The Giant from Nowhere. Frances Dickens

ection>

      The Giant from

       Nowhere

      Frances Dickens

      Illustrated by Peter Hudspith

      The Giant came from Nowhere, which is a desolate place to be, for nobody else lived there and there was no one to talk to. So he simply left Nowhere in order to find Somewhere, where he might find company.

      And he did find Somewhere. It was a small village in the middle of the countryside.

      But there was a big problem, and it was to do with his size. The Giant looked down at his giant boots and he could see that each boot was wider and bigger than the roads below.

      This was no place to meet somebody like him. No place to live. He opened his giant mouth and bellowed.

      The tiny people ran out of their houses and looked up at the Giant. He was as tall as an oak tree. His hair was as black as a starless night. His head was the size of a house.

      He looked enormous.

      The tiny people were terrified. They cried. They screamed. They shouted.

      ‘Go away, you’re too big to live here. Go away, we don’t want you!’

      This made the Giant very angry. He stamped his boots, and the ground shook violently and all the roofs fell off the houses.

      The tiny villagers had to run and hide. One little boy stepped out onto the road and shouted up at the Giant, ‘Go away! Look what you have done to our village. You simply don’t fit in here!’

      There was silence.

      The people peeked out nervously to see what the Giant would do. To their surprise, he stopped stamping and shouting and quietly walked away.

      The people came out from their hiding places.

      ‘The roof has come off my house,’ said the doctor.

      ‘The windows are all broken in mine!’ said the baker.

      ‘My shop is ruined!’ said the greengrocer.

      ‘My bed is in pieces!’ said the little boy. ‘That Giant can’t get away with this!'

      ‘That’s true,’ said the boy’s mother, ‘but first we have to catch him.’

      ‘How can we do that?’ asked the little boy.

      ‘We can write about him in the newspaper,’ said his teacher.

      So a newspaper reporter came to the village and asked lots of questions.

      ‘What does he look like?’

      ‘How big is the Giant?’

      ‘What was he wearing?’

      ‘What did he do?’

      ‘How do you feel about what

       the Giant has done?’

      The next day the newspaper

       printed the headline

       ‘Help Catch the Giant’,

       with a report about what

       had happened.

      The next day, the police came asking questions to help the villagers catch this Giant. Then, a week later, the police had a meeting outside the Village Hall.

      ‘We found that Giant, but we can’t get him to talk,’ the police chief declared.

      Suddenly, a small voice cried out. It was the little boy. ‘Hey Giant, what do you have to say for yourself?’

      The Giant groaned, ‘I’ve nothing to say!’

      ‘Nothing!’ shouted the baker.

      ‘Nothing!’ shouted the greengrocer.

      ‘Nothing!’ shouted the doctor.

      ‘Nothing!’ shouted all the villagers.

      The little boy crept up to the Giant and asked, ‘Why did you do it?’

      The Giant groaned, ‘I’m lonely. I was looking for Somewhere to live.’

      ‘Where do you come from?’ asked the boy.

      ‘I come from Nowhere,’ moaned the Giant.

      ‘I see, but that doesn’t mean you can trash our village,’ said the boy.

      ‘I didn’t mean to,’ mumbled the Giant. ‘It’s because I am too big. I don’t seem to fit in anywhere.’