When a Child Sings

By Liana Wendy Howarth

When a Child Sings is a beautiful collection of inspirational and childrens poems, lyrics for all seasons, devotionals, and encouragement. In essence, it is volume 2 of Sunrays and Lily Smiles, published in 2014.

The author has also included as a special gift a six-part series for the young, or young at heart, entitled Sherbert the Bunny.

Personalized poems for weddings, anniversaries, births, or any other occasion where expressions of love are needed are another specialty. Contact details inside.

May you be wonderfully blessed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512747447

Liana Wendy Howarth

Liana Wendy Howarth is a poet, an award-winning lyricist, and a writer of children’s short stories. When a Child Sings is her third book, following from Sunrays and Lily Smiles and Fragrance from the Spring. An avid blogger and originally from England, she now resides in Australia with her husband, John, and children, Martin, Sarah, and Brittany.

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Copyright © 2016 Liana Wendy Howarth.

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 author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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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.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4743-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4745-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4744-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016910524

WestBow Press rev. date: 8/9/2016

CONTENTS

BUNNY TALES FOR CHILDREN

AN ELEPHANT TALE FOR CHILDREN

DEVOTIONS

POEMS

CHILDREN’S POEMS

HYMNS

SONG LYRICS

… CHRISTMAS SONG LYRICS

PARTING PRAISES

Once again I give all the glory to my wonderful heavenly Father, Almighty God. Without You none of these writings would have been possible. You have been with me in every sunbeam, every storm cloud, every smile and every tear that has been captured within these pages ... guiding me, encouraging me, loving me.

To my precious family, I am forever grateful. I’ve been gifted with an amazing husband and three beautiful children. You are heaven sent.

To all who have been with me through the last few years, in person or online, I can truly say that you have blessed me. To those whose comments have prompted further poems or song lyrics, I thank you.

WHEN A CHILD SINGS

For every child

For the young at heart

For every child of God

BUNNY TALES FOR CHILDREN

Sherbert the Bunny 3

Sherbert the Bunny Goes Shopping 6

Sherbert the Bunny Goes Swimming 10

Sherbert the Bunny Goes to the Doctor 15

Sherbert the Bunny Goes Camping 20

Sherbert the Bunny and the Party 26

SHERBERT THE BUNNY

Little squares of soft-coloured pink, little squares of cotton-wool white, little squares of daffodil yellow, little squares of mint green, and little squares of summer-sky blue. Yes, it’s true! This is your new friend, Sherbert the bunny, and she is in for many funny, new, and exciting adventures.

Sherbert the bunny, or Sherby as many of her friends know her, is an adorable, little patchwork toy made up of many tiny squares of delicious, sherberty colours. She is held tightly together by many carefully sewn stitches, has two very cute, brown button eyes, and ears that are so long that she can’t help but know everything that is happening around her because of her incredible sense of hearing. The most impressive thing about Sherbert the bunny is the very beautiful straw bag covered in pretty spring flowers that she carries everywhere. She considers herself a very well-groomed bunny and wants to set a high example to everyone she meets.

Sherbert lives in a small but well-cared-for warren, in the rambling fields of Cranberry Hill. She has many friends, two of whom are Stella the striped giraffe and Minky the pink kitten. The three are inseparable. Where one goes, the other two follow, except into the bunny hole, of course! This presented a bit of a problem for Stella, even though she has a flexible neck made of soft pastel fabric. Because of this, most of Sherby’s adventures take place in the hills surrounding our new friends’ homes.

Today, we will discover how these three friends met and learn of some of the new adventures that will surely follow.

Sherby, Stella, and Minky all lived in different corners of the countryside. Who do you think had the biggest home? Stella? You’re right! Anyway, one day, on a very cold and windy morning, with the falling snow chasing dried-out leaves across the picturesque landscape of Cranberry Hill, our three new friends were on their way to school. A local school in Cranberry Village. They were walking, or at least trying to walk … more like being blown to school. They fought against the blustery wind, rainbow-coloured scarves blocking their vision, rainbow-coloured scarves flying into their eyes and mouths. Now, these scarves were very, very long and very, very bright. A few weeks before, there had been a scarf-knitting competition, and their grandmas had knitted and knitted and knitted until there was barely any wool left in the hills. The poor little sheep had had to take cover from the cold winds because the grannies had all but taken their very last bit of clothing from off their backs. Anyway, Sherby’s scarf had won, and Stella and Minky came runners-up. They had not met at the prize presentation though, as their grannies had accepted the wonderful trophies.

Now, can you imagine what was going to happen as these three little patchwork animals got closer and closer to their school (remember, a school which was in the middle of Cranberry Village, and they lived on the outskirts, in three different corners of Cranberry Hill), on a very windy winter’s day? ... A sudden gale whirled around the hills, and the three were blown even closer to their school, as they battled with all of their might to keep their little patchwork feet firmly on the ground ... and that’s when it happened ... their very, very long and very, very bright scarves met in the middle, and the three of them, with unbelieving eyes and mouths wide open, were thrown together, wrapped and wrapped and wrapped, round and round and round, in brightly knitted scarves ... lifted up off the ground, swirled around and around and around, and dropped down, down, down, landing near their very startled school friends, outside the village school.

Well, I never, they gasped, and with that story, a story that could be told over and over and over, again and again and again, you can understand how Sherby, Stella, and Minky became the very best of friends, because once they had managed to get their breath back, they laughed and laughed and laughed. What were the chances of that ever happening to three little unsuspecting patchwork toys?

I hope you have enjoyed the first tale of Sherbert the bunny. Please join me again on another day, and find out what Sherby and her friends in the village will discover on one of Sherbert the bunny’s new adventures, adventures that will take her shopping and camping, swimming and to a party, adventures that will include a new baby brother, a new baby sister, going to the doctor, going to the dentist and more, I’m sure. Oh! And by the way, what does Sherby have that’s so special in that wonderful straw bag of hers?

SHERBERT THE BUNNY GOES SHOPPING

Soft-coloured pink and cotton-wool white

Daffodil yellow, hippity-hop, hippity-hopping

Mint green and summer-sky blue

Today is Monday, and Sherbert the bunny is going shopping

Sherby and her mummy and daddy are going to visit the new shopping centre in Cranberry Village and were wondering if you would like to join them. There is one thing Sherby has wanted for ages. She has saved and saved and saved, and finally has enough money to buy what she wants. Remember Sherby’s beautiful straw bag covered in pretty spring flowers that she takes with her everywhere she goes? Well, last time she was in the shops in Blueberry Village, a bigger village over the distant hills, Sherby found the most exquisite matching straw hat, a floppy hat with pretty spring flowers that would fit very nicely over her very long ears, and now she can’t believe it - the shop Berry Nice Hats ’n Things has come to Cranberry Village.

Come on, Sherbert, called her mother. Stop daydreaming.

After Sherbert ran to her bedroom to get her beautiful straw bag, they hopped into the sparkling, lime-green bunny-mobile, and set off for the shops. Wow, shouted Sherby with glee. Look at them. They couldn’t believe their eyes. The new shops were even bigger than the ones in Blueberry Village. They could spend all day there, and still not see everything; but first, they had to decide where they would all meet, as Sherby’s daddy had his own shopping to do. He was a builder, who worked very hard looking after all of the animals’ homes in Cranberry Hill, and he had run out of quite a few things. Nails and glue and a new hammer wouldn’t go astray.

I’ll be quite a while, so take your time, he chuckled, knowing full well that wouldn’t be a problem for mother and daughter bunny.

They decided to eat first and then shop, shop, shop. Let’s see!! What a choice of food … cranberry muffins or cranberry pie, cranberry buns or cranberry ice- cream. They chose cranberry muffins, some cranberry ice-cream, and topped it off with a delicious, carrot-flavoured milkshake.

Where shall we go first, Sherbert?

Please, oh! please Mummy, can we go to Berry Nice Hats ’n Things? Please, oh! please.

Of course we can. Look, there it is over there.

So there it was, the most beautiful shop that Sherbert had ever seen. It was even prettier than the one in Blueberry Village where she had bought her bag. Inside she found what she was looking for straight away, and it was just her size (A beautiful straw hat covered in pretty spring flowers, a perfect match for her bag). It sat among other lovely hats and bags, fluffy pink ones, spotty blue ones, shiny red ones, and stripy coloured ones; but Sherby only had eyes for the one that matched her bag. After paying for it with her very own money, she placed it on her head and watched her mother smile with pride.

What a lovely picture you make, Sherbert Bunny!

They soon realized that they had better do some more shopping, otherwise Mr Bunny would be telling them it was time to go home. They had spent too long in Berry Nice Hats ’n Things. Yes, I know that Sherbert had already decided what she wanted before she went into the shop; but it was Mrs Bunny. She had decided to treat herself as well; but unfortunately couldn’t make her mind up as quickly as Sherby had. So the next half-hour was spent helping the shop owner, Mr Hatty, the black and white polka-dot horse, sort through the mess of mismatched hats and bags. There were dots with stripy things and spots with fluffy things, fluffy things with stripy things and shiny things with spotty things. Finally, they were ready to leave, much to the amusement of all of the other customers, who thought they had been given a free comedy show.

Encore, encore, yelled Mrs Wagtail, the blue patchwork dog and cousin bunny, Henrietta. The shop had steadily drawn in more and more customers with all of the commotion inside.

Next they went to the newspaper shop, where they literally ran into Stella and her family of striped giraffes. So while mother bunny and mother giraffe chatted and chatted and chatted, Sherby and Stella found what they were looking for among the newspapers, and magazines, and cards. After all, Sherby had a pretty straw bag she needed to fill. First, she chose some very thick, sparkly golden cardboard, then some sparkly rainbow glitter, some glue, and together they chose a very big birthday card. I wonder who’s having a birthday? We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we! Sherby and Stella both put some money in, and Sherby carefully placed them on top of the other things in her bag. No! I’m sorry. You can’t see what else she has in her bag. Not yet. It’s a surprise.

Oh! Look! Sherbert, here comes Daddy Bunny. You’d better say good-bye to Stella as we still have a few groceries to buy, and then we will have to go home. It’s been a wonderful day, hasn’t it?

Oh yes, Mummy. I’m so happy that I found this beautiful hat to match my beautiful straw bag. Look at the pretty spring flowers around both of them, they match so well. Don’t I look pretty! Stella says she would really love to own a hat and bag like mine; but she hasn’t saved up enough money yet. I hope they still have some when she is ready to buy them. Some for Minky too, Mummy. Then we can all be the same!

What are Sherby and Stella up to? Can you guess? Each adventure will lead you closer to the answer. So until tomorrow, it’s good-bye from Sherbert the bunny and all of her friends who live in Cranberry Hill.

SHERBERT THE BUNNY GOES SWIMMING

Soft-coloured pink and cotton-wool white

Daffodil yellow, hippity-hop, hippity-hopping

Mint green and summer-sky blue

Today is Tuesday, and Sherbert the bunny is going swimming

Sherby is so excited, she absolutely loves going to the pool. It’s such a beautiful day, and she has arranged to meet her friends, Stella and Minky there. Can you imagine a bunny, a giraffe and a kitten in a swimming costume? It takes a bit of imagination, doesn’t it! First, though, Sherby has to visit somewhere where she would rather not go. Can you guess? It’s somewhere where most children would rather not go; but once they are there, it usually isn’t as bad as they imagined. Did you guess? It’s the dentist, and today, before Sherby can go to the local swimming pool to meet her friends and have fun in the sun, she has to go and have her teeth checked. Sherby is trying to be so brave, and Mrs Bunny is trying her hardest to encourage her.

I’m sure your teeth are fine, Sherby. You’ve followed all of Dentist Pete’s instructions. Clean your teeth and gums twice a day. Drink lots of fresh water. Eat lots of crunchy carrots and apples and have sweeties as a treat only, not as a part of your everyday foods ... Now you’ve done that, haven’t you Sherby?

Yes Mummy, whispered Sherby, shaking a little. But I still don’t like to go there.

Think of the fun you will have after lunch at the pool, dear, comforted Mrs Bunny. You can have a little picnic when you are tired of swimming, and then play games around the pool.

I guess you’re right, Mum.