Ben and Anna

Ben and Anna looked interested. A battle sounded much better than dinner.

"Here are the rules," Dad explained. "You both have to eat one piece of the vegetable you don't like. But you have to do it in the funniest way possible. The funniest eater wins!"

"What's the prize?" Ben asked.

"The winner doesn't have to help with washing dishes tonight!" Mum said with a smile.

Ben looked at his broccoli. He imagined it was a little tree, and he was a giant. He opened his mouth wide and made a loud "ROAR!" sound. Then he ate the broccoli in one big bite. "Yum, delicious trees!" he said in a giant voice.

Everyone laughed. Now it was Anna's turn. She looked at her carrot. She put it on her nose like a clown! Then she tipped her head back, and the carrot fell into her mouth. She chewed with a silly face. "I am a rabbit! I love carrots!" she said in a squeaky voice.

Ben and Anna were both so funny. Mum and Dad were laughing hard.

"You are both winners!" Dad announced. "No one washes dishes tonight!"

"But there is one more rule," Mum said. "You have to tell me one good thing about your vegetable."

Ben thought. "Broccoli is crunchy like chips," he said.

Anna said, "Carrots are sweet like candy."

They finished their vegetables without any more complaints. Max watched from his chair, probably thinking that humans were very strange but funny animals.

That night, Ben dreamed he was a giant eating green trees, and Anna dreamed she was a rabbit in a carrot garden. Vegetables weren't so bad after all.

Questions to Chapter 11:

What vegetables don't Ben and Anna like?

What is the name of Dad's game?

What are the rules of the game?

How does Ben eat his broccoli?

How does Anna eat her carrot?

What do the children learn about vegetables?

Chapter 12: The Talking Homework

On Thursday, Mrs. Brown gave the class very strange homework. "Your homework is to talk to a plant," she said.

The children laughed. "Talk to a plant?" Sam asked. "Plants can't talk!"

"That's the experiment," Mrs. Brown explained. "I want you to talk to a plant every day for one week. Be very nice to it. Say kind words. See what happens."

Ben thought this was the weirdest homework ever. But he was a good student. He chose a small plant in the living room. It had green leaves and looked ordinary.

"Hello, plant," Ben said on the first day. He felt silly. "You have… nice leaves."

Anna heard him and laughed. "You're talking to a plant!"

"It's homework!" Ben said. "Mrs. Brown said plants grow better if we talk to them nicely."

Anna decided to try it too. She chose a different plant. "You are the most beautiful plant in the world!" she told it.

The next day, Ben forgot to talk to his plant. He was busy with football. Anna remembered. "Good morning, plant! You look happy today!"

On the third day, something funny happened. Ben's plant looked a little sad. Its leaves were drooping. Anna's plant looked bright and perky.

"Your plant is sad because you didn't talk to it!" Anna said.

"That's silly," Ben said. But he felt a little guilty. He went to his plant. "I'm sorry I forgot to talk to you. You're a good plant."

Mum saw this and smiled. She knew a secret.

Every day after that, Ben talked to his plant. He told it about school, about football, about Snowy the rabbit. Anna sang songs to her plant.

After one week, both plants looked beautiful and green. But Anna's plant had something special – a small pink flower!

"Look!" Anna shouted. "My plant grew a flower because I was so nice to it!"

Ben looked at his plant. No flower. "That's not fair," he said. "I talked to my plant too!"

Then Mum told her secret. "I gave Anna's plant special plant food yesterday," she said. "That's why it has a flower."

Ben laughed. "So talking to plants doesn't work?"

"Well," Mum said, "your plant was dying when you forgot to talk to it. But when you started talking to it, you also remembered to water it! That's why it became healthy again."

The children understood. Talking to the plants helped them remember to care for them!

At school, Mrs. Brown asked about the homework. "My plant grew a flower!" Anna said proudly.

"My plant almost died because I forgot to talk to it," Ben said honestly. "But then I talked to it and watered it, and it became happy again."

Mrs. Brown smiled. "That's a wonderful lesson. When we pay attention to something and care for it, it grows better. This is true for plants, animals, and even people."

That evening, Ben caught Anna talking to Max. "You are the best cat in the world," she said.

Max purred loudly. Maybe the homework worked for cats too!

Questions to Chapter 12:

What is the strange homework Mrs. Brown gives?

What happens when Ben forgets to talk to his plant?

What surprise does Anna's plant have after one week?

What is Mum's secret?

What lesson do the children learn from this homework?

Why does Anna talk to Max at the end?

Chapter 13: The Cookie Mystery

It was Saturday morning. Mum baked delicious chocolate cookies. The whole house smelled wonderful. She put the cookies on a blue plate to cool. "Don't touch them," she said. "They are for after lunch."

Ben and Anna said, "Yes, Mum." They went to the living room to watch cartoons.

One hour later, Mum called from the kitchen. "Who ate the cookies?" She sounded surprised.

Ben and Anna ran to the kitchen. The blue plate was empty. Only a few crumbs were left.

"It wasn't me!" Ben said. "It wasn't me!" Anna said.

They looked at each other. Then they looked at Max. Max was sleeping on his chair. He looked very innocent. But there was a small brown crumb on his white fur.

"Max! Did you eat the cookies?" Anna asked.

Max opened one eye and licked his lips. Then he went back to sleep.

"I think we have a mystery," Ben said. "We need to find the cookie thief."

They decided to be detectives. Ben got a notebook and a pencil. Anna got a magnifying glass from her toy set.

"First clue," Ben said. He pointed to the crumb on Max's fur. "Suspect number one: Max the cat."

"Second clue," Anna said. She found a small piece of chocolate on the floor near the table. "The thief was messy."

"But how did Max get the cookies?" Ben wondered. "The plate was in the middle of the table. Max can't jump on the table when Mum is in the kitchen."

They thought hard. Then Anna saw another clue. A small yellow feather was under the table.

"A feather!" Anna said. "Max doesn't have feathers."

Suddenly, they heard a noise from the garden. Tweet! Tweet! They looked out the window. A small yellow bird was sitting on the fence. It had something brown in its beak. A cookie crumb!

"The bird is the thief!" Ben shouted.

But how? The bird was outside. The window was closed.

Then they saw it. The small window in the bathroom was open. It was very small, but big enough for a bird.

The mystery was solved! The yellow bird flew through the bathroom window, took a cookie, and flew away. It did this many times. Max probably saw the bird and tried to catch it. That's why he had a crumb on his fur. Max was not the thief; he was trying to be a detective too!

They told Mum about their detective work. Mum was very impressed.

"You are good detectives!" she said. "But now we have no cookies for lunch."

"Don't worry, Mum," Ben said. "We can bake more cookies together. And this time we will close the bathroom window!"

They all laughed. Max woke up and meowed, as if to say, "I knew it was the bird all along!"

That afternoon, Ben, Anna, and Mum baked new cookies. And this time, they ate them all together. No mystery this time!

Questions to Chapter 13:

What did Mum bake?

What did the children find on Max's fur?

What clues did the children find?

Who was the real cookie thief?

How did the thief get into the house?

What did the family do in the afternoon?

Chapter 14: The Magic Backpack

Ben's backpack was very heavy. It was full of books, notebooks, pencils, and his lunch box. Every day, he carried it to school and back.

One Tuesday, something strange happened. Ben opened his backpack to get his maths book. But the book was not there. Instead, there was a funny red hat.

"Where is my maths book?" Ben asked. "And whose hat is this?"

He showed the hat to his friends. Sam laughed. "Maybe your backpack is magic!"

Ben didn't believe it. But the next day, something else happened. He wanted to eat his apple from the lunch box. He opened the backpack. The apple was gone! In its place was a small toy car.

"This is not funny," Ben said. "I was hungry!"

Anna had an idea. "Let's watch your backpack. Maybe we can catch the magic."

After school, they put Ben's backpack in the middle of the living room. They sat and watched it. For ten minutes, nothing happened. Then… zip! The backpack opened a little by itself! A small paw pushed out Ben's English book and pulled in a feather.

"Max!" Ben shouted. "You are the magic!"

They caught Max with his head in the backpack. He loved soft, dark places. Every day, when Ben wasn't looking, Max took something out of the backpack and put something else in. The hat was from Anna's room. The toy car was from the living room. The feather was from the garden.

Ben laughed. "You are a funny cat, Max. But please don't hide my school things."

From that day, Ben always checked his backpack before school. And sometimes, he found a nice surprise from Max – a pretty leaf or a soft piece of string. It was like having a magic backpack after all.

Questions to Chapter 14:

What was strange about Ben's backpack?

What things disappeared from the backpack?

What appeared in the backpack instead?

How did the children discover the truth?

Why did Max like the backpack?

What did Ben start finding in his backpack later?

Chapter 15: Anna's Invisible Friend

Anna had an invisible friend. His name was Mr. Bounce. She talked to him every day.

"Mr. Bounce is sitting here," Anna said at breakfast. "Don't sit on him, Ben!"

Ben rolled his eyes. "There's nobody there, Anna."

But Anna didn't listen. She played with Mr. Bounce all day. She saved a seat for him at the table. She read books to him. She even drew pictures of him – a round, smiling man who could bounce very high.

One day, Anna was sad. "Mr. Bounce is sick," she told Mum. "He needs medicine."

Mum played along. "What kind of medicine does he need?"

"Chocolate milk medicine," Anna said seriously.

Mum gave her a small cup of chocolate milk. Anna "gave" it to Mr. Bounce. Then she smiled. "He feels better now!"

The next day, something funny happened. Ben was looking for his favourite blue pencil. He couldn't find it anywhere.

"Maybe Mr. Bounce took it," Anna said. "He likes to draw too."

Ben was angry. "Anna, stop it! Mr. Bounce is not real!"

But then Anna said, "Look! There's your pencil!" The blue pencil was on the table. Nobody saw how it got there.

Later that week, Dad couldn't find his car keys. They looked everywhere. Then Anna said, "Mr. Bounce says the keys are in the refrigerator."

Dad laughed. "Why would they be there?" But he looked in the refrigerator. And there were the keys! Next to the milk.

Everyone was surprised. How did Anna know?

The next day, Ben lost his football. Anna said, "Mr. Bounce says it's in the flower garden."

They looked in the garden. There was the football! Behind the big flowers.

Now the family was confused. Was Mr. Bounce real?

That evening, Mum saw something funny. Anna was talking to the cat. "Thank you for helping me, Max. You are the best invisible friend."

Max purred and rubbed against her leg.

The mystery was solved! Max was "Mr. Bounce"! The cat saw where everything was hidden. Anna watched Max and then "guessed" where things were.

Ben laughed. "So Mr. Bounce is a cat!"

Anna smiled. "He likes his new name."

From that day, when someone lost something, they asked Anna and her "invisible friend." And Max always helped them find it. Sometimes in very strange places!

Questions to Chapter 15:

Who was Mr. Bounce?

How did Anna "help" Mr. Bounce when he was sick?

What things did Mr. Bounce help find?

Where did Dad find his car keys?

Who was Mr. Bounce really?

How did Anna know where the lost things were?

Chapter 16: The Secret Map

Ben was cleaning his room when he found something exciting under his bed. It was an old, yellow piece of paper. He carefully opened it. It was a map!

"Anna, come quickly!" he called. "Look what I found!"

Anna ran into the room. The map showed their house and garden. There was a big red X marked behind the big oak tree in the garden.

"Is it a treasure map?" Anna asked, her eyes wide with excitement.

"Only one way to find out!" Ben said.

They took the map and ran into the garden. The big oak tree was at the end of the garden. Its branches were like long arms.

"First clue," Ben read from the map. "Under the stone that looks like a throne."

They looked around the tree. There was a big, flat stone that looked like a chair.

"Let's move it!" Anna said.

Together, they pushed the heavy stone. Under it, they found a small box. Inside the box was another piece of paper.

"Second clue," Anna read. "Count twenty steps north from where you stand."

"What's north?" Anna asked.

Ben remembered something from geography class. "The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. So north is… that way!" He pointed away from the house.

They counted twenty steps carefully. They stopped near the flower garden.

"Now look for something that doesn't belong," Ben read.

They looked carefully. Flowers, grass, a small path. Then Anna saw it – a bright blue rock among the flowers.

"Found it!" she shouted.

Under the blue rock was another box. This one had a key inside.

"Final clue," Ben said, getting excited. "The key opens what time cannot close."

They thought hard. What could time not close?

"Maybe it's something that's always open?" Anna wondered.

Then Ben had an idea. "The garden gate! It's always open for us!"

They ran to the garden gate. There was a small, hidden lock on the side that they never noticed. Ben tried the key. It fit! He turned it, and a small door in the gate opened.

Inside was a metal box. They opened it carefully. There was no gold or jewels. But there was something better.

There were old photos of their dad when he was a little boy. There was his favorite toy car. And there was a letter.

"To my children," the letter began. "If you found this, you are smart and curious. I made this treasure hunt for you when you were born. The real treasure is your wonderful family. Love, Dad."

Ben and Anna felt warm and happy inside. They showed the box to Mum and Dad that evening.

Dad smiled. "I forgot about this! I made it when Ben was born. The real treasure is seeing you both so happy and working together."

That night, Ben and Anna started making their own treasure map for their future children. Family was the best treasure indeed.

Questions to Chapter 16:

Where did Ben find the map?

What was the first clue?

How did Ben know which way was north?

What did they find under the blue rock?

What was in the final metal box?

What did the children learn was the real treasure?

Chapter 17: The Night Adventure

One night, Anna woke up because she was thirsty. She went to the kitchen to get water. When she returned to her room, she saw something strange. Moonlight was coming through the window, and something was moving in the garden.

She woke up Ben. "Ben, look! There's something in the garden!"

Ben rubbed his eyes. They both looked out the window. There were small lights moving between the flowers.

"Are they fairies?" Anna whispered excitedly.

"Let's find out," Ben said.

They quietly went downstairs. Mum and Dad were sleeping. They took a flashlight and went to the back door.

When they opened the door, the lights disappeared. But then they heard soft rustling sounds from the vegetable garden.

They walked carefully on the path. The moon was bright, so they didn't need the flashlight. Suddenly, they saw them – not fairies, but animals!

A family of hedgehogs was walking near the tomatoes. Their little noses were sniffing the air. And fireflies were flying around them, making the magical lights.

"Wow!" Anna said softly. "A hedgehog family!"

The hedgehogs didn't see the children. They were busy looking for food. The mother hedgehog found a worm, and the baby hedgehogs tried to copy her.

Then they saw something else. An owl was sitting on the fence. It turned its head almost all the way around. It was watching the hedgehogs too.

"This is like a secret night world," Ben whispered.

They sat on the garden bench and watched for a long time. They saw bats flying in the sky, catching insects. They saw a mouse running along the fence. Everything was different at night – peaceful and magical.

Then they heard a soft meow. Max was there too! He was sitting under the bench, watching the animals. He wasn't trying to catch them – he was just watching like them.

"Even Max knows about the night world," Anna said.

After a while, they started feeling cold and sleepy. They went back inside, being very quiet.

The next morning at breakfast, they told Mum and Dad about their adventure.

"We saw hedgehogs and an owl and fireflies!" Anna said excitedly.

Mum smiled. "The garden is full of life at night. But you should always tell us before going outside in the dark."

That day, Ben and Anna drew pictures of the night animals. Ben drew the owl on the fence, and Anna drew the hedgehog family. They put the pictures on the refrigerator.

That night, before going to sleep, they looked out the window again. The garden was dark and quiet, but they knew the secret world was there, waiting for the moon to rise.

They learned that sometimes the most amazing adventures happen when everyone else is sleeping.

Questions to Chapter 17:

Why did Anna wake up at night?

What did the children think the lights were at first?

What animals did they see in the garden?

What was Max doing in the garden?

Why did Mum say they should tell adults before going out at night?

What did the children learn about their garden?

Chapter 18: The Talking Tree

One windy afternoon, Ben and Anna were playing in the garden when they heard a strange sound. It came from the old willow tree near the fence. The sound was like soft whispering.

"Did you hear that?" Anna asked, stopping her game. Ben nodded, his eyes wide. "It sounds like the tree is talking!"

They approached the tree carefully. The long, green branches moved in the wind, making whispering noises. Swish-swish, whisper-whisper.

"Maybe it's magic!" Anna said excitedly.

Ben, being practical, looked around the tree. Then he noticed something unusual – a small hole in the trunk. He peered inside and gasped.

"Anna, look! There's a family of birds living here!"

Inside the hole were three baby birds. They were making soft chirping sounds that mixed with the wind through the branches, creating the "whispering" effect.

Just then, the mother bird returned with food. She chirped loudly, warning them to stay away from her babies.

"We won't hurt them," Ben said softly. "We're just watching."

Every day after school, the children visited the "talking tree." They sat under it quietly and watched the bird family. They learned to recognize the different chirps – the hungry chirps, the happy chirps, the warning chirps.

One day, they noticed the baby birds practicing flying. The first bird jumped from the branch and flapped its wings hard. It flew to the fence! The second bird followed. But the third bird was afraid. It stayed in the nest, chirping sadly.

"The little one is scared," Anna said sympathetically.

The mother bird chirped encouragingly, but the baby bird wouldn't move.

"I know how it feels," Anna said. "I was scared before the school concert too."

Ben had an idea. "Remember what Dad told you? 'Be brave like a lion, even if you feel small like a mouse.'"

The next day, they brought some bird seeds and placed them not too far from the nest. The brave baby bird saw the seeds and finally gathered courage. It flapped its wings and flew shakily to the seeds!

"He did it!" Anna cheered quietly.

Over the week, they watched all the baby birds learn to fly properly. The "talking tree" was now quieter – the nest was empty.

But one morning, they heard new sounds from the tree. Different birds had moved into the nest! The tree was still talking, just in a new "language."

Ben smiled. "The tree will always have stories to tell. We just need to listen."

That evening, they made a bird feeder to hang on the tree. Now the tree would have even more visitors and more stories to whisper through its branches.

Questions to Chapter 18:

What strange sound did the children hear?

What was causing the "whispering" sound?

Why was one baby bird different from its siblings?

How did Ben and Anna help the scared bird?

What did Dad say about being brave?

What did the children make for the tree at the end?

Chapter 19: The Colorful Experiment

Mrs. Brown had a surprise for science class. On her desk stood three clear glasses of water and some food coloring.

"Today, we're going to be scientists!" she announced. "We'll learn about colors mixing."

Ben loved science. He sat up straight, eager to begin.

Mrs. Brown put red color in the first glass, blue in the second, and yellow in the third. The water turned into bright primary colors.

"Now, what happens if I mix red and yellow?" she asked.

She poured some red water into a new glass, then added yellow water. The children watched in amazement as the water turned orange!

"Wow!" the class exclaimed.

Next, she mixed blue and yellow, and it became green. Then red and blue made purple.

"Your turn!" Mrs. Brown said.

She divided the class into groups. Ben worked with Sam and Emma. They carefully mixed colors, creating beautiful new shades.

"That's so cool!" Sam said when they made turquoise by adding more blue to green.

After school, Ben couldn't wait to show Anna. He asked Mum for food coloring, and they set up their own experiment in the kitchen.

"Let's make rainbow colors!" Anna said excitedly.

They lined up six glasses. Ben showed Anna how to make orange, green, and purple by mixing primary colors.

Then Anna had an idea. "What if we mix all the colors together?"

They poured a little from each glass into one big glass. The water turned… brown!

"Eww, it looks like mud!" Anna giggled.

"That's what happens when all colors mix," Ben explained. "They cancel each other out and make brown."

Mum brought in milk and dish soap for another experiment. They poured milk in a plate and added different food color drops. Then they touched the milk with a soapy cotton bud. The colors ran away from the soap, creating beautiful patterns!

"It's like magic!" Anna clapped her hands.

"It's science," Ben corrected, but he was smiling too.

They spent the whole afternoon experimenting. They made color patterns on paper with the colored water. They tried mixing paints instead of food coloring. They even tested what happened when they added more or less color.

That night, their artwork covered the refrigerator. Dad admired their colorful creations.

"I see we have two great scientists in the family," he said proudly.

Before bed, Ben wrote in his journal: "Today I learned that when you mix colors, you can create something completely new and beautiful. Maybe that's like people too – when we work together, we can create amazing things."