Melissa, and Other Short Stories for the Children in Your Life 

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Bedtime stories for children, including 'Melissa and the Mobility Scooter'. 

Stories both long and short, perfect for both reading aloud and for encouraging older children to read themselves. 

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"What a fantastic concept for know-it-all kids (my son!). Finish your own story... Before I read him 'Piggy in his Pocket' I told him that he had to listen really carefully because it was his job to decide the ending. Last night he decided to blow up the toy box with the toy pig in it. Tonight he told me he had a better idea. Jack and his expanding piggy must get a double bed. Next he asked if he could please have a double bed! More of these stories please" - FL 

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Melissa lives with her mum, dad and (temporarily) with her grandma, who is recovering from surgery, hence the mobility scooter currently residing in their hall. But all is not what it seems. The scooter has a life of its own, which the young girl discovers by accident. 

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This book is a collection of stories, some short and some long, to be read to children at bedtime, or to encourage them to read themselves. Melissa features in more than one story, giving continuity to the publication. 

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Illustrated very simply, this is a charming little book which should appeal to children from a pre-reading age right the way up to early teens. You can read this book for free on Kindle Unlimited, or purchase as a paperback, so please do support this new emerging publishing business, and a not-so-new but still definitely emerging writer.

Books by this Author

• ​Bigheart

• Conflict Management: Novelettes For Discerning Readers (Collection of No Matter What, Walking With Eve, Divine Intervention and Changes)

• Crash Test Dummy

• Feet On The Table: An Enormous Book Of Tiny Stories

• Life’s a Mess… and Then You Die: Hoarding, Writing and Lost Family

• Melissa And The Mobility Scooter: And Other Bedtime Stories

• The Waggon

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All available on Amazon. 

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Published by Words Are Life. Do support independent publishers!

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Eric, the X-Ray Fish (from Melissa...)

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Eric is an x-ray fish.

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It means that he’s transparent. Just in case you were wondering.

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And yes, he looks like a fishy skeleton. You can see his bones, but nothing else.

It wasn’t always fun though, being an x-ray fish. He couldn’t pretend he hadn’t just eaten a sweetie - anyone would be able to see it right there in his tummy.

Eric is one of those fish you only hear about in children’s stories - the kind of fish who is more like a person than a fish.

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Isn’t that odd?

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Have you ever met a fish who is like a person?

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Or a person like a fish?

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Eric even wears clothes. He wears a beanie hat with holes for his gills. Without those holes, things wouldn’t work properly. He wouldn’t be able to breathe.

He also wears a red belt and sometimes blue braces - but never pants or shirt. I find myself asking why an x-ray fish might need pants or shirts. Yet I don’t think the red belt and blue braces are odd. I guess it is all a matter of style.

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Like human beings, Eric is complicated.

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Sadly for Eric, he’s unpopular, scared of strangers, invisible, small, sneaky, bossy, and he always feels cold.

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I suspect the cold thing is because you can see right through him.

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Can you think of anything transparent that’s warm? I can’t, apart from bath water.

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Eric never settles or fits in anywhere because everyone sees the belt and braces and beanie hat, but otherwise just sees right through him. How can they make friends with a pile of clothes?

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Connie did. She’s his best friend and is an invisible x-ray fish too.

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But Connie and Eric aren’t always the easiest of company, even for each other. Let’s just say that things aren’t always cheery when those two are around. Most of the time they’re bored and grumpy.

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Together.

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‘I wish you looked more like me,’ said Eric to Connie. ‘We wouldn’t fall out so much then.’

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‘But we’re both invisible,’ said Connie.

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And even grumpy, argumentative Eric couldn’t argue with that.

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