The Orange Rocket (Chapter 3)

A great cloud of dust surrounded Froggy Man’s orange rocket. Inside the rocket Froggy Man sat motionless with both eyes shut. Then, he opened one eye and looked all around. He opened the other eye and realised he was alive. ‘I don’t believe it! I’m… I’m… I’m alive! Hooray!’

‘Hooray!’ came a response from what sounded like a chorus of creatures outside the rocket. Froggy Man was confused, ‘Was that my echo?’ He tried shouting again, ‘Hooray!’ And back came the response once again, ‘Hooray!’

Froggy Man released himself from his nine seatbelts and then pressed the button to open up the door (even though the door now had a big dent, it still managed to come loose). His eyes squinted as the dust cloud parted to reveal countless numbers of, what appeared to be, brightly dressed men and women, boys and girls. Froggy Man had never seen humans before so he wondered what kind of ‘space creatures’ they were.

‘H… hello?’ whispered Froggy Man tentatively.

There was a slight pause before the response of ‘Hello!’ came loudly from all the people in unison. They sounded very happy indeed, but Froggy Man was not sure why. Before he had the chance to say anything else a large round man confidently stepped forward. He wore a bright red top hat with a matching jacket. He had noticeably big eyes, which were orange with pink spots. He revealed a big smile under his impressively thick moustache as his great voice boomed out, ‘Greetings to you! We are so pleased you have come to visit!’

Froggy Man looked at the man and everyone else who were expectantly waiting for a swift reply. ‘Er… th… thank you’ was the stammered response.

‘I am the Ring Master and this is my circus!’ continued the large man.

‘Oh…’ said Froggy Man, ‘…it’s nice to meet you. My name is Froggy Man.’

‘Froggy Man you say? What a fine name! Come, join us!’ The Ring Master held his arms open to Froggy Man and encouraged him down the steps of his rocket.

As Froggy Man made his way down the stairs he saw how many people there were, it looked like hundreds of them. Then, as he stepped through the cloud of dust, he saw a huge brightly coloured tent behind the vast crowd. ‘Wow!’ he exclaimed.

‘Ah, yes! Wow indeed Mr Froggy Man. This is our home!’ replied the Ring Master who had noticed Froggy Man’s gaze fixing on the tent.

‘What is it?’ asked Froggy Man.

‘It is our circus tent!’

‘Circus tent?’ Froggy Man had not heard of either a circus or a tent before.

‘Yes our circus tent. It is where we practice all of our circus tricks and shows!’ said the Ring Master proudly.

‘Tricks and shows?’ asked Froggy Man.

‘Yes, we practice them here before they we take them to Earth.’

Froggy Man’s tiny ears pricked up when he heard the mention of Earth, ‘Did you say Earth?’

‘Yes, I did. Have you been?’ asked the Ring Master.

‘No, not yet, but that was where I was trying to go before my rocket broke! But I really want to go there NOW!’ Froggy Man immediately noticed that by shouting he had surprised the Ring Master making both of his eyes pop wide open so that all his pink eye spots could be seen.

The Ring Master looked shocked, then he stared at Froggy Man before he opened his mouth to speak.

[Chapter 4]

The Orange Rocket (Chapter 2)

As he stood on his doorstep looking out into the black space that surrounded his planet (Mars) Froggy Man spotted, in the distance, the planet he had heard so much about – planet Earth.

‘That’s it! Today is the day I will go to planet Earth! I’m sure there won’t be any stinky space rats there.’ So, with fresh resolve, Froggy Man walked round to the back of his home to the place where he kept his rocket.

The space rocket stood tall and was bright orange in colour so that no one could miss it as it flew against the black backdrop of space. Froggy Man stretched out his long green finger and pressed the little green button next to the door of his rocket. It opened outwards and downwards creating a few steps for Froggy Man to climb up. He stood at the doorway of the rocket and waved, ‘Goodbye Mars! And good riddance stinky space rats!’

The door closed as Froggy Man sat down in the driving seat and began to put on his seat belts. ‘One seatbelt… two seatbelts… three seat belts… and four! …and five, six, seven, eight, nine!’ (Yes, there were nine seatbelts in his rocket, just to keep him extra safe as his rocket blasted into space.) ‘Here we go! Three… two… one… BLAST OFF!!!’

As his rocket shot off into space, at an incredible speed, Froggy Man looked out the window and watched his planet become smaller and smaller as he flew further and further away. It was not long before Mars looked as small as a marble.

Froggy Man began to get excited as he headed closer and closer to Earth. ‘Ooh, I can’t wait! I wonder what it will be like there? I wonder if they like to eat Bloorr for breakfast?’ These were just a few of the many thoughts that were going through his head as he could see planet Earth getting bigger and bigger.

Suddenly, there was a ‘BOOM!’ and a ‘CRACK!’ and a ‘KAPUTH!’ as the engine of Froggy Man’s rocket died!

‘AAAAAHHHHHH!’ screamed Froggy Man as his rocket began to fall quickly. He was so near to Earth, but not quite there. His rocket was being pulled down towards a big grey rock.

‘I’M GOING DOWN! GOODBYE SPACE!’ Froggy Man thought it was the end for him as his rocket came down onto the rock with a great big ‘CRASH!!’

[Chapter 3]

The Orange Rocket (Chapter 1)

[The following story was inspired by the children of Golders Green Library in London at an event for The Summer Reading Challenge 2011] 

Froggy Man opened his eyes as the smell became stronger. He sniffed and sniffed through his alien nostrils. The smell was so horrid and strong that he got out of his bed, left his room and made his way down the stairs of his home.

‘Down, down, down the stairs I go!’

Froggy Man always sang this tune as he descended the stairs of his house. He had so many stairs (about 137 in all) that it made the journey go quicker if he sang as he went.

‘Nearly, nearly, nearly at the bottom!

Nearly at the bottom of the stairs!’

Eventually Froggy Man made it to the bottom as he continued sniffing to follow that terrible smell. It seemed to be coming from the kitchen. As he opened the door to the kitchen he let out a huge, ‘YELP!’ (‘yelp’ is the alien word for ‘help’). ‘Oh no!’ he continued to cry, ‘Stinky space rats in my kitchen… again!’

Froggy Man had trouble with these creatures before and now they were back. ‘Shoo! Shoo! Go on, get out of here!’

As Froggy Man flapped his huge frog-like alien hands at the little blue rats they all ran and disappeared – some through cracks in the wall, others straight out of the kitchen door.

‘Ah, what a way to start the day indeed!’ he said as he opened up the cupboard to pull out the ingredients for his breakfast. ‘Time for some Bloorr!’ (‘Bloorr’ is a very popular breakfast for aliens who live on Mars. To pronounce it correctly you should roll your tongue at the end of the word.)

Once he had finished cooking his Bloorr he sat down to eat it, but just as he did so he let out another, ‘YELP!’ as one more space rat ran right through his legs, under his chair and out of the door.

‘That’s it! I’ve had enough!’ screamed Froggy Man as he threw his breakfast down on the kitchen table. ‘I can’t stand it anymore! Stinky rats here! Stinky rats there! Stinky space rats everywhere! I don’t want to be here anymore!’

Froggy Man used his long thin space legs to stand up tall and walk out of his big blue front door.

[Chapter 2]