The Excellent Adventures of Max and Madison: Bedtime Stories for Youngsters

By Grandma Bette

There is a little country town not very far from Canberra in Australia, and this is where all of these adventures take place. Max is only five years old and his sister is a little younger. They live in a little cottage with their parents Kerrie and Michael.

Max has just started school while Madison goes to kindergarden. The children are very interested in the world around them and are always looking to learn about new and interesting things. Max is also learning to be a magician.

Across from their house is a large area of native Australian forest where many birds and bush animals live together, this is called a national park.

Joe MacDonald and his wife Mrs Jill have a farm just outside of town where they keep dairy cows, chickens, geese and ducks and keep bees. They make a living by selling their produce at the weekly market near town.

There always seems to be something happening in this small town and Max and Madison are usually involved somehow. They are joined sometimes by their friends the Baker cousins.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Apr 4, 2012
• ISBN: 9781452504315

Grandma Bette

Grandma Bette is an Australian in her early sixties living in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, Australia with her Italian born husband. They have three grown children one of whom lives in Canberra with his partner and two children. These bedtime stories were written for their grandchildren.

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Copyright © Grandma Bette 2012, 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

ISBN: 978-1-4525-0432-2 (sc)

       978-1-4525-0431-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012903949

Balboa Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

author’s website: www.grandmabette.com

Created in the United States of America

Balboa Press rev. date: 6/18/2013

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Contents

Clarence the Cuckoo

A Fishtale

Caterina and her Magic Trick

Madison Buys Some Shoes

Max gets a Job

Percy the Pesky Possum

I will give you the Drum

Charlie goes Exploring

Marianna the Water Maiden

What Creature is That?

A Delay at the Airport

The Helpful Little Clouds

Duck Down and Keep Warm

The Circus Comes to Town

Birds of a Feather

A Day at the Zoo

Morning Tea with Max and Madison

The Secret Garden

Is Percy Playing Possum ?

Maximus Leone

Bee Careful

The Lost Little Puggle

The Shape Shifter.

The Steam Train

The Fairy Tree

The Clown with the Little Pink Nose.

The Martin House?

Penelope the Penguin

Maxie goes Flying

Owen the Odd Sock

Captain Max and the Whales

Research Rabbits

Christmas is Coming

What is it Ralph?

The North Pole Ninja

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author wishes to acknowledge the encouragement and assistance of family members with regards to proof reading and not objecting when their names were given to various birds and creatures. In particular, special thanks go to Peter who was always available when called and gave many hours of his precious time to assist with computer problems and explain mysteries such as jpeg files to his technically challenged mother.

For my grandchildren

Max and Madison

FOREWORD

There is a little country town not very far from Canberra in Australia and this is where all of these adventures take place. Max and Madison live in a little cottage with their mother Kerrie and father Michael, who both work in the city. Max is only five years old and his sister a little younger.

Max has just started school and Madison goes to kindergarden. The children are very interested in the world around them and are always looking to learn about new and interesting things. Max is learning to be a magician.

Across the road from their house is a large area of native Australian forest where many bush animals and native birds live together, this is called a national park.

Joe MacDonald and his wife Mrs Jill have a farm just outside of town where they keep animals and grow crops which they sell each week at the local market.

There always seems to be something happening in this small town and Max and Madison are usually involved somehow and are joined sometimes by their friends, the Baker cousins.

CLARENCE THE CUCKOO

Clarence.tif

Clarence the Cuckoo

Max slowly opened his eyes and looked around the bedroom. Something had woken him up this morning but it was not the alarm clock. The house was very quiet and everyone else was still asleep. It was bright and sunny outside and a little beam of sunlight had shone onto his eyelids, that was what had woken him up.

Well, Max thought to himself, it seems very sunny for six o’clock in the morning. He checked his digital clock which sat on the table next to his bed. Oh no it was twenty minutes before seven! What was going on, the whole family had slept in, how could this have happened?

In the kitchen there was a cuckoo clock which looked like a little wooden house. Every hour during the day, Clarence the cuckoo would pop out of a little window at the top of the house and call out the hours. Everyone relied on Clarence to make sure that they ate their meals regularly and left for work and kindergarden on time. Then in the evening, Max and his sister Madison went to bed when Clarence cuckooed seven times. But this morning there was not a sound from the kitchen, the house was quiet, too quiet. What has happened to Clarence?

Max hopped out of bed, put on his slippers and walked out to the kitchen. The little window at the top of the clock was closed, so he very carefully climbed up on mummy’s kitchen steps and peeked inside. There was poor Clarence still in his little nest looking very sad. He saw Max looking in and waved his wing, so Max opened the window and asked what was wrong. Clarence whispered that he had a sore throat and was unable to call out the time today and was very upset that he had allowed the family to oversleep and perhaps be late for work.

Max knew that when he had a sore throat his mummy would make him a drink of lemon juice and honey, so he told Clarence to just relax and that he would be back soon. Then he raced out into the back yard and picked a fresh lemon from the tree then returned to the kitchen, squeezed some juice and mixed it in a very small glass with water and some of Mrs Jill’s farm fresh honey. Carefully he passed it through the window for Clarence to drink.

This will fix you right up, Max told him, and it will be our little secret. Then Max went to his room to shower and dress for the day and returned to the kitchen. He set about preparing the table for breakfast in order to save his family some time, then he sat down and waited and waited. It was nearly seven, would Clarence recover his voice in time?

Then at seven o’clock, right on time, the window opened, the little platform of the clock popped out and Clarence sang out the time in very clear cuckoos. He waved thank you to Max and popped back inside the clock. It was not long before Max heard the sounds of mum and dad and his sister Madison all getting out of bed and noticing that they were a little late, they all hurried to have breakfast and get ready for their day. Mummy thanked Max for setting the table that morning and then everyone went off to work, school and kindergarten on time.

A FISHTALE

Today it is so hot that mummy and daddy decided to take the children to the seaside for a swim. When they arrived they found a good spot on the beach but Max and Madison could not wait, so they ran straight down to jump into the water to cool off. Meanwhile daddy put up a big umbrella to protect them from the sun and spread a blanket over the sand so that mummy could sit and watch the children as they played. Max and Madison loved being at the edge of the water where the waves were small and gentle, so they swam and jumped and splashed until mummy called them for lunch.

After lunch Madison picked up her bucket and spade and started to build a sand castle.

Come on Maxie, she said, help me build a big fortress.

Not now, maybe later, Max replied I think that I will go exploring in those rocks over there, he said pointing over to his left.

What is so interesting about rocks Madison thought to herself, sand is much more fun, rocks are boring.

Max wandered over to the rocks and carefully looked around to see if there were any interesting creatures to be found. He saw little breathing holes in the sand which told him that crabs were sleeping down there waiting for the tide to come in. Some of the rocks were sort of in circles and sea water had become trapped in them making small pools. Some flat shell fish had