Four Tales

The firework maker's daughter: In a country far to the east, Chulak and his talking white elephant Hamlet help Lila seek the Royal Sulphur from the sacred volcano so that she can become a master maker of fireworks like her father. I was a rat!, or, The scarlet slippers: A small homeless boy insists that three weeks ago he was a rat, but who is he really? Clockwork, or, All wound up: A tormented apprentice clock-maker, meets with a strange death when the figures of the town clock become the real life characters of a story told by the town's novelist, Fritz. The scarecrow and his servant: A scarecrow and his boy servant, Jack, set off on a dangerous adventure as they try to outwit the crooked Buffaloni family and stake their claim to valuable Spring Valley. Suggested level: primary, intermediate, junior secondary.