In tonight’s bedtime story for kids, we meet a big brother named Benji. His older sister usually reads to Benji and their little brother Barney, but tonight is the night that the duty is passed on to Benji. All he needs to do is fill up a book with his own bedtime stories. Let's see how he gets on. Relax, get sleepy, and let’s begin!
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Narrator 🎙 Abbe Opher
Author ✍️ Luke Prendergast
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:10
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to Coco Sleep, your podcast of
00:00:14
Speaker 1: original children's bedtime stories and meditations designed to make bedtime
00:00:20
Speaker 1: a dreem. Welcome to all our newest Coco clubbers. We're
00:00:25
Speaker 1: so happy you're all joining us. It's a daily joy
00:00:29
Speaker 1: to see your names and messages of love for our
00:00:32
Speaker 1: precious podcast. Thank you today to Cleo, and to Wolfe
00:00:37
Speaker 1: and Felix, Tyson, Owen, Sate, Loretta and Etta, jay Lee,
00:00:45
Speaker 1: Leo and Luna, Amelia and Zeus and finally Macy. We're
00:00:52
Speaker 1: so happy you've joined and hope you enjoy listening to
00:00:54
Speaker 1: all the extra bedtime stories you've got waiting for you.
00:00:58
Speaker 1: Speaking of which are I know that you will love
00:01:01
Speaker 1: to listen to a bedtime story, but have you ever
00:01:04
Speaker 1: written one? Where do you start? What would be your inspiration?
00:01:11
Speaker 1: Here at SLEEPAGEQ, we're lucky enough to receive some of
00:01:14
Speaker 1: your ideas, so we know you have great imaginations. Often
00:01:19
Speaker 1: we blend your ideas with ours in a magic blender
00:01:23
Speaker 1: and eventually out comes a brilliant story. So a caring
00:01:28
Speaker 1: little boy called Benji stars in tonight's story, and he
00:01:32
Speaker 1: has a very big, responsible job on his hands. We're
00:01:36
Speaker 1: meeting him. On a very important day. This evening, Benji
00:01:42
Speaker 1: will be taking over bedtime story duties from his older
00:01:46
Speaker 1: sister Belinda, and that means it's time to go out
00:01:50
Speaker 1: into the world and find some tales to tell. Let's
00:01:55
Speaker 1: see how he goes about it, and maybe it will
00:01:58
Speaker 1: give you some ideas too. Settle back into bed, take
00:02:03
Speaker 1: some lovely deep breaths and sigh as you relax a
00:02:08
Speaker 1: little bit more, close your eyes as I begin. Brother
00:02:14
Speaker 1: Benji and the Bedtime Book by Luke Prendergast. Benji lived
00:02:26
Speaker 1: in a tall house with his grown up sister Belinda,
00:02:30
Speaker 1: his baby brother Barney, and their dad. His dad was
00:02:34
Speaker 1: a doctor and often had to stay working at the
00:02:36
Speaker 1: hospital late into the night, and so in the evenings
00:02:40
Speaker 1: when it was time for sleep, his big sister Belinda
00:02:43
Speaker 1: would read Benji his bedtime story. Each night, she would
00:02:49
Speaker 1: go to the shelf and take down a big leather
00:02:52
Speaker 1: bound book with glittering green lettering on the front. Then
00:02:57
Speaker 1: she would sit on the bed, the book open in
00:03:00
Speaker 1: her lap and read one of the tales out loud.
00:03:04
Speaker 1: Belinda told the most wonderful stories. They were always packed
00:03:08
Speaker 1: with adventure and intrigue, mystery and marvel. They were full
00:03:15
Speaker 1: of the most brilliant and lovable characters, such as talking dogs,
00:03:20
Speaker 1: fish living under the sea, and children with extraordinary magical powers.
00:03:26
Speaker 1: Belinda did voices for all of the different characters, and
00:03:29
Speaker 1: by the end of the story, when all the loose
00:03:32
Speaker 1: ends had been tied up and all the characters had
00:03:35
Speaker 1: achieved their happily ever afters, Benji would be so relaxed
00:03:40
Speaker 1: that he would fall into a deep and peaceful sleep.
00:03:44
Speaker 1: One evening, when the sun had set and the sky
00:03:48
Speaker 1: had grown dark and the moon had emerged like a
00:03:52
Speaker 1: cheesy grin up above, Benji settled down into bed, ready
00:03:57
Speaker 1: as usual for Belinda to read him a story, But
00:04:01
Speaker 1: to his surprise, instead of taking the leather bound book
00:04:05
Speaker 1: down from the shelf, Belinda sat at the end of
00:04:08
Speaker 1: his bed with her hands folded in her lap and
00:04:12
Speaker 1: smiled at him very mysteriously. What's happening, Benji asked her.
00:04:20
Speaker 1: Aren't you going to read a story beside them? In
00:04:26
Speaker 1: his crib? Baby Barney blinked up at Belinda curiously. He
00:04:31
Speaker 1: was waiting for her answer too. Not tonight, Belinda said,
00:04:38
Speaker 1: still smiling mysteriously. Why not, asked Benji, because tonight is
00:04:48
Speaker 1: a very important night, Belinda said, what's so important about tonight?
00:04:56
Speaker 1: Benji asked her, sitting up a little in his bed.
00:05:00
Speaker 1: He had a special sense for adventure, and right now
00:05:04
Speaker 1: that special sense was tingling, because Belinda explained to him,
00:05:11
Speaker 1: all the stories from my book are finished. We've read
00:05:15
Speaker 1: them all, which means it's time to start a new
00:05:20
Speaker 1: book of stories. And she added, with a new book
00:05:25
Speaker 1: of stories, we need a new storyteller. She reached out
00:05:32
Speaker 1: and took Benji's small hand in her larger one. I've
00:05:37
Speaker 1: been reading you stories since you were a little baby,
00:05:41
Speaker 1: but now that you're older, it's time for you to
00:05:44
Speaker 1: start reading stories. You need to start doing for baby
00:05:49
Speaker 1: Barney what I've been doing for you. That's what being
00:05:54
Speaker 1: a brother is all about. From the crib, Barney made
00:05:59
Speaker 1: a gurgle sound of agreement. Belinda stood up and went
00:06:04
Speaker 1: to the bookshelf. She went up high on her tiptoes,
00:06:08
Speaker 1: and from the top shelf she took hold of a
00:06:10
Speaker 1: new book, one that Benji hadn't noticed being there before.
00:06:15
Speaker 1: She came back to the bed and handed the book
00:06:18
Speaker 1: to him. The book, like the one before, was large
00:06:23
Speaker 1: and heavy and bound in leather. But unlike the other book,
00:06:29
Speaker 1: the spirally lettering on the front of this one wasn't
00:06:33
Speaker 1: green but gold, and it read Benji's Book of Bedtime Stories. Wow,
00:06:44
Speaker 1: whispered Benji, looking down at his new book. Cool. Benji
00:06:50
Speaker 1: was very excited to read a story for his baby brother, Barney,
00:06:54
Speaker 1: and he couldn't wait to find out what kind of
00:06:57
Speaker 1: tales were contained inside this book. But when he opened
00:07:01
Speaker 1: the book up to the first page, he was met
00:07:04
Speaker 1: with quite a surprise. The page was blank. He leafed
00:07:09
Speaker 1: through the rest of the pages, all of them were blank.
00:07:15
Speaker 1: He looked at Belinda, feeling a little confused, and asked
00:07:19
Speaker 1: her how he was meant to read Barney A's story
00:07:22
Speaker 1: if there weren't any stories in the book. Belinda laughed
00:07:27
Speaker 1: and said, well, that's just the thing. This isn't any
00:07:32
Speaker 1: old book. This is your book, Benji. You have to
00:07:38
Speaker 1: fill it up with your own stories. But what am
00:07:43
Speaker 1: I meant to fill it with? Benji asked her, I
00:07:47
Speaker 1: don't know any stories. Belinda leaned closer to him, and
00:07:52
Speaker 1: benjy saw that her eyes were twinkling like stars. You
00:07:58
Speaker 1: have to go out and find them. She said. Anything
00:08:04
Speaker 1: in the world can spark an idea for a story.
00:08:08
Speaker 1: That's what's so wonderful about the imagination? You just have
00:08:14
Speaker 1: to go out and find some inspiration. Don't worry, though, Benji,
00:08:19
Speaker 1: I'll help you. Belinda stood up again and looked down
00:08:24
Speaker 1: at him. Well, she said, are you ready? Belinda had
00:08:32
Speaker 1: barely finished her question before Benji had sprung out of bed.
00:08:36
Speaker 1: He certainly was ready. He wanted to get out there
00:08:41
Speaker 1: and find some stories to fill up all the blank
00:08:44
Speaker 1: pages in his book. Benji and Belinda pulled on their
00:08:50
Speaker 1: shoes and jackets and wrapped little Barney up in his coat. Then,
00:08:56
Speaker 1: with the book in Benji's hand and Barney and Belinda arms,
00:09:01
Speaker 1: they went downstairs and out onto the street. The air
00:09:06
Speaker 1: was cool on their faces, and across the road the
00:09:10
Speaker 1: windows of the houses glowed orange with lamp light. They
00:09:15
Speaker 1: looked up and down the street, first one way and
00:09:19
Speaker 1: then the other. I don't see any stories, said Benji.
00:09:27
Speaker 1: Where do we find one? We have to go and
00:09:32
Speaker 1: look for them. Blinda replied, come on, let's go, and
00:09:38
Speaker 1: so together they turned left out of their house and
00:09:42
Speaker 1: began to walk down the road. They passed cars lined
00:09:47
Speaker 1: up on the curb like gigantic sleeping beetles. A cat
00:09:52
Speaker 1: slunk along a wooden fence, and then jumped off, as
00:09:56
Speaker 1: quick and fluid as water. Above their heads, the leaves
00:10:01
Speaker 1: in the trees rustled and whispered, but as far as
00:10:06
Speaker 1: Benji could see, there were no stories to be found.
00:10:12
Speaker 1: Soon they came across a man on the street. He
00:10:15
Speaker 1: appeared to be searching for something. He crouched down and
00:10:20
Speaker 1: looked beneath the hedge. He opened the door of his car,
00:10:25
Speaker 1: rooted around inside, and then shut the door again. He
00:10:29
Speaker 1: lifted the lid off a bin and peered inside, but
00:10:34
Speaker 1: he didn't seem to be able to find what he
00:10:37
Speaker 1: was looking for. When they reached him, Benji and Belinda
00:10:43
Speaker 1: said hello to the man. Barney, who couldn't talk yet,
00:10:49
Speaker 1: gurgled a greeting and dribbled down his chin. Is everything
00:10:55
Speaker 1: all right, Benji asked the man. The man who had
00:11:00
Speaker 1: had curly gray hair, adjusted his glasses on his face
00:11:04
Speaker 1: and wrinkled his nose. Oh, he said, my dog has
00:11:09
Speaker 1: lost her bone. He pointed towards his front door, where
00:11:14
Speaker 1: a golden labrador sat waiting for her bone to reappear.
00:11:18
Speaker 1: I've been looking for it everywhere, he carried on, but
00:11:22
Speaker 1: I can't seem to find it. Do you need any help,
00:11:28
Speaker 1: asked Benji, who always wanted to lend people a hand
00:11:32
Speaker 1: when they were in need. Oh no, said the man,
00:11:36
Speaker 1: shaking his head. Thank you, but I'm sure it will
00:11:40
Speaker 1: turn up somewhere soon. And with that, the three siblings
00:11:46
Speaker 1: continued on down the road. When they'd gone a few paces,
00:11:51
Speaker 1: Belinda stopped and turned to Benji well, she asked him,
00:11:57
Speaker 1: have you got a story yet? Benji looked at his
00:12:01
Speaker 1: big sister quizzically. He asked her what she meant. Did
00:12:08
Speaker 1: see that man give you any ideas, Belinda asked. Benji
00:12:13
Speaker 1: thought back to the man searching for his dog's bone,
00:12:18
Speaker 1: but he didn't see how that would give him an
00:12:21
Speaker 1: idea for a story. You've got to use your imagination,
00:12:27
Speaker 1: Belinda encouraged him. You've got to take a piece of
00:12:33
Speaker 1: inspiration and using your mind, transform it into a story.
00:12:40
Speaker 1: Have a go, She urged him, think about it, think hard.
00:12:49
Speaker 1: So Benji did what his sister said. He thought very
00:12:53
Speaker 1: hard about it, and after a few seconds, something utterly
00:12:59
Speaker 1: magical started happening in his mind. He was thinking about
00:13:04
Speaker 1: the labrador, and suddenly she appeared in his imagination, except
00:13:09
Speaker 1: now she was wearing a fur coat, and she told him.
00:13:15
Speaker 1: Her bone wasn't only lost, it was missing. Where had
00:13:20
Speaker 1: he gone? Had it been stolen? Something mysterious was happening here. Then,
00:13:27
Speaker 1: quite amazingly, another dog bounded into his mind. It was
00:13:33
Speaker 1: a bloodhound with a sharp nose, perfectly suited to sniffing
00:13:38
Speaker 1: out missing things. The bloodhound was a detective. He wore
00:13:43
Speaker 1: wire framed glasses in a top hat and carried a
00:13:47
Speaker 1: little notebook around with him, in which he wrote down
00:13:50
Speaker 1: all his clothes. Don't worry, miss Labrador, the bloodhound detective said,
00:13:57
Speaker 1: are we sure to find your bone? And then, even
00:14:02
Speaker 1: more amazingly, into Benji's mind sprang other animals. A crafty
00:14:07
Speaker 1: fox with a bushy tail, a conniving cat stroking her whiskers.
00:14:13
Speaker 1: A sly looking snake was one of these creatures. The
00:14:18
Speaker 1: culprit Benji wondered to himself, Wow, Benji, Belinda said, look,
00:14:27
Speaker 1: look what amazing work you're doing. Belinda pointed to the
00:14:32
Speaker 1: leather bound book, which had fallen open in Benji's hands,
00:14:37
Speaker 1: and when Benji looked, he couldn't quite believe what he saw.
00:14:42
Speaker 1: As if scrawled by an invisible hand, words were appearing
00:14:47
Speaker 1: all over the page, written in sloping and swooping letters,
00:14:54
Speaker 1: and besides the words appeared small but beautiful drawings. There.
00:15:00
Speaker 1: There was one of a dog in a fur coat
00:15:03
Speaker 1: and another of a cat with a long looping tail.
00:15:09
Speaker 1: Benji felt a big swell of wonder when he saw
00:15:12
Speaker 1: a title appear at the top of the page, The
00:15:16
Speaker 1: Mystery of the Missing Bone. Is this my first story?
00:15:23
Speaker 1: He asked Belinda. Yes it is, she told him, And
00:15:29
Speaker 1: what a story it looks like it's going to be.
00:15:33
Speaker 1: How did it feel making the story in your mind?
00:15:38
Speaker 1: Benji thought back to how it had felt when all
00:15:42
Speaker 1: of those animals stralled into his mind. It felt incredible,
00:15:49
Speaker 1: he said. Now let's go and find some more. At
00:15:54
Speaker 1: the end of the road, they turned right and walked
00:15:57
Speaker 1: down a lane with trees growing either Benji was looking
00:16:02
Speaker 1: from left to right, his eyes pealed for more story inspiration.
00:16:09
Speaker 1: He clutched his book tightly under one arm. With a squawk,
00:16:15
Speaker 1: a large blackbird took off from a nearby tree, flapping
00:16:19
Speaker 1: its wings and flying overhead. Benji watched as it soared
00:16:24
Speaker 1: over them and disappeared out of view. Belinda was watching
00:16:29
Speaker 1: his face eagerly. Did that give you another idea, she asked.
00:16:37
Speaker 1: Benji thought for a moment and then shook his head. No,
00:16:43
Speaker 1: he said, nothing yet. You have to wait for the
00:16:48
Speaker 1: right kind of inspiration. Belinda told him wisely, Let's carry on.
00:16:56
Speaker 1: They continued down the road and eventually walked by a house.
00:17:01
Speaker 1: Through the window they could hear a telephone ringing. Belinda
00:17:06
Speaker 1: looked at Benji with one of her eyebrows raised. Bertie
00:17:11
Speaker 1: shook his head. Nothing yet. They carried on, and soon
00:17:16
Speaker 1: they heard the sound of a bell ringing, ring ring. Benji,
00:17:22
Speaker 1: Belinda and baby Barney looked at the street up ahead
00:17:25
Speaker 1: and saw a bright green bicycle coming towards them. It
00:17:30
Speaker 1: was being ridden by a girl in purple dungarees with
00:17:34
Speaker 1: her hair in two pigtails. The girl rang the bell
00:17:39
Speaker 1: on her bike again and called out, excuse me. The
00:17:44
Speaker 1: three siblings stood to the side of the lane to
00:17:47
Speaker 1: let the girl cycle past. She went by with a
00:17:51
Speaker 1: whoosh and called out thank you over her shoulder. When
00:17:58
Speaker 1: the girl was gone, Belinda headed off down the road again,
00:18:03
Speaker 1: but Benji told her to wait. I'm having an idea,
00:18:09
Speaker 1: he said, and sure enough that strange, exciting and magical
00:18:16
Speaker 1: feeling was rushing through him again. He was thinking about
00:18:22
Speaker 1: the girl on her bike. But all of a sudden,
00:18:25
Speaker 1: in his mind, the bike was no longer an ordinary bike. Instead,
00:18:32
Speaker 1: lustrous green wings were sprouting out of the handlebars, and
00:18:37
Speaker 1: with a giant flap of these new wings, the bike
00:18:41
Speaker 1: took off into the air. The girl soared up into
00:18:46
Speaker 1: the sky, her pigtails fluttering behind her, and then more amazingly,
00:18:53
Speaker 1: still more people than objects flew into Benji's mind. There
00:19:01
Speaker 1: beside the girl on her flying bike was a boy
00:19:04
Speaker 1: riding a horse with a coat the color of gingerbread.
00:19:08
Speaker 1: But the horse had wings too, And there was another
00:19:12
Speaker 1: boy riding a hippopotamus that could jump from cloud to cloud.
00:19:18
Speaker 1: And another girl was perched on top of an octopus
00:19:22
Speaker 1: whose eight tentacles were spinning around like the propellers of
00:19:27
Speaker 1: a helicopter, so that it hovered and flew through the air.
00:19:34
Speaker 1: What were all these kids doing, thought Benji to himself,
00:19:39
Speaker 1: And why are they all flying together? And then, as
00:19:46
Speaker 1: if his mind were answering its own question, he saw
00:19:51
Speaker 1: in the distance a towering mountain so tall that its
00:19:57
Speaker 1: tip was snow capped and disappeared into the whirling clouds.
00:20:02
Speaker 1: And on top of that mountain was a golden temple,
00:20:06
Speaker 1: and at the heart of that temple a magical prize. Look,
00:20:15
Speaker 1: Belinda said, pointing at the book. Look, Benji, you're doing
00:20:20
Speaker 1: it again. The book lay open in his hands once again,
00:20:26
Speaker 1: and words and letters were appearing, as though by magic,
00:20:30
Speaker 1: written in a deep blue ink like last time. Pictures
00:20:36
Speaker 1: were appearing by the side of the pages too, a
00:20:40
Speaker 1: small image of a winged bike and a snow capped mountain. Finally,
00:20:47
Speaker 1: the title appeared at the top of the page. Belinda
00:20:51
Speaker 1: read it out loud, the Great Race to the Summit.
00:20:58
Speaker 1: Nice work, Benji, she said, I can't wait to find
00:21:03
Speaker 1: out what that story is about. As they carried on
00:21:09
Speaker 1: walking down the road, Belinda turned to Benji and gave
00:21:13
Speaker 1: him a big smile. You know what, Benji, she said
00:21:18
Speaker 1: to him, I think you're even better at this than
00:21:23
Speaker 1: I was when I had to fill my book. You,
00:21:27
Speaker 1: little brother, are a natural storyteller. The book is going
00:21:33
Speaker 1: to be packed with fantastic tales in no time, I bet.
00:21:40
Speaker 1: As it turned out, Belinda wasn't wrong, because as they
00:21:44
Speaker 1: continued strolling around the village, ideas flowed into Benji's mind
00:21:50
Speaker 1: more and more easily. Sometimes he would look at something
00:21:55
Speaker 1: a tree, or the red post box or a gate
00:22:00
Speaker 1: creaking in the wind, and nothing would come to him.
00:22:04
Speaker 1: But at other times his mind lit up with inspiration,
00:22:09
Speaker 1: as though someone had flicked a switch and turned on
00:22:12
Speaker 1: a hundred light bulbs. A woman sitting at her downstairs
00:22:18
Speaker 1: window was transformed in Benji's mind into a magical princess
00:22:24
Speaker 1: working on a curious spell to bring good luck to
00:22:28
Speaker 1: all the people in her kingdom. A queue of ants
00:22:33
Speaker 1: crawling across the pavement, each carrying a tiny piece of leaf,
00:22:38
Speaker 1: or on their way to build a spaceship so they
00:22:42
Speaker 1: could launch the first Creepy Crawley mission into outer space.
00:22:48
Speaker 1: A circle of toadstools at the foot of a tree
00:22:51
Speaker 1: was the portal to another wonderful world ruled by a
00:22:56
Speaker 1: rabbit king with a crown of berries. Very soon, indeed,
00:23:03
Speaker 1: the pages of the book that had all been blank
00:23:07
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the evening were now crammed with
00:23:11
Speaker 1: words and pictures. Wow, Belinda said, as the three siblings
00:23:19
Speaker 1: finally turned back onto the road they lived on. You've
00:23:23
Speaker 1: found so many stories, Benji. The book is almost completely
00:23:31
Speaker 1: filled up. There are only a few pages at the
00:23:35
Speaker 1: back still blank. I wonder if you'll find one final
00:23:42
Speaker 1: idea before we get home. Benji looked all around him,
00:23:48
Speaker 1: at the houses with their different colored doors, at the
00:23:52
Speaker 1: hedges enclosing, all the front gardens, at the lamp posts
00:23:56
Speaker 1: glowing gently on the street. But he couldn't find anything
00:24:02
Speaker 1: to give him that one last bit of inspiration. Then,
00:24:09
Speaker 1: just as they were approaching their house, a car pulled
00:24:13
Speaker 1: up and a man got out. Benji recognized him immediately.
00:24:19
Speaker 1: They ordered Benji, Belinda and Barney because the man was
00:24:28
Speaker 1: their dad. He hadn't spotted them yet. But as he
00:24:32
Speaker 1: watched his dad open the back door and take out
00:24:35
Speaker 1: his briefcase filled with all of his doctor's equipment, his
00:24:39
Speaker 1: thermometer and histethoscope, and his medicines, Benji felt that familiar
00:24:45
Speaker 1: tingling feeling in his mind. He was coming up with
00:24:50
Speaker 1: an idea. He was thinking about his dad and his
00:24:56
Speaker 1: briefcase full of magical objects, each an every one of
00:25:00
Speaker 1: which could be used to help someone. The briefcase had
00:25:05
Speaker 1: special potions in it that could fix a bruise or
00:25:08
Speaker 1: soothe a sore throat, and a wondrous scanning machine which
00:25:13
Speaker 1: could immediately identify what was wrong with someone and make
00:25:17
Speaker 1: them better in a flash. The man who owned the
00:25:21
Speaker 1: magical briefcase had to work very hard, but at the
00:25:25
Speaker 1: end of each day, even though he might be tired,
00:25:29
Speaker 1: he was happy because he knew how much he had
00:25:33
Speaker 1: helped other people. Belinda was looking at the book where
00:25:39
Speaker 1: the title was being written by an invisible hand, the
00:25:44
Speaker 1: healing Hero. She said, nice job, Benji, that's your final story.
00:25:55
Speaker 1: She put a warm hand on his shoulder and gave
00:25:58
Speaker 1: him a huge smile. See, Benji, I told you there's
00:26:04
Speaker 1: no limit to what your imagination can do. Benji looked
00:26:10
Speaker 1: down at the book in his hands, the Book of Blanks,
00:26:14
Speaker 1: which was now a book full to the brim with stories.
00:26:19
Speaker 1: He felt very pleased and very proud. He was happy
00:26:25
Speaker 1: with every single one of the stories he'd gathered up
00:26:28
Speaker 1: that evening, but the one he was most proud of
00:26:33
Speaker 1: was the final tale about the man with the magical briefcase,
00:26:37
Speaker 1: because that one he thought was the closest to the truth.
00:26:44
Speaker 1: Just then, Benji's dad spotted them on the road and
00:26:47
Speaker 1: opened his arms wide. Kids. He said, you're still up,
00:26:54
Speaker 1: and he folded all three siblings, Benji, Belinda, and Barney
00:27:01
Speaker 1: into a great, big, warm bear hug. Come inside. Their
00:27:09
Speaker 1: dad said to them, let's all read a bedtime story together,
00:27:15
Speaker 1: What do you think of that idea? All three of
00:27:20
Speaker 1: them agreed that that sounded like a very good idea indeed.
00:27:26
Speaker 1: And so, with Barney gurgling sleepily in his crib, Belinda
00:27:33
Speaker 1: sitting crosslegged on the floor, and his dad sat on
00:27:37
Speaker 1: the end of his bed, Benji finally opened his leather
00:27:42
Speaker 1: bound book. He looked down joyfully at the pages full
00:27:48
Speaker 1: of words and sentences, characters and adventure, And as the
00:27:54
Speaker 1: sweet feeling of sleepiness settled down over the whole family,
00:28:02
Speaker 1: pressing gently on their eyelids and making them yorn, Benji
00:28:09
Speaker 1: began to read out loud his first bedtime story. Passssssssssssssssss