The Smallest Carbon Footprint in the Land Read online

  ‘Oh yes, yes, yes,’ said Turkey Lurkey and Henny Penny. ‘We should find out how to stop the sea from rising.’

  Chicken Licken, Henny Penny and Turkey Lurkey rushed to the pond, where the ducks and geese were paddling in the sparkling sunshine.

  ‘The sea is rising!’ they cried. ‘Our farm could be flooded! We’ll have nowhere to live! No fresh water to drink!’

  ‘Awful! Awful! Awful!’ quacked Lucky Ducky.

  ‘Dreadful,’ Drakey Lakey agreed.

  ‘Disssmal,’ hissed Gander Dander.

  ‘Catassstrophic,’ hissed Goosy Lucy.

  ‘Twaddle!’ said a voice behind them.

  The birds turned to see Foxie Loxie spitting a silver feather from her mouth. ‘Don’t listen to Chicken Licken,’ she sneered. ‘His tiny brain is made from chicken noodles. The sea isn’t rising, my friends.’

  ‘It’sss not?’ asked Goosy Lucy.

  ‘Of course it’s not, you silly goose,’ said Foxie Loxie. ‘We had a high tide this afternoon, that’s all.’

  ‘Thank good-good-goodness for that,’ clucked Henny Penny. ‘Now we can go back to our nests and have a nice long nap.’

  Foxie Loxie wiped her lips with her slick red tongue. ‘I have a better idea, my friends. I could take you for a row in the bay. Then you can see for yourselves that the sea isn’t rising.’

  ‘Oh, yes indeedy,’ fluttered the birds. ‘What a fine idea. Wait for us, Foxie Loxie!’ they cried, waddling after the fox.

  Chicken Licken chased after them on his skinny, springy legs. ‘Wait for me!’

  Farmer King’s dinghy lay on the sandy beach. ‘All aboard,’ called Foxie Loxie.

  ‘Oh yes indeedy, all aboard,’ cried the fine feathered friends.

  Foxie Loxie picked up the feathered friends and put them in the dinghy. But Chicken Licken just scratched the sand.

  ‘Last one aboard is a silly yellow chicken!’ Foxie Loxie sneered.

  Chicken Licken looked into the cunning of the fox’s eyes. ‘Oh gorgeous me, no,’ he cheeped. ‘I’m not getting in a boat with a fox. You could eat me up, Foxie Loxie. You could eat us all up!’

  ‘WHAAAAT?’ cried the feathered friends.

  ‘Don’t listen to the pipsqueak,’ said Foxie Loxie. Picking up Chicken Licken, she tossed him into the boat.

  Foxie Loxie launched Farmer King’s dinghy and began to row the boat around the twinkling bay. ‘See, my friends, the sea isn’t rising!’

  ‘Oh, silly us,’ cried the fine feathered friends. ‘You are right, Foxy Loxie. The sea isn’t rising!’

  Just then a wind began to howl and bluster. The feathered friends began to squawk and fluster.

  ‘ABANDON SHIP!’ called Chicken Licken.

  ‘ABANDON SHIP!’ cried the fine feathered friends. Jumping overboard, they flapped ashore in a storm of feathers.

  ‘COME BACK, MY JUICIES!’ called Foxie Loxie.

  But nobody heard her because a freak wave had swept the boat out to sea.

  When the birds had fluttered ashore, they shook themselves dry. Then they all looked at Chicken Licken and asked, ‘What should we do?’

  Chicken Licken puffed up his little yellow chest. ‘We should find Farmer King and ask him why the sea is rising.’

  The birds found Farmer King chainsawing a tree. ‘The sea is rising, Farmer King! Watch out, the sea is rising!’ they cried.

  Farmer King switched off his chainsaw. ‘I believe you’re right,’ he said, putting down the chainsaw. ‘But I don’t know how to stop it.’

  ‘Oh no!’ cried the feathered friends. ‘He can’t stop the sea from rising! What shall we do, Chicken Licken?’

  Chicken Licken looked into the worry in Farmer King’s eyes. Then he looked up at a tree branch and called, ‘WAKE UP, JOWLY OWLY!’

  Jowly Owly opened one eye. ‘To wit?’

  ‘The sea is rising,’ called Turkey Lurkey.

  ‘And the weather is freaky,’ said Gander Dander.

  Jowly Owly opened her other eye. ‘Too true, my friends, too true. The sea is rising and the weather is getting freakier.’

  ‘But why?’ asked Farmer King.

  ‘Because there is too much carbon in the air,’ said Jowly Owly. ‘This is what is happening, my friends.’

  ‘Then we must stop putting so much carbon in the air,’ said Henny Penny.

  ‘How can we do that?’ asked Lucky Ducky.

  ‘I could stop cutting down so many trees,’ Farmer King suggested.

  ‘We’ll help you plant more trees,’ said the fine feathered friends.

  ‘That’s a good start,’ said Chicken Licken. ‘But we can do more. Oh gorgeous me, my friends, we can do much more!’

  ‘What else can we do?’ asked his friends.

  Chicken Licken scratched the soil and then looked around the farm. ‘Well, Farmer King grows oats on this farm. The oats are taken away in trucks and ships and sold on the other side of the world. Then Farmer King buys food at the shops, which come here in ships and trucks, all wrapped up in plastic and paper packaging. All this is putting too much carbon into the air. Is that right, Jowly Owly?’

  ‘True,’ said Jowly Owly. ‘Too true.’

  ‘We could grow all the food we need right here on the farm,’ said Henny Penny.

  ‘And what we don’t eat ourselves, Farmer King can sell at the local markets,’ said Turkey Lurkey.

  Farmer King scratched his head. ‘Yes, my friends, let’s grow our own food! I’ll put in a garden right now.’

  ‘We’ll help you make compost,’ said Goosey Lucy.

  ‘We’ll set up a worm farm,’ said Gander Dander. ‘And we promise not to eat ALL the worms.’

  ‘Hooray for us!’ cried the fine feathered friends.

  What the critics say about

  The Smallest Carbon Footprint in the Land & Other Eco-tales

  ‘This is the most entertaining collection of recycled fairy tales I have read in centuries.’

  Betty Fairweather, manager of the Fairy Godmother Op Shop

  ‘Great blistering comet-tails, my adventure in the Ursa Minor Galaxy is out of this world. But my hair isn’t THAT messy, is it, Gay?’

  Space Cadet Lox

  ‘Progress is progress, and you can’t have progress without bling dust. Read my story, my friends, and fill your dreary little lives with bling dust!’

  Bling

  ‘At last, Anne Morgan tells the REALLY TRUE story of my granny and the poor endangered wolf.’

  Little Emerald Ryding-Hoode

  ‘Oh Juzzy, you foolish boy, you traded those giant pumpkin seeds for a book of eco-tales?’

  Juzzy’s mum

  ‘I say, my dear young readers, these stories are perfectly tickety-boo. I do love sitting by my ornamental frog pond and reading them aloud to my amphibious little friends and relations.’

  King Walter

  ‘Puff ...puff … puff … What’s so good about wind power anyway?’

  The Big Bad Travelling Salesman

  ‘These eco-tales are sensational, of course.’

  Cool Girl (a.k.a. Princess Snow White)

  ‘Too true, Cool Girl. To wit, my fine hooman friends, these stories are a HOOT!’

  Jowly Owly

  Photo by Peter Vertigan

  Anne Morgan’s children’s books include The Sky Dreamer, which has been translated into French as Le bateau de rêves, and the Captain Clawbeak junior novels. She has a PhD in Writing and a Master of Education degree, and is also a prizewinning poet. These days she lives and writes on Bruny Island, Tasmania, where she has an adventure a day at Adventure Bay. Her website is www.annemorgan.com.au.

  Photo by Julie Hunt

  Gay McKinnon has worked as a research scientist, lecturer, glass artist, freelance writer and illustrator. After juggling science and art for two decades, Gay took up studies in children’s book illustration and never looked back. She has won the CYA illustration prize, the Omnibus Books illustrated envelope competition, and several chook ra
ffles. Gay lives in Tasmania, where she sells her work through galleries and markets. This is her first children’s book.