大象传媒

It was Christmas Eve and my mum had ordered an alien toy for my brother, who had talked about nothing else.

I was watching the delivery movements, but suddenly everything stopped. What could have happened?

I opened the front door and, whoosh, I was buried in snow. Whilst usually this would be the happiest event of my life, today was not the day.

I thought, this snow is not so tough but with a few simple rhythmic gymnastics moves I can reach the delivery van.

I gathered my rhythmic gymnastics essential equipment - a hoop, rope, ribbon, ball and clubs, and strapped them to my ninja-like leotard.

I grabbed the two clubs and used them to dig my way through the snow-covered porch.

The blizzard was so strong I could not see the end of the driveway. Even if I could make it out, could I find my way back?

I reached over my shoulder and grabbed the ultra-long glow in the dark gymnastics ribbon. I tied one end to the doorknob and the other end around my waist.

Using my mother's phone as a compass, I could track the delivery van. It was at the bottom of the hill close to our house, but the path was blocked with snow.

I took out the rhythmic gymnastics ball, rolled it a bit and it started to gather snow.

Eventually it became a massive snowball, sucking up all the snow from the garden. It picked up speed until, smash, a shaking van appeared from the snow dust.

I could see the delivery man with an alien shaped object.

I tied the rope to the hoop and threw the most unbelievable lasso.

I pulled and the van driver pushed. He was rescued, along with the alien.

Christmas had been saved.

Once upon a time, there was a young stork who lived in a big nest with mum and dad stork.

Their home was at the top of an enormous boulder, next to a lake and this beautiful place was in sunny Spain.

Our feathery animal had become friends with a flock of geese, who spent their life in the water, being fed by humans.

They did not feel the need to fly to Africa for Winter. The sad thing was that most of the other storks did not want to travel there either, because they fed on landfills, and it was getting warmer during the winter months.

What a waste of energy! They thought. However, her parents were very traditional and insisted they should all migrate to a warmer continent for a while.

It was her first trip and she was scared. Given the option, she would have preferred to stay paddling around with her friends from another species.

The journey was exhausting. It took many days. When they eventually arrived, the weather was lovely, but they didn’t know anyone.

The little bird felt very sad. What a long journey for nothing!

After a good rest, she started to meet plenty of other travellers, coming from all over Europe.

Swallows and swifts, sand martins and doves, even cuckoos and waterfowl. They were all there, learning new birdsongs, trying new foods, flying together and admiring each other’s’ feathers.

It was an incredible experience. She had such fun that, when the extreme heat started, and it was time to go back, she really didn’t want to do that.

Ever since then, she impatiently looked forward to her milder winters in Morocco or Egypt, where her adventures were always exciting and fun.

Once upon a time there was a little rainbow bug. He was so sad because his friends would often laugh at him thanks to his rainbow colours.

One of the bugs never made fun of him as he had been taught to always be kind.

The kind bug told him about this magical lake that granted one wish.

So he set of with his friend to find the frozen lake so he could WISH to be normal.

On the way they met a polar bear and he said: ‘where are you two little bugs off in such a hurry?’

‘Oh heh heh… we are just going to the magical frozen lake so I can wish to look like all my bug friends.’

The polar bear said ‘why do you want a wish like that? You are beautiful just the way you are.’

The rainbow bug and his friend continued to search for the frozen lake until they finally saw the glittering sparkle of the last big chunk of ice floating on the lake.

The bugs were so shocked because the lake was supposed to be completely frozen.

The rainbow bug thought about the compliments he got from the polar bear.

He finally gave in and used his wish so the lake could stay frozen forever, and he stayed as he was, beautiful and unique.