It was an ordinary flower-patterned saucer. But today it had grown wings.
"Of course!" said Natalie. "It's a flying saucer!"
She went to have a closer look.
There was a little creature standing in the saucer.
Was it an ant?
"A flying ant!" Natalie giggled.
It wasn't an ant.
It was a very, very, very tiny monster.
Also available by Jacqueline Wilson Published in Corgi Pups, for beginner readers: T H E DINOSAUR'S PACKED L U N C H
T H E MONSTER STORY-TELLER
Published in Young Corgi, for newly confident readers: LIZZIE Z I P M O U T H
SLEEPOVERS
Available from Doubleday/Corgi Yearling Books: BAD GIRLS
T H E BED 8c BREAKFAST STAR
BEST FRIENDS
BURIED ALIVE!
CANDYFLOSS
T H E CAT MUMMY
CLEAN BREAK
CLIFFHANGER
T H E DARE GAME
T H E D I A M O N D GIRLS
DOUBLE ACT
DOUBLE ACT (PLAY EDITION)
GLUBBSLYME
T H E ILLUSTRATED M U M
JACKY DAYDREAM
T H E LOTTIE PROJECT
M I D N I G H T
T H E M U M - M I N D E R
SECRETS
STARRING TRACY BEAKER
T H E STORY OF TRACY BEAKER
T H E SUITCASE KID
VICKY ANGEL
T H E WORRY WEBSITE
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Illustrated by Nick Sharratt
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Version 1.0
www.randomhouse.co.uk
THE MONSTER STORY-TELLER
A CORGI PUPS BOOK 978 0 552 55787 0
First published in Great Britain by Doubleday, an imprint of Random House Children's Books A Random House Group Company
Doubleday edition published 1997
First Corgi Pups edition published 1997
This Corgi Pups edition published 2008
1 3 5 7 9 1 0 8 6 4 2
Text copyright © Jacqueline Wilson, 1997
Illustrations copyright © Nick Sharratt, 1997
The right of Jacqueline Wilson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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 prior permission of the publishers.
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Set in 19/23 Bembo Infant
Young Corgi Books are published by Random House Children's Books, 61-63 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA
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THE RANDOM HOUSE GROUP Limited Reg. No. 954009
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Printed in the UK by CPI Bookmarque, Croydon, CR0 4TD
For Sean William MacLahlan
C O N T E N T S
Chapter One 1
Chapter Two 14
Chapter Three 30
Chapter Four 53
Series Reading Consultant: Prue Goodwin Reading and Language Information Centre, University of Reading
Chapter One
Natalie was fed up.
The class were doing a project
on flying.
She had made a big bird but
his wings went wonky. He
wouldn't fly.
Natalie talked to her friends.
"What did you do on
Saturday?" Natalie asked.
1
"I went swimming," said Clare.
"I went to McDonald's," said Zoe.
"I went to the football match,"
said Lee.
"I went shopping with my
n a n , " said Clive. "She gave me five pounds. And she bought me
chocolates. Y u m yum."
" D o you want to hear what I did on Saturday?" said Natalie.
"First I went swimming a n d there were real dolphins in the pool
and they gave me a ride. Then I
went to McDonald's and I had
twenty Big Macs and twenty
strawberry milk shakes. And then
I went to this football match and
I was the mascot and I scored a
goal a n d everyone cheered. And
then I went shopping with my
nan and she gave me fifty pounds
and lots and lots and lots of
chocolates."
" H o w many chocolates?" said Clive.
3
"Natalie's telling stories, silly,"
said Lee.
"Settle down, children!" said Mr Hunter. "Natalie, get on with your work and stop telling stories.
It's not story-time until this
afternoon – when we're going to
have a special treat."
4
"I w a n t a special treat now,"
Natalie muttered. "This is boring, boring, boring."
She sighed.
She stretched.
She looked up at the window.
She looked at the plant in the pot on the window sill.
And the plant in the pot moved.
5
Natalie blinked.
The plant in the pot moved
again. Upwards!
Was the plant in the pot flying?
Then Natalie saw!
The plant in the pot wasn't
flying.
It was the saucer.
It was an ordinary flower-
patterned saucer. But today it
had grown wings.
7
"Of course!" said Natalie. "It's a flying saucer!"
She went to have a closer look.
There was a little creature
standing in the saucer.
Was it an ant?
"A flying ant!" Natalie giggled.
8
It wasn't an ant.
It was a very, very, very tiny
monster.
It had wild hair and pointy
teeth and sharp claws and a long
tail.
But it didn't look fierce. It
looked friendly.
9
"Hello!" said Natalie.
"Hello!" said the tiny monster.
"Can you speak up a bit?" said Natalie. "I can't hear you
properly."
"I'm shouting!" said the tiny monster. "Can you speak down a bit? You're hurting my ears."
"Is it your flying saucer?"
Natalie whispered, so softly her
li
ps scarcely moved.
The tiny monster nodded
proudly.
" W a n t to see me do twirlie-whirlies?" he said.
11
"You bet!" said Natalie.
The tiny monster tapped his
teeny foot.
The saucer flapped its little
wings and whizzed round and
round in the air. The plant's
leaves waved wildly.
The tiny monster waved too as
he circled Natalie's head, round
and round until she got dizzy.
The plant wobbled and
wobbled until...
12
...it tipped right off the saucer and crashed onto the classroom floor!
" O h help!" said the tiny monster.
" O h help!" said Natalie.
"What's Mr Hunter going to say?"
13
Chapter T w o
Mr Hunter said plenty.
"You naughty girl, Natalie!
14
W h a t were you doing over by the window? Did you knock that
plant over on purpose?"
" N o ! It wasn't m e , " said Natalie.
"It was me!" said the tiny monster, flying his saucer behind
Natalie.
15
"Look at the mess on the floor!
Go and fetch a dustpan a n d
brush from the store cupboard,
Natalie," said Mr Hunter. "And take that silly smile off your face.
It isn't funny."
Natalie couldn't help smiling.
The tiny monster was tickling the
back of her neck with his weeny
claws.
16
Natalie hurried out of the
classroom.
The flying saucer went with
her, whirling round her head.
"Where are you going?"
shouted the tiny monster.
" T o fetch the dustpan and
brush," said Natalie.
"Boring, boring, boring," said the tiny monster. " C o m e flying with me instead. Jump up on my
17
"I can't," said Natalie. "I'm much too big. I'd smash the
saucer. And squash you."
"I can make you small," said the tiny monster. "Hold my
hand."
Natalie held out her great big
hand. The tiny monster held out
his weeny little paw.
Then Natalie started shrinking!
19
She felt as if she were being
rubbed with very powerful magic
soap.
She got smaller and smaller
and smaller until she was exactly
the same size as the tiny monster.
Only he didn't look tiny now.
The monster's hair was very
wild.
His teeth were very pointy.
His claws were very sharp.
His tail was very long.
But he still didn't look fierce.
He looked friendly.
21
"Let's fly," said the monster.
"Shall we go fast?"
"You bet!" said Natalie.
The monster tapped his paw
and the wings flapped very fast
indeed. The flying saucer whizzed
way down the school corridor.
"Aaaaah!" said Natalie.
22
"This is easy-peasy slowcoach stuff," said the monster, showing off like mad. "Let's go outside."
Natalie nodded.
She didn't have any breath left
for talking.
23
They flew very fast across the
playground.
"Wheeeeee!" said Natalie.
"This is wonderful! C a n we go right over the rooftops?"
"You bet!" said the monster.
24
They did twirlie-whirlies round
the chimney-pots.
25
"Now let's do swoopie-
doopies," said the monster.
They swooped right down to
the park.
The duck pond looked like a
puddle from high in the sky, but
when they got nearer and
nearer...
26
...the ducks started to get bigger and bigger.
"Quick! Fly up or they'll get us!" said Natalie.
"Chicken," teased the monster.
" N o – duck!" said Natalie.
They swooped up just in time,
leaving the ducks quacking
foolishly.
27
"I live near the park," said Natalie. "There's my house.
Look, there's my m u m and my
little brothers!"
"Hey, do you want to see my
m u m and my little brothers?" said the monster.
"You bet!" said Natalie.
"OK. Monster Planet, here we
come!
29
Chapter Three
The flying saucer's wings grew
immensely.
They flapped faster and faster
a n d faster.
The flying saucer shot straight
into the sky. It flew higher than
the tallest buildings in the whole world...
...higher than the world itself,
a w a y to a different planet
altogether.
Monster Planet.
"There it is!" shouted the monster.
"It's little!" said Natalie.
"So are w e , " said the monster.
31
"I can see water," said Natalie.
"It's our seaside," said the monster.
"I can see lots of little monster people!" said Natalie.
They had wild hair and pointy
teeth and sharp claws and long
tails. But they didn't look fierce.
They looked friendly.
"Shall we go for a sail?" said the monster.
"You bet!" said Natalie. "Hey, do you have dolphins?"
"Watch!" said the monster, and he whistled.
33
Six special monster dolphins
leapt out of the water and
The smiliest special monster
dolphin gave Natalie a ride.
"That was wonderful," said Natalie. "But I'm all wet now."
35
" W e have special drying
dragons on the beach," said the monster, parking the flying
saucer.
"Do you want the w a r m
dragon, the hot dragon, or the
special sauna dragon?" said the monster.
36
"Just the w a r m one, please,"
said Natalie.
She was wonderfully w a r m in
seconds.
The monster had the special
sauna treatment and was so red-
hot he fried an egg on himself
and ate it!
37
"Do you want an egg too,
Natalie?" said the monster.
"Maybe not an egg," said Natalie. "But I am starving."
"Do you want to go to
McMonsters?" said the monster.
"You bet!" said Natalie.
38
Natalie ate a McMonster
burger. And another and another
and another.
Whenever she got thirsty she
went to the pretty pink fountain.
It was strawberry monster milk
shake!
39
"I think I'm full up now," said Natalie.
"Let's go and look round the
shops," said the monster.
"I haven't got any money,"
said Natalie.
" N o problem," said the monster. "Monster money gro
ws on trees, look. Just help yourself!."
40
So Natalie and the monster
picked a pocketful of monster
money and went to the monster
shopping centre.
There was a monster pet shop
with monster dogs and monster
cats and monster rabbits and
monster hamsters and monster
mice.
Natalie liked the monster birds
best. She bought them all so she
could let them out of their cages.
The monster birds flapped their
wings and flew far away.
"Let's go in the sports shop,"
said the monster.
"Yes! I'll buy that football,"
said Natalie.
" W h o do you support?" said the monster. "I like the Monster Marvels."
"Me too," said Natalie.
"Do you want to go to the
match?" said the monster.
"You bet!" said Natalie.
43
The monster football stadium
was packed out.
Natalie and the monster got
specially shown to their seats.
44
" U p the Monster Marvels!"
yelled Natalie.
They all waved to her when
they ran onto the pitch.
" C o m e and kick off for us, Natalie," they shouted.
45
Natalie scored a stupendous
goal.
"Hurray for Natalie!" shouted all the monsters, while she leapt
in the air.
46
The monster took Natalie to
meet his monster nan after the
match.
Monster N a n made a great fuss
of them both. She gave them hot
chocolate to drink and cold
chocolate ice-cream to eat – and
lots and lots and lots of chocolate bars.
"Don't tell your m u m or she'll fuss about your teeth," said
Monster N a n .
47
"I w a n t to see your m u m and your little brothers," said Natalie.
"Right," said the monster.
"Hop back on the flying saucer."
They flew over the monster's
house.
"There they are! That's my
monster mum. And my little
monster brothers."