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Mr. Strongman was a robot. One day, he saw that the animals were organizing a race. He wanted to join in too! “You’re so heavy, are you sure you can even run?” The animals laughed. “I can try,” said Mr. Strongman. The eagle was the referee and at his order, all the animals started running, trying to be the first, while Mr. Strongman huffed and puffed his way at the back. When the animals reached the river, they stopped. “Oh dear! The water is too deep, how are we to cross it?” “No problem!” said Mr. Strongman, panting as he caught up with them. “I can carry all of you across.” “That’s great!” All the animals pounced on Mr. Strongman, hoping to be the first to cross the river. When they reached the shore, the animals started running with all their might again. Suddenly, they heard a scream, “HELP!” It turned out that the elephant had gotten lost, and while crossing the river, an alligator had held onto his hind leg! Immediately, Mr. Strongman jumped into the water and forced open the jaws of the alligator, allowing the elephant to escape. “I can’t run anymore!” cried the elephant. “Just leave me behind! You go ahead!” “No!” Mr. Strongman insisted on helping the elephant dress his wound, and then he carried the elephant on his back. “We must finish the entire race!” Finally, they finished the race together and reached their destination! Just then, the eagle announced, “For our race today, the prize will not be given to the fastest runner, but to the one who has helped the most participants!” The eagle paused and looked at everyone. “Who should get the prize?” “Mr. Strongman!” clamoured all the animals. And so, the eagle awarded a big pile of fruits to Mr. Strongman. “I’m so sorry, but I don’t eat any of these…” Mr. Strongman said apologetically. “I know! Here, I give all of these fruits to everyone. Let’s share!” “That’s wonderful! Hurray for Mr. Strongman!” The animals cheered. Seeing the animals enjoying the fruits joyfully, Mr. Strongman smiled too.

A little ant asked an older ant, “I heard that these creatures called ‘Humans’ exist in the world, do you believe that?” “I don’t!” said the older one. “That’s because I have never seen a human before.” “Let’s go and find out! Perhaps we can even find one,” suggested the little ant. “Sure,” agreed the older ant. “If I see one with my own eyes I’ll believe it!” And so, they set off on their journey, crawling here and there to find a Human. Eventually, they crawled onto the shoe of a little girl. The older ant asked, “Do you see any humans?” The little ant looked around and replied, “No… I only see something black and shiny, but I don’t see any humans!” So, they continued crawling, until they reached the little girl’s shirt. The older ant asked, “Do you see any humans?” The little ant replied, “I can see many lines, but no humans.” They crawled onto a button. The older ant asked, “Do you see any humans?” “No!” said the little ant. “All I can see is a very, very hard biscuit, but no humans!” Finally, they crawled into the little girl’s hair. The older ant asked yet again, “Do you see any humans?” “No!” answered the little ant. “I can only see a long and messy field of weeds, but I can’t see any humans!” “AHA! This proves that we are right!” proclaimed the two ants proudly. “There are no humans in the world!”

A pencil shouted in frustration at the other stationery items on the table, “It’s not fair! It’s so unfair!” “I write for our master the entire day but he uses the sharpener to sharpen me, which hurts my body, and uses the eraser to erase me away.” “I cannot stand it anymore! Today I must run away from this place!” Just then, their young master entered the room. The pencil hurriedly jumped into the wastepaper basket underneath the table, thinking to hide there for awhile. Unfortunately, the young master noticed the huge pile of scrap paper in the wastepaper basket, and decided to empty it outside in the rubbish dump! “Ah!” shouted the pencil, finding himself in a foreign place. “What is this place? It’s so dirty and it stinks!” “This is the rubbish dump, friend,” explained a friendly tin can. “All of us here are no longer useful, so we’re thrown here instead.” A puzzled bottle nearby glanced at the pencil and asked, “You look fine, so why have you been thrown in here with us?” The pencil blushed, thinking to himself, “Oh no! I still am useful, I can’t possibly stay here!” “Sigh!”exclaimed the tin can sadly. “Tomorrow morning we will be sent to the landfill, and we’ll be buried or burned there. What a sad fate.” “No! I don’t want to end up being buried or burned! I don’t!” The pencil panicked and started crying. The next day, when the rubbish was being taken away, the pencil took his chance and jumped, escaping frantically from the dump. Finally, he arrived back at his house. His friends were ecstatic to see him and welcomed him warmly. He thought to himself, “I’ll never escape again! Though my body gets shorter as the days go by, it is still an honour to be able to write for my master!” At the thought of that, he felt very happy.

One day, the Snail heard that the Tortoise had raced with the Rabbit, and had won! But the Snail was skeptical about the Tortoise’s success. “I want to challenge you!” said the Snail to the Tortoise. “I refuse to believe you won before, unless you’re faster than me this time!” To convince the Snail then, the Tortoise agreed to another race, and they invited the Monkeys to be their referee. From the start of the race, the Tortoise was leading, and the Snail was left far behind. The Snail realized he would never be able to catch up with the Tortoise on his own, so he left the race. Where did he go? He went to find the Rabbit! “Hi Rabbit, do you remember losing to the Tortoise? Well, this time, I’m here to seek revenge for you!” The Snail proposed an idea. “As long as you carry me up the hill so I win this race, you will be able to get your own back against the Tortoise!” “Fantastic idea! I’ll do it! Let’s go now,” cried the Rabbit, and off they set. “Hurry!” The Snail cried again and again, “Faster!” The Rabbit ran faster and faster, but he was so fast that when turning, he cast the Snail off his back accidentally! Oh dear! Meanwhile, the Tortoise was still plodding his way slowly up the hill. Finally, he reached the top. “Hurray! The Tortoise has won again!” The Monkeys shouted joyfully! “But how strange, the Snail still isn’t here yet. I wonder why!” Well, the Monkeys never knew that the Snail would never ever reach the top!

Lily bought a new alarm clock, and she loved it very much. The alarm clock was very happy to have a new master too, and reported the time faithfully to Lily every day. One day during the holidays, Lily and her classmates agreed to swim together at 3 in the afternoon. That day, the excited Lily kept looking at the clock, saying, “Why isn’t it 3 yet? Time seems to pass by so slowly today!” The alarm clock overheard its master and thought to itself, “Well, since my master says I’m slow, I’ll run my time faster!” And so, that day the clock ran especially fast. “Hurray! I’m sure my master will be pleased!” That night, Lily was worried about not waking up in time the following day, so she set her alarm before sleeping. The next morning, the alarm clock rang. Lily was very unhappy, “Ugh! How horrible! It’s morning so soon!” The alarm clock felt very sad. “Perhaps I should run slower so my master can sleep for a longer time!” And so, for the next few days, the alarm clock went especially slowly, and did not ring in the morning, trying not to wake Lily up. But what happened to Lily? In the end, she was late for school for a few days consecutively, and got a good scolding from her teachers. “What’s wrong with this alarm clock!” shouted Lily angrily. In her fit of anger, she threw her alarm clock away. The alarm clock was in misery. “All I tried to do was to make my master happy, but why doesn’t she want me anymore?” The poor alarm clock! It never knew why. Boys and girls, do you know why?

Baby Crow thought the world of himself, and often boasted to all his friends. One day, in the midst of one of his boasts, an airplane flew past their heads. “How noisy!” cried Baby Crow. “I must catch this annoying creature and stop it!” “You? Are you sure you can capture it?” All the crows laughed. “You’ll see!” said Baby Raven confidently. With that, he flew off into the skies. He flew and flew, but just could not find that “annoying creature”. Just as night was about to fall, he suddenly saw a black dot floating about in the sky, in the far distance. “Aha! I’ve found you finally!” He flew with all his might towards it, cackling. “Let’s see where you can run to now!” Baby Crow bit that “annoying creature” with his beak, and brought it home. But what he did not know was that it was merely a kite! So he flew excitedly back home and woke everyone up, shouting, “Look what a noble thing I’ve done for all of you!” “From now on, that annoying creature will not disturb us anymore!” He strutted around proudly. But before he had even finished his sentence, there was a loud roar, and yet another airplane flew past. “What?! There’s another one?” Baby Raven gaped, eyes wide. “It’s alright, don’t be afraid, I will go and capture it! You can sleep in peace!” He reassured them. “With me, it can’t survive for long!” Having said that, he flew off in the direction of the airplane yet again… Seeing this sight, wise old Mr. Owl up on the tree was so amused he laughed until his glasses fell off once more, and he had to change them yet again!