In tonight’s bedtime story for kids, we meet a little girl named Frida and her pony, Bella. When Frida discovers a magical paintbrush which can bring her paintings to life, the first thing she does is transform Bella into a flying, polkadotted paintersaurus! Relax, get sleepy, and let’s begin!
This story was inspired by an idea from Hendrix. Thank you, Hendrix! We hope you enjoy it.
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Narrator 🎙️ Abbe Opher
Author ✍️ Jane Thomas
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
00:00:21
Speaker 1: a dream. I can't wait to start Tonight's story, but
00:00:26
Speaker 1: before I do, I must give a huge shout out
00:00:30
Speaker 1: of thanks to our lovely Coco clubbers who've joined us recently.
00:00:34
Speaker 1: Thank you Tilia, Laura, Grant, Ethan, Dahlia Jackson and his
00:00:41
Speaker 1: puppy Rocky, Alexandra, Camille, Callie, Ella and Sarah. Now here's
00:00:51
Speaker 1: a question. Do you believe that only magicians can make magic?
00:00:59
Speaker 1: If so, so, I hope that Tonight's beautiful, imaginative tale
00:01:03
Speaker 1: will maybe change your mind a little. The story itself
00:01:08
Speaker 1: was inspired by listener Hendrix, who asked us to write
00:01:11
Speaker 1: about a dinosaur who loves to paint. Well, we thought,
00:01:16
Speaker 1: what about a dinosaur made from paint? Her paintersaurus if
00:01:22
Speaker 1: you will. This paintersaurus was created by a little girl
00:01:26
Speaker 1: named Frida, and when Frieda discovers a magical paint brush
00:01:30
Speaker 1: which can bring her paintings to life, the first thing
00:01:34
Speaker 1: she does is transform her horse Bella into a flying,
00:01:38
Speaker 1: polka dotted paintersaurus. Now isn't this whole process of writing
00:01:44
Speaker 1: your bedtime story? Just a little bit magic in itself.
00:01:49
Speaker 1: Lie back in bed and snuggle down under your covers,
00:01:54
Speaker 1: perhaps have a lovely stretch and a sigh, and get
00:01:56
Speaker 1: ready to close your eyes as I take you into
00:02:00
Speaker 1: the technicolor world of Frieda and the painter Saurus and
00:02:05
Speaker 1: the magical imagination of Jane Thomas. It was the last
00:02:17
Speaker 1: day of school before a long summer of absolutely nothing.
00:02:23
Speaker 1: At least, Freda didn't have anything planned. Everyone else seemed to, though.
00:02:28
Speaker 1: They were all going off on trips to the beach
00:02:30
Speaker 1: or exciting sounding sports camps, and talked about meeting up
00:02:34
Speaker 1: for picnics and sleepovers. But Frieda lived in the absolute
00:02:40
Speaker 1: middle of nowhere and would likely spend the entire summer
00:02:44
Speaker 1: in the absolute middle of nowhere. To The nearest village
00:02:49
Speaker 1: was an hour's bike ride away and was very appropriately
00:02:54
Speaker 1: called lost, and even if she could be bothered to
00:02:57
Speaker 1: cycle all that way or she'd get at the end
00:03:00
Speaker 1: of it was ten tired houses and a teeny tiny
00:03:04
Speaker 1: store that sold very boring, terribly grown up as sentials.
00:03:10
Speaker 1: Freda thought chocolate was far more essential than flour and eggs,
00:03:14
Speaker 1: but the store owner clearly didn't miss Pennifeather stopped in
00:03:20
Speaker 1: front of Freda's desk and handed over her report card
00:03:24
Speaker 1: to take home. She smiled encouragingly, It isn't as bad
00:03:30
Speaker 1: as you think, Freda. There have been a lot of positives. Really.
00:03:36
Speaker 1: Freda took the card and stuffed it into her bag.
00:03:40
Speaker 1: They both knew Miss Pennifeather was lying. Freda's first year
00:03:45
Speaker 1: at the School of Magic had been a disaster, and
00:03:48
Speaker 1: it was unlikely she'd make it through to the second
00:03:50
Speaker 1: year there. She'd only really been allowed to join because
00:03:55
Speaker 1: of something her great great grandmother had done in a
00:03:58
Speaker 1: time that was officially called the Era of Forever Ago,
00:04:05
Speaker 1: everybody else had to get in by proving themselves. They'd
00:04:09
Speaker 1: won their places by showing they could fly on broomsticks,
00:04:13
Speaker 1: or by waving ones that turned frogs into princes, or
00:04:18
Speaker 1: by making whole classrooms disappear with the click of their fingers.
00:04:23
Speaker 1: Freda couldn't even make a coin disappear in the palm
00:04:27
Speaker 1: of her hand, and her little brother could do that
00:04:30
Speaker 1: before he was four years old. And so it was
00:04:35
Speaker 1: that when the bell went everyone rushed outside to fly home,
00:04:40
Speaker 1: waving at each other as they flapped off into the sky,
00:04:44
Speaker 1: leaving Frida to climb onto the back of her sturdy pony, Bella,
00:04:49
Speaker 1: and start the long plod towards lost. Bella was a
00:04:56
Speaker 1: beautiful little pony, completely white and with the roundest, most
00:05:02
Speaker 1: bulging belly of all ponies the world over. She liked
00:05:06
Speaker 1: to plod slowly and thoughtfully, only breaking into the mildest
00:05:12
Speaker 1: trot when there was the promise of food if she
00:05:15
Speaker 1: promised to speed up. A few miles from home, Frieda
00:05:20
Speaker 1: climbed down and, with Bella's eager assistance, investigated the hedgerow.
00:05:26
Speaker 1: They took it in turns, reaching in for the plumpest blackberries,
00:05:31
Speaker 1: Frieda staining her fingers purple, and Bella ending up with
00:05:35
Speaker 1: a ridiculous purple grin as the juice stained her whiter
00:05:39
Speaker 1: than white mouth and nose. Up high, far higher than
00:05:45
Speaker 1: either Frieda or Bella could reach, were some especially delicious
00:05:50
Speaker 1: looking berries. Come here, Bella coaxed Frida, come and stand here,
00:05:57
Speaker 1: and let me just climb on. Frieda clambered slowly and
00:06:02
Speaker 1: carefully onto Bella's broad back, talking calmly and softly to
00:06:07
Speaker 1: the pony and telling her to just be a little
00:06:11
Speaker 1: bit patient and perhaps she could reach high enough to
00:06:15
Speaker 1: get those berries. I'm nearly. I'm just one more stretched. Oh,
00:06:23
Speaker 1: don't move, Bella. The little pony had spied a stream
00:06:28
Speaker 1: and was off for a drink and a rinse, for
00:06:31
Speaker 1: she liked to keep herself as clean as possible, and
00:06:34
Speaker 1: poor Freda didn't stand a chance. Down she fell head
00:06:41
Speaker 1: first into a muddy ditch. Bella looked at Freda curiously,
00:06:47
Speaker 1: seemed to shrug her haunches, and continued her amble towards
00:06:52
Speaker 1: the stream. Freda grumpily pulled herself up and started digging
00:06:58
Speaker 1: around in the mud for all all the things that
00:07:01
Speaker 1: had fallen out of her bag. Of course, the report
00:07:06
Speaker 1: card wasn't one of those things. No, Miss Pennyfeather's crisp
00:07:12
Speaker 1: envelope and perfect looping handwriting was as clean as it
00:07:17
Speaker 1: had been an hour before. Everything else had fallen into
00:07:22
Speaker 1: the mud, but not the one thing Frieda would quite
00:07:26
Speaker 1: cheerfully have destroyed. Typical, she muttered to herself, Pulling up
00:07:32
Speaker 1: her sleeves and reaching into the mud up to her elbows,
00:07:37
Speaker 1: she felt something that was somehow both soft and hard
00:07:42
Speaker 1: at the same time, and poured it up, shrieking a
00:07:45
Speaker 1: little as she realized she was holding a giant toad.
00:07:51
Speaker 1: The toad hopped out of her hand and dropped a
00:07:54
Speaker 1: paintbrush it had been holding in its mouth. Sorry, said Frida,
00:08:00
Speaker 1: who startled me. That's all. The toad nodded, staring and
00:08:05
Speaker 1: blinkingly at her, and then looking meaningly at the paint brush.
00:08:12
Speaker 1: It's very kind of you to fish that out for me,
00:08:15
Speaker 1: but it really isn't mine, Frieda told him. The toad
00:08:21
Speaker 1: cleared his throat and gave a little cough, then pushed
00:08:25
Speaker 1: the paintbrush towards Frieda. She supposed he was right, and
00:08:30
Speaker 1: she should really pick it up, regardless of whether it
00:08:33
Speaker 1: was hers or not, whoever it belonged to, it shouldn't
00:08:38
Speaker 1: be in the ditch. As she put it into her bag,
00:08:42
Speaker 1: the toad smiled and winked at her, before hopping back
00:08:46
Speaker 1: into the mud and burrowing his way back into its
00:08:49
Speaker 1: cool depth. Frieda called bellerover, who trotted across merrily enough,
00:08:57
Speaker 1: and then backed up when she saw the mud all over. Freda, fine,
00:09:04
Speaker 1: I'll have a wash too, Frida said, and threw herself
00:09:08
Speaker 1: into the stream, lying on her back with the cool
00:09:12
Speaker 1: water trickling soothingly around her, looking up at dappled sunlight
00:09:18
Speaker 1: through the greenest of leaves. Frieda thought she could quite
00:09:22
Speaker 1: happily stay there forever. A gentle rumble from her stomach
00:09:28
Speaker 1: suggested otherwise. By the time they reached Lost, Freda was
00:09:34
Speaker 1: all but dry, and by the time they reached home,
00:09:37
Speaker 1: Freda was more than ready for an enormous slice of cake.
00:09:41
Speaker 1: And by the time the first week of summer had
00:09:44
Speaker 1: drifted by, Frieda was beyond ready to be back at school.
00:09:50
Speaker 1: She was so terribly completely bored. Miss Pennyfeather's report had
00:09:58
Speaker 1: been extremely kind but very firm. Freda still hasn't found
00:10:04
Speaker 1: her magical ability. I'm looking forward to seeing what she
00:10:08
Speaker 1: can do in the new school year. I hope the
00:10:13
Speaker 1: summer break helps her find something special. Frieda had never
00:10:20
Speaker 1: done anything magic in all her eight years in the world,
00:10:24
Speaker 1: and suddenly she had less than eight weeks to prove herself.
00:10:29
Speaker 1: Her little brother offered to teach her how to correctly
00:10:33
Speaker 1: guess a playing card someone drew from a pack, but
00:10:36
Speaker 1: that wasn't good enough. Rule twelve of the School of
00:10:39
Speaker 1: Magic was card tricks don't count. They could be learned,
00:10:45
Speaker 1: and anything that could be learned wasn't real magic. It
00:10:49
Speaker 1: was a trick. Even dogs could do tricks by the
00:10:54
Speaker 1: second week of summer, Frieda had ridden Bella for mile
00:10:58
Speaker 1: after mile and every every single direction, and still nothing
00:11:03
Speaker 1: had happened that was remotely interesting. She rode north and
00:11:08
Speaker 1: saw beautiful trees and beautiful hedgerows, but they just sat there,
00:11:13
Speaker 1: waving prettily at her. She rode south and saw fields
00:11:18
Speaker 1: of corn that shimmered and rustled as the winds rippled
00:11:21
Speaker 1: through them. She rode east and saw flocks of birds
00:11:26
Speaker 1: swooping and weaving in the clear blue skies, swirling and
00:11:31
Speaker 1: whirling and playing in the thermals. She rode west and
00:11:36
Speaker 1: saw wild horses in the distance, running as fast as
00:11:40
Speaker 1: they could, with manes and tails sweeping out behind them
00:11:44
Speaker 1: in gorgeous, glorious tumbling dances. She even rode north northeast,
00:11:52
Speaker 1: which is terribly difficult to do without a good compass,
00:11:55
Speaker 1: and there she watched as a thousand butterflies flap their
00:11:59
Speaker 1: color for wings and fluttered off into the distance. It
00:12:05
Speaker 1: was when she rode west southwest that she encountered a toad.
00:12:11
Speaker 1: The toad sat solidly in the middle of the path,
00:12:14
Speaker 1: and Bella refused to pass him. The toad stood his ground.
00:12:21
Speaker 1: The three looked at each other Frieda coaxing Bella forwards,
00:12:26
Speaker 1: and Bella stubbornly digging in her hoofs, and the toad
00:12:31
Speaker 1: staring with unblinking eyes. Wait, don't I know you, said Frida.
00:12:39
Speaker 1: At last, the toad hopped up and down and nodded
00:12:43
Speaker 1: his head. Didn't you make me take a paintbrush from
00:12:50
Speaker 1: a puddle of mud? The toad hopped even higher and
00:12:54
Speaker 1: nodded his head even more vigorously. Frida had quite forgot
00:13:00
Speaker 1: about the paint brush until that moment, but she solemnly
00:13:04
Speaker 1: promised the toad she would go home and paint something
00:13:08
Speaker 1: that very afternoon. And upon hearing that, the toad smiled
00:13:14
Speaker 1: broadly and then hopped back into the undergrowth. Freedom knew
00:13:20
Speaker 1: it was only a toad. She had made the promise too,
00:13:23
Speaker 1: but a promise is a promise and should be kept.
00:13:28
Speaker 1: As soon as she got home, she dug around in
00:13:31
Speaker 1: her bag for the forgotten paint brush, and then reached
00:13:35
Speaker 1: into the very back of her wardrobe and found the
00:13:38
Speaker 1: old box of paints she hadn't used in years. She
00:13:42
Speaker 1: took a sheet of paper and then sucked on the
00:13:46
Speaker 1: end of the paint brush for a while. What should
00:13:49
Speaker 1: she paint? She looked out of the window and saw
00:13:54
Speaker 1: Bella in the field, her whiter than white coat bright
00:13:58
Speaker 1: against the green grass. It suddenly seemed a bit silly
00:14:03
Speaker 1: to paint a white horse onto white paper, so instead
00:14:07
Speaker 1: she found a large piece of black paper and decided
00:14:11
Speaker 1: to use that. She started with Bella's head, then worked
00:14:18
Speaker 1: her way back to her long white tail, adding in
00:14:22
Speaker 1: more and more detail as she went, before the final
00:14:25
Speaker 1: finishing touch, which was two delicate dabs of blue for
00:14:30
Speaker 1: the pony's eyes. Frieda was quite pleased with the painting
00:14:36
Speaker 1: and was about to declare it done when something inside
00:14:40
Speaker 1: told her to keep going. The brush rolled across the
00:14:45
Speaker 1: desk and stopped by the green paint. Fine, said Frida,
00:14:52
Speaker 1: and added a dramatic green dinosaur tail onto the back
00:14:56
Speaker 1: of Bella. He looked quite silly, but somehow quite excellent
00:15:01
Speaker 1: at the same time, so she reached over to the
00:15:04
Speaker 1: red paint and added four neat spikes along the pony's back.
00:15:11
Speaker 1: Bella was now more dinosaur than pony, so Frida decided
00:15:15
Speaker 1: to finish the job properly, exchanging the hoofs for blue
00:15:20
Speaker 1: feet and making the face much rounder and more to
00:15:25
Speaker 1: her mind. Dinosaury I name you their painter Saurus, Frida declared,
00:15:35
Speaker 1: pinning the picture to the wall above her desk and
00:15:38
Speaker 1: smiling to herself. She looked out of the window and gasped.
00:15:45
Speaker 1: There in the field stood a wonderful creature with a
00:15:50
Speaker 1: long green tail, red spikes, blue feet, and a blue face,
00:15:58
Speaker 1: and Bella was nowhere to be seen. Bella, she called cautiously,
00:16:06
Speaker 1: and the strange creature looked up at her and nodded.
00:16:13
Speaker 1: Frida looked at the painting, and back at the creature,
00:16:17
Speaker 1: and back at the painting again. There was no mistaking
00:16:22
Speaker 1: the creature in the field. It was the painter Saurus,
00:16:28
Speaker 1: picking up the brush and paint box and pulling the
00:16:31
Speaker 1: painting from the wall. Frida rushed down the stairs and
00:16:35
Speaker 1: out through the garden into the field, passing all the
00:16:39
Speaker 1: other ponies that had gathered together in the corner and
00:16:41
Speaker 1: were looking at the painter Saurus with more than a
00:16:45
Speaker 1: little alarm in their eyes. Bella, Frida called and ran forwards.
00:16:53
Speaker 1: The creature turned, her soft blue eyes, unmistakable as belonging
00:16:59
Speaker 1: to the little round pony. Bella seemed to smile as
00:17:04
Speaker 1: she looked round at her long green tail. She held
00:17:09
Speaker 1: up a blue foot and Frida thought the little pony's
00:17:14
Speaker 1: winnie sounded like a delighted laugh. Frida had to know
00:17:20
Speaker 1: if this was true. She mixed red and white to
00:17:25
Speaker 1: make the brightest, boldest pink she could, and painted some
00:17:29
Speaker 1: giant red spots onto the back of the painter Saurus.
00:17:34
Speaker 1: As she did so, they started to appear on the
00:17:37
Speaker 1: creature standing in the field. Whatever Frieda painted was brought
00:17:44
Speaker 1: to life in an instant, I wonder, said Frida, and
00:17:54
Speaker 1: as delicately and neatly as she could, added a pair
00:17:59
Speaker 1: of wings. These immediately sprouted from Bella the creature's sides.
00:18:06
Speaker 1: She carefully included a purple saddle and reins. For much
00:18:11
Speaker 1: as she was a girl who believed in magic, she
00:18:14
Speaker 1: also believed in being sensible. She was quite used to
00:18:19
Speaker 1: seeing people flying, remember, so it didn't seem like a
00:18:23
Speaker 1: terrible idea to climb aboard the painter saurus, nudge her
00:18:29
Speaker 1: heels into the side, and whisper, Fly, Bella Fly. Bella
00:18:38
Speaker 1: flapped her little wings and they lifted into the sky.
00:18:44
Speaker 1: Freeda knew exactly where she wanted to go, steering the
00:18:49
Speaker 1: painter Saurus to the east and heading straight towards the
00:18:54
Speaker 1: distant coastline. She half regretted not packing a picnic, since
00:19:00
Speaker 1: that was as much as summer staple as the beach,
00:19:04
Speaker 1: But half way there she realized that, of course, it
00:19:08
Speaker 1: might be perfectly possible for her to paint the picnic
00:19:12
Speaker 1: and for it to appear alongside her. The painter Saurus
00:19:18
Speaker 1: soared through the sky, racing with the birds and chasing
00:19:23
Speaker 1: through fluffy white clouds. At one point, they drew level
00:19:28
Speaker 1: with a little aeroplane, and Frida watched as each and
00:19:33
Speaker 1: every passenger pressed their faces against the tiny windows. Even
00:19:38
Speaker 1: the pilot noticed the dinosaur flying through the air, and
00:19:42
Speaker 1: for a moment quite lost control of the little aeroplane,
00:19:47
Speaker 1: before reminding himself that such things were absolutely impossible, and
00:19:52
Speaker 1: to get a grip on reality, he swore never again
00:19:57
Speaker 1: to eat cheese before flying. Cheese was famous for producing
00:20:02
Speaker 1: weird dreams at night, so maybe it produced weird visions
00:20:06
Speaker 1: during the day too. In fact, if you'd been walking
00:20:11
Speaker 1: on the ground below the path of the little aeroplane
00:20:14
Speaker 1: that day, you may have been hit by some lumps
00:20:18
Speaker 1: of cheese that the pilot demanded the air hostesses throw out. Immediately,
00:20:25
Speaker 1: Frieda and her Painter Soaurus carried on all the way
00:20:30
Speaker 1: to the coast and a perfect little cove that was
00:20:34
Speaker 1: so tucked away and so hidden that it could only
00:20:38
Speaker 1: be reached by the sea by the most daring sailors.
00:20:43
Speaker 1: Nobody else was there, so nobody else was around to
00:20:48
Speaker 1: see the girl and her dinosaur land on the sand.
00:20:54
Speaker 1: Nobody else watched as they walked along the shore line
00:20:58
Speaker 1: gathering shells, and nobody else saw them standing over a
00:21:04
Speaker 1: rock pool and looking at an enemies waving their funky
00:21:08
Speaker 1: little hairdos and crabs scuttle into corners. And it was
00:21:14
Speaker 1: in this secret hidden place that Frieda drew out the
00:21:20
Speaker 1: paints and brush and paper, and after painting the scene,
00:21:25
Speaker 1: she added in a picnic. She piled a plate high
00:21:30
Speaker 1: with her favorite marmalade sandwiches, and another had a huge
00:21:35
Speaker 1: chocolate cake. Then she included a giant jug of lemonade.
00:21:42
Speaker 1: Freda took a very small nibble at the edge of
00:21:46
Speaker 1: one of the sandwiches that appeared beside her on the beach,
00:21:50
Speaker 1: unconvinced that it would actually taste as it should, but
00:21:56
Speaker 1: it was every bit as delicious as she did imagined.
00:22:02
Speaker 1: The dinosaur poured at the ground just as Bella would
00:22:06
Speaker 1: do when she was frustrated by something, so Frida quickly
00:22:11
Speaker 1: painted a huge bucket filled with the clearest, purest water.
00:22:18
Speaker 1: The painter Saurus plunged her head deep into the bucket,
00:22:23
Speaker 1: and Frida, unsure what a dinosaur might like to eat,
00:22:27
Speaker 1: added some of Bella's favorites. A bright pile of orange
00:22:33
Speaker 1: carrots was soon part of the scene, along with a
00:22:37
Speaker 1: net of the freshest hay, and for retreat, a couple
00:22:42
Speaker 1: of sugar lumps. The painter Saurus nodded her approval and
00:22:48
Speaker 1: started munching her way through the goodies. As the sea
00:22:54
Speaker 1: started to turn orange and pink with the setting of
00:22:57
Speaker 1: the sun, Frieda tucked her absolute favorite new shells into
00:23:03
Speaker 1: her pocket and climbed aboard her painter Saurus. They flew home,
00:23:10
Speaker 1: watching the sunsets spread out before them and seeing all
00:23:14
Speaker 1: the birds returning to their nests. From high up in
00:23:19
Speaker 1: the sky, Frieda saw a rabbit ushering bunnies into their burrow,
00:23:24
Speaker 1: pink noses twitching as they hopped through the field and
00:23:29
Speaker 1: headed towards bed, and as some animals disappeared as the
00:23:35
Speaker 1: day drew to an end, others emerged, rubbing the sleep
00:23:40
Speaker 1: out of their eyes and heading off to live their
00:23:43
Speaker 1: lives at night. Badgers shuffled along, moles poked their heads
00:23:50
Speaker 1: out of freshly created hills, and the soaring birds were
00:23:55
Speaker 1: replaced by bats and owls, who danced and flutter alongside
00:24:01
Speaker 1: the painter saurus. Back at home, Frieda thought it might
00:24:09
Speaker 1: be wise to hide her new creature. She quickly realized
00:24:14
Speaker 1: she'd made the tail far too long to fit in
00:24:16
Speaker 1: the stables, and the other ponies really didn't seem that
00:24:21
Speaker 1: happy about sharing their hay nets with a dinosaur. So
00:24:25
Speaker 1: she decided there was only one thing for it. She'd
00:24:30
Speaker 1: have to repaint the usual Bella and eraise her paintersaurus.
00:24:36
Speaker 1: Out came the white paint, smoothing out the coat, erasing
00:24:42
Speaker 1: the bright pink spots. The long green tail was soon
00:24:48
Speaker 1: covered up with the flowing white one that Bella loved
00:24:51
Speaker 1: to shake behind her. The blue feet were once more hooves,
00:24:58
Speaker 1: and the face there was once more quite clearly that
00:25:02
Speaker 1: of a pony. Frida left the red spikes until the
00:25:07
Speaker 1: very end, carefully eraising those and sighing slightly as each
00:25:13
Speaker 1: one disappeared into thin air. Bella was a beautiful, round
00:25:20
Speaker 1: little pony once more. The others gathering around to hear
00:25:25
Speaker 1: her stories of flying and beaches and picnics, and not
00:25:30
Speaker 1: really believing a word of it, but smiling and laughing
00:25:34
Speaker 1: all the same because it was nice for once to
00:25:38
Speaker 1: hear about something other than grass and hedgerows. When you
00:25:45
Speaker 1: have a paint brush that will bring anything to life
00:25:48
Speaker 1: that you paint, long summers suddenly passed by incredibly quickly.
00:25:56
Speaker 1: Freda painted everything that came to mind, adding books to
00:26:01
Speaker 1: her shells that she'd wanted to read for ages, and
00:26:04
Speaker 1: making her mother smile with ever more exotic flowers in
00:26:08
Speaker 1: a vase. Every day, she painted a little wooden boat
00:26:13
Speaker 1: for her brother to play with, and when the pond
00:26:17
Speaker 1: dried up in the heat of the sun, she painted
00:26:20
Speaker 1: a new one of those too. She painted chocolate and
00:26:25
Speaker 1: del she ate so much she felt quite sick of
00:26:28
Speaker 1: the stuff, and every afternoon she painted a cool jug
00:26:32
Speaker 1: of lemonade to sit and sip in the shade while
00:26:37
Speaker 1: lying on her favorite painted picnic rug. For the absolute
00:26:43
Speaker 1: best thing she painted was her paintersaurus. Almost every day
00:26:50
Speaker 1: Bella would find herself slowly turning into the green tailed,
00:26:55
Speaker 1: red spiked, blue footed dinosaur, and the ponies got so
00:27:01
Speaker 1: used to her being so very different that soon they
00:27:05
Speaker 1: didn't mind at all. On the first day of the
00:27:11
Speaker 1: new school year, Frieda created her finest, most perfect painter saurus,
00:27:18
Speaker 1: yet with the neatest, roundest, pinkest spots, she could manage
00:27:25
Speaker 1: the spikiest red spikes and the longest, most looping green
00:27:32
Speaker 1: tail that would fit on the page. Together, they flew
00:27:37
Speaker 1: to the School of Magic, landing softly on the playing
00:27:42
Speaker 1: fields with a skill developed after their weeks of practice.
00:27:49
Speaker 1: Miss Pennyfeather rushed outside and clapped her hands when she
00:27:53
Speaker 1: saw Freda looping the reins of the painter saurus around
00:27:57
Speaker 1: the fence post. So I just knew you had it
00:28:03
Speaker 1: in you, she said, hugging Freda as hard as she could.
00:28:10
Speaker 1: I don't know that it's really me being magic, though,
00:28:14
Speaker 1: said Freda. It's just this paintbrush that a toad gave me.
00:28:20
Speaker 1: Whatever I paint with it comes to life. Miss Pennyfeather
00:28:26
Speaker 1: kneeled down so she could look Freda straight in the eyes. Listen,
00:28:33
Speaker 1: she said, and this is important. Only you can make
00:28:40
Speaker 1: magic with that paintbrush. You put the magic into it.
00:28:46
Speaker 1: Some people make magic when they write, or when they
00:28:49
Speaker 1: pick up a guitar, or if they bake a loaf
00:28:53
Speaker 1: of bread. Some people make magic with a needle and thread,
00:28:58
Speaker 1: or by carving a block of wood or bending metal.
00:29:02
Speaker 1: This way and that we, all of us, can bring
00:29:06
Speaker 1: magic to the world. It's just a question of finding
00:29:10
Speaker 1: out how we do it. And I'm so very glad
00:29:15
Speaker 1: you found your way of making magic, because now whatever
00:29:21
Speaker 1: happens in your life and wherever you go, as long
00:29:26
Speaker 1: as you have a paint brush, you can create something wonderful.
00:29:35
Speaker 1: Freida wasn't so sure this was all true, And really
00:29:40
Speaker 1: it was the toad and the paint brush that made
00:29:42
Speaker 1: everything magical, my dear, said Miss Pennyfeather softly. Don't you
00:29:51
Speaker 1: see you believed in the magic, and so it came true.
00:29:59
Speaker 1: And that is all any of us need to bring
00:30:03
Speaker 1: a little magic into the world. Believe it every night
00:30:09
Speaker 1: as you close your eyes to fall asleep. Believe it
00:30:13
Speaker 1: with everything you've got, and you'll soon find I promise
00:30:21
Speaker 1: that magic really is everywhere.