21 (2 stars) Rewrite a traditional story that has a botanical theme, in a modern NZ setting - eg Jack and the Beanstalk, Rata's Canoe
Xanthe and Thumper
Once upon a time there was a girl named Xanthe she made a hut in a tree. It was a big old oak tree and it was beautiful. Xanthe had made the small hut in the tree out all sorts of things. It was a very strange looking tree hut, but she loved it and it was all hers.
Xanthe went to Oakland’s Primary School. She loved playing in the oak leaves at school and making big piles of leaves when the dropped off the tree. She also liked collecting lots and lots of acorns.
Xanthe loved playing in her garden, where her Oak tree grew at home. She had a new baby pet rabbit named Thumper, he was light grey and white and he liked being in the tree hut. Thumper didn't hop around much, but he did like to eat.
Xanthe liked to plant seeds in her garden and mow her grass. She also liked to watch the birds in the trees when she was in her tree hut. She sometimes thought she was a bird in a tree.
Xanthe decided to make a special corner of the tree hut just for her baby rabbit to live in. She found an old cardboard box, a cushion and an old blanket. She made it look really good and even drew a picture of lots of other pet rabbits and stuck it up on the wall behind the box so that her bunny wouldn't get lonely.
One day Xanthe went to New World to get some food for her pet rabbit and she bought a big bag of bright orange carrots. She also bought a packet of biscuits, some popcorn, a bottle of lemonade and a big bar of chocolate, because she loved sitting in her tree hut having a big picnic and reading her book.
When she got home she chopped up two of the carrots for her pet rabbit. She put the carrots in an old ice cream box and then put everything for her picnic and the carrots into a backpack. Then she went out to the garden to find Thumper who was in his cage in the garden. Thumper looked really excited to see Xanthe and sat very still whilst Xanthe unlock the cage. Most bunny rabbits would probably have jumped out, but Thumper was different, he just sat and waited until Xanthe picked him up and took him to the tree hut. Thumper was so small that he fitted in Xanthe's hand, so she was able to carry him easily up the ladder with her backpack on her back.
At the top she carefully placed Thumper in his new box, which he liked straight away and sat very still looking at Xanthe for some food. Xanthe got out the ice cream box and took off the lid with the carrots inside. She put a carrot next to Thumper in the box. Thumper gobbled the piece of carrot staright away, so Xanthe gave him another one. Thumper swallowed it whole and wanted even more carrots. Xanthe gave him another and another, until all the carrots were gone and the box was empty. It had only taken Thumper five minutes to eat every bit of carrot. Xanthe was a bit surprised as to how quick Thumper had eaten them, but decided to go and sit on her own big cushions and read her book. She also dedcide to eat some of her own snacks.
Thumper sat in his box and looked very sad. He stared at Xanthe, whilst she ate her biscuits and drink her lemonade. He looked so sad that she decided to go back to the kitchen and cut up some more carrots for him. She climbed back down the ladder and quickly ran to the kitchen to cut up more carrots. Then she ran back to the tree hut. She wanted to be quick, because she was worried that Thumper might try and escape out of his box, but when she got back he was still sitting there. He hadn't moved at all, but he did look very excited to see the box again, which was full of lots and lots of juicy carrots.
Thumper ate the lot. He didn't even seem to chew them, but he did really like them and looked really sad when the box was empty. Xanthe started to worry that she wouldn't be able to buy enough carrots. She'd already spent a lot of her pocket money on the last bag of carrots.
The days went on and Xanthe bought a bag of carrots every day and every day Thumper ate a bag of carrots. Thumper was growing quite quickly, which meant that he wanted to eat even more carrots.
Xanthe couldn’t afford to buy any more carrots so she decided to try and grow her own. She was so poor now that she couldn't even buy a packet of carrot seeds, but she did have lots of left over carrot tops. So Xanthe dug her garden and then made rows and rows of her carrot tops that sat on top of the soil. She knew that they would need water and lots of sunshine. Luckily it was spring, so that meant that the sun was out today. She watered the garden of carrots tops with her watering can and then went back to her tree hut to see Thumper.
Thumper was still sitting in his box, but now Thumper was nearly as big as the box. He was looking very sad, because he hadn't had his bag of carrots today and Xanthe was very worried about him. She didn't know what to do, because she still had to wait for her carrot tops to grow. What if they didn't grow, what would she do and how would she feed Thumper?
Xanthe tried giving Thumper lettuce, but Thumper turned away. Xanthe gave him some chopped up apple pieces, but he didn't like that either. Each day Xanthe tried to feed Thumper lots of other vegetables and fruit, but nothing worked. Thumper was now too sad to eat. Xanthe was very worried about Thumper and she was even more worried about her carrot tops, because they didn't seem to be growing.
One day after school, Xanthe was walking home and she saw something golden and sparkly. She couldn't believe her eyes, because it was a baby carrot. She picked it up and ran all the way home to Thumper. In the kitchen she quickly chopped off the carrot top and ran out to her tree hut. As she ran she tossed the carrot top into the grass. She went up to her tree hut to see Thumper and gave him the tiniest golden carrot that she'd found on her way home from school. He was so happy and for once he chewed it slowly. It was so strange, because it seemed to fill him up straight away.
So Xanthe and Thumper sat happily together in the tree hut. Then they heard it start to rain and at the same time the sun came out. Xanthe looked out of her window and saw the most beautiful rainbow, which seemed to be going right under her tree hut. The rain carried on for most of the afternoonand the sun carried on shining, which meant that the rainbow stayed too. The tree hut was really pretty inside, because the rainbow made lots of pretty colours on the walls.
Then the rain stopped and the rainbow went away. It was very quiet now in the tree hut and Xanthe and Thumper fell fast asleep. When they woke up again it was morning. Xanthe couldn't believe she'd spent the whole night in her tree hut, she'd never slept in it before and couldn't believe it was morning. It took her a while to realise where she was and she could hear a tapping sound on the side of the tree hut. What was making that tapping sound?
She was a little bit scared, and Thumper looked scared too, but he also looked hungry! From where Xanthe was laying down she could see some leaves through her little window, but the weren't oak leaves, like the leaves on her oak tree, they looked more like a fern. She decided to get up and investigate. As she got closer to the window she realised that the tiny baby carrot top that she'd tossed in the grass had grown into a really tall fern like tree and hanging from the ferns were lots of tiny golden sparkly magic baby carrots.
Xanthe reached out and picked one of the tiny golden sparkly carrots and bent down to give it to Thumper. Thumper was so excited to see the same golden baby carrot that he'd eaten the day before, but he didn't gobble it down like all the other carrots, he chewed it really slowly and when he'd eaten the last bit he was really full. Xanthe and Thumper were really happy spending lots of time together in the tree hut and picked golden baby carrots from the window whenever they felt hungry.
The End
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