Childhood A - Z

By Maria Thermann

Childhood A - Z

45 short stories, 45 views on what life's like when you're a kid. Funny stories, sad stories, stories that hit you where other sweets can't reach. Meet Matti, Pia, Lars and Peter, kids from around the world who'll share a few moments with you. And a bit of magic on every page.

You hate endings? Or are worried a new beginning will bring only more trouble? It's all here, and a lot more besides.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookRix
• Release date: Nov 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9783748720874

Book preview

Anyone for the Tower Experience?

London's a funny place. It's full of tourists and litter, strange buildings and wind that nearly knocks you off your feet, when you round a corner. But it's my city, so I've got to live with it. Sometimes I wished I could make it better. But often I just shake my head and think it's too late. Nothing will ever change.

 Mum's a tour guide at the Tower Experience. I don't know why anyone would want to go there, it's full of bad memories. Horrible things have happened there in the past. There were traitors nailed to the gates and people thrown in prison for years. But that's London for you. We have a great way of making the most of our past, no matter how horrid it might be.

 Don't get me wrong, it's my kind of city. There's lots to do. There's Old Father Thames for a start. I like watching the boats go by or play along the beach with my friends. But then you take a look around, and you see things like the Tower. It makes you think. Where would we be without the tourists, even though we grumble at them. Would we go back to having entertainments like nailing traitors to doors? For that's what they did in the past, make a spectacle of horrid things. Keep people entertained.

 London's a funny place. But I don't always feel like laughing.

Baking

I remember standing on a chair, my mum's friend holding on to my waist. We were trying to bake a cake. I was still really small, not up to holding the wooden spoon for long and churning the dough.

 Raisins, bits of orange peel, but no almonds. Mum's allergic. That's how I remember it. That and lots of flour dust everywhere. Even in my face and hair. Mum had never baked a cake with me before. Her friend came round one day and said she'd teach me.

 When we were done turning the dough over and over in the bowl, we poured the lot into a cake tin and watched the cake rise through the oven's glass door. I remember how impatient I was, and how nervous. Would it actually come up? Or would it stay in the bottom of the tin, like a really dry pancake?

 Now that I'm older I can bake a cake on my own. There's nobody around to hold on to my waist. My mum's friend is gone, but when I smell fresh cake, I always think of her.

Bamboo

My sister is one of the world's most irritating people. So what if she's two years older than me and allowed to stay up later than me! Tina never stops rubbing in that I'm the baby of the family. What did mum and dad arrange for my birthday, thanks to her? A visit to the zoo, as if I were eight!

 We arrived early enough for the animal's feeding times, so that was at least interesting. The zoo was divided into different habitats to make the animals more comfortable, I guess. When we came to the bit where the pandas were kept, we had to walk through a forest of bamboo first. That's what they like to eat best, so the zoo had planted lots of the stuff. In the middle of this green maze was a bench. I sat down, for by now my feet were aching, and looked up. The bamboo sticks all around me were about four metres tall, you couldn't see anything of what was going on either side of them. Mum and dad had walked on, so had Tina, but she stopped at the far end when she noticed I hadn't followed. What's up, she asked. Tired already?

 I shook my head. Just look at the sky, will you?

 She came back to sit next to me. We both looked up. The bamboo all around us whispered in the wind. Cloud formations chased each other across the sky. We spotted two kangaroos and one polar bear shape among them. Then there was one that looked a bit like a kettle. Or maybe a fat wallaby. While we'd been looking up into the sky, the bamboo around us had heaved in sighs. I noticed a smell that hadn't been there before. Vaguely like strawberries and cream. Or maybe strawberries and vanilla ice. When I looked down again, there was a little old lady standing right in front of us. She was ancient judging by her wrinkles.

 Come to see the pandas? she said. We told her we were. It occurred to me that she might want a seat on the bench. I got up, so did Tina.

 Oh, don't leave on my account, the lady said.

 Tina looked nervously towards the other end of the green tunnel. I followed her eyes. No sign of our parents. They'd gone ahead and not noticed we'd been left behind. I offered the lady my seat. She accepted and sat down heavily. She began telling us about the two pandas kept here at the zoo. What a lot of media circus there had been when the animals arrived. Reporters everywhere you looked, she said. Giant pandas were just so rare.

 She said her name was Ruth. She knew a lot about many of the zoo's animals, but especially about pandas. She'd been to China, where they come from originally. But that was a long time ago, when her husband was still alive, she said. Pandas seemed to be terribly fussy eaters. The bamboo had to be just so, or they wouldn't eat it. That's why they were so rare now, their habitats were being destroyed and they couldn't find anything to eat, she said. Now they were protected by law.

 After a while, she got up and left as silently as she'd arrived, walking towards the opposite end of where the panda enclosure was. She left a faint smell of strawberries and vanilla behind. Tina said, let's go, mum and dad are waiting, but I didn't follow her right away. I looked up into the sky and thought of China's bamboo forests. What it must be like to be totally lost in one of these green mazes that go on and on for miles. And how sad a panda family must feel when their forest is being cut down, getting smaller and smaller. All around me the bamboo heaved a sigh. Almost as if it agreed with me.

Bath Time

You never knew with Jamie. Some days he'd kick up a fuss when it was time for his bath, on other days he was really keen. Today was one of his better days, and he didn't mind. I guess it was because his friend Sam was there. I managed to get them both into the bath tub, then I dropped a few toys into the water. My little brother liked his blue submarine best, but Sam preferred the yellow rubber duck. I preferred putting my feet up, but nobody asked me.

 As expected, they began to splash and throw their toys out of the bath. You could squirt water out of one end of Jamie's submarine and my brother made use of that fact. I got shot in my face, and so did Sam. He didn't like it and began to cry. When the two of them were the colour of rosy marshmellows, I judged it was time for them to come out. Jamie liked