‘This is my schnoodle bag,’ said Aziz.
‘Keep it with you and you’ll never want for stories.’
– and I never have, as you’ll discover in this collection of 16 of them in which anyone and anything can have a voice: from a social-climbing sock and a shadow thief to a lovesick umbrella and a gold-lusting king. As for what happens in their stories and in the other dozen you’ll be surprised. I know I was.
For ages 10 to 110
In and Out of the Schnoodle Bag
Sixteen fables from the first Schnoodle collection, including The Shadow Thief; When Flash met Old Spiky; The Hopeless Ghost; The Cockroach and the Condemned Man; The Tree that Nobody Wanted;The Umbrella’s Tale; and The Snooty Puddle:
One day, not so long ago, there was a puddle in the middle of the road. Rain had been falling since early morning, and the road was in a bad state with scattered potholes and cracks from one end almost to the other. To the left of the puddle in question – let’s call it George for the sake of argument – and to the right of it there were other puddles. Most of them were larger and one or two were much larger. To our puddle, however, slap bang in the middle they were of no consequence, because although George was quite small it was deeper. It also had in it flecks of gold.
More from the Schnoodle Bag
Another 16 tales, including Hammer and Tongs, The Lost Key; The Wasp and the Olive Tree; Cat and Mouse; The Zebra Who Wanted to be a Giraffe; Spick and Span, The Mayfly; and Christmas is Cancelled:
‘’Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a–’ While that might have been true of number 21 – and indeed of most of the houses in Windrush Avenue – next door at number 23, an old bungalow, it was a very different story, and a distressing one at that, for stuck fast halfway down the chimney was a most unlikely sight. Plainly visible above the chimneypot were the head, shoulders and arms of a figure in a bulky red and white suit.
‘Get me out of here,’ moaned Father Christmas as his reindeer struggled to release him from his stuckness. Then, ‘Ow! Don’t pull so hard!’ Then ‘Owww!’ again, ‘I said not so hard!’ A moment after that he wailed, ‘Ohhh, this is hopeless.’ And finally: ‘Christmas is cancelled!’