Snin Gets Stuck
By Martin Gurdon.
(1. Geoff Loynes)
What's this? A free copy of one of a series of stories I've written for children aged 4-6, based on characters I thought lived in my family's garden when I was little -so they come from the mind of a child (or a childish adult. You decide). Please copy or print it.
All the stories are primarily intended to be read to children -something already tried with a twenty five-strong primary school class and individual small persons. This story is being offered to test the water for the others and generate comment and feedback (viz: what do you like? What would you change? Would you be interested in other stories about these characters in book form?). Let us know what you think on wingofwang@btinternet.com, and if you enjoy Snin Gets Stuck, please tell other people about it.
Who am I? I'm a freelance motoring journalist and author of Hen and The Art of Chicken Maintenance and Travels with My Chicken, two books on sex, death and domestic fowl.
Who drew the pictures? Geoff Loynes is a cartoon animator with credits including The Beatles' Yellow Submarine and Raymond Briggs' When the Wind Blows. Sarah Midgley is a graphic artist and book illustrator. Again, we're interested to know what you think of their drawings, which at this stage are work-in-progress renderings.
Where's the story? It starts below.
Snin the snail and his mysterious friend the Fonfon Fur look after a little garden filled with flowers and vegetables. When the Fonfon Fur decides to go to sleep for a week, Snin sets off to visit his Aunty Mollusc in the garden next door. He takes a short cut over the fence, and soon wishes he hadn’t.
‘I’m so tired I could sleep for a week,’ said the Fonfon Fur from inside its flower pot home. ‘In fact, I think I will.’
Snin the snail could only see the Fonfon Fur’s big round eyes looking out and blinking through a hole in the side of the flower pot.
The blinking got slower and slower as the Fonfon Fur got sleepier and sleepier. When they were open, the Fonfon Fur’s eyes looked like two moons with dots in the middle. When they were half closed they looked like two pudding bowls, and when they were closed they disappeared.
(2. The Fonfon Fur and Snin. Geoff Loynes).
Soon the Fonfon Fur’s eyes did close and it started snoring. When Fonfon Furs snore they go ‘Phew! Blub-blub-blub-blub-blub!’
‘This is boring,’ thought Snin. ‘I haven’t got anybody to talk to, and today I must go and visit my Aunty Mollusc in the garden next door.’
Snin’s Aunty Mollusc lived on the other side of the garden fence, close to where the Fonfon Fur was snoring. To reach her, Snin had to go all the way to the end of his garden to a hole in the fence, then all the way back to Aunty Mollusc. It took a very long time.
‘I shall climb up the fence, and down the other side,’ thought Snin. ‘It will be much quicker, although nothing is very quick when you’re a snail.’
So it still took quite a long time for Snin to get to the top of the fence, and when he arrived he needed a rest. He saw all the other gardens and houses, but he didn’t see Mrs Bootface the cat, running along the fence towards him. Mrs Bootface was thinking about getting to a nice warm piece of pavement where she could roll about on her back. She didn’t see Snin until –thump! - she accidentally knocked him off the fence with one of her paws.
‘Sorry,’ said Mrs Bootface, but she didn’t stop to help Snin, who had fallen into a bush. Snin bumbled and bounced through the leaves and berries and twigs until his shell jammed between two branches. He wasn’t hurt, but he was stuck a long way from the ground.
A warm summer wind blew through the bush and rocked Snin backwards and forwards. He could just hear ‘Phew! Blub-blub-blub-blub!’ as the Fonfon Fur snored.
Snin wriggled and wriggled, but this only made him more stuck.
‘Help!’ said Snin, but the Fonfon Fur kept snoring and didn’t wake up, and Mrs Bootface was now two busy rolling on the warm pavement to hear him.
Snin had been stuck for hours when a butterfly landed on his shell and asked: ‘what’s a snail doing halfway down a bush?’
‘I collided with a cat,’ said Snin. ‘Can you pull me out?’
‘I’ll try,’ the butterfly said. He got hold of Snin’s shell and pulled and heaved, but nothing happened. Eventually he said, ‘it’s no good, I’m too small. I shall ask my friend the moth to try and help you. She’s much bigger than me, but you will have to wait until it gets dark. She only flies at night.’
‘If only the Fonfon Fur would wake up,’ thought Snin. ‘Then it could come out of its flower pot and rescue me.’
(3. Geoff Loynes)
Later, the moonlight shone through the bush onto Snin’s curly shell, still stuck between the two branches. He could hear an owl going ‘Hoot! Hoot! Hoot!’ and ‘Phew! Blub-blub-blub-blub!’ as the Fonfon Fur snored.
Then he heard a soft ‘flap, flap, flap,’ and looked up to see a big, grey moth flying towards him.
‘Are you the snail stuck in the tree?’ asked the moth.
This seemed like a silly question to Snin, who was tired and cross. ‘No, I’m a hamster in a sandwich,’ he said.
‘In that case, you don’t need my help,’ said the moth, and flew away.
When the sun came up the next day the Fonfon Fur was still snoring and Snin was still stuck in the bush.
At lunchtime some ants tried to pull him out with a piece of spider’s web, but it was no good, and the next night a very sad, very hungry snail was still stuck in the bush, looking at the stars.
(4. Snin and friends. Sarah Midgley)
Then he heard the soft ‘flap, flap, flap,’ of moth’s wings. ‘I don’t think you’re a hamster in a sandwich. I think you’re a snail stuck in a bush,’ said the moth, ‘and I shall try to pull you out.’
The moth was much bigger and stronger than the butterfly. She flapped her wings and pulled Snin’s shell very hard. It moved a tiny, tiny bit, but then stuck again.
‘It’s no good,’ said the moth. ‘You must wait until the Fonfon Fur wakes up and rescues you.’
‘Oh dear,’ cried Snin. ‘That won’t be for days and days.’
‘Never mind,’ said the moth, as she flew away, leaving Snin feeling very lonely. Later on she came back with a giant strawberry and stuck it on a twig next to Snin.
‘Here’s something to eat,’
All Snin could do was listen to the Fonfon Fur go ‘Phew! Blub-blub-blub-blub!’ and eat bits of strawberry.
He’d been stuck in the bush and eating the strawberry for nearly a week when a voice said; ‘Excuse me, but you are in the way!’ The voice belonged to a short sighted millipede.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Snin, ‘but I’m stuck.’
‘This is very bad,’ said the millipede. ‘I can’t see very well, and I always go this way or I get lost. If I squeeze underneath you I might just get through.’
The millipede squeezed and squeezed, and Snin started to laugh, because he was very ticklish. The more the millipede pushed and wriggled, the more it tickled him.
‘You’re tickling me!’ he giggled.
‘I can’t help that,’ said the millipede, as it squeezed through.
Snin was laughing and wriggling so much that the branches holding his shell started to shake.
‘Ha, ha, haaa!’ laughed Snin as the branches wobbled some more, then suddenly they moved and he was falling out of the bush.
Snin landed on a pile of grass in his Aunty Mollusc’s garden.
‘It’s nice of you do drop in,’ she said, ‘but I was expecting you days ago, and I’ve got to go out now. Have some tea before you go home, and come to see me next week.’
Snin finally got back to his own garden just as the Fonfon Fur stopped snoring and opened its eyes.
‘Hello,’ it said. ‘I hope you weren’t hanging around waiting for me to wake up!’
THE END.
Text: Copyright rests with the author.
Illustrations 1, 2 and 3. Copyright, Geoff Loynes.
Illustration 4 and colour sidebar pictures. Copyright, Sarah Midgley.