Quite a few children who took part in our Summer Reading Programme wrote us some wonderful stories. Enjoy these bursts of youthful imagination!

The Magical Rainbow by Lara Wallace, aged 7
Once upon a time there was a rainbow, but this was not any type of ordinary rainbow, it was a magical rainbow! The rainbow used to be a great rainbow, but then one day someone took a bit off the rainbow. Then half of the rainbow was sad and another half was happy.

One day someone called Lilly (the cat) said to the rainbow, "I hope you have a good day today". The unhappy side of the rainbow said, "I'm sure I'm going to have a bad day". Then the happy side of the rainbow said, "I'm sure that I'm going to have a great day. "

"Oh good, I;m sure I'm going to have a great day as well", said Lilly.

Lilly lived with a cat called Mug, her best friend Lara, Phoebe and Martin. But the happy side of the rainbow, well he only had the unhappy side of the rainbow. For the whole day Lilly, the unhappy side of the rainbow and the happy side of the rainbow talked. When it was nearly time to go to bed Lilly said, "Hope you have a good nights sleep!".

"Same to you Lilly!" said the unhappy and the happy side of the rainbow at the same time.

Next thing was that they were fast asleep.

The end.

Aramoana by Eden Cook
Every really sunny day we go to Aramoana. Aramoana is in Dunedin, and is a long drive from our house. It’s a beautiful beach that has really really white sand. Sometimes we feel carsick driving there. My sister calls it Arabanana so my dad teases it’s where bananas grow in the air but it’s not true.

Every time we go to Aramoana something cool happens. Once we saw two star fish when the tide was low – one was small and yellow, one was big and reddy-blackish – that was on my dad’s birthday.

The best time was when we walked to the end of the beach and found a cave. My mum was taking photos and my dad was leaning against the cave’s edge. Suddenly, my dad says “Holy! There’s a seal in there!”

Mum says, “You’re kidding!”

“No, look!” says dad.

We look, and there sure is a seal! It was lying down. It lifted its head and looked at us, then laid down again as though it didn’t care we were there. It had been hard to see at first because it was the same spotted brown colour as the rocks it was laying on.

After we walked back, we got ice cream.

It was a great day.

So when you’re at the beach, watch where you’re going, or you could meet a seal and it may not be lying around and as lazy as the seal we saw…and you can be head-butted by a seal.

Toyland by Leah Olsen, 9 years old
I was lying in bed asleep when I heard a rattling in the kitchen. I ran out and to my surprise my toy tiger Zack was in there. I was so surprised that I did not know that there was a secret passage way. I looked just in time to see Zack go through so I went through. It was fuzzy for a while so I stepped out and I was in a whole different world! I looked around, the trees were lollypops and the water was hot chocolate. I ran around seeing all my toys “clank clank”, I woke up. It was all a dream, but the noise was coming from the kitchen. There was Zack. I jumped through the portal and… The End

(to be continued) 

The bad guy’s escape by Quintin
One day, the police did this. They accidentally unlocked the bad guy’s cage! Soon enough the bad guy’s had escaped their cage! But the police were on their way. Then after they caught the bad guy’s it was time for dinner and there was left was sausages.

The violent volcano erupts again by Lachlan Sime
One day the volcano was standing quietly. But one night the volcano started to rumble. It got louder and louder until it blew it’s top. Lava spread everywhere ash filled the air. It was covering villages. I shot cannon balls at it. Until I destroyed it! Then I got trophy. 

The Dingdong by Emily Dick
"The Dingdong's coming" said the Hullabaloo Hippo to the Bouncing Bear, who was bouncing everywhere. "Look after the Dingdong, he's shy and polite, look out for the Dingdong, he's coming tonight. Pass on the news", said the Bouncing Bear to the Snake in the suit. "The Dingdong's coming, he's likely to bite. Look out for the Dingdong, he's coming tonight." 

They ran like lightning into the bushes, and then "hi, I'm the Dingdong and I'm a mouse."

Flaxy and the 300 Mice by Koru Jago Dickson, age 5 and 3/4
Flaxy was walking around the chair when she spotted 300 mice. When she saw them, she thought what a tasty meal. But after she had ate them she had such a fat tummy so she had to go to the mouse doctors. The doctor mouse got his family out, he was surprised his baby was gone. He thought what an evil cat, so he called the police mice. Flax called the police cats cause she thought what evil police mice. They fought until the cat police arrested the mice police.

The Flight of the Butterfly by Olive Joy Rosie
The rays from the early morning sun were shining down on my leaf. I was ready to stretch out my wings for the first time. I spread out my wings and felt the warmth from the sun. Off I flew to the nearest bright yellow dandelion, and oh how tasty the nectar was. From above, a big black shadow hovered above me in the air, so I shut my wings up slowly and crawled to hide under the nearest leaf. It was here that I met Billy the Beetle who kept an eye out for the frightful shadow. Finally the coast was clear, and Billy told me to make a run for it! In the heat of the day, with my belly full of sweetness, I lay down, tired out from today's dandelion adventure.

Anna of the Orphanage by Eloise Beattie
Once there was an orphan named Anna who was 12 years old. Her mother had died from cancer, and her father from a train crash. Now here she was at the asylum. Once day a wicked looking old lady came and said "I would like a little girl." So they chose Anna. For dinner she got bread that had gone off. That night she cried herself to sleep. Suddenly there was a flash of light and a fairy appeared with a white dress as soft as silk. "Don't cry. Come with me. I will take you to have somebody nice to look after you." When they arrived outside a very pretty looking house they rang the doorbell. A lovely looking lady appeared. "You are going to live with this lady." And she had a wonderful time there.