In the furthest corner of a tiny
little village, in a tiny little room above a tiny little toyshop, Sebastian
Button was tucked up in bed.
Page 3-4
Page 3-4
In that magical moment before the
blanket of sleep fell upon him, Sebastian heard something very strange indeed. Like a whoosh and a boom and a crash and a
crunch. He peered through his bedroom window and “HOLY CANNOLLI” ... what was that?
Page 5-6
He tiptoed down the stairs into
the cold dark night and there, right in front of him, was THE MOON. Sebastian
looked at the sky and, precisely where the Moon should have been, was a great big hole.
“Moon,” he gasped. “Did you fall
out of bed?”
The Moon said nothing.
“Don’t worry,” whispered
Sebastian, “I do that all the time.”
Again, the moon said nothing. He
just stared at the vast twinkling sky and sighed.
Page 7-8
Sebastian rolled up his sleeves.
“I'm going to help you,” he declared and immediately set to work.
He heaved and
hauled... nudged and budged... pushed and shoved. But the Moon
was stuck.
Page 9-10
Sebastian flopped down and sighed. “It’s impossible,” he said. “You’re just too big and too heavy.”
At that very moment, a tiny bush
cricket sprang out of the grass and landed on Sebastian's head. “Clear the way!” it chirped before leaping over the Moon and into the night.
“HOLY CANNOLLI” cried Sebastian.
“If I can’t lift you up
then I’ll bounce you up!”
And with that he set about making the biggest and bestest seesaw the world had ever seen.
Page 11-12
Soon enough, Sebastian was ready.
He wedged one end of the seesaw under the Moon’s bottom then climbed to the top
of a tree.
“Are you ready?” he shouted.
The Moon winked, Sebastian jumped
and... SNAP. The seesaw broke.
“Oh bubbles”, sighed Sebastian.
“Oh bubbles,” agreed the Moon.
And that was the end of that.
Page 13-14
Sebastian sat on the broken
seesaw and gazed at the Moon. The world around him was as still and silent as a
shadow until ... too-wit- too-woo.
“HOLY CANNOLLI” he cried. “That’s it.”
He clambered onto the branch of a
tree then trilled and tweeted, chirped and cheeped until a sleepy little sparrow
appeared next to him.
“Please,” asked Sebastian,
“can you teach the Moon to fly?”
The little brown bird set to work
wiggling and jiggling, flittering and fluttering, hopping and flapping but, like
a bogie on a finger, the Moon stayed stuck.
“Oh bubbles,” sighed Sebastian.
“Oh bubbles,” thought the Moon.
And that was the end of that.
Page 15-16
Not far away, distance a dog barked and,
in a flurry of frantic flapping, the sparrow flew away.
“HOLY CANNOLLI” cried Sebastian
picking up a lost feather. “That’s it!”
At once he set about hammering and
drilling and sawing and gluing until he'd made a most magnificent flying
machine.
The Moon looked at it all tied
together with string and sticky-tape, and shook his head.
Page 17-18
“It’s okay,” said Sebastian,
“it’s absolutely VERY perfectly safe.”
The moment he climbed in, however, the flying machine creaked and
groaned and wibbled and wobbled, then crumpled and crashed to the ground.
“Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles,”
wailed Sebastian.
“Bubbles indeed,” thought the
Moon.
And that was the end of that.
Page 19-20
With a heavy heart, Sebastian set
to work clearing up his broken flying machine. How silly he’d been to believe he could help the Moon.
But as he tidied and swept, he
caught sight of a spider’s web bejewelled in dazzling dew drops. His eyes
opened wider than a crocodile’s mouth.
“HOLY CANNOLLI” he whooped. “That’s
it!”
Moments later he returned from
his father’s tiny little toyshop carrying the biggest bunch of balloons the
Moon had ever seen.
Page 21-22
In the twinkling of an eye the
Moon floated up towards space.
‘Nearly there’, he thought,
‘nearly home’ and with a Moon sized YAWN he closed his eyes and dreamt of bed.
He barely noticed when the first balloon caught on a prickly star and popped
... or the next ... or the next ... until there were no balloons left.
For the second time that night,
the Moon tumbled out of the sky and landed in Sebastian’s garden with a BUMP
and a CRUNCH.
Page 23-24
First the Moon’s nose grew red
then his bottom lip quivered then a single tear slid down his cheek followed by
another and another until a large puddle of salty-water filled the garden.
Page 25-26
“Oh Moon,” whispered Sebastian.
“What can I do to cheer you up?”
He did a crazy wiggle-dance. He sang a beautiful song. He pulled a funny face. But
nothing could put a smile on the Moon's gloomy face.
Finally Sebastian threw his arms
around the Moon and gave him the biggest, tightest, squeeziest hug he could
muster. And that’s when something magic happened.
Page 27-28
A big smile spread across the
Moon's face and, as it did, they both began to rise. The more Sebastian hugged,
the happier the Moon became and the higher they flew. Up, up, up they went, through the clouds, past the prickly stars, over the Milky Way until, at
last...
Page 29-30
... the Moon was home, in his
very own bed, in a happy little corner of night. Sebastian was overjoyed for
his new friend but he was also tired and a tiny bit troubled.
“Your home is beautiful," he
said, admiring the vast glittering blanket of foreverness that surrounded him.
"But how will I get home to my
own bed?"
The Moon grinned and before
Sebastian could say “HOLY CANNOLLI” ...
Page 31-32
... he was whooshing through
space on a shooting star.
Soon he would find himself in the
furthest corner of a tiny little village, in a tiny little room, above a tiny
little toyshop, tucked up in bed and fast asleep.
The End
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