Looking for stories to read in a range of African languages and English? Try our growing collection of stories below to download or read through with your children.
Featured story of the month:
Mini meerkat makes a friend
“Mini, it’s time to gather food!” said Mama Meerkat one morning. “I’m sending you somewhere new today!” Mini Meerkat’s pointy ears pricked up. “Where?” she asked. She loved foraging for food in exciting new places. “Last week a tree blew over in the storm,” said Mama Meerkat. “Its trunk has made a bridge over the pool at the bottom of the koppie. Go down there, cross the tree bridge...
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The rain bird
Posted on May 7th, 2013 | Author: Retold by Joanne Bloch
A little village stood at the edge of a forest. In the heart of this forest, in the highest branches of an enormous tree, lived a very special bird − the bird that made rain. The villagers had always taken the time to keep this bird happy. Every week they would take pieces of bread and fruit, and fresh coconut milk to lay at the base of the tree. Then someone would play a simple tune on the thumb piano and the bird would fly down to the ground to eat and drink. When it had finished, it would raise its dark, shiny blue wings and sing a beautiful song. Within minutes, rain would begin to fall. For many years rain fell regularly, the crops grew abundantly and there was plenty of food for everyone. But gradually things began to change … the villagers started to neglect the rain bird. “It will rain anyway,” they decided. But gradually the rain stopped falling. Their crops began to die and their animals grew thin and weak. But still nobody went into the forest to feed the bird that...
The lion and the monkey
Posted on March 19th, 2013 | Author: Ikeogu Oke
One day Grandpa wanted to teach us a lesson about trust and gratitude, so he told us a story about the lion and the monkey… The lion and the monkey lived in a thick jungle. The lion roamed the jungle floor, while the monkey lived in the treetops. One day the lion saw some meat on top of a banana leaf on the jungle floor. “There’s a free and easy meal for me,” he thought. The lion moved towards the middle of the banana leaf, but as he sunk his teeth into the meat, the ground gave way beneath him. Together with the meat and the banana leaf, he fell into a deep pit. “How was the lion to have known that a free meal is not always free; that an easy meal is not always as easy as it seems?” commented Grandpa. “How could the king of the jungle have known that a hunter had dug a deep pit and covered it with the banana leaf, then placed the meat in the middle of the leaf and covered the leaf with sand to disguise it.” The pit was so narrow that the lion could only stand upright,...
Mini meerkat makes a friend
Posted on February 27th, 2013 | Author: Retold by Joanne Bloch
“Mini, it’s time to gather food!” said Mama Meerkat one morning. “I’m sending you somewhere new today!” Mini Meerkat’s pointy ears pricked up. “Where?” she asked. She loved foraging for food in exciting new places. “Last week a tree blew over in the storm,” said Mama Meerkat. “Its trunk has made a bridge over the pool at the bottom of the koppie. Go down there, cross the tree bridge and see if you can find anything good for us to eat on the other side of the pool.” Off went Mini Meerkat. “I’m small, but I’m good at finding food!” she sang to herself as she scurried over the koppie towards the flatter land below. After a while, she saw Owl sitting sleepily in the branches of a tree. “Good morning, Owl,” said Mini Meerkat politely. “Good morning,” said Owl in a faraway voice. “Where are you going, all by yourself?” “I’m going to cross over the dark pool to look for food,” said Mini Meerkat proudly. “Well, be careful,” said Owl....
A gold star and kiss for Thoko
Posted on February 21st, 2013 | Author: Niki Daly
Friday was always the big day of the "Star Awards". So far, Thoko had earned a yellow star for her maths sums, a red star for her neat writing and a blue star for "clean hands". Green stars were for helping Mrs McKensie carry her big bag from her car to the classroom. You got a gold star for reading. Gold stars rocked! Stars were always awarded just before the school bell rang and everyone rushed out to meet their mums, dads, grannies or aunts in the playground. Everyone, except Thoko, who lived close by and could walk home. Thoko lived with her mama at the back of her Gogo’s dressmaking shop. Friday was also great because Thoko got money to buy a treat on her way home. And this Friday was an extra lucky Friday because Thoko reached the car park just in time to help Mrs McKensie carry her big bag to the classroom. Maybe she’d win a green star. A gold star for reading would be better, of course. Lately, Thoko had made a special effort with her reading – to read with expression,...
Squirrel and the sun
Posted on December 10th, 2012 | Author: Retold by Joanne Bloch
One morning, when the animals woke up, they were surprised to see that there was no sign of the sun rising in the eastern sky. "What’s going on?" all the small animals asked their parents. "Just be patient!" said their mothers and fathers. "The sun must be feeling lazy today. Soon it will rise as usual, and we can go down to the waterhole for a drink." But the animals were wrong. Though they waited and waited, the world stayed dark. After several hours, they decided to have a meeting to discuss the problem. "What shall we do?" asked Hippopotamus. "It's very simple," said Giraffe. "We all need to look for the sun. We can’t live without light!" The other animals agreed, so off they all went in many different directions, determined to find the sun. "I’ll start by looking in the trees in the big forest," said Squirrel to herself. She explored every tree where she scampered and played each day. At first, she found nothing but darkness. As she got deeper and deeper into the forest,...
Feleng learns to read
Posted on December 8th, 2012 | Author: By Joane Bloch
Feleng the fishmoth loved stories. ‘Mama,’ he said every night, ‘please tell us a story. I promise we’ll go to sleep straight afterwards. Please, please, please!’ Mama Fishmoth only knew one story, and she was a bit tired of telling it. But Feleng and the other fishmoth children begged so much that she always gave in. She told them about her adventures in the kitchen. She spoke about her long journey there, and about all the big, strange things she had seen in the cupboards. ‘Humans use so many things, like cups and plates and spoons,’ she said. ‘Humans are very strange!’ The best part of the story came when Mama Fishmoth told the children about all the food she had tasted. ‘There were breadcrumbs, apple peels, delicious lumps of porridge and grains of sugar behind the stove ...’ she said. ‘Yum!’ they murmured in dreamy voices, ‘yum, yum!’ But soon their eyes grew huge. She had reached the terrible part of her story – the day a human had tried to...
