hardback (40 pages) and as an eBook
Price: $17.99 hardback, $7.49 eBook
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1940184487
ISBN-13: 978-1940184487
Available from Vegan Publishers and all good booksellers.
Story continues from yesterday. For the story so far, click here 😀
The following morning everyone arrived at school in clothes of their own choosing. Some had clearly taken ages with hair and make-up; some wore ridiculously impractical shoes; some wore the latest High Street fashions; most wore jeans and T-shirt. Nine wore school uniform. Joe Currant, Luke Walker, Isabel Jessop and Tania Spriggs, all in year seven, wore school uniform because they were not afraid to stand up for what they believed in. Kristin West in year eleven, Jake Guest and George Broughton in year ten, and Ellie Baxter in year nine, wore school uniform because they’d read Isabel’s email. Nigel Salter in year eight wore school uniform because he’d forgotten it was Mufti Day. None of them paid £2 to their form tutors. Between them they collected £21 for Animal Free Research.
PLEASE DON’T GIVE DONATIONS TO CANCER RESEARCH UK BECAUSE THE CHARITY WASTES SUPPORTERS’ MONEY ON CRUEL AND POINTLESS EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS WHICH DON’T HELP HUMAN CANCER SUFFERERS.
The following are just a couple of examples of the horrible things CRUK has done:
Researchers funded by CRUK conducted experiments on nude mice in order to give them bone cancer [nude mice are bred in laboratories with a genetic mutation which causes a deteriorated or absent thymus, resulting in an inhibited immune system and no body hair].
The baby mice had cancer cells injected into their hearts. The male mice received prostate cancer cells and the female mice received breast cancer cells. These cells were made to glow so that tumour growth could be identified while the animals were alive. This was also confirmed after their deaths. Over several weeks the animals developed tumours in their bones and some, who had been injected wrongly, developed tumours in their hearts. The animals were killed at various times after the injection into their hearts.
Relevance to humans:
CRUK co-funded a complex study on rats and mice designed to investigate whether disrupting a particular network of proteins could help treat bile duct cancer.
Three different types of animals were used:
Nude mice were injected under the skin with tumour cells from people with bile duct cancer. After three weeks some of them were given treatments to reduce the severity of the tumours.
A second group of genetically modified mice were chemically poisoned for around six months so that they would develop cancer.
Rats were subjected to the same chemical poisoning regime as the mice. After about five months, some of them were given substances designed to target the tumours. One of these was the treatment that depleted levels of some white blood cells (macrophages) and therefore damaged their immune system.
Relevance to humans:
While being very secretive about the specific details of the animal research they fund, CRUK states:
“At the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, we only use mice. We breed some strains ourselves and obtain others from suppliers who are licensed to supply animals for research. Most of the mice we use have altered genetics”
When considering this one should be aware that the creation of GM mice generally involves several painful and invasive procedures, including major surgery and mutilation. Creating just one ‘founder’ mouse with the required genetic alteration can entail the deaths of hundreds of others. These unwanted mice are often killed by being gassed or having their necks broken.
It is incomprehensible that CRUK continues to waste its supporters’ money on animal research despite the fact that pharmaceutical companies acknowledge the failure of animal-based research in their drug development process and write about this openly and often in the scientific literature.
A leading oncologist, voted one of America’s Top Doctors, Dr Azra Raza, made the absolute failure of mice models of cancer the focus of her
TED-x talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=17&v=07rgtBzN4Qo
She said:
“The fact of the matter is, that we cured acute myeloid leukemia in mice back in 1977 and today, in humans, we are using exactly the same drugs with absolutely dreadful results. We have to stop studying mice because it’s essentially pointless and we have to start studying freshly obtained human cells.”
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
SEND THE SCHOOL’S DONATIONS TO AN ETHICAL CHARITY SUCH AS
ANIMAL FREE RESEARCH UK
(animalfreeresearchuk.org)
WHICH IS DOING SCIENTIFICALLY VALID, HUMAN RELEVANT RESEARCH THAT WILL HELP HUMAN SUFFERERS.
SOURCES:
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vegan, vegetarian, vegan children, vegan children’s story, creative writing, juvenile fiction, vivisection, animal testing
For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 😀
Story continues from yesterday:
The first lesson on Thursday afternoons was P.E. Tania and Isabel were getting changed for hockey.
“Oh no!” said Isabel as she tipped out the contents of her kit bag, “I forgot my socks!”
Tania laughed. “Oh well, you’ll just have to wear your other socks.”
“What other socks?”
“The socks you came to school in.”
“I wore tights.”
“Oh.”
Isabel slumped down on the bench. “I’m going to have to wear my boots with bare feet. I’m gonna get blisters! Have you got any spare socks?”
“Sorry.”
“Isabel Jessop!” Miss Stremp’s voice preceded her.
“Ooh, ask Miss Stremp,” suggested Tania, “she’s bound to have some spare kit around. See if she’ll lend you some socks.”
Isabel wrinkled her nose at the prospect just as Miss Stremp caught up to her voice.
“Off you go girls – three laps of the field!” she ordered the class. “Not you Miss Jessop.”
Tania shrugged apologetically at her friend and followed the rest of the girls outside. Isabel pulled her boots onto her bare feet.
“Get dressed please Isabel, Mr Strang wants to see you in his office,” said Miss Stremp.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I imagine you’ll find out when you get there.”
Isabel thought she’d be glad of an excuse to avoid running around a cold, wet field but she wasn’t. When she got to his office, Mr Strang wasn’t alone.
“Miss Jessop,” he said, “I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“No sir,” said Isabel apprehensively.
“I presume you know Mrs Oakley.”
“Yes. Hello.”
Mrs Oakley’s stone cold face remained silent.
“Mrs Oakley wanted me to speak to you regarding the email you sent this morning. Were you aware that students are not permitted to send messages to All Users?”
“er, no, I didn’t …”
“That facility is for senior staff only. For the purpose of informing staff and pupils of rule changes, procedure changes, or snow days. Things like that.”
“Oh, sorry, well …”
“And I have to say, aside from that infringement, you have upset a lot of people with your email.”
“How dare you be so insulting about people who dedicate their lives to helping others?” Mrs Oakley found her voice and there was a painful edge to it. “They’re good people! Working hard to cure this horrible horrible disease!”
“Well, they …”
“Mrs King has only just died and there was nothing I could do to help her. I had to watch … and she never complained.” Mrs Oakley was overcome with emotion.
Mr Strang handed her a tissue and took over.
“What Mrs Oakley means is that this is not the time for political debate. Emotions are running high at the moment, a lot of people are hurting, and you have just rubbed salt in the wound.”
“I’m sorry, I …”
“Up until now I have heard nothing but good things about you Miss Jessop. At the end of last term all your teachers wrote glowing reports about the quality of your work, and more than a few of them noted that you were a pleasure to have in the classroom. So I’m very surprised that you would do something so thoughtless, so inconsiderate and so offensive. What do you have to say for yourself?”
“I’m sorry I upset people,” said Isabel, “that was the last thing I wanted to do. I’m sorry Mrs King died, I really liked her. And I’m sorry for anyone who has cancer. That’s why I had to tell everybody now. So that you’d give the money to a charity that does human-relevant research.”
“How dare you?” said Mrs Oakley angrily, “this charity has been working for decades to help end cancer! Are you an expert? Are you a scientist? Are you a doctor?”
Isabel shook her head.
“So how come you think you know better than people who are?”
“I’ve read …”
“Let’s not get into this now,” interrupted Mr Strang, “this issue is highly contentious and there are a lot of points of view. My point of view is simply this: the school intranet is not your own personal soapbox. You are not permitted to send messages to all users. Is that understood?”
“Yes sir.”
“You may return to class.”
Isabel was in no hurry to get back to P.E. so she dawdled miserably through the empty corridors. She walked to the top floor and looked out the window at the hockey players chasing the tiny hard ball across the muddy pitch. It was difficult to see who was who. They were too far away. She swallowed hard to stop herself crying. She knew she’d done the right thing. So why did she feel so guilty?
She didn’t head back to the changing rooms until she saw her class leave the field. By the time she got there, Tania was dressed and ready.
“Where have you been?” she asked with concern. “What happened?”
“Mr Strang and Mrs Oakley had a go at me for sending the email,” Isabel told her.
“Oh no, what did they say?”
“Only teachers are allowed to send messages to all users.”
“Oh. Is that all?”
“No, but it doesn’t matter, it’s done now,” said Isabel, putting on a smile. The bell went. “Come on, let’s go to music!”
Tania chatted cheerfully as they moved through the crowded corridor to the music room. She made Isabel laugh.
“… and she said, ‘not if I can help it’ and she picked up the ball and threw it as far as …”
“I thought you were a nice person,” Madame DuBois stepped in front of them and interrupted. “How could you do this thing? You care more about a little mouse than a living person? Je suis très déçu de toi.”
Tania watched in stunned silence as the French teacher walked away. Then she turned back to Isabel. “What’s her prob… hey, Izzy, what’s the matter?”
Isabel rubbed her watery eyes and forced a grin. “I’m okay.”
“What did you put in that email?”
“Only the truth.”
******
****************************************************************************************
Story continues tomorrow, but if you don’t want to wait you can read it here now 😀
******************************************************************************
vegan, vegetarian, vegan children, vegan children’s story, creative writing, juvenile fiction, vivisection, animal testing
For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 😀
Story continues from yesterday:
Isabel, meanwhile, had arrived at school a few minutes early and was making her way to the I.T. lab while it was still empty. Entering the corridor at one end she saw a cleaner leaving the computer room at the other and disappearing into the stairwell. There was no one else in sight. She had timed it perfectly. Within moments she was sitting at one of the desktop computers. It took a worryingly long time to start up but once it was running she inserted her memory stick and opened the document she needed to copy. She clicked Select All, and Copy, before signing in to the school intranet network.
Then she clicked Compose;
selected To All Users;
selected High Priority from the drop down menu,
and typed in the subject bar: BOYCOTT CANCER RESEARCH UK
Just as she was about to paste in her message the screen froze. The school bell declared the time to be half past eight and Isabel frantically moved the mouse in circles on its mat, trying to get the cursor to reappear. But nothing happened. She tapped Ctrl, Alt, Delete and opened a Task Manager. She selected the only task running and clicked End Task. She could hear footsteps out in the corridor and tried desperately to make her shaking hands behave. She told herself to focus and began again.
Compose
To All Users
High Priority
Subject: BOYCOTT CANCER RESEARCH UK
She right clicked in the message box but there was nothing to paste. Her text was no longer on the clipboard. Desperately she pulled out the memory stick and re-inserted it. She double clicked on the icon, opened the document, selected all and copied. Again she right clicked in the message box and this time was able to select Paste. With great relief she clicked Save and was rewarded with the notification Sending … at the top of the screen just as the door opened and the IT teacher walked in. Before turning to face him, Isabel swiftly clicked Start, Shut Down and then switched off the monitor.
“Hey! What are you doing in here?” asked Mr Frakes suspiciously.
“I left my memory stick here yesterday,” Isabel told him with a smile, “just came to collect it,” and she held it up to show him.
Mr Frakes, noticeably relieved to see that it was only Isabel, congratulated her on remembering where she’d left it and encouraged her to get to registration. It was done. She could breathe again.
Isabel slipped into her form room where Tania waited expectantly. Her eyes asked the question and Isabel nodded. So far so good.
“I answered to your name on the register,” Tania told her, “so you won’t be marked late.”
“Thanks,” said Isabel.
“So, how did it go?”
“Good I think.”
“Did you send it to all the teachers?”
“All users.”
“All users? That’s everybody! Staff, students, everybody!”
Isabel grinned. “Yes indeed!”
“Well done,” Tania grinned back, “very very well done. So now what?”
“We’ll see.”
****
Mr Flanagan closed the register and told his form to head out to afternoon classes. Luke and Joe walked against the tide and approached the teacher’s desk.
“Problem boys?” Mr Flanagan asked.
“We can’t sell these,” said Luke, putting his ten concert tickets down on the desk. Joe did the same.
Mr Flanagan looked disappointed in them. “Well you haven’t tried very hard, you’ve only had them a couple of days. Give it a couple of weeks before you give up.”
“No,” Luke explained, “we mean we won’t sell them, not if they’re gonna give money to CRUK.”
“Cruck?”
“Cancer Research UK.”
Mr Flanagan looked from Luke to Joe and back again. “Why? What have they done to deserve your disapproval?”
“We think the school should give the money to a good charity that won’t waste it on animal testin’,” Luke explained.
Mr Flanagan looked at the ceiling, took a deep breath and then looked at his watch. “I’ve got a class waiting boys and you’re supposed to be in your next lesson. We’ll talk about this later.”
“When?” asked Luke.
“I don’t know. Tomorrow,” he suggested brusquely.
“Tomorrow’s too late. We need you to tell ’em before Mufti Day to give the money to a different charity.”
“I’m not going to do that,” said Mr Flanagan firmly. “Cancer Research UK is a very worthwhile cause. They do a lot of good work. They help a lot of people.”
“Maybe they do,” Luke conceded, “but they also do a lot of bad, cruel work and you never know what your money’s gonna go on.”
Mr Flanagan shook his head despairingly, as if he’d heard it all before. “They’re not cruel Luke, they’re doing vital research. It’s not a happy fact but they have to use animal models to see how the disease grows and spreads in a living body.”
“But it’s not the same in animals as humans,” argued Luke, “so it’s pointless. They’re killin’ ’em for nothing.”
“You’re talking about highly qualified scientists. Why would they do it if it didn’t work?”
Joe read aloud from one of the leaflets. “’There are, in fact, only two categories of doctors and scientists who are not opposed to vivisection: those who don’t know enough about it, and those who make money out of it.’ Dr Werner Hartinger wrote that, in 1989. He was a German surgeon.”
“What have you got there?” asked Mr Flanagan, taking the leaflet out of Joe’s hand. “An animal rights leaflet. Surprise surprise. Don’t you think this might be a little bit biased?” he asked condescendingly. Immediately regretting his irritated response, he took a breath and tried to be patient. “Look, boys, I really don’t have time for this now. Let me lend you one of my biology textbooks.” He picked through the pile on his desk. “Here you go,” he offered them a copy of Animal Models For The Study Of Human Disease. “Take this home with you and read the first chapter. I think it’ll help you understand the issue better and if it doesn’t we can set aside some time to talk more.”
Joe shook his head. “No thank you,” he said.
“We don’t need to read that,” said Luke. “We already understand the issue. We already know for a fact it’s wrong to poison animals, and give ’em diseases, and cut ’em up and kill ’em. Even if it did help humans that wun’t make it right. But it don’t help humans coz animals are different to humans and different animals give different results in the experiments so why would they think humans would give the same results? And how would they know which animal results would be the same as humans?”
“Ibuprofen causes kidney failure in dogs,” said Joe, “and Aspirin causes birth defects in mice and rats.”
Mr Flanagan put the textbook back down on his desk. “Time to go boys,” he said flatly.
“Adverse drug reactions to medicines that were proved safe in animal tests, kill a hundred thousand people every year in America,” recited Luke.
“Leave!”
Luke tentatively stretched out his hand to retrieve the leaflet from his tutor’s grasp, before both boys did as they were told.
****
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Story continues tomorrow, but if you don’t want to wait you can read it here now 😀
******************************************************************************
vegan, vegetarian, vegan children, vegan children’s story, creative writing, juvenile fiction, vivisection, animal testing
For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 😀
Story continues from yesterday:
“Mum, can I use the computer?” Luke asked when he got home.
“Jared’s using it at the moment,” she told him, “his laptop’s playing up.”
“That’s not fair,” Luke complained, “Jared’s got his own computer, he should ‘ave looked after it prop’ly.”
“He said you broke it.”
Luke was momentarily stumped. He didn’t remember breaking it. He was fairly sure he hadn’t.
“I didn’t,” he said eventually.
Mum recoiled from the blast of heat when she opened the oven door and reminded herself not to lean in when she did that. “What do you need it for? Homework?” Before Luke could answer she turned away from him and transferred twelve chocolate chip cookies to the cooling tray. “Is it for something important?” she added.
Thankful he could answer truthfully he told her that yes it was absolutely very important.
“Okay,” she said, “ask Jared not to be too long.”
Luke tutted and went into the living room to do that. “How long are you gonna be?”
“As long as it takes,” said Jared unhelpfully.
“How long d’you think that’ll be?”
“Well the more you bother me, the longer it’ll take.”
“Mum said you’ve got to hurry up because I’ve got some important work to do.”
“I don’t think so,” said Jared, “you don’t do anything important in Year Seven.”
“Well what’re you doin’ that’s so important?” said Luke as he leaned in to look at the screen. “You’re playin’ cards!” He pulled at Jared’s shoulder. “You can play cards with actual cards! Let me use the computer!”
“Get off!” Jared elbowed Luke without taking his eyes off the screen, “I was here first!”
Luke took hold of the office chair and tried to wheel it away from the computer but Jared held tight to the desk with his hands and feet. Jared grinned when his brother gave up and let go, but when the chair jolted back against the desk, his can of lemonade toppled and splashed its contents all over the keyboard. Both boys instantly forgot their squabble and were silent. The playing card images stretched and distorted on the screen before being replaced by a mass of fuzzy lines.
“You’re not supposed to have drinks by the computer!” Luke pointed out.
“It’s your fault it fell over,” said Jared angrily, “if you hadn’t pulled the chair …”
****
Confined to his room Luke had no idea how he was going to get the research done by tomorrow. It really wasn’t fair. It was Jared’s fault for having a drink on the desk which he knows he’s not supposed to do. It was Jared’s fault for playing games on the computer and refusing to let him do his important work. It was all Jared’s fault so it wasn’t fair that they both got punished. He laid back on his bed and stared at the ceiling. It wouldn’t be so bad if he could at least phone Isabel and tell her he didn’t have access to a computer. Then at least she’d know it was all down to her. He hoped she was getting somewhere with it. He wished he’d picked up some leaflets from Kris’s stall when he had the chance. There might have been some useful information there that could have helped with this research. He continued to stare at the ceiling with these pointless regrets going round and round in his head until, finally, a useful thought emerged. A month earlier Dad had given him his old mobile phone. It had £5 credit on it but he was only permitted to use it for emergencies.
“Well if this isn’t an emergency I don’t know what is!” thought Luke aloud.
He took out his phone and sent a carefully worded text to Kris.
****
Early Thursday morning Dad put the car in reverse and looked over his shoulder before backing out of the drive. Before he’d changed into first gear, an old brown Talbot Sunbeam pulled up in front of him. A woman with short green hair and rather too many piercings for his liking, got out and began to walk up the path to his house. Dad rolled down the passenger side window and leaned across the seat.
“Can I help you?” he called.
The woman turned back. “Is this Luke Walker’s house?”
“Who wants to know?”
“I’m a friend of his,” she said, smiling, “he asked me to bring him something.”
Luke’s dad turned off the engine and got out of the car. “Really?” he asked, walking towards her “and what might that be?”
Kris didn’t want to put Luke in a difficult position with his parents by saying too much. “Is Luke here?” she asked.
“My son is eleven years old,” said Mr Walker, who was turned a little frosty by her evasiveness, “so I like to know who his friends are and what they get up to.”
“Yes, of course,” said Kris apologetically, “he needed some information for school.” She handed him the envelope she was carrying.
Luke drew back his bedroom curtains in time to witness the scene. He pulled on his trousers in record time, rushed downstairs and flung open the front door just as Kris’s car rattled out of view. His dad handed him the envelope.
“This is from a friend of yours,” he said, “where do you know her from?”
“Thanks,” said Luke, “oh, she’s jus’ one o’ the leaders at youth club.”
Dad raised his eyebrows, “is that right?” he said, “because she seems to think you met at the health food shop where she works.”
Luke froze almost imperceptibly before saying, “oh, yeah, health food shop, I forgot,” and he hurried back inside.
****
“Read these,” said Luke to Joe on the bus, “Kris got ’em for us an’ we need to learn ’em so we can tell Mr Flanagan.”
Joe flicked through several pages of information, “I can’t learn all this by registration,” he said anxiously.
“After lunch then,” said Luke, “we’ll learn it at lunch time and tell him at afternoon registration.”
“Okay,” said Joe, and began to read.
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Story continues tomorrow, but if you don’t want to wait you can read it here now 😀
******************************************************************************
vegan, vegetarian, vegan children, vegan children’s story, creative writing, juvenile fiction, vivisection, animal testing
For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 😀
Story continues from Friday:
“Ooh, a hot date!” said Simon Butler who had unfortunately been standing within earshot. His friends laughed. Luke and Joe, who had learned from experience that Butler was best ignored, got onto the bus. They ascended to the top deck and managed to get the seat in front of the stairs where no one could sit behind them. Luke took the concert tickets out of his bag.
“They got these printed pretty quick considerin’ she on’y died this mornin’,” he observed.
“They’d already organised the concert,” said Joe, “Janet’s in the Swing Band and they’ve been practising for weeks.”
“But the tickets say ‘in aid of Cancer Research UK’.”
“Yeah, I know, they’d already planned to do it for them, before she died.”
“Oh,” said Luke, and he put the tickets back in his bag. “It’s a shame about Mrs King. I wonder why Isabel and Tania don’t want us to sell the tickets.”
“I guess we’ll find out tomorrow,” said Joe.
“Yeah,” agreed Luke. “D’you wanna come with me to check on Curly an’ Squirt?”
****
Tania and Isabel were in the top set for just about everything. Luke and Joe were not. For that reason, though they went to the same school, they rarely bumped into each other unless they made a point of doing so. On Wednesday lunchtime they met, as agreed, on the old tennis courts. No one played tennis on the old tennis courts. There were no nets; the tarmac was cracked and most of the court lines had worn away. A rusty ride-on lawn mower, awaiting repair, was parked at one end, and two wooden benches, damaged by vandals, laid on their backs at the other. There were rumours that the courts were going to be renovated but, until they were, they made an ideal meeting place.
“We can’t sell the tickets and we can’t do the mufti day,” said Isabel.
“Why not?” Luke asked again.
“Look at this,” she said, passing him a small piece of paper, concertina folded to the size of a library card.
“What is it?” he asked as he opened it.
“Look at it,” she told him.
One side had a red border and was titled
PLEASE BOYCOTT THESE CHARITIES UNTIL THEY STOP FUNDING ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS:
The other side was bordered in green and titled
THESE CHARITIES DON’T CONDUCT OR FUND ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS:
Under both headings were long lists of medical charities in tiny writing. Cancer Research UK was on the red list.
“Where did you get this?” asked Luke.
“From your friend Kris, with the stall, who we met in Belton.”
“She gave you this?”
“They had loads of them on the stall, I just took one.”
“Did you get us all one?”
“No, sorry, I …”
“Anyway,” Tania interrupted, “what are we going to do about it?”
Luke frowned. “What are they doin’ to the animals? Testin’ drugs on ’em?”
“Sometimes,” said Isabel, “but first they give them a disease so that they can try to cure them of it.”
“And sometimes,” added Tania, “they make them eat or inhale things that cause cancer and then cut them up to see what it did to their bodies.”
The boys were sickened.
“Cancer Research UK does that?” asked Joe.
“Well these are the kind of things that happen all the time with cancer research. We’re not sure exactly what CRUK itself does,” Tania admitted.
“But it does do these kind of things,” said Isabel, “because they’re on the list of charities that do.”
Luke’s jaw tensed and his eyes narrowed. “If we’re gonna stop the school givin’ ’em money we need to know exactly what CRUK does, so we can tell everybody.”
“Agreed,” said Isabel. “You should all come to my house after school so we can do some research.”
“Oh, I can’t tonight,” said Tania regretfully, “it’s my grandma’s birthday and we’re doing a party for her. What about tomorrow night?”
“No, it’s got to be tonight. We’ve got to get this info out tomorrow ’cause Mufti Day’s the day after.”
“Aren’t we already too late?” asked Joe, “they’ve put ‘in aid of CRUK’ on the concert tickets.”
“Well, there can’t be that many sold yet, and the concert’s not for another month so they’ll have time to re-print them. Or if they won’t do that they could send a note home telling everyone the money’s going to help cancer research in the UK, not Cancer Research UK. They should be able to sort something out if we tell them about it early enough,” Isabel explained.
“Well I can’t come tonight either, I’m busy,” said Joe without elaborating.
“Just you and me then Luke?” said Isabel hopefully.
“I can’t come to yours after school,” said Luke, “coz I’ve got to check on Curly an’ Squirt. But I can do some research at my own house.”
“Okay,” said Isabel, “we’ll find out as much as we can about CRUK tonight and then I’ll email the teachers first thing in the morning. I’ll use my Society email address to keep it anonymous.”
“Who are you going to email?” asked Tania.
“I’ll write to the school email address,” said Isabel, “and put FAO THE TEACHERS in the subject bar.”
“That’ll just go to the school secretary,” said Joe, “and if she doesn’t forward it to the teachers they won’t see it.”
“D’you know any of the teachers’ email addresses?” asked Tania.
Isabel detected a flaw in her plan. “Blast. No I don’t.”
“Oh well,” said Tania, “you’ll just have to use the intranet.”
****
**********************************************************************************
Story continues tomorrow, but if you don’t want to wait you can read it here now 😀
******************************************************************************
vegan, vegetarian, vegan children, vegan children’s story, creative writing, juvenile fiction, vivisection, animal testing
For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 😀
Story continues from yesterday:
A couple of people laughed at his apparent ignorance and Luke scowled at them.
“Enclosure,” Mrs Abbot repeated patiently.
“Well,” said Luke, who was perfectly capable of listening while he stared out the window. “I agree with Nicky.”
“Do you?” said Mrs Abbot, “and what specifically do you agree with?”
“I agree with what he said about no one should own land, it belongs to everybody.”
“Okay, and you don’t think this young man had a point?” she asked, pointing to Andrew.
“No,” said Luke. “There wun’t be any farm animal diseases if they din’t farm animals. And farmin’ more animals didn’t make farmin’ more efficient coz you can get a lot more food out of land if you just grow crops on it.”
“So, in conclusion – your opinion is that Enclosure was – ?”
“Bad.” The brief pause that followed, though due to Mrs Abbot searching her sleeve for a tissue, led Luke to assume that further explanation was required. “If there were no fences,” he went on, “an’ everybody could have a strip to grow their own food like they used to, then everybody would have enough to eat an’ there’d be enough land left over to grow forests and have places where the wild animals could live.”
Celia Brook snorted.
“Something to add?” asked Mrs Abbot.
“Well he’s living in cloud cuckoo land if he thinks that would work!” said Celia. “If you had no fences then some people would do all the work and other people would steal their food. Or the wild animals would eat what they’d grown because they don’t have fences to keep them out.”
“It worked then so why wouldn’t it work now?” argued Lucy. “When people all have the same they don’t get jealous of each other’s stuff. Everyone would be able to use as much land as they needed to feed their own family and there’d be no need for money so no one would sell their food, they could trade it for other people’s food if they wanted to and everyone would co-operate so that they all had enough.”
Celia scoffed. “That’s never gonna happen! People only look after number one! That’s what capitalism is!”
“I’m not a capitalist, I’m an anarchist!” said Nicky.
“Okay, okay,” said Mrs Abbot, “I think we might be going off on a tangent here. Let’s look back at the diagram on the first page of your …” She was interrupted by a knock at the door. “Come in.”
A teenager entered and gave a note to Mrs Abbot. She thanked him and he left. After reading the note she stood silently for a moment before clearing her throat and telling everyone that their lesson had been cut short because they had been called to assembly. They should take their bags and coats with them because they would go straight to lunch afterwards.
Luke and Joe followed everyone else back out into the corridor to join the rest of the school heading down to the assembly hall. There was lots of speculation regarding what might be the cause of their summons.
“I heard the school’s closin’ down,” Kenny told anyone who cared to listen.
“Says who?” asked George sceptically.
“My sister – she’s in the sixth form and she said Mr Davies said it might be merging with Bishop’s.”
“Bishop’s?” asked Christopher with some concern, “that’s way over the other side of town. If they make us go there I’ll have leave home even earlier.”
“We won’t be merging with Bishop’s,” Celia told them confidently, “it’s not big enough.”
“They’re addin’ new buildings,” said Kenny, “there’s builders there now. That’s where all them lorries were going.”
Luke and Joe were a little concerned, like Christopher, that a move to Bishop’s would mean an even earlier start to the day, but they needn’t have worried.
The hall was rarely this full of people. Years Seven and Eight had their assemblies on Mondays and Wednesdays; Years Nine and Ten on Tuesdays and Thursdays; and Year Eleven had just one per week, on Fridays. It was only on special occasions that the whole school attended assembly together. Everyone waited for Mr Strang, the Headmaster, to finish talking to the Head of Year Seven, Mrs Oakley. She looked like she’d been crying. When she left the stage, Mr Strang cleared his throat and talked into the microphone.
“I’m sorry to – “ his words stuck in his throat. He coughed and gestured to one of the other teachers for a glass of water. After swallowing a mouthful he tried again. “Excuse me, erm, …”
A Year Eleven boy pulled back the chair of the girl in front of him and it slid forward on two legs. She shrieked and was left hanging at a 45 degree angle with her shoulders against his knees and her feet kicking the back of the person in front of her. The commotion caused some laughter along two rows of seats and inspired the rest of the assembled to turn and see what was going on.
“You two! Out! Leave this room NOW!” Mr Strang’s voice boomed over the P.A. System and the laughter was immediately curtailed. One of the P.E. teachers dragged the boy and girl from their seats and marched them out of the hall. Everyone else turned to face the front and waited silently for Mr Strang to resume.
“I’m sorry to tell you that Mrs King passed away at 6.42 this morning,” Mr Strang’s voice was quivering, “she has worked here for eleven years and was a valued colleague and friend. I’m sure you’ll all agree that she was an excellent teacher who was devoted to her students and always had time for anyone who needed extra help.”
The atmosphere in the room changed instantly from one of curiosity and impatience to one of melancholy. Luke and Joe hadn’t known Mrs King for long but they’d liked her and were sad she was gone. No one said anything. Mr Strang continued.
“As some of you may know, Mrs King battled with cancer for years. She was brave, uncomplaining and always cheerful. She was an inspiration to us all. We have decided, therefore, as a tribute to Mrs King, to organise two fund raising activities in support of an organisation which has for many years funded life-saving research into the causes, prevention and treatment of cancer – Cancer Research UK.
“The school Swing Band – which Mrs King loved – will play a concert at The Tower Theatre, at the end of March. Volunteers can go home today with tickets to sell in aid of the charity and there will be a prize for the person who sells the most. Secondly, there will be a Mufti Day on Friday for the whole school. Every pupil who wishes to take part must pay £2 to their form tutor for the privilege of not having to wear school uniform that day. If everyone takes part, the mufti day alone will raise £2000 for the charity.” Mr Strang cleared his throat, took another swig of water and turned to say something to Mrs MacGregor who sat behind the piano. He then left the stage and Mrs MacGregor led the school in Mrs King’s favourite hymn.
****
At the end of the day Isabel and Tania pushed through the crowd to find Luke and Joe in the bus queue.
“What are you doing here?” asked Luke.
“Can’t stop,” said Isabel, a little out of breath, “but did you get some of those concert tickets to sell?”
“Yeah,” said Luke, “Mr Flanagan gave everybody ten.”
“Don’t sell them!” said Tania, grabbing Isabel by the elbow and pulling her away.
“Why?” Luke asked the retreating pair.
“Meet us tomorrow lunchtime,” Isabel called across the noisy crowd, “usual place.” And they hurried to their rendezvous with Tania’s mum at the back of the school.
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Story continues on Monday, but if you don’t want to wait you can read it now 😀
Have a great weekend 😀
*******************************************************************************************
vegan, vegetarian, vegan children, vegan children’s story, creative writing, juvenile fiction
For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 🙂
Chapter 2: Mufti Day
The Enclosure Acts:
A series of Acts of Parliament that empowered enclosure [eg with fences] of open fields and common land in England and Wales, creating legal property rights to land that was previously held in common. Between 1604 and 1914, over 5,200 individual enclosure Acts were passed, covering 6.8 million acres.
When the bell went there followed the usual noisy, chaotic movement of pupils through the corridors as everyone relocated to a different classroom for their next lesson. Luke and Joe rushed into Mrs King’s room ahead of the rest of their class to get the best seats – at the back desk by the window. They’d heard from their form tutor at registration that Mrs King was off sick again and when Mrs King was away it was imperative they got a window seat.
History was one of the few subjects at school that Luke was interested in. He wouldn’t go as far as to say he looked forward to the lessons, because things that required him to sit still, be quiet and do as he was told were never going to be a preferred use of his time, but he didn’t mind them. That was probably because he liked Mrs King.
Mrs King absolutely loved history. She made everything interesting because she talked about it with such energy and enthusiasm. Unfortunately she’d been off sick a lot lately and that meant a substitute. Substitute teachers weren’t bad people, Luke had nothing against them personally. But a teacher who doesn’t know anybody; who has no idea where the class is up to in their lessons; and who didn’t even know they’d be teaching at that school until half an hour before school started, is probably going to just give them printouts.
“Good morning,” said the woman behind Mrs King’s desk, “I’m Mrs Abbot and I’ll be taking you for History today.” A few people started rummaging in their bags for their text books and pencil cases. “Hold your horses,” Mrs Abbot said, “you won’t need those today, we’ve got some printouts.”
Luke looked knowingly at Joe.
“See,” he whispered.
“I know,” whispered Joe, a little irritated, “I knew as well as you did.”
“When the pile gets to you, please take one and then pass them to the next person.” Mrs Abbot gave a stack of photocopies to Caroline at the front and everybody waited for it to arrive at their desks. Nobody was impatient to see what was on it.
“Okay,” Mrs Abbot went on, “as you’ll see from your sheets, we’re going to be thinking about the Enclosure Acts which changed the way land was used in this country. I want you to read the information I’ve given you and then consider whether you think Enclosure was a good thing or a bad thing.
“Many scholars have discussed it over the years and have come to very different conclusions. I want you to read their opinions and then decide what you think.” When she stopped talking everyone looked down at their sheets and began to read. Before most of them had got to the second paragraph she added, “Read both sides.”
After ten minutes – the time by which Mrs Abbot expected everyone to have read the texts, she began the discussion.
“So, what do we think – was Enclosure a good thing or a bad thing?”
Andrew Bennett put up his hand.
“Yes, blonde boy at the front – what do you think?”
“I think it was all necessary for progress. We had a growing population that needed to be fed so farming needed to be more efficient and less wasteful.”
“Okay, and what would you say if I told you that, according to Dr Michael Turner, a History lecturer at Hull University, in the second quarter of the eighteenth century there was actually plenty of cheap food for a population that was only slowly increasing. Why would Enclosure be needed then, if the existing farming practices were providing everything everybody needed?”
“Some people wanted more – the land owners wanted more,” called out Nicky Witticomb.
“Indeed they did young man,” said Mrs Abbot, “yes, in fact cheap food at the market meant farmers’ incomes weren’t increasing as they would have liked so, in an effort to get more money from their land, they moved away from the broadly fixed incomes of arable farming, and into the expanding area of pastoral farming. Then, as demand for meat and dairy products increased, farmers were able to earn more from their land by substituting grass for crops.” She looked around the room for more contributors. “Anyone else? Was Enclosure a good thing or a bad thing?”
“Both,” said Lucy Evans. “It was good for the land owners because they could use all their land without wasting strips in between … strips. But it was bad for the people who didn’t own land because they couldn’t farm those common strips any more. They used to be able to grow their own food and be self sufficient, but after enclosure they had to go to the cities to earn a wage.”
“Good, good, okay well …”
“All property is theft!” interrupted Nicky, “those land owners didn’t have any right to own the land – they just took it, or their ancestors did. The land belongs to everybody. Everybody should have the right to build their little log cabin wherever they like, and collect their fuel from the woods and grow their own food.” He concluded with a quote. “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”
Mrs Abbot smiled. “Okay, we’ve got some strong opinions here. Good. Anybody want to take issue with this young man … what’s your name?”
“Nicky.”
“Does anyone want to take issue with Nicky’s opinion?”
“Enclosure made farming more efficient,” said Andrew, “less labour was needed to produce more food. It stopped farm animal diseases spreading to all the animals in the village, and they could do more selective breeding to get better animals which produce more milk or meat.”
“Hmm, okay, anyone else? Young man at the back, would you like to venture an opinion or are you more interested in how many red lorries are travelling west?”
Luke, who had no interest in lorries but was gazing out of the window anyway, didn’t realise at first that the teacher was addressing him. A nudge from Joe got his attention.
“What do you think?” Mrs Abbot asked again, “good thing or bad thing?”
“What?” asked Luke, “is what a good thing?”
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The story continues tomorrow 😀
But if you don’t want to wait, you can read it all here now 😀
****************************************************************************************
vegan, vegetarian, vegan children, vegan children’s story, creative writing, juvenile fiction
Oh My Goodness vegan cafe at the Enterprise Centre behind the station in Eastbourne is now providing a free library of gorgeous vegan comics and story books 😀 You can help yourself to any book, or as many books as you like, take them home and bring them back when you’re finished with them. It’s a simple as that!
Plus there’s also free fairy tales to keep, and puzzle pages, jigsaw puzzles and colouring books to enjoy while you’re waiting for your food! What a brilliant cafe! The food is also awesome 😀
Delicious food. Free library. Free fairy tales. Wordsearches. Crosswords. Colouring Books. Jigsaw puzzles.
Now that’s what I call a great venue!
Go on, treat yourself! Get on down to Oh My Goodness vegan cafe, Enterprise Shopping Centre, Station Parade, Eastbourne, E. Sussex, BN21 1BD – and borrow some comics! 😀
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vegan, vegan books, vegan cafe, vegan food, vegan jigsaws, vegan colouring books, vegan venues
For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 🙂
Story continues from yesterday:
Luke read the letter.
“Explain,” said Dad, “and the truth this time. What did you send that caused alarm to the receivers?”
Luke explained. “They’re s’posed to be lookin’ after animals, not killin’ em! They’re pretendin’ it’s not cruel to kill ’em for meat so I found a picture on the internet of a bull bein’ killed in a slaughterhouse an’ I printed it out to show ’em how cruel it is. To show ’em so they wun’t keep doin’ it!”
Mum and Dad looked at each other without saying anything. Luke couldn’t tell whether they were still mad. He was about to make another attempt at convincing them he was right when Dad spoke up.
“And you sent this to their homes?” Luke nodded. “Well of course they were upset! You shouldn’t be writing to people’s home addresses Luke, that’s out of order! If you’ve got a problem with a company, you write to the company!”
“I did! We did! We wrote loadsa times to the sanctuary and they ignored us! For months! Then Tania’s mum said it was trustees who decided things at charities and they’re s’posed to run the charity for the reasons it was set up which is to prevent unnecessary sufferin’. So Maybury’s payin’ for unnecessary sufferin’ – coz it’s not necessary for people to eat animals – instead of preventin’ it. So Tania said they had no right to ignore us coz they should be countable for their actions and they’re breakin’ charity law so someone’s got to hold them to count for that! So one of us found their addresses from, erm, a website and we started writin’ to them at home.”
“One of us?”
“Don’t matter who. It’s not illegal.”
“And did that make them answer you?”
“No.”
“If you were hoping for a response you must have put our address on your letters,” said Mum.
“No. I didn’t,” Luke insisted. “We give ’em an email address to reply to.”
Dad took a deep breath. “These are good people Luke, they donate their time and their expertise to help an animal sanctuary. You’ve made your feelings clear and they’ve heard you. There’s nothing more you can do. You can’t force them to change. Sending them grisly pictures of slaughtered animals is going too far. No wonder they were upset.”
Luke was incensed. “They’re upset?! They’re the ones who did it! D’you think I liked lookin’ at that picture? No – I didn’t. Nobody wants to look at that, but people who pay for it to happen have no right to complain!”
“Luke,” Dad began.
“No, he’s right,” interrupted Mum. “It’s these people’s responsibility to run the charity by the principles it was started on. And if they go astray they have to be answerable. They should have answered the children’s very reasonable request in the first place. Ignoring them left the children with no other recourse than to write to them at home. They brought it on themselves.”
Luke was relieved that he’d finally got through to somebody. He nodded and looked at Dad who was harder to read.
“But you mustn’t be abusive in these letters,” Mum added.
“I’m not.”
“Or threatening, or use any foul language.”
“I don’t. I wouldn’t. I never have. I jus’ tell the truth. We all just tell the truth and ask ’em to stop. To save all the animals like they’re s’posed to.”
Dad still didn’t say anything.
Mum nodded. “Good, okay.”
Perceiving that the inquest was over, Luke left the room.
“Weird though,” Mrs Walker commented, “how did the police get our address? That creeps me out.”
Her husband shrugged. “I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation.”
****
Luke opened his bedroom door and grinned at his friend.
“What?” asked Joe.
“We’ve had a reply from Maybury!”
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More Luke Walker coming soon. For the first twenty chapters click here 😀
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vegan, vegetarian, vegan children, veggie kids, short stories, funny short stories, vegan short stories, vegan children’s stories, vegan children’s books, humour, animals, animal welfare, animal rights
For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 🙂
Story continues from Friday:
When he entered the kitchen Mum had her back to him but she knew he was there.
“I got a letter from the police,” she told him.
“About what?” asked Luke, trying to sound casual. Mum turned to face him.
“Luuuke!”
“Whaaat?”
“Your face!”
Luke rubbed his face and smeared the tattoo. “It’s alright, it’ll come off.”
“Is that my eye liner?”
Dad stepped out of the pantry and suppressed a smile. “Sit down please Luke, we need to talk to you.”
Luke sat down.
“The police seem to think I’ve been harassing the Maybury trustees,” said Mum.
Luke raised his eyebrows. “Why would they think that?”
“I can’t imagine,” said Mum, “unless someone else has been writing letters and signing my name on them.” She clearly thought it was him but it wasn’t. He wouldn’t do that. Why would he? That would be a very stupid thing to do. Anything that led back to her led back to him. He never signed his letters and he certainly didn’t put a return address on them. So how had the police got her name and address? Was he being watched? Was he under police surveillance? What else did they know? This was very troubling indeed.
There was, in fact, a very simple explanation. For over two years the Secret Society of animal stick up for-ers had been writing to Maybury Centre for Animal Welfare, asking them to make their cafe vegan. At first Luke wrote once a week, sometimes twice. But when the Society realised the charity trustees were the decision-makers they decided to write directly to them. There were six trustees so that meant writing six letters a week and stamps became prohibitively expensive. But Luke wasn’t going to let a little thing like insufficient funds prevent him from doing something this important. So, he continued to write and when he didn’t have enough money for the stamps he scavenged them from his mother’s purse. He was sure she wouldn’t mind. After all, it was Mum who suggested he write to them in the first place. A couple of times, when there were no stamps to be found in her purse, he had hidden his letters in a pile on the kitchen counter. Mum was quite a devoted correspondent herself. She wrote to her friend Margaret in Wales; to Uncle Max and Auntie Beatrice who lived in Torquay; and to a couple of old school friends, Kath and Myrtle, who had moved to Stoke-on-Trent and Edinburgh respectively. Sometimes there wasn’t much to tell them so she’d just write a brief note on a postcard but she always put whatever she was sending in a plain white envelope from the box in the sideboard. Luke was getting all his envelopes from the same box so it was easy to slip his letters into her pile without her noticing and then she would put stamps on them at the post office by lifting the top right hand corner of each envelope just enough to add the stamp. He’d seen her do it. She never reviewed the names and addresses once she’d sealed the envelopes. What Luke didn’t know was that she also put one of her return address labels on the top left hand corner of each envelope in the same way.
Mum was staring at him, waiting for an answer.
“I didn’t do it,” he said truthfully. “I didn’t! Why would I?”
“Did you write offensive letters to these people?” asked Dad coldly.
“I just ask ’em to make the cafe vegan. Maybe that does offend ’em, I don’t know.”
“Nothing else? You’re not threatening or abusive?”
“No!” said Luke, annoyed at the accusation. “I jus’ tell ’em, like you said. I tell ’em I don’t like ’em sellin’ meat an’ fish an’ everything that’s cruel to animals, and I tell ’em they should know better. Stuff like that.”
Mum handed him the letter. “So how do you explain this?”
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Story continues tomorrow 😀
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vegan, vegetarian, veggie kids, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegan children’s book, juvenile fiction, humour, animals, animal rights, animal welfare
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