Samy's Stories for Kids: The Jungle Letter Box, Parrot in a Swing & 23 Other Stories

By Dwight Nacaytuna and Kulandaisami S.M.

If animals in children's stories could talk and walk, why can't they post letters, too? THE JUNGLE LETTERBOX, one of the 25 titles in this Book, tells you all about it.

What could be a funnier misadventure than this one of a man who steps on the leg of a sleeping street dog and then bends to touch the animal's body to say sorry as it wakes up growling? This happens to KUPPANDI, the hero of A FUNNY MISADVENTURE.

While filling out a Karate class admission application form for a boy, his neighbour puts the kid's birthtime height and weight against the relevant query simply because the information to be furnished comes next to date of birth of the applicant! 'HEIGHT AND WEIGHT' is that story.

Want to know about planned escapes, daring self-rescues, eccentric ideas of cheapness and of buying platform tickets for rail passengers arriving with train tickets, crazy notion about faulty gear stick in a bus, etc.? You may find a lot of such like funny and thrilling happenings in stories like A PLANNED ESCAPE, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, KUPPANDI'S FIRST BUS RIDE, KUPPANDI BUYS FOUR PLATFORM TICKETS, RAJA PLANS HIS OWN RESCUE, KUPPANDI'S IDEA OF CHEAPNESS, PARROT IN A SWING, MURUGAN'S DARING ESCAPE, etc.!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Sep 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781482838336

Dwight Nacaytuna

Dr.Susan Marks Weiner has spent her life as a wife, mother, nurse and in the past 7 years, grandmother. She has a Master's Degree in Nursing and a Doctorate in Nutrition. Throughout her career, Susan has written for medical and nursing textbooks, journal articles and research. She has always enjoyed reading and writing and enjoys medical mysteries and scientce fiction. This is her first children's story, inspired by her granddaughter, Samantha (Sammie), whom she adores, and her rescued dog, Polo. Susan hopes to write more stories for children in the future including ongoing adventures of Samantha and Polo. Susan and her husband, Mark reside in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.

Book preview

SAMY’S STORIES FOR KIDS

THE JUNGLE LETTER BOX, PARROT IN A SWING & 23 OTHER STORIES

KULANDAISAMI S.M.

Copyright © 2014 KULANDAISAMI S.M. All rights reserved.

Illustrations by Vishwanath T. and Dwight Nacaytuna

ISBN

978-1-4828-3832-9 (sc)

978-1-4828-3833-6 (e)

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.

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.

www.partridgepublishing.com/india

09/15/2014

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AUTHOR DEDICATES THE BOOK TO HIS WELL-WISHER AND BOON COMPANION SUBBAMMAL.

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VISHWANATH T.

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Contents

1. The Jungle Letter Box

2. A Funny Misadventure

3. Height and Weight

4. A Planned Escape

5. The Grapes Were Sweet this Time But

6. A Unique Collective Wish

7. Catch Me If You Can!

8. Watchful Letter Box

9. The Fat Green Frog

10. Kuppandi’s First Bus Ride

11. Kuppandi Buys Four Platform Tickets

12. Raja Plans His Own Rescue

13. Honesty Plus Sagacity

14. Slow and Steady versus Steady and Swift

15. The Clever Mouse

16. Kuppandi’s Idea of Cheapness

17. The Bird Dentists

18. How Poocho Fox Quenched His Thirst

19. Frogs Retrieved Kid’s Gold Ring

20. The Dreamy Ant Returns Home

21. Parrot in a Swing

22. The Truth About Magic Sugar

23. Murugan’s Daring Escape

24. Lakshmi, the Loudmouth

25. Cheekku and His Playmates

1

THE JUNGLE LETTER BOX

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T he animals living in Zone-J of the Jolly Jungle had been clamouring for a letter box for their locality. Because Zone-J happened to be a remote area, its residents had to cover long distances to post their mails.

Finally, only after a long struggle, the jungle postal administration gave in. But where will the letter box be installed? Big Brother Leopard wanted to have it put up near his residence, while Warrior Wolf intended to have it near his.

The issue was, however, resolved by drawing lots—which went in favour of the wolf. Now, the next problem cropped up. Who should be appointed as the letter box peon?

In a bid to appease the leopard and his supporters, the jungle postal authorities decided to give the job to their candidate, Moni Monkey. But the other side, already victorious, claimed the post for their candidate, Dinky Donkey.

But Moni Monkey’s agility and Dinky Donkey’s bad habit of eating paper turned the table against the choice of the latter. And his supporters, fearing defeat, did not press for a division even by a voice vote!

The jungle postal authorities were delighted as both sides sank their differences and agreed to cooperate with them in their own interests.

For quite some time, things were going smoothly. Then complaints started pouring in from both sides!

The complaints varied from allegations of letters posted in the Zone-J letter box not reaching their destinations, to grievances about such letters being found bitten at delivery point.

The postal authorities started checking the mails cleared and brought by the monkey and found the complaints genuine. They placed the monkey under suspension.

While further probe was on, as a stopgap arrangement, they entrusted the duty of letter box clearance in Zone-J to Dinky Donkey—the rival candidate.

But still the same complaints persisted! And spot checks carried out by a special postal inspector cleared the monkey as well as the donkey of tampering with the mail because letters cleared from the box, in his very presence, showed signs of damage!

The postal administration then transferred the case to the jungle police.

Led by Inspector Snake, a police team swung into action.

Checking and rechecking the damaged mails for clues, Inspector Snake thought he could solve the mystery soon.

Past midnight, he went in mufti and crawled to the site of the Zone-J letter box. He heard some rustling sounds coming from inside the box. Hiding himself, he waited.

Presently, he saw a pair of mice exiting out of the letter box opening and creeping down, each holding a letter in their mouth. But he let them go away. His idea was to take the letter box with him with the culprits trapped inside and show it off to the authorities and to the residents of Zone-J.

The next day, soon after nightfall, Inspector Snake revisited the site. Two snake jawans were with him. And they were all in mufti—hiding and waiting. Just before midnight, the mice couple appeared.

Soon, they were inside the letter box. The cops acted quickly. Rushing towards the mail box, they sealed up the letter box opening with a steel plate they had brought with them. Then they took down the letter box and put it into a canvas bag.

The day broke with the entire jungle thronging to the police station.

Locked up, the pair of mice looked stupid and scared as the residents, young and old, booed and jeered at them. While the postal officials, who had come to claim the letter box, thanked the police force, the jungle elders were all praise for Inspector Snake and decided to reward him in a public function.

Needless to say, the jungle postal administration immediately revoked the suspension of the innocent Moni Monkey and reinstated him as the Zone-J letter box peon!

Following this, the rival groups in Zone-J of the jungle buried the hatchet.

*    *    *

2

A FUNNY MISADVENTURE

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K uppandi, an eccentric man of sorts, was just out on the street when a young boy, playing with his companions there, accidentally stepped on his feet. While Kuppandi didn’t mind it, the youngster said sorry and bent and touched Kuppandi’s feet with his hands and then placed them over his own eyes to show respect. Impressed by the boy’s nice gesture, Kuppandi patted the boy on the shoulder and said with a smile, ‘Don’t you bother, boy! That’s all right. Go, play.’

Kuppandi walked away, intending to go to the temple. Taking a shortcut, he was going through lanes and back lanes. At one place, he stopped to watch an elderly woman bend and