I have written a short children's book (for tall children too!)which I would like to share with you.
Fishing with Dad
A Children's Book
By Barry J Lamont
Once upon a time... when Grannies and Granddads were little girls and little boys, there was a beautiful little town set in a beautiful bay by the sea. Everyone in the town was happy and a little bit fat from all of the yummy fish and other seafood which they caught and ate.
Until one day... lots of hungry sharks came to the bay hoping to fill their bellies. First the sharks ate lots of fish and scared all the rest away. There was no fish left for the people or the sharks, so the hungry sharks started to eat the people instead.
Everyone in the town got very scared and very hungry. So...
All the clever people in the town had a meeting. They decided to build a robot monster machine to scare away all the hungry sharks and any other sea monsters. When the robot monster machine was finished, all of the clever people chose the cleverest and bravest among them to operate the robot monster machine. Since it was such a dangerous job, the clever brave people were paid lots of money and given lots of fish by the rest of the townsfolk. They liked this very much and got a little bit fatter than all the other people who were still hungry, but that was okay because they were so brave.
The robot monster machine worked well for a while and seemed to scare all the sharks away. The people were able to catch fish again and they gave lots of them to the clever brave people.
Then one day, a new sea monster came to the bay... but this monster wasn't scared of the robot monster machine. And this time the new monster didn't even bother trying to eat fish. It was only interested in eating the people. In fact, it seemed to prefer to eat children.
The people in the town turned to the clever people again and they talked about what to do. The clever people said " We need to make our robot monster machine bigger and get lots more people to work it". So the clever people got lots more money from the townsfolk to make their robot bigger and they got jobs for all of their friends and family to work inside the new, bigger robot monster machine. This didn't leave much money or fish for the rest of the town, but that was okay if the children stopped being eaten.
However, every few years a new sea monster would come to the bay, and every few years the clever people made the robot even bigger and scarier in an effort to protect the children.
One day.. a little girl was playing on the beach with her brothers and sisters. They were all playing in the water with a beach ball when the little girl decided to have a rest. Just as she was leaving the water, she heard a big growling noise and a very brief scream coming from behind her. When she turned around, her brothers and sisters were gone!.. But the girl saw a little bit of the monster that took them disappearing under the water... it was shiny.. and it looked like metal!
When she told all the townsfolk what had happened, they said another monster must have come to eat children. But the little girl said "No! It wasn't a monster! it was a ROBOT!".. But nobody believed her and they all ignored her.
The little girl was too scared to ever go back to the beach. In fact, she was so scared that she stopped going outside and she was not very well for a long time.
Years later... when she was a big girl and a little bit better, she met a very nice fisherman. He was a good fisherman and he was very brave. He wasn't scared of any monsters and he always caught big fish. They fell in love and had babies. But now that the girl was a mummy, she started to get scared again. She was scared that one day Daddy wont come back from fishing and she was scared that the monster would get her babies too.
When her babies grew into little children and Daddy DID keep coming back from sea, the mummy stopped being so scared again and was much better than ever before. But she always said to her children.."remember there is a big monster in the sea that likes to eat children and you must be very careful".
One sunny morning when Dad was preparing his boat for fishing, the children said to him " Can we come with you Dad?".. "We want to learn how to fish too!". Dad was very happy to teach the children about the sea and said he would enjoy the company too. But Mum wasn't so sure. She remembered what happened to her brothers and sisters when she was little and she was a little bit scared again.. but she also knew that Daddy was a good fisherman and very brave too, so the children would be safe with him.
Off they set in their little boat. The children were very excited. They love an adventure! Dad showed them how to secure their bait on to hooks. If they did it right, they could use the same worm over and over because the fish weren't able to eat it. Sometimes they could even let the worm go home unharmed after they had caught enough fish. The children were good learners and they started to catch lots of fish.
At lunchtime the children decided to have a rest, so they sat on the end of the boat with their feet in the water while they ate their fish sandwiches. Dad was fixing holes in a net at the other end of the boat when all of a sudden he heard a big growling noise. The monster popped its head out of the water and Dad could see that it was going for the children. There was no time to stop it, but Dad had an Idea. Just before the big shiny teeth closed down on the children, he threw them a big huge hook with a rope tied to it. He shouted to them.."Be brave kids..remember the worms..I'll see you soon!".
Just then, the big teeth snapped down and smashed the whole boat to pieces and the monster swallowed up both the children in one big bite.
Dad fell into the water, but he managed to keep a tight hold of the rope. He started to swim as fast as he could back to the shore which was far away. When he got on to the dry land, Dad was exhausted. He had to rest a while to get his strength back. When he recovered, he jumped up and started pulling on the rope. It was very hard work but Mummy had been watching from the shore. She decided to stop being scared and she ran to help Dad.
They pulled and pulled on the rope until eventually they saw a big shiny nose coming out of the water. They pulled some more and they saw a big huge shiny head coming out of the water. Dad told Mum to keep a very tight grip on the rope and he ran to grab the biggest rock he could lift. He smashed the big rock over the monster's head until it stopped moving. They pulled the monster up onto the beach. It was the biggest sea monster Dad had ever seen. It was so fat after eating so many children. Dad walked up to the monsters belly and pulled out his knife. He tried to cut the monster's belly open but when he did, the knife just broke. Dad realized for the first time... the monster was made of metal!
He knocked on the metal and shouted "Are you okay in there kids?". The children said "Hooray, it's Dad!"...then.. "yes Dad.. were fine, but can you get us out now please?". So Dad ran into the town and came back with a giant can opener and he opened up the monster's belly. Out popped the children, happy as could be. They ran to Mummy and Daddy and had big huge huggles. Dad asked the children what they did inside the monster. They said... " When you threw us the hook Dad, we remembered the worms and we tied ourselves tightly onto the hook. We knew we would see you soon so we had a great adventure and lots of fun inside the monsters belly". Dad decided to take a closer look inside the metal monster. He used the giant tin opener to cut open the rest of the monster and as he cut, out fell a big huge pile of very old and very fat clever people and all of their fat friends.
Some policemen from another town came and rounded up all the fat clever people. The police took them all back to the town and told everyone what Dad had found.
The people of the town were very NOT happy! They had lots of questions for the fat clever people and they demanded answers. "Why have you been using our robot monster machine to eat children when you are meant to be protecting them?" said the townsfolk.
All of the fat clever people were very ashamed. The fattest and cleverest decided to tell the truth. He said... "Years ago we built the robot monster machine to stop the sharks. It was good and the town were happy and they gave us lots of money and fish. The robot was SO good that the sharks stopped coming. But we didn't want to stop working in the robot because we wouldn't get lots of money or fish anymore.. So we pretended there were other monsters eating the children and we kept getting the money and fish. We then made the robot bigger so all our friends could get lots of money and fish too.."
The townsfolk were very angry.. they said "So you used the robot to eat all our children just so you could get fat on our fish and steal our money?"
The clever fat man said.. "No, we didn't eat the children.. we just dropped them off on a far away beach and told them not to come back and not to tell".
"Hooray!" said the townsfolk.. "The children are still alive..and there are no monsters after all".
In the end, all of the people stopped being scared of monsters that eat children. There was still the occasional shark that would come to the bay, but the town kept their robot monster machine just in case.. except this time they kept it small and made sure that only very good clever people were allowed to work inside it.
All of the fat clever people and their friends were sent to jail for a very long time for pretending to eat children. When they eventually got out of jail, they were not so fat anymore.... and not so clever either.
A few years later when the children were bigger, they took Dad's boat out fishing. They got caught in a scary storm, but they knew what to do. They were very brave. The boat got washed up onto a far away beach and the children jumped out of the boat and went exploring. When they went to look for some food in the jungle, they found all of the children that had been eaten. Most of them were big boys and girls now, but they were stuck on the beach because they never had their Daddies to teach them about the sea. So the children helped them all into the boat and took them all back home [where all the new clever people were sitting rubbing their hands, waiting....to help them through their court appearances, panel meetings, hospitalizations, detentions, treatment programs and therapies before maybe..just maybe... allowing them to return*]to their families.
Fin.
*optional for age appropriateness