The Indie Collaboration Presents
Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice:
A Second Children's Story Collection
Another collection of children’s stories and poems from The Indie Collaboration. Once again we take you to far-away lands of magic and moonbeams, wishes and daydreams, cookies and ice creams.
I can't wait to go back. Can you?
ISBN: 9781310958946
Edited by Chris P. Raven and Kristina Jacobs
Copyright retained by the Authors
Cover Art by Book Birdy Designs
The Indie Collaboration grew out of a group of like-minded independent authors. Together, we decided to show the world how great works of fiction can be created without the involvement of any large publishing companies; creating a direct channel between ourselves and our readers is of the utmost importance to us. Each author has freely donated their time and work and are committed to the Indie Collaboration's cause of:
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CONTENTS
Reflections by Dani J Caile
Sister Abigail and the Naughty Penguin by Dorothy Seers
A Poem Called "Emily" by Peter John
Kiwi and Kiki: Elephants Don’t Live in Houses by Margene Wiese-Baier
No Fair by Chris Raven
Caring For Your Kid: An Owner's Manual for Cats by Kristina Jacobs
Chocolate (Everything) by James Gordon
Diddly Squat’s Adventure by Rowan Blair Colver
Little Gems by Dorothy Seers
Tommy Tentacles and Mr Fox by Dani J Caile and Nanny Shorey
All the Kings Horses by Peter John
For the Love of a Cat by Kristina Jacobs
The Adventures of Sunny and Pandora Bunny by Margaret Wiese
My Favorite Little Cowgirl - Margaret Ann by Margene Wiese-Baier
Go Tell Me When the Bus is Due by Dorothy Seers
Terrance the Shy Hedgehog by Rowan Blair Colver
The Selfish Princess by Chris Raven
Enter: Eric by James Gordon
The Foots Cray Meadow Adventure by Peter John
A Day in Penny’s Life by Alan Hardy
Hi! My name is Kobie… by Margene Wiese-Baier
Lou and Stu by Peter W. Collier
About the Authors
Other Publications
Reflections
By Dani J Caile
Miss Thompson says I never pay attention,
Always staring out of the window, daydreaming, she says.
But I'm not such a bad kid, I get passes...most days.
Though she has talked to my parents a few times.
"Emily could do better," she says.
"If only she'd stopped looking out of the window."
Yes, I do look out at the playground and street.
Especially the Games lessons, they look so neat.
I wish I were out there, in the fresh air and wind,
And not stuck in this classroom with these horrible kids.
But Miss Thompson, I've really got to say
That windows work both ways
Or however they do.
Not only can I see what's happening outside,
But if I focus on the reflection there's more besides
Trees and people, concrete and balls.
I can see all around me, inside these four walls.
My classmates, at my own fantastic classmates.
There's Griff, the class bully,
Pulling poor Jenny's hair,
There's the twins making paper planes
Flying them everywhere.
Flying them everywhere!
Little Teddy likes scribbling his name in his desk,
And James eats so much that there's always a mess
On the floor under Miss Thompson's long nose.
Annie and Denise play with their little pink dolls
Behind their raised folders until Miss Thompson calls.
Alex breaks pencils, about one every hour,
No one is bothered so long as they're not ours.
Griff likes to drop water bombs into bags
And watch the sad victim scream and get in a strop.
Oh, and detention for those who stand up and go nuts.
Every day there's a message running through the whole class,
Passed from desk to desk about who knows what and how.
Sometimes it's a love letter,
Sometimes it's abuse
But it eventually lands somebody up in the noose.
Gestures are king in the class, I can see.
There's kissing-blowing, hand gestures and sometimes picking a nose.
Then eating the bogey and listening to groans.
There's even a bit of extortion I see,
With nasty Dick Everson taking money from Bobby McFlea.
I stopped that, I did, with a small written note,
Placed hidden inside Miss Thompson's coat.
Vanessa has long hair which she sleeps behind,
And Doris reads any old book which she finds.
I also know who stuck Miss Thompson's pen to her board,
And it wasn't Mike Jefferson Lord.
That would be me.
Emily.
© 2015 Dani J Caile
Illustration courtesy of Vladimir Zuñiga of Foca.tk
Sister Abigail and the Naughty Penguin
By Dorothy Seers
Sister Abigail is a nun. She wears a long black dress called a habit with white around her shoulders. She also wears a black hood with a white underneath called a wimple. Sister Abigail lives in a big house with other nuns and she absolutely loves animals.
On her days off, Sister Abigail likes to go to the Zoo and she likes to talk to all the lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes and monkeys. On this particular day Sister Abigail took some small fish with her as she wanted to spend some time talking to the penguins. There was one certain little penguin who even talked back.
“Gwark!” said the little penguin in a very loud voice.
“Hello little Penguin.” Said Sister Abigail and she threw him a fish, which he hungrily gobbled up.
That afternoon, when Sister Abigail got home, she stood on her doorstep and looked in her handbag for her front door key.
“Gwark!” said the little penguin in a very loud voice. Sister Abigail looked round. The Naughty little penguin was looking up at her.
“Hello little Penguin.” Sister Abigail said and she picked him up and took him into the house.
Sister Superior, the nun who was in charge of the house, said the little penguin must have escaped from the zoo and followed Sister Abigail home. Sister Superior told Sister Abigail to take the naughty little penguin back to the zoo right away.
“Gwark!” said the naughty little penguin in a very loud voice. Sister Abigail picked him up and took him into the kitchen.
“I think you are hungry,” said Sister Abigail and she opened a tin of tuna, which she tipped onto a plate and gave to the penguin, who hungrily gobbled it up.
“Gwark!” said the naughty little penguin in a very loud voice.
“I think you are far too heavy to carry all the way back to the Zoo,” said Sister Abigail, so she found a shopping trolley in the cupboard under the stairs and put the naughty penguin in it.
“Gwark!” said the naughty little penguin in a very loud voice.
“I think you will get too cold,” said Sister Abigail, so she found a blanket and wrapped it all around the naughty little peng
uin so that only his head could be seen poking out the top of the shopping trolley.
“Gwark!” said the naughty little penguin in a very loud voice.
“I think it is time you went back home,” said Sister Abigail, so she wheeled him out of the house in the shopping trolley and started walking down the street towards the zoo.
“Gwark!” said the naughty little penguin in a very loud voice.
“I think you are glad to be back home again,” said Sister Abigail as they walked through the zoo’s front gate. Sister Abigail found the zoo-keeper’s office and knocked on the door. The zoo-keeper was surprised to see the naughty penguin’s head poking out of the shopping trolley. He was very pleased to see the little penguin, but he still waggled a cross finger at him for being so very naughty to have escaped from the zoo.
“Gwark!” said the naughty little penguin in a very loud voice.
The zoo-keeper thanked Sister Abigail for bringing the naughty little penguin home and said she can visit the zoo whenever she liked and that she didn’t have to pay to get in anymore. When Sister Abigail got home from the zoo, she opened the front door and was about to go indoors when…
“Gwark!” said the naughty little penguin in a very loud voice.
“Oh no!” Sister Abigail said, “Not again.”
The End
© 2015 Dorothy Seers
Illustration courtesy of OpenClipArt
A Poem Called "Emily"
By Peter John
I'm hungry.
What's for dinner?
I'm hungry.
When is it ready?
I'm hungry.
Can I have some crisps?
I'm hungry.
What's for pudding?
I'm still hungry.
© 2015 Peter John
Illustration courtesy of OpenClipArt
Kiwi and Kiki: Elephants Don’t Live in Houses
By Margene Wiese-Baier
“Oh, mommy! I want an elephant, Aurora said one day. “Mommy, I really want two, a sister and a brother, so they won’t get lonely!”
“Aurora honey, elephants don’t live in houses, so I can’t get you any elephants.”
Aurora was persistent. “But mommy, baby elephants aren’t that big and they can stay with me in my bedroom. Mommy, I promise will take good care of them.”
Aurora started wheedling, “Please, Please… I really want some elephants. I want one that has tousled hair on top of his head… and Mommy, his name will be Kiwi…and Kiki will have bigger ears, and will flap them when she is happy.”
Again Mommy tried to appease Aurora, and tried hard to explain why she just couldn’t have elephants living in her bedroom.
For the next few days, it was like Aurora seemed to understand and she didn’t mention it to her mom anymore…
Mommy just didn’t know Aurora didn’t do any such thing. She was praying for her little Kiwi and Kiki. Her heart was set, and there was no forgetting them.
Then the unthinkable happened… at church they were planning a mission trip to Africa and it was one that mommies and daddies could take their children on too!
Mommy sat there in amazement … A mission trip where she could take Aurora. She someday wanted to go on a mission trip, but thought she would have to wait until Aurora was grown up.
So, the adventure began…they only had a month to get ready. She knew if she was to go, God had to make it happen. One good thing is she was waiting to go back to teach at the University, but her funds were getting thin.
It was amazing … soon someone heard about the mission trip and gave her all the money that was needed for the flight and incidentals in Africa. On this trip, since children will be with them they would stay at a hotel. (Thankfully, the hotel had special rates for missionaries.) They would then go out to local churches where they were planning on building orphanages and help out with medical missions.
On the way to the land where the orphanage was going to be built, there was an animal sanctuary. It was a place where many animals lived.
Soon, the time came and they were off to the airport. Aurora was so excited. Mommy didn’t tell her about the possibility of seeing elephants because she wanted it to be a big surprise. Aurora was just so excited to be going somewhere special with her Mommy.
The flight went smoothly. Mommy let Aurora sit by the window, so she got to see all the different animals when they got to Africa. Aurora could hardly contain her excitement when she saw the elephants! But, they looked so small from high up…and the zebras were so beautiful.
They touched down and went into the airport…
“Wow!” Aurora thought. She’s never seen so many people in one place. She was so excited. Mommy thought she asked a lot of questions on the plane, but now the questions just poured out.
Aurora wanted to know what they were going to do first. Mommy explained they needed to go to the hotel first and that they would go to a meeting with the other people that went on the mission trip.
“Great!” Aurora said. “I get to go too!” Aurora was used to staying with a babysitter while mommy went to meetings. She felt so grown up.
The local church sent cars to take them all to the hotel. There was a lot of hugs and excited talk, then everyone got in the cars and were off to the hotel. When they arrived everyone was very happy to see that it was a nice hotel.
Everyone had dinner, and then went to the meeting. It was decided in the meeting that first thing in the morning they would go to the animal reserve and sanctuary to see the animals that lived in Africa.
Aurora was ecstatic! Still, nothing was said about elephants because mommy told everyone to be quiet about them. She wanted to surprise Aurora.
Aurora was dreaming about her little elephants all night long. In her dreams both Kiwi and Kiki lived in her house. Her house in her dream was really big and had a jungle room that had live trees and a creek that flowed through the middle.
At the beginning of the creek was a beautiful waterfall. The colors were so bright and beautiful in her dream. Both Kiwi and Kiki were just the right size for Aurora to play with and they followed her around like they were puppies. They would suck up water out of the creek and blow on each other and then turn to Aurora and nuzzle her gently.
In her dream, they could talk to her and would tell her how much they loved her and how they would never leave her. But, when she asked them about growing up they would grow silent because they knew their dream would go away then.
Aurora woke up in such a good mood. She was so excited, and just knew in her heart she was going to see Kiwi and Kiki in the real world.
Mommy quickly got ready and Aurora put on the clothes her mommy set out for her. They went to the restaurant in the hotel and had a scrumptious breakfast. It was mainly fruit and a special quiche. They ate with the rest of the missionary team.
The church members who had picked them up the night before at the airport picked them up again and drove them to the animal reserve and sanctuary. They knew the owners and all were treated like royalty. They especially liked Aurora. They loved her lovely, long hair with the curls on the end and admired her porcelain white skin. They all called her Princess Aurora.
Aurora loved them too and became quick friends with one of the little boys named Shaley. His eyes were as black as ebony and his hair had soft curls that shined in the light. His skin reminded her of chocolate.
He was very sweet with Aurora and wanted to show her all the animals. He knew every one of them and their names too. He let her know which ones she could pet and the ones that she needed to stay away from. Mommy was so happy to have Shaley’s help to keep Aurora entertained.
Aurora saw zebras, lions, a daddy lion, and a lion cub and African deer…even a pack of hyenas. That was really annoying. There were monkeys too, but she still didn’t see any elephants and was so disappointed!
Then, two little elephants came out of the corner where it was thick with trees and came running to Aurora.
“Kiwi! Kiki!” Aurora said and laughed.
Shaley was in shock “How did you know their names?”
Aurora just smiled and said, “I’ve dreamed about them.”
He smiled and seemed to be satisfied with her answer.
Kiwi and Kiki turned around to walk back into the forest. Mommy, Aurora, Shaley and some of the team followed Kiwi and Kiki and Aurora looked on in amazement to see that it looked just like her dream.
***
This is just the beginning of Aurora’s adventures in Africa with Kiwi and Kiki…the mission trip continues…it’s just the beginning of a whole adventure…
The End
© 2015 Margene Wiese-Baier
No Fair
By Chris Raven
Oh my gosh,
That's just not fair,
I can’t find my...
Oh it's over there.
Oh my gosh,
It's just not right,
I'm always blamed,