For the story so far click here 🙂
…. continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero, The Pretenders – Chain Gang
For the story so far click here 🙂
… story continues on Monday 🙂
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For the story so far click here 🙂
…. continues tomorrow 🙂
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For the story so far click here 🙂
…. continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero,
For the story so far click here 🙂
42 minutes later …
…. continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero,
For the story so far click here 🙂
…. continues tomorrow 🙂
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For the story so far click here 🙂
continues Monday 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero,
For the story so far click here 🙂
to be continued …
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For the story so far click here 🙂
continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero, vegan cafe, vegan food
For the story so far click here 🙂
continues tomorrow 🙂
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While you’re waiting, check out Vegan Hippo (it’s a real place don’t ya know) 😀
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, London, Westminster, Natural England, bovine TB, badger cull, farming, vegan superhero, vegan cafe, vegan food
For the story so far click here 🙂
continues tomorrow 🙂
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For the first five episodes click here 🙂
Episode six continues:
continues Monday 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, London, Westminster, Natural England, bovine TB, badger cull, farming,
For the first five episodes click here 🙂
Episode six continues:
continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, London, Westminster, Natural England
For the first five episodes click here 🙂
Episode six continues:
continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, London, Westminster, Natural England
For the first five episodes click here 🙂
Episode six continues:
continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, London, Westminster, Natural England
For the first five episodes click here 🙂
click to enlarge
continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story
For the whole story click here 🙂
Until next time 😉
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children’s story, children’s comic, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, detective story, vegan detectives, humour, illustration, ink drawings, vegan children, veggie kids, vegetarian, vegan, vegan children’s story, juvenile fiction, art
For the story so far click here 🙂
Will there be cake? Find out tomorrow 😉
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children’s story, children’s comic, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, detective story, vegan detectives, humour, illustration, ink drawings, vegan children, veggie kids, vegetarian, vegan, vegan children’s story, juvenile fiction, art
For the story so far click here 🙂
Join the guys at Django’s on Monday 🙂
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children’s story, children’s comic, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, detective story, vegan detectives, humour, illustration, ink drawings, vegan children, veggie kids, vegetarian, vegan, vegan children’s story, juvenile fiction, art
For the story so far click here 🙂
… continues tomorrow 🙂
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children’s story, children’s comic, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, detective story, vegan detectives, humour, illustration, ink drawings, vegan children, veggie kids, vegetarian, vegan, vegan children’s story, juvenile fiction, art
For the story so far click here 🙂
… continues tomorrow 🙂
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children’s story, children’s comic, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, detective story, vegan detectives, humour, illustration, ink drawings, vegan children, veggie kids, vegetarian, vegan, vegan children’s story, juvenile fiction, art
For the story so far click here 🙂
continues tomorrow 🙂
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children’s story, children’s comic, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, detective story, vegan detectives, humour, illustration, ink drawings, vegan children, veggie kids, vegetarian, vegan, vegan children’s story, juvenile fiction, art
For the story so far click here 🙂
…. continues tomorrow 🙂
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children’s story, children’s comic, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, detective story, vegan detectives, humour, illustration, ink drawings, vegan children, veggie kids, vegetarian, vegan, vegan children’s story, juvenile fiction, art
Continues Monday 🙂
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children’s story, children’s comic, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, detective story, vegan detectives, humour, illustration, ink drawings, vegan children, veggie kids, vegetarian, vegan, vegan children’s story, juvenile fiction, art
…. the search continues tomorrow 🙂
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children’s story, children’s comic, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, detective story, vegan detectives, humour, illustration, ink drawings, vegan children, veggie kids, vegetarian, vegan, vegan children’s story, juvenile fiction, art
…. continues tomorrow 🙂
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For the uninitiated, Sherman and Geynes: Vegan Sleuths starts here 🙂
And now begins chapter 3:
continues tomorrow 🙂
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children’s story, children’s comic, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, detective story, vegan detectives, humour, illustration, ink drawings, vegan children, veggie kids, vegetarian, vegan, vegan children’s story, juvenile fiction
continues tomorrow 🙂
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See you next year 😀 ❤ ❤ ❤
******
Kingthings Gothique font by Kevin King
available for download from font squirrel
Jingle Bells – Country Take from http://www.freexmasmp3.com/
Click for Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Denzel the dog 🙂
I found this fantastic pattern online and decided to have a go at adapting it to make The English Family Andersons’ bus 😀
The beauty of this pattern is that the bus can be played with inside and out. As I type, Miranda is making little people (the Andersons) to live in it 😀
So, I began with red for the outside of the bus …
… and then made another piece in multi-coloured yarn for the inside. The Andersons have decorated their home very colourfully so I did what I could, with the colours I had, to reproduce their bus interior.
I made the other outside and the other inside long side of bus and then made the front and back ends, inside and out:
I ran out of bright red yarn, so I had to finish the outside of the bus in the closest colour I had which was a sort of burgundy. I decided that it didn’t matter because the colour of old buses does fade 🙂 Of course at this point I am not following the VW camper design, I’m trying to make it look like Old Red.
The outside piece for the front of the bus includes the colours for the headlights, number plate, radiator and the bus number above the window.
So that was eight pieces done – four insides and four outsides. Then it was time to add some buttons 🙂
The Anderson’s bus has two headlights on either side so I sewed some white buttons in position for them. Unfortunately I don’t have any bright orange buttons for the indicators so I had to leave that for now. I might add those with yarn later.
I added some black stitches to the radiator. Then it was time to start putting it together.
To make the bus rigid, the campervan pattern provides templates to cut out pieces of plastic grid to fasten between the knitted pieces, however I decided to make these out of card. I flattened out a knitted piece as well as I could on some stiff cardboard, drew round it and cut it out. I didn’t cut out the individual windows, just one big window to go between the knitted windows. The knitted frames is all that’s needed to separate them. You’ll see what I mean. The cardboard inserts need to be sized so that the knitting needs to be stretched taut to cover them.
I pinned together the top and one end of the inside and outside of one side of the bus with wrong sides facing together. Then I sewed it.
Then I put the matching cardboard cut-out between them and stretched the knitting flat across it so that I could pin it in place at the bottom and opposite end. I finished sewing all the way round the outside and then around the window frames. I sewed the inside and outside knitting of the window frames together, tucking all loose ends inside, out of sight. As I’ve said before, I am not neat at needlework, but that doesn’t matter. It seems to work out somehow.
That’s all I’ve got so far but I’m looking forward to putting the rest of it together. Then I can get started on the furniture! I’ll keep you posted 😉
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Here’s how:
First, find a pattern. I used this one but there are plenty of others to choose from, including lots of free ones you can download. So, I won’t give you pattern details, you can just download whichever pattern you fancy and then make her look like Reflecto Girl. If you don’t know how to knit you can learn
Or, if you don’t want to do that, you can make a rag doll instead 🙂
Anyway, this is what I did:
As per the pattern, first I knitted the legs. I used DK (Double Knitting thickness) acrylic yarn from the bag of oddments in the attic – no need to buy anything new, and if you don’t happen to have lilac, I know Renée wouldn’t mind her outfit being a different colour.
Then I pinned and sewed the back of leg and top of foot seams
and stuffed them with cut up bits of an old cotton T-shirt (no need to buy stuffing – recycle all the way!)
Then I knitted the body. I thought Renée would like a pretty cream vest with a pink decorative stripe close to the bottom edge.
I sewed it, stuffed it and attached it to the legs.
Then I made and attached her head,
followed by her arms.
Then it was time to do her hair, which I was very much looking forward to. I started with the fringe by just sewing some gorgeous orange yarn into her head making sort of loops between the top of her head and her face, just above where her eyebrows would be.
Making her gorgeous long locks was quite time consuming but worth it. I sewed the yarn into the back of her head, alternating between a small stitch to hold the yarn in place and then a long loop which reached down her back. Then another small stitch, then another long loop. The stitches began at the top of her head and gradually covered the top three quarters of it so that she wouldn’t have any bald patches. When her scalp was covered I cut the loops so that she had thick, long hair.
Then I sewed on some eyes and ….
… some lips. I’m not a neat sew-er but that doesn’t matter, just have fun with it 🙂
Then I made her top (included in the pattern) and embroidered – if you can call it that 😉 – the Reflecto Girl logo on the front 🙂
And then of course she needed a mask! This is not included in the pattern so you’ll just have to make it up – you can do it! What I did, if you’re interested, is
Then I sewed in the ends of yarn and tidied up the eye holes with a couple of stitches sewn with the same yarn so they’re invisible 🙂
Yes, ok, I know it looks like a giant sleep mask, but if you look carefully you can see her little eyes through the holes. Come on, use your imagination 😉
And that’s not all –
she had to have her red Wonder Woman bag! Accessories are the best!
For this I cast on ….. oh, you know what, I can’t remember how many stitches or rows I did – basically you need it to be about this big against the doll. Knit a simple rectangle that can be folded and sewn into a bag this size. I attached a press stud so that it can be fastened.
Her bag has a picture of Wonder Woman’s face in a circle on the front – remember? Luckily I had a scrap of fabric with circles on, just the right size.
So I drew Wonder Woman’s face in the circle, cut it out and sewed it to the front of the bag 🙂
Oh, and I knitted a long handle to make it a shoulder bag. Three stitches, size 10 needles, stocking stitch (ie 1 row knit, 1 row purl) until it’s long enough for the doll to wear over her shoulder like so:
Now, Reflecto Girl wouldn’t be Reflecto Girl without her …
… Dounto! So I made one. It needed to be just the right size to fit in her bag 🙂
The card I used was quite thin so I cut out two to stick together and make the ‘mirror’ stronger.
On one side I drew round a smaller circle to make the mirror glass.
Then I added the Celtic-ish symbols and letters …
… and coloured it in 🙂
All done! Reflecto Girl has everything she needs to get the job done!
Let’s play!
Why don’t you make yourself a Reflecto Girl doll? There’s lots of fun to be had.
***
Now, I need to make a Distracto Boy, and a Venus Aqueous, and a Megan and a Flos , oh, and an English Family Anderson! – it’s a good job I’ve got a big bag of yarn oddments 😀 It’s going to be a busy weekend 😉
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crafts, home made, knitting, toys, action figures, vegan, veggie kids, vegan superhero, things to make and do
So Luke had new shoes. Mum said it would be a good idea to wear them around the house for an hour on the first day, then two hours the next, gradually increasing the time until they were comfortable enough to wear all day.
“Wouldn’t have had to do this with plimsolls,” thought Luke as he paced up and down his bedroom.
A week later he wore them to school. He had to admit it was good timing because it had started to rain and it wasn’t pleasant being stuck in wet socks all day. His new shoes kept his feet dry. He would say that for them. And he got a few compliments. Joe said he liked them, and so did Eddie and Susan. Miss Shaw said they were very smart, which undermined his confidence in them a little, but at least Mrs Tebbut hadn’t been impressed. At lunch time Luke changed into his plimsolls for football on the playground – hard, shiny shoes just weren’t good for running in. When the bell went he returned to the cloakroom to change back into his shiny shoes and found Simon Butler looking at them. Luke scowled.
“Wouldn’t have thought you’d wear them ,” said Simon smugly, “that makes you a hypocrite.”
Luke had no idea what a hypocrite was but knew that if Simon Butler was calling him one, it wasn’t something nice. He assumed he was making some derogatory remark about the shoes and decided he was glad that Butler didn’t like them. He didn’t like the stupid stuff Butler wore either.
“If I’m a hypocrite so are you – that horrible jumper makes you the biggest hypocrite in the world for wearing it!” said Luke as he walked away, very satisfied with his comeback.
Simon laughed.
“You don’t know what hypocrite means do you?”
Luke blushed. Simon enlightened him.
“It means someone who doesn’t practice what they preach. You say you won’t eat animals because you don’t want them killed but you’re wearing cow skin on your feet!”
“I am not!” Luke shouted, “these shoes are made of sprayed canvas, stupid! Don’t ya think I made sure o’ that before I let me mum buy ’em? Don’t ya think I’d make sure o’ that?”
Butler smiled his insufferable smile.
“Those are made of leather, it says so on the label. Leather is cow skin!”
Luke trembled with indignation. He knew Butler was lying because he’d seen the label inside his shoe. The word ‘leather’ was not on there. They had an audience now, the whole class was gathering round, eager to see who would get the last word. Luke would not let it be Butler. He took off one of his shoes, looked inside it and then proudly held it up for everyone to see.
“I do not kill animals! I do not pay for animals to be killed! I do not eat animals and I do not wear animal skin!” he said with gravity.
“What is going on out here?” Mrs Tebbut entered the cloakroom in search of her missing class.
“Mrs Tebbut,” said Simon politely, “we were wondering what this means,” he pointed to the label inside Luke’s shoe.
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Story concludes tomorrow, but you can read to the end here now if you don’t want to wait 🙂
Luke Walker and the new shoes
Luke was having a stressful day.
“It’s not fair!” he thought, “I don’t want new shoes; I don’t need new shoes.”
He looked down at his left plimsoll for proof and was satisfied that he could hardly see his big toe.
“In fact,” he said out loud, “I’m sure if someone who dint know it was there looked at my feet, they wun’t notice it at all.”
Mum disagreed. She quite unreasonably insisted that a big toe sticking through a hole in one’s shoe was an unmistakable sign that it was time to get new ones.
It was 4.17pm. Luke and Mum were in the fifth and final shoe shop their home town had to offer.
“This is it Luke,” Mum said testily, “this is the last one. We will be buying shoes from this shop.”
She picked out four different styles and put them down in front of him.
“Choose one.”
Luke looked at them with disgust.
“ Brown? You want me to wear brown shoes? I am not wearin’ brown shoes!”
Mum removed the two brown ones and, through gritted teeth said of the remaining two,
“Choose one of these or I will choose for you!”
If he had to have new shoes when he didn’t even need new shoes he would have chosen blue ones. He would have chosen blue plimsolls. They were comfortable. They were good for running in. And blue happened to be his favourite colour. But Mum said plimsolls were not proper shoes. She said they were not suitable for wearing in wet weather. She said they were not smart enough for school. She said he had to have those shiny sort of hard shoes that give you blisters for the first two weeks. Luke had put up strong resistance all day long but now it looked like he would have to compromise. It came down to two different black shiny shoes and one of them had tassels.
It was clear that he wasn’t going to get the plimsolls so the best he could do was make sure he didn’t get the tassels. He chose the lace-ups. Mum exhaled.
“Finally,” she said.
After Luke had tried them on and walked up and down on the carpet in them, and Mum had squeezed the toe ends of them to see how much growing room there was, the shop lady boxed them up. But just as Mum was about to pay, Luke remembered something. He’d heard a horrible rumour at school which he hoped wasn’t true but he had to be sure. He’d heard Katia tell Susan that shoes are made of cow skin! It was too shocking to contemplate and Luke had assumed Katia, who was always melodramatic, was making it up to get attention. But could she have been telling the truth?
“What are they made of?” Luke asked the shop lady.
“These are made from quality …..”
“Canvas!” Mum interrupted, “they’re made of the same material your plimsolls are made of but they’re sprayed with a special substance that makes them hard and shiny.”
Luke was surprised at his Mum for rudely interrupting someone who was already talking. The times she’d told him off for doing that. And the shop lady was obviously surprised at her too as she looked at her quite strangely. But in a way Luke was glad to discover his Mum didn’t always do everything right. It made her a bit more human.
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continues tomorrow 😀
or you can read the whole story here now 🙂
continues tomorrow … 😀
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Once upon a time, high on a mountain peak, surrounded by fog night and day, lived a wicked wicked witch. She was tall and thin and had long bony fingers. Her fingernails were green and she had a hard heart from which her purple blood ran cold.
She awoke when the crow cawed and slowly creaked to her feet. She cooked her breakfast of four slices of freshly butchered piglet and two sheep intestine tubes filled with finely minced calf flesh and fried tomatoes and toast. She consumed it all with relish and washed it down with a tall glass of baby growth fluid squeezed from a cow.
After breakfast the witch wiped her greasy mouth with the back of her hand and put the dishes in the sink. It was time to go to work.
For many hundreds of years the witch had been working on her plan to turn the world into a dry, desolate, poisonous place, somewhere only she and the cockroaches could thrive. That may seem like a long time to you and me but to the witch, who had lived in her castle for over ten thousand years, it was nothing.
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vegan fairy tale, vegan story, vegan children’s story
It’s way past time for a new Fairy Tale and, since we’re approaching Halloween it’s the perfect time. So, on Monday, we’ll begin a scary new tale by Maud Earnshaw, illustrated by Beatrice Wilberforce:
The Wicked Witch’s Plan To Get Rid Of Everyone
Ooh, I’ve got shivers 😮
And, just to get you in the mood, here’s a poem (read it aloud, slowly) 🙂 :
“T-wit T-woo,” go the owls,
Sc-ratch and dangle, the spiders.
The witch is thinking, she frowns, she scowls,
New brooms fly by with riders.
***
A flickering light, the rising of smoke,
From the clearing, through the trees,
Gives away the location of quivering folk
Around the fire, on their knees.
***
In a fairy tale world with fairy tale rules
The wicked have much to fear.
They’ve been unkind, selfish, heartless fools,
Which won’t be tolerated here.
***
Fairy tales, creepy tales, mystical magic tales,
Castles and fairies and witches and ghosts.
Suspend disbelief for these ‘anything can happen’ tales,
Where innocents get rescued and evil gets smote.
See you Monday 😉
What? You don’t want to wait ’til Monday? Well, I wasn’t going to tell you this but …. ok, The Wicked Witch’s Plan To Get Rid Of Everyone was originally published with sinister black and white illustrations by the author and with the title The Wicked Wicked Witch and the Ruinous Manipulation – funnily enough it’s the story referred to in the video I showed you yesterday. Anyway, if you like it dark and sinister and don’t want to wait for Beatrice’s colourful version, you can read the story now at Maud’s place: https://thewickedwickedwitchandtheruinousmanipulation.wordpress.com/
Have fun! 😮
Watch it on YouTube, give it a thumbs up and, most importantly, SHARE IT! 😀
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vegan, vegan video, animals, animal farming, global warming, environment
By then it was time to get ready for Grandpa Wollemi’s Birthday tea.
Everyone was very excited.
There were crisps and cookies and mini pizzas;
there were crackers and pasta salad and pineapple on sticks;
and the big birthday cake, made entirely by Cedro, was the centrepiece.
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continues tomorrow 😀
but if you don’t want to wait you can read the whole story here now 🙂
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vegan children’s story, vegan children’s book, vegan cake, vegan party, vegan party tea, vegan birthday party
… when the buzzer went off he put on his oven gloves and carefully removed the cake from the hot oven. He took it out of the tin and put it on a wire rack to cool.
When it was cool, Cedro sliced it in half and spread jam in the middle to make a big jam sandwich cake.
Next, Cedro weighed out 4 ounces of icing sugar and sieved it into a bowl. To that he added about 3 teaspoons of water and 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence and stirred until the icing was thick and smooth.
He spread the icing on the cake.
Then he decorated it beautifully with deliciously sweet organic raisins.
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continues tomorrow 🙂
but if you don’t want to wait you can read the whole story now 😀
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vegan story, vegan children’s story, vegan children’s book, vegan picture book
While Cedro continued to ponder, Grandpa walked behind him, into the kitchen.
Grandpa picked up the biscuit tin, rattled it, put it back down and trudged back to the living room.
“That’s it!” thought Cedro, “Grandpa’s got a sweet tooth! I’ll make him a birthday cake!”
Cedro washed his hands and gathered together all the ingredients he would need. They were flour, baking powder, sugar, sunflower oil, water and vanilla essence. Then he carefully switched on the oven and set it to 160° centigrade.
continues tomorrow 🙂
but if you don’t want to wait you can read the whole story here now 😀
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#veganpicturebook, #veganchildrensstory, #vegankidsstory, #veganchildrensbook
Myrtle had made a mobile of a beautiful flock of origami birds for Grandpa to hang in his bedroom window. Grandpa adored birds.
Cedro would have loved to make him something like that but, though he had tried, he just couldn’t get the hang of folding paper.
continues tomorrow 😀
but if you want you can read the whole story now 😉
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#veganpicturebook, #veganchildrensstory, #vegankidsstory, #veganchildrensbook
By Edward Benn
Illustrated by Cynthia Barnett
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Everyone was excited because it was Grandpa Wollemi’s birthday.
Kauri had made him a lovely drawstring bag for holding his popcorn when he watched a movie.
Cedro would have loved to make him something like that but, though he had tried, …
… he just couldn’t get the hang of sewing.
Continues tomorrow 😀
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#vegan children’s story, #vegan children, #vegan children’s book, #vegan picture book
Continued from yesterday
*****
The two of them struck the back window with all their might, again and again. First there was a crack, then another and another. They just kept hitting it.
“Hey! Hey!” The man’s voice in the distance didn’t slow them down.
They were nearly there. There was a head-sized hole in the glass with cracks radiating from it. The boys put down their weapons and took hold of sections of glass between the cracks with their hands. They pushed and pulled, working them back and forth until they could be folded all the way down. Now the hole was big enough for Luke to climb in. Adrenaline masked the pain of the cuts on his hands as he tried to lift her. She was weak and limp and too heavy for him.
“Help me!”
Joe climbed in and between them they lifted her to the hole but they couldn’t lift her out because there was no one to hand her to. It was an oven in there.
“Just get her head outside so she can breathe,” said Luke, “then we’ll prob’ly ‘ave to jus’ push ‘er out.”
But before they did the hatchback opened and there stood the policeman. He lifted his dog and carried her a few steps to the cool shade of a large tree where he trickled water from a bottle over her mouth. The boys watched, not even caring how much trouble they were in. The police dog started to lick the water around her lips. Luke and Joe rushed towards her with cupped hands and she lapped up the water the policeman poured into them. They sat in the shade for some time. Eventually the policeman spoke.
“I only left her for a minute. I opened the front windows a little and parked in the shade of this tree, so I thought she’d be ok, just for a minute. But then I got held up by ……”
He paused, realising there was no point in making excuses.
“I just didn’t think I was going to be more than a minute or two. But I should have known I might be delayed; and the sun is constantly moving so the car wouldn’t have been in the shade for long.”
He shook his head, full of regret.
“And it only takes a few minutes for a dog to overheat and die.”
Luke and Joe said nothing. The dog wagged her tail.
“Good girl Sheba,” said the policeman, “you’re my good girl.”
He looked at the boys.
“And you boys are heroes. Thank you.”
****
Nan and Grandad were waiting by the phone for the police to call back with any news. Mum and Dad were frantically searching the park again.
“Marian,” said Dad, “they’re not here. I’m going to walk towards the town.”
“Wait! Look!” said Mum, pointing to the police car she could see pulling up outside Nan and Grandad’s house.
They both ran.
****
When all was explained and forgiven, everyone realised how hungry they were and Nan’s tea went down very well. It was too late to return the putters and Joe’s ball to the Park Keeper but Dad took Luke back to Swanspool the next day so that he could hand them in.
“… so I’m sorry they’re late,” said Luke after explaining the previous day’s events, “but we dint steal ’em.”
“I never thought for a moment that you did,” the Park Keeper said as he put them away.
*****
You can find chapters 1 to 5 of Luke Walker: animal stick up for-er on our ‘stories for age 8 and up’ page, and the first eight chapters are also available in paperback 😀
Continued from yesterday:
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Dad burst into Nan’s house trembling, half with anger, half with fear.
“That boy!” he said.
“What?” said Mum and Nan with alarm.
“They’ve gone! They’re not there! No sign of them on the putting green and the Keeper says they haven’t returned the gear. I’ve been all over the park – the toilets, the cafe, the tennis courts, the gardens. They’re not in the park!”
“Call the police!” said Nan.
****
“We need a policeman!” said Luke, triumphantly pointing to the police car at the end of the street.
Joe’s face flooded with relief and the two of them rushed towards it. The windows were quite steamed up so it was difficult to see inside. Luke banged on the window.
“Hello!”
A loud bark made them jump back. Luke laughed.
“Oh, that made me jump! But I weren’t scared. I’m not scared of dogs.”
He banged on the driver’s door window again.
“Hello! Police! We need the police!”
The window was open a bit at the top so Luke peeped in the gap.
“The policeman’s not in here,” he said, “just the dog.”
The dog didn’t bark again, she just panted.
“She’s really hot,” said Luke, concerned.
Joe remembered a sticker he’d seen on the door of the Co-op. The boys looked at each other and spoke at the same time.
“Dogs die in hot cars!”
It was an estate car and the dog was in the boot. She was lying down now, panting really fast, and had white foam around her mouth. The boys ran around the car trying all the doors and shouting for help. The doors were locked and nobody came. Both front windows were wound down a little so they held on to the top of the glass and tried to force them down further but they wouldn’t budge. This frantic activity did at least set off the alarm but still no one came. Then Luke remembered.
“The golf clubs!”
He grabbed the putters from the ground and handed one to Joe.
“Hit the glass as hard as you can!” he told him.
****************
The story concludes tomorrow 😀 but if you don’t want to wait, you can read it here now 🙂
Continued from yesterday:
********
Things were drawing to a close on the bowling green. Grandad’s team had not won but it had been a pleasant match and everyone was ready for tea. Nan and Grandad’s house bordered the park, just a three minute walk from the green, so Nan went ahead to put the kettle on while Grandad said cheerio to his team.
“I’ll go and round up the boys,” Dad volunteered.
Mum caught up with Nan.
****
Luke pressed the button and waited for the green man. When the traffic stopped and the green man lit up, they crossed the main road.
“See,” said Luke, “safe assouses!”
They both looked up and down for the ball with no more success than they’d had so far. Luke saw a side street which sloped downwards and guessed it had probably rolled down there. It hadn’t.
“I think we have to go back,” said Joe.
“I know,” agreed Luke reluctantly.
They walked up the side street until they reached the main road.
“The cinema!” said Joe with surprise, “I wonder if they’ve got the new Batman film.”
Luke would also have liked to check out the new Batman but first he wondered how come they hadn’t noticed the cinema on their way out. Had they passed it and not seen it? Or was this a different road? Luke looked at the other buildings in the street: a pizza restaurant, a chip shop, a key-cutting shop. None of it looked familiar. Well this road must be parallel to the other road. Luke felt sure if they took the next left they’d be back on track. They took the next left. Then the next right. Then they went straight ahead for a long time. They were completely lost.
“What’re we gonna do?” Joe was really worried.
Luke wasn’t entirely calm himself but he pretended he was.
“Let’s sit down for a minute to think,” he said.
It was so hot and they were really thirsty. They sat down on a bench and thought. Mum and Dad had mobile phones but Luke didn’t know the numbers. And anyway, there were no phone boxes.
“Just think!” Luke told himself, “I’m an outlaw. I can get us out of this.”
He looked up and down the length of the street and at one end of it he saw something that would solve everything.
******
Continues tomorrow 😀 but if you don’t want to wait you can read the whole story here
Continued from yesterday
*******
He was such a dependable friend. The two of them searched for almost ten minutes without any luck. Joe said the Park Keeper would probably understand if they apologised and explained what had happened but Luke wasn’t ready to give up yet.
“This pavement goes downhill,” he said.
“No it don’t, it’s flat,” Joe disagreed.
“Give me your ball,” said Luke.
He placed it gently on the pavement and it started to roll.
“See! It’s slightly downhill. If we follow your ball it will lead us to mine.”
“Ok,” said Joe, and they followed it.
It went past the chip shop and the laundrette; past the pub and the bingo hall. Joe looked back over his shoulder. He couldn’t see the park gate anymore and was a bit worried. Mrs Walker had told them to
1. stay together and
2. stay in the park.
He couldn’t do both so, after very little deliberation, he decided that ‘stay together’ was the more important rule. He hurried to catch up with Luke. The ball continued to trickle on but was slowing down because the slope levelled out just before it reached the main road. Joe’s ball came to a stop against a bulge in the asphalt. He picked it up and put it in his pocket.
“So where’s yours?”
“It must be here somewhere,” said Luke looking around.
His logic was flawless. The ball must have rolled in this direction. But it was nowhere to be seen.
“Well at least we tried,” said Joe, “I think we should prob’ly be gettin’ back to the park.”
“Just one more minute,” said Luke, “I know it’s here. It must be.” Suddenly he realised “someone prob’ly accident’ly kicked it. It’s prob’ly gone across the road!”
“Oh no!” said Joe as he looked at the busy traffic, “we’re not goin’ to cross the road!”
********
Continues tomorrow 😀 but if you can’t wait, you can read the whole story here
Luke Walker and the police car
Luke and Joe were on the putting green at Swanspool Gardens. They were on the sixteenth hole of an eighteen hole game and Joe was winning. Not by much, but he was winning. It was Luke’s turn.
“It’s so hot,” he said, wiping his face on his T-shirt, “I shun’t be surprised if that’s why I’m not getting’ ’em very quick. Usually I get ’em really quick.”
Joe, lying on the grass under the spray of the sprinkler, took his word for it. Luke eyed the distance and angle of the sixteenth hole from where he was standing. Should be straightforward enough. He even felt quite confident he could beat Joe’s three, in spite of the heat. Of course if he got it in one that would give him a chance of winning. It would at least demonstrate what he was capable of. Joe rolled away from the sprinkler.
“Haven’t you done it yet? Come on, I want another go.”
Luke struck the ball with his putter, a little harder than intended, and it sailed way past the hole, hit a tree, changed direction and finished up under the hedge. Joe laughed. Luke ran to fetch the ball. He patted the ground just under the hedge where he’d seen it go in but couldn’t feel anything. He laid down on his side against the hedge to see if he could see it. Yes. There it was. But it was too far to reach with his hand so he slid his putter under the hedge to try and knock it back out. Unfortunately this knocked it further away and it rolled out the other side and down the slope towards the pavement. Luke called to Joe.
“Jus’ goin’ to get my ball.”
“Leave it. You can share mine,” said Joe.
“It’s my ‘sponsibility to return the ball when I’ve finished playin’,” Luke replied with dignity.
The Park Keeper had treated him with respect by speaking to him like an adult and trusting him to return the hired equipment in as good a condition as he’d received it. Luke was not going to let him down. He had to leave the park to get the ball – something his parents had told him not to do.
They were watching Grandad in a bowling match on the other side of the tennis courts and had only let Luke and Joe go to the putting green on condition that they stay together and stay there until Mum or Dad or Nan came to fetch them. Under no circumstances were they to leave the park. But Luke was sure they’d want him to return the ball to the Park Keeper who had trusted him with it. And it was only just outside, on the pavement at the bottom of the slope on the other side of the hedge. So close to the park that it could hardly be called outside the park.
Luke ran along the hedge until he reached the gate. He exited the park and ran down the path to the pavement. He ran along the pavement in the opposite direction until he was level with what he thought was the spot in the hedge where the ball came through, though it was difficult to tell.
“Joe,” he called, “are you there?”
Joe’s voice came back from the other side of the hedge but it was a bit further along.
“I’m here. Can you see it?”
“Not yet,” said Luke, “but it must be here somewhere.”
He continued along the pavement until he was level with Joe’s voice and then looked carefully for the ball.
“Joe! I can’t find it! Come an’ help me!”
“We’re s’posed to stay here.”
“I know but it’ll be quicker if you help an’ then we’ll go back an’ no one will know.”
“Ok,” said Joe.
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continues tomorrow
but if you can’t wait that long you can read the whole chapter here 🙂
Continues tomorrow ….
but if you can’t wait ’til tomorrow, read it here now 😉
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#vegan fiction, #vegan children’s story, #vegan children’s book, #vegan rhyming story
Continues tomorrow …..
Or read the whole story now 😀
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#vegan children’s book, #vegan children’s story, #vegan rhyming story
How many friends could a Bibbolybob make if a Bibbolybob came to Earth? (which you can read in full here) has a post script:
ps
You might be interested to know that at one point during that afternoon, Herb noticed Wibbolywub had put down his notebook on the grass. As a gentle breeze turned some of the pages he was able to steal a look inside – and who could blame him? We’d all be curious about what someone was writing about us wouldn’t we?
Anyway, Herb didn’t actually understand most of what he glimpsed but he was pleased with himself for recognising the numbers. Some of them were big ones.
The following is what he saw:
and that really is the end 😀
***
How Many Friends Could A Bibbolybob Make If A Bibbolybob Came To Earth? by Edward Benn and Juliet Mahoney is available in paperback from Amazon so if you enjoyed it, why not give it a good review? I’m sure the authors would appreciate it 😀
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#vegan children’s story, #vegan children’s book, #vegan early learning, #children’s early learning book, #vegan bedtime story
And that’s the end of the story of Wibbolywub and the Earthlings but don’t go away, there is a Post Script which will be right here tomorrow 😀
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#vegan children’s story, #vegan children’s book, #counting book,
Violet's Vegan Comics 