This TED Talk features audio video editor and charity worker Alan Crickmore, recorded live at TEDx Exeter 2018.

It's story time. Settle back and I'll begin. Once upon a time, a mother duck sat patiently on her nest of eggs,

waiting for them to hatch.

And then one day, she felt something moved beneath her.

Crack, crack.

Filled with happiness, she watched as her eggs hatched one by one.

I don't know about you, but when I was little, story time was always one of my favourite parts of the day.

And I loved reading to my two sons when they were small, too. It's that special time when a parent and

child can be totally absorbed together in mystical kingdoms, fantastical beasties or scruffy little ducks that turn out to be swans.

Well, that's how it is for some children, but for other children, there isn't a parent around to read to them.

I'd like to tell you about Sophie. Sophie's five years old and lives with her parents. One day there's a

bang at the door. Sophie hears lots of shouting. Her mum's crying. She sees the police dragging her father

away. Sophie's afraid. She starts crying too. Weeks go by. Sophie doesn't know what's happened to her dad.

When she asks her mum, her mum gets upset, so she stops asking.

Sophie waits.

She really misses her dad.

Every day, she hurries home from school in case he's come back.

On many nights, she cries herself to sleep.

Children at school start to tease her.

They call her names.

Somebody's mum has heard that Sophie's dad is in prison.

Sophie pretends to be ill, so she doesn't have to go to school,

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