Charlie and the Lirilla by Jamie, age 7

Once there was a boy named Charlie and he lived with his widowed mum in a cottage next to a forest.  His dad died when he was two weeks old.  Charlie was brave and strong.

            One day, he asked his mum if he could be an explorer, an intrepid explorer!  His mum said excitedly, “Of course you can.” 

He wore camouflage clothes, even camouflage skin.  Straight away he bravely ran into the deep dark forest.  It was full of colourful leaves: red, orange, yellow, green.  The water was blue and white.  When he got there, he decided to look for monkeys because they were his favourite animals and his favourite colour is brown.  He started his quest.  He saw a couple of monkeys but at the end of the day as he was trampling through the forest he saw a monkey with some golden socks.

            “Wow!” Charlie shouted, and he took a photo and snatched the golden socks and hurried home.  But on the way he noticed the monkey was chasing after him.  He could feel the claws swiping at him, he could hear the growling, and he felt very scared.  That was when he realised the golden socks gave him ultra-speed!  He felt like he was flying on a lightning bolt.  He got to the end of the forest and the monkey backed off.

            The next day he bought some binoculars and because his favourite footballer was Messi he bought the binoculars the colour of Messi’s boots.  Later on, he went into the colourful forest full of crackling sounds.  He found five more animals that gave him ultra-strength, courage, health, power and protection.  Then he heard about...


            A lirilla was a tall gorilla with a lion’s mane and it was golden yellow. They were the only mixed animals in the jungle.  Charlie loved lions and gorillas so he loved lirillas.  He went on a quest to find them.  He looked around every tree and every lake but he couldn’t find them anywhere.  

            “I will find them,” he said to himself.

            He did this quest for 32 weeks (eight months) and on the way he met some other creatures not in his quest, like spiders, scorpions, dragonflies and dung beetles.  But at last he found, can you guess?  Lirillas!  It was holding... oh no!  It was a fake golden face guard.  But then he remembered his power breastplate.  He switched it on and pointed at the fake face guard but unfortunately it didn’t give him quite enough power to turn it strong.  He tried once more but still it wouldn’t work.  It was simply too weak. 

            He clambered through the jungle upset and disappointed.  But just as he put his first foot on the grass out of the jungle, a Lirilla pulled his shirt.  He turned around surprised and the Lirilla handed him the face guard.  He took fifty photos and hurried home with all his armour. 

            His mum was so pleased she bought him a chart of animals that he put a tick next to them when he found them and from that day for the rest of his life he remembered the armour and the special gift, and by the time he was 13 he’d ticked every animal on the chart and he even added a picture of a Lirilla and he ticked it.