Birdie and the Bird of Paradise

Hello, this is Jana, and I'm here with a story about a bird of paradise.

You may know that a bird of paradise isn't actually a bird. It's a

plant that looks like an exotic bird, or is it? This story also features another bird whom you may know,

birdie. The wise old crow who is best friends with a boy called Jake.

It was Saturday afternoon and Jake's mum wanted to go to the garden centre.

But plants are boring, grumbled Jake.

They don't play football, they don't sing, they don't tell stories, they don't even move.

Oh, plants aren't boring.

Some do fascinating things, said Mum. I want an aloe vera plant for my bedside table because it makes the air fresh and nice to breathe

you just need it because you have to sleep next to dad said jake come on cheeky said mum We're going to the garden centre like it or not. So get your shoes on.

The garden centre was full of the sort of grown-ups who were fascinated by different varieties of grass seed.

Mum spent forever choosing between one aloe vera plant and another.

They all look the same to Jake.

Green, spiky and boring.

At last, she made her choice. Nice one, said Jake. Can we go now? Not just yet. I need to choose a pot.

Oh, choosing a pot will take all week. Reluctantly, Jake followed her around the shop, looking for the pot section.

But first, they had to pass through a whole forest of leafy plants.

Some were taller than Jake, and some were taller than Mum.

See anything you like? asked Mum. they're all as boring as each other oh well what about

this one i haven't seen one of those before you can't call that boring that's because it's not a plant, said Jake. It's a bird. It was mostly green

like the other plants, but it certainly looked like a bird. It had a long pointy beak and an

...