WORLD STORYTELLING DAY: 2 STORIES TO READ TO YOUR LITTLE ONE

Celebrate World Storytelling Day on 20 March

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Make World Storytelling Day, celebrated on 20 March, extra special with two magical stories perfect for cuddling up and diving into a world of adventure, wonder, and fun!

STORY 1: NEO AND THE BIG WIDE WORLD

It is a grey, rainy day and Neo is bored. Then Gogo brings something very special to share with him – her favourite book from when she was a child…

Neo looked out the window of his room at the grey view of the grey street with all the wet, grey people hurrying through the grey, pouring rain. He couldn't go outside to play.

Just then, Gogo came in with her hair all twiggy from the wind outside. She was holding something. Neo could see that it was flattish and square-ish, and very colourful ... and it could open up - just like a treasure box!

“This was my favourite book when I was as young as you," Gogo told Neo. "It was my door to the big, wide world.”

Then, she opened the book. On the first page was a picture of a magical place, far away from the grey, grey day. The veld was green and gold and brown, with a great, big, blue sky above, and a warm, yellow sun baking down.

“Wow! Is that real?” Neo gasped. Gogo smiled. “Don't you know? All stories are real, if you believe in them,” she said. Then she pointed to the place on the page where a little boy, just about Neo's size, was walking across the veld.

As Gogo read, Neo closed his eyes and slipped away, over the hills ... across the great, brown earth ... off into the big, wide world. He heard the voices of the veld.

“Come out! Come out!” sang a bird.

“It’s a beautiful day!” chirped the cicadas.

“Come away, come and play,” whispered the wind in the long grass.

Neo remembered about the grey, pouring rain, and wondered if he should be out here. But in a story, you can do anything. There was no rain here. So, Neo set off across the veld.

The first thing he saw was tall and brown with a strong, wooden body. It had long, brown arms that reached up to the sky, and a big, twiggy head of leafy-green hair that swayed in the warm breeze.

“Hello,” said Neo, his eyes wide.

“What are you?”

“I am a tree. I can see all the way across the great, gold plains. Come up and look with me.” The tree reached out, and Neo climbed up.

From high up in the branches, Neo could see to the very edge of the world. And there was so much somewhere out there that it almost scared him to think of it. But the tree held him safe, and whispered, “Go and explore. Don’t be afraid. It’s a wonderful, big, wide world out there.”

So, Neo climbed down and went on his way across the veld.

Soon, he came across a mound of hard sand with little holes, like tiny doorways. He could hear a million busy voices inside, and the patter of six million tiny feet running about.

“Hello! Who are you?” Neo called into one of the doorways.

“Hello!” a tiny voice answered.

“We are ants. We tell the stories of the world in here. Do you want to hear some?”

Neo loved stories, so he sat down and listened. The ants told their stories of the veld and forest, and of the mountains and the cities beyond.

“So many stories?” Neo asked.

“There are as many stories as there are stars in the sky,” the ants answered.

Neo waved goodbye and went on his way across the veld.

Eventually, he came to a lot of water that rushed through the valley from morning till night. Neo stepped in to cool his hot legs. The water splashed at his feet and giggled, “I am a river. I roam from the mountains to the sea. Come, follow me. I’ll take you home.” Neo thought how good that would be. So, he followed the river across the valley and between the mountains.

Together, they wandered through the afternoon and almost into night until, at last, Neo reached a hilltop. From there, he could see a little town, washed clean by the rains and gleaming in the light of the setting sun.

Then the river gurgled gently, “Go on, go home. There are people who love you there, waiting to share stories with you.”

Neo went down, through the town. He saw the busy streets that rushed through the town, just like rivers. He saw houses, warm in the evening light. Inside them, people were busy, just like tiny ants.

Neo peered through a window where an old gogo, with strong arms and twiggy hair like the branches of a big tree, closed a book and bent to kiss her little boy goodnight.

Neo thought about the veld and the tree and the ants and the river. And as he watched the gogo, a rainbow lit up the little house in colours so bright it looked like a picture in a storybook.

Neo thought of his great adventure inside the pages of Gogo’s favourite storybook, and he thought of her and his little sister Mbali, and home.

So, Neo slipped through the book into his warm bed, in his cosy room, in his little house.

And that is why, whenever the world seems too grey, and his room seems too small, Neo opens a book. He steps through a door between the pages and goes off into the big, wide world.

By: Vianne Venter
Illustrations by Rico

STORY 2: WHY THE BAT FLIES AT NIGHT?

Mamanthwane the bat and Legotlo the bush rat were very good friends. But then he did something that changed both their lives forever.

Once upon a time, many, many moons ago, there was a bush rat called Legotlo. Legotlo was a close friend of Mamanthwane, a bat. The two of them were always together. Legotlo and Mamanthwane often ate together. When the bat cooked, the food was always very good.

“How is it that when you make the soup it is so tasty?” asked the bush rat.

“I always boil myself in the water, and my flesh is sweet. That’s what makes the soup so good,” explained the bat.

But he was lying because he was jealous of Legotlo. Legotlo had many friends, and everyone liked him more than the bat.

Mamanthwane offered to show the bush rat how it was done. He got a pot of warm water that was not hot enough to burn anyone, but he told Legotlo that the water was boiling hot. Then Mamanthwane jumped into the pot and quickly got out again. When Mamanthwane served the soup, it tasted as good as usual. Legotlo was amazed. The bat’s trick really does work, he thought.

After they had finished eating, the bush rat went home and told his wife that he was going to make soup as good as the bat’s. His wife asked how he was going to do that.

“It’s a secret!” said Legotlo.

He asked his wife to boil some water, which she did. When his wife was not looking, Legotlo jumped into the pot. Soon he was boiling in the water.

“Help me! Help me!” he screamed. “I am burning!”

The bush rat’s wife rushed to pull him out, but the damage had already been done. He was so badly burned that he had lost all his fur. His skin was red and pink from the hot water.

“Why would you get into a pot of boiling water?” his wife asked.

“Because Mamanthwane told me that’s what makes his soup taste really good,” said Legotlo.

When Legotlo’s wife looked at him and saw how injured he was, she cried. She took him to the doctor, but the doctor couldn’t help him. Instead, the doctor said that Legotlo would never grow fur again. When Legotlo’s wife heard this sad news, she was very angry! She reported the matter to the king and queen.

They ordered all the people of the village to find the bat so that he could be punished. Everyone turned up to search for the bat. But Mamanthwane had already heard about what was going to happen, so he had flown away into the bush and hidden himself. The people of the village looked and looked, but they couldn’t find the bat anywhere.

The next day, the people of the village made their way into the bush to see if they could find the bat there. They were right – they found Mamanthwane hiding in a tree.

They waited until he was asleep, then they caught him and took him straight to the king and queen. When they arrived at the royal house, Legotlo and his wife were already there. Mamanthwane was ashamed to look his friend in the eye.

“Why would you do this to me? We were best friends!” Legotlo said to the bat.

“Because I was jealous of you,” answered Mamanthwane. “You have everything that I don’t have, and everyone loves you and hates me.”

The people of the village were shocked at Mamanthwane’s response. They wondered why Mamanthwane hadn’t just asked his friend how he had managed to get everyone to love him.

Then the king said, “Well, you have just given everyone a reason to hate you even more.”

The king and queen ordered the guards to take Mamanthwane to jail.

The queen said, “Today, we will lock you up. Tomorrow, we will decide how to punish you!”

The next morning when the guards went to fetch Mamanthwane from his jail cell, he was not there. He had escaped and no one knew how. Legotlo and his wife were furious when they heard the news. The king and queen were also very angry.

They ordered the people in the village to search for the bat again. All day long the people tried to find and catch Mamanthwane, but they failed. Mamanthwane had found a cave far away from the village that no one knew about. The cave was hard to find. Mamanthwane also changed one of his habits – from that day on, he only came out to feed when it was dark. So that is why, even today, you will never see bats during the day. Only at night will you see them flying around.

NAL’IBALI – IT STARTS WITH A STORY!
This story was provided courtesy of the Nal’ibali reading-for-enjoyment campaign. For more information and to access children’s stories in all South African languages:

Visit www.nalibali.org or WhatsApp “stories” to 060 044 2254

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Retold by: Kgosi Kgosi
Illustrated by: Mdu Ntuli