Tag Archives: children’s fiction

A Trip To The Beach

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I thought that I would try my hand at a short children’s story.

 

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Johny was bored. In fact he couldn’t remember having ever felt so fed up in his entire life. Dad had fallen asleep reading the paper while his mum sat reading some silly book with long words he couldn’t understand.

“I’m bored”.

“Why don’t you go and find someone to play with? There are lots of children on the beach, so many I can’t count them” his mother said laughing.

“Don’t want to. I’m bored” Johny said kicking sand in his mum’s face.

“You naughty boy!” Mrs Thomas said desperately attempting to clear her eyes of sand with a tissue. “Just wait until I get my hands on you!”

Johny felt guilty but he wasn’t about to apologise. Saying sorry was for wimps and he was no wimp. Before his mum had chance to get the sand out of her eyes Johny ran into the sea.

The water was cool. Johny kicked his legs sending water splashing high into the air. This was fun! Johny paddled away from the beach. He was no longer bored, this was much more interesting than reading a boring old newspaper or a book with words he couldn’t understand.

Suddenly the ground began to slope downwards. Johny felt that he was going to be sucked to the very bottom of the ocean.

“Help!” he cried his hands grabbing at an enormous chain of sea weed. Gosh the chain was thick, bigger even than his dad’s huge arms. The chain didn’t move.

“That’s lucky I thought that sea weed floated but this is attached to something. Its stopped me from drowning. If it moved then I’d be sucked to the bottom of the ocean” Johny said with a shiver.

Johny followed the chain down. It was attached to a large rock.

“I wonder if I can lift this rock” Johny thought.

He tugged at the chain. Nothing happened.

“You will move you stupid rock” he said digging his toes into the soft sand and pulling back with all his strenghth. Suddenly there was a loud pop followed by a gurgling sound. Johny found himself lying flat on his back in a puddle of water. A puddle that couldn’t be right!

“Now look what you have done!”

Johny looked up to see a star fish desperately trying to find some water to swim in.

“You have let the plug out!”

“But I didn’t mean to!”

“That’s all very well but the fact is that you pulled the plug out and soon I and the other creatures who live in the sea will have no water to swim in. Without water we will die!”

Johny began to cry.

“I’m very sorry I didn’t know that the sea had a plug”.

“Your bath has a plug doesn’t it?”

“Yes of course”.

“Well then it should be obvious to an intelligent little boy like you that the ocean has a plug. How else do you think the sea god controls the tide? But the sea god only opens the plug hole a little bit so that I and the other creatures have time to swim far out into the ocean before the water disappears. There are lots of plugs all over the world and you have pulled one of them out completely!”

“What can I do? I’m very sorry Mr star fish, please just tell me what I can do”.

“See that cave over there?” the star fish asked pointing in the direction of a small cave in the cliff face.

“Yes”.

“Run as quick as you can and turn the taps on”.

“The taps?”

“I thought that you where a clever little boy. Yes the taps. Your sink and bath at home have taps don’t they to fill them up? So how else do you think that the sea god fills up the ocean?”

“Wow I didn’t know that” Johny said. As quick as a flash Johny raced to the cave. Inside he found a huge tap built into the cliff face.

“I’ll never be able to move that” Johny thought looking sadly at the enormous tap, “but I must otherwise all those poor sea creatures will die and it will be all my fault”. Taking hold of the tap Johny turned with all his might. At first nothing happened but, gradually a stream of salt water began to flow from the secret pipes hidden far below the sea bed. The sea level began to rise. Johny could see small waves dancing in the sunshine.

“Thank you little boy” the star fish called as he headed out into the deep blue ocean.

 

The end

Was Enid Blighton A Racist?

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Plans to celebrate the work of the children’s writer Enid Blighton have led to controvasy in the Buckinghamshire town of Beaconsfield (United Kingdom) where the author lived for a significant portion of her life. Some inhabitants are claiming that Blighton was a racist and a snob and, as such her life and works should not be celebrated. Others argue that Blighton and her work should be viewed in the context of the mid twentieth century when atitudes to race and social class where less enlightened than they are today.

I have happy childhood memories of my grandfather reading the Famous Five and other books written by Enid Blighton aloud to me. At that time it never occurred to me that Blighton might be a racist, a snob or any of the other unflattering labels which her detractors are now pinning on the long deceased author (she died in 1968).

Racism and snobbery are obnoxious traits and are rightly deplored by civilised individuals. It is right that we have laws to prevent discrimination on the grounds of race, however it is unfair to judge Enid Blighton by today’s standards. As pointed out above she grew up in an era when Britain still possessed an empire and this shaped her view of the world and, very possibly inbued the writer with attitudes which most people rightly condemn today. However Enid Blighton was far from unique in holding such views and if we follow the logic of her detractor’s then surely Kipling’s works should also be consigned to the dustbin as he was (undoubtedly) a racist and an imperialist.

The fact is that a writer may possess views which we disagree with very profoundly. We may, however still regard them as great writers. Are we to stop reading Kipling because his words “lesser breeds without the law” (see his poem Recessional) jar with our modern sensabilities? The answer has to be a resounding no!

We must so far as is possible separate the writer from their work. Some say that Enid Blighton was not a nice lady. This may or may not be true, however it is irrelevant as a writer’s niceness or lack of it does not (and should not) affect how we view the worth of their literary output. A man (or woman) may have treated their family terribly, however if they are a great writer then that is what they are.

In the case of Enid Blighton people of every race and religion continue to enjoy her work which does, surely say a great deal about the quality of her writing.

I don’t like witch hunts and the whole Blighton issue has the potential to turn into something rather nasty. Lets judge authors on their writing and leave aside so far as is humanly possible whether they are “nice” or any other label one cares to put on them.

For the Telegraph’s article on Enid Blighton please visit http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9870065/Town-torn-over-celebrations-of-Enid-Blytons-racist-work.html.