Tony on the Moon’s Children’s Picture Books

and the PILOTThis is a story of waves and a very large bird that

sings the Mikado and songs about waves.

The albitross are very large birds that spend mostof there time at sea, Albi Tross is one of those birds

Gilbert and Sullivan wrote comic operas between1871 and 1896, they are popular because theyhave bouncy songs, the Makado is one of them.

Illustrated Story Books for ChildrenAll these books are royalty free and can be copied used

printed and distributed, scrawled on walls, acted out in playsand told (very slowly) to your pet dog, if you don’t have adog a cat will do, but hamsters do not listen as they onlyspeak Spanish.

They are designed to be easily read on a computer and canbe printed on standard A4 size paper.

The BooksThis is part of a series of small books is arranged in

groups of difficulty ranging from 1 to 5. The easiest is group1, the hardest group 5. It is not just that group 1's are shorter,they are the easiest to read or be spoken. They graduallyrise to group 5 which have lots more text and much morecomplex concepts.

There is no bad language or offensive words anywhere inthese books.

1 - short simple big pictures2 - longer stories with more text3 - slightly higher level than 24 - more stories with pictures a lot more text5 - short stories for teenage to adults mostly text

tonyonthemoon.co.uk

Tony on the Moon’s Children’s Picture Books

Level 4 Book 1

Dodgy Publications

Albi Tross lives in a very wavy place, it is called the Pacific Ocean. It wasa very big place and full of waves. Albi knows all about waves, far more thanany one else he knew. This was not very difficult as he did not know manypeople.

The Pacific ocean is such a big place the chance of meeting anotherAlbatross were pretty small. Even when two albatross do meet the last thingthey want to talk about is waves.

Well, it was Wednesday morning.It could have been Thursday morning,Albi was not quite sure which,Wednesday and Thursday look verymuch the same in the Pacific Ocean.

Well, it was one morning anywayand Albi was bobbing along on somevery nice waves when a small rubberdingy came into view.

Albi knew it was a rubber dingy because he had sat on one some timeago just off the Galapagos Islands. That rubber dingy one was bright yellow,this one was a dirty brown. After a few more bobs up and down on the wavesthe dingy was coming closer so Albi decided fly over and investigate.

He had just started to hum a tune from the ballad of the Ancient Mariner,when he noticed there was something in the dingy.

The object had a brown leathery shiny head, two very big round staringeyes, a white floppy thing round its face and neck, a shiny leathery body andbig hands with only two fingers.

With a few flaps of hislong wings Albi was sittingon the edge of the dingy.

He sat looking at thedingy for a while, it was notvery big, it was bobbing upand down on the waves andfelt very nice and bouncy.

Albi was quite enjoyinghimself bobbing up anddown in the morning sun.

Page 1

" An Albatross." said the object in a muffled voice although it did not moveor seem to have a mouth.

" Did you say something." said Albi.

" And it's talking'" said the object.

The leathery creature reached across and put its two fingered handstogether, it then pulled off one of its two fingered hands, inside the twofingered had was a pink hand with five fingers.This is a very strange creature thought Albi.The creature the pulled off the other two fingered hand and again underneathwas another pink five fingered hand.What will it do next thought Albi.

The creature then reached up and pulled off its two big round staring eyes.

" I'm off." said Albi when this happened. He started to stretch out his bigwings. " This is too scary for me."

Page 2

" Wait can't we talk." said thecreature.

" I'm not talking to any onewho can pull his hands offand his eyes out." said Albi.

" They are only mittens andgoggles." said the creature.

" I've got a hat as well. " saidthe creature pulling the top ofhis shinny head off. A mop ofreddish heir flopped out.

" Hay you're a sailor." said Albi

" I'm not a sailor said the man looking atthe Albatross. " I'm a pilot."

" You can't fool me." said Albi. " You arein a boat bobbing up and down on thesea, so you are a sailor. Pilots flyaeroplanes up in the sky."

" Not if the wings fall off they don't." saidthe pilot. "When that happens aeroplanestend to want to try and be submarines."

Pilot thumbed through a few pagesthen stopped at a passage and put hisfinger on some lines of text to read outaloud.

" Here we are." He said. " You will beable to tell when you getting near landbecause you will come across seabirds."The pilot looked at Albi. " You are aseabird aren't you."

" Well I am a bird." said Albi puffing outhis feathers. " And don't tell everybodybut this stuff all around us is the sea. SoI guess I must be a seabird."

Page 3

" Is that what happened to your aeroplane?" said Albi." Did it fall out the sky?" Albi tried to point at the sky with his wing but as hecould only point sideways the gesture was rather lost.

" Sort of." said the Pilot. " Anyway what I wanted to talk about was are weanywhere near land."

" How should I know." said Albi. " I'm an Albatross."

" Well it says in my “Pilots crashing into the sea emergency hand book ofsurvival.” the pilot rummaged about in the bottom of the dingy amongst allkinds of rubbish and pulled out a book.

" In that case, where is the land?" asked the pilot.

Pilot turned the book round to show Albi the page where it clearly saidseabirds indicate the presence of land as seabirds always know where theland is.Albi looked at the page, it was full of words but there was also a prettypicture of a seabird.

It seemed to be a picture Frank Murtle a rather grumpy Herring Gull he hadonce met in the North Atlantic.

"That's Frank" said Albi.

"Frank." said the Pilot. " What's Frank?".

"That picture in the book, it's Frank." said Albi. " I met him in the NorthAtlantic.".

" I'm not interested in Frank." said Pilot. " I want to know where the land is.The book says you know about things like that.".

" Well I don't." said Albi rather shirtily " I could tell you about waves,although I don't like to show off, I know more than most people know aboutwaves."

"Don't mention waves to me." said Pilot. " I've seen more waves in the pastfew days than I want to see for the rest of my life.".

" I know a song about waves." said Albi..

" Is it a good song?" asked Pilot..

" I think it is. " said Albi..

Pilot rummaged about for a while in the bottom of the rubber dingy untilhe found the emergency piano.

As it was rather an old rubber dingy it was a rather old piano, the sortwith brass candle holders screwed to the front.

As the day wore on and the evening fell and the sun began to set. Pilotplayed the piano and Albi, sitting on top of the Piano, sang songs aboutwaves.

It began to get quite dark so Pilot lit two candles and put them in thecandle holders on the front of the piano.

Albi then sang the ballad of the Ancient Albatross. A song handed downthrough many generations of his family, it was about an ancient Albatrosscalled Jason, who was condemned to wander the six seas until he found thegolden feather.

Page 4

In the morning Albi and the Pilot were lucky enough to come across abreakfast bloom. A strange phenomenon that happens when the first few raysof the morning sun hit patches of flowering Breakfast Seaweed.

This only happens when there is an 'R' in the month. The seaweed willsuddenly burst forth with ample helpings of bacon, eggs and marmaladetoast.

After breakfast Pilot returned to the problem of finding land.

"You are quite obsessed with this land thing."said Albi.

" Look." said Pilot lifting his foot in the air."Flat feet not made for swimming, feet likethese are meant to be on dry land."

"Look" said Albi holding his foot in the air. "Webbed feet, these are made for bobbing upand down on waves."

" If you don't know where the land is thenperhaps you could find someone who does."

" I know." said the Penguin.

" Where did you come from." ask Pilot of thepenguin

"There is always a penguin." said Albi. "You never see them but turn roundsuddenly and there will be the penguin.”

The one trouble with penguins is that once they have made their presenceknown they never stop talking. Something perhaps to do with living in a veryremote place.

Page 5

Penguin had already started talking. Hetalked about all the beaches he had been toaround the world, he talked about icebergsand catching Krill.

He also talked about pop music in theseventies, which for a penguin, he knew quitea lot about.

Luckily Albi, who by this time had fallen intothe bottom of the rubber dingy, had found theemergency dressing up box.

Albi wanted to try on some of the costumes. The box was full of colourfulcoats and hats.

Also inside the box the was a large book of songs by Gilbert and Sullivan.“Parhaps we could sing a few songs from this.” said the Pilot flipping throughthe pages.

Penguin found a small harmonica , which it seemed he could play quite well.

Apparently all Penguins can play the harmonica. It's somthing to do withicebergs but nobody knows what.

Albi and the Pilot persuaded Penguin to join them singing a collection ofsongs from the Gilbert and Sullivan songbook.

Pilot looked in the emergency dressing up box for some suitable costumes.

Penguin wanted to dress up as a cowboy.

They did not hove a cowboy outfit so they all all dressed up as the three littlemaids form the Mikado. They then sang the Policeman's song three times.

Page 6

"Well now." said Albi. "We have had the story, we've sung the song, now forthe Nutmeg Shandy."

"We don't have any Nutmeg Shandy" said Pilot.

" No Nutmeg Shandy, that's terrible." said Penguin but said it very quietly ashe really did not like Nutmeg Shandy.

" You are both stalling." said Pilot looking very crossly at Albi and thePenguin." Now, where is the nearest land?"

Penguin asked if he could keep the hat from the dressing up box.

" The land." demanded Pilot.

"The nearest." ask Penguin.

Pilots nose was almost touching Penguins beak as his looked hard intoPenguins eyes.

"It's not always easy tojudge the distanceaccurately." said Penguin.

"You don't have to beaccurate to the nearest fishtail." said Pilot.

"Well in that case." saidPenguin. " I would say thenearest land is about twomiles in that direction."

Penguin pointed with a wing in a direction just over the port bow of thedingy.

"Two miles off in ....." Pilot turned round and looked. Much to his amazementthere was a small island just off the port bow.

" We're saved." said Pilot.

Pilot took out a pair of small oars and started rowing as fast as he couldtowards the small island.

The Rowing was made more difficult by the fact he was still dressed as EckeyLing Ching from the Mikado.

Even so the land got closer and closer.

Page 7

Albi stood on the front of the dingy looking ahead to where Pilot was rowing.

" I wouldn't go there." said Albi.

Pilot stopped rowing and looked round. " Why not." said Pilot. "Is it full offierce cannibals, crocodiles or worse?"

" If I was you." said Albi turning round to face Pilot." I would turn round andpaddle in the other direction as fast as I could."

" What is wrong with that island." ask Pilot seriously.

" It's a lovely island." said Penguin. " I've been there many times."" I agree." said Albi. " As far as islands go it is a very good island, sandybeaches, coconut palms, good fishing."" But." said Pilot.

" But." said Albi. " I would have thought you would be a lot happier paddlingyour little dingy to the town on the main land just behind us."

Pilot looked around again, there not far away, rising out of the morning seamist was a little fishing village sitting in a small rocky cove.

Page 8

" Why didn't you mention that." Pilot ask Penguin.

" You ask for the nearest land." said Penguin

" That's the trouble with Penguins." said Albi. "They always take things tooliterally."

The dingy had drifted towardthe shore during the nightwhile they were singing theMikado.

The singing had attracted theattention of a friendly fishingboat that was now headingtowards them.

"I'd better go." said Penguin. " Before anyoneelse sees me."

The last Albi and the Pilot saw of Penguin washis Mikado hat floating across the water.

" Just before you're rescued." said Albi. " I don't suppose there is time forjust one more song."

" I have a little list from the Mikado." said Pilot, sitting down at theemergency piano.

" What could be better." said Albi.

Page 9

The sound of the piano bounced aroundbetween the waves long after the Pilot hadbeen rescued and the rubber dingy sunkbeneath the waves into the deep.

Albi, far out at sea again, kept hearing theodd bar of music bouncing around thewaves for much longer than he thought hewould have done.

Albi gave a smile or would have done butbeaks are not very good for smiling.

As the music eventually faded away Albi came across a hat with a long pinkfeather in it.

It was one the hats from the emergency dressing up box on the rubber dingy.Albi put it on, he rather liked it.

Humming quietly to himself the accountants song from the Mikado, Albi inthis feathered hat, bobbed up and down on the waves.

Slowly the sun went down and the stars came out shining brightly.

Just like in the Mikado, thought Albi.

END

About these booksThis series of books was designed with two functions in mind :-

Firstly as a reading resource for primary education at schools and for privatetuition. They are graded from simple picture books to full text short stories.The layout is simple and designed to be fun and downloaded so they maybe used without being connected to the internet.

The layout and text is designed for easy reading on computer screens.Instructors and parents can be assured there is nothing in these booksthat not suitable for young children.

Secondly or possibly primarily, somewhere for mylittle cartoon characters to live. I have been adraftsman for many years and during idle momentsand in meetings, especially in meetings, littlecharacters get doodled. These characters seem totake on a little life of their own and hang around inthe mind until they eventually find a home in astory. They then seem to go away until the next onecomes along. These books and the original web siteis somewhere to share these little cartooncharacters with. If they give anybody a littleenjoyment then I am well pleased.

These original picture books are free to download,keep, copy, print and use quite freely without anyrestriction. Tony J Moon

Dodgy Publicationsfrom the moon

revision 20-05-2014

Tonys Fun PoetryThere is also a series ofillustrated poetry forchildren with levelsfrom simple to complexwhich you may findinteresting.

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