Woodland Stories for Our Grandchildren

By Judy Henry

This childrens book is a compilation of seven stories.
The central characters in my book are just some of the adorable and unusual animals and birds seen during my childhood. Not far from our home, on the crest of the riverbank rose a huge leafless gum tree, long since dead. It was home to much birdlife and especially the very noisy cockatoos and galahs.
As children we roamed all over our property with complete safety where we discovered an abundance of wildlife in their natural habitat.
I started writing about Pete the Pesky Possum only a few years ago and from then on it just mushroomed. When I wrote about one character, another popped up, and I have many more just waiting for me to bring them to life.
The only problems I encountered were to know when to stop.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Feb 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9781466980181

Judy Henry

I was born in Ulamambri, a village some miles out of Coonabarabran, in New South Wales. My parents owned a farm my mother named Ulabend, and living in the country exposed me to the delights of nature.

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© Copyright 2013, 2014 Judy Henry.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4669-7752-5 (sc)

978-1-4669-8018-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013901165

Trafford rev. 04/01/2014

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This children’s storybook is dedicated to our sons

Adam and Daniel, with love.

If we look hard enough, with luck we will find the child within.

—Judy Henry

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Pete the Pesky Possum

Swampy, the Frog Who Learned to Sing

The Tail of Max the Mouse

Timothy, the Tortoise Who Loved to Dream

Rowdy, the Cockatoo Who Wanted to Be Different

Winsome Wombat’s Lucky Escape

Spiky, the Little Echidna Who Wanted a Cuddle

Foreword

When it was announced that we were to be grandparents, I wondered what legacy we could leave for our grandchildren. I had been playing around with children’s stories of woodland animals with a difference; it turned into seven with more on the way, hopefully.

I had no prior experience in writing any book, let alone children’s books, and so turned to my brother Peter, an English teacher, who informed me they were called picture books and that I needed children’s picture book illustrators. The Pandora’s box was opened. Someone once wrote that it was easy to write children’s books. It’s obvious they have never written one.

I would write, read, reread, and then read it over the phone to my long-suffering brother Peter. He would ask the what-ifs, whens, hows, whys, and where I was going with the story and on and on. OMG! What had I started? I would sit at the computer, staring blankly at the screen, and then totally rewrite each story time and again. I’d tell myself that I would only spend an hour on it