Butterflies and Wrens

Robert Smith

Description

Robert Smith’s first book entitled My Bunny Rabbit Adventures features his father’s repertoire of 1960s bedtime stories about the bunnies who lived in the woods next door. One of the bunnies from those original stories called Hector is featured in this subsequent book, which is a novel about Hector’s life and times from the age of two when he first met Robert, the storyteller, to when his first child reaches this impressionable age. It therefore covers Hector’s circle of life. You will discover how Hector grew up, what happened to him, what he became, how he coped with the good and bad things that came his way, what he learned from his experiences and from those of others, and finally, how he matured into a grown-up rabbit with a family of his own. The reader will learn about, and gain a better understanding of both their and other peoples’ feelings, challenges, and fears and how to deal with them and how to respect and treat others. The novel includes some interesting true stories and facts as part of the story line, which you may find interesting and useful and, hopefully, just utterly amazing too! This book is therefore an ideal first novel for children.

Sujets

• Adventure
• Rabbits
• Fiction
• Action

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse UK
• Date de parution: 12 avril 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781546291169
• Langue: English

Extrait

Butterflies and Wrens
 
A first novel for children and of course for grown-ups too!
 
 
 
 
Robert Smith
 
 
 

 
 
AuthorHouse™ UK
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403 USA
www.authorhouse.co.uk
Phone: UK TFN: 0800 0148641 (Toll Free inside the UK)                  UK Local: (02) 0369 56322 ([phone] from outside the UK)
 
 
 
 
 
© 2018 Robert Smith. All rights reserved.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
 
Published by AuthorHouse 08/03/2022
 
ISBN: 978-1-5462-9094-0 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-5462-9116-9 (e)
 
 
 
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
 
 
 
 
For my beautiful daughters Helen Marie and Lucy Victoria,
wherever they may be,
and my adorable grandchildren
Millie May, Tia Lily, Archie Freddy, Sonny, and Betsie Willow,
and to anyone else in the future who might want
to come along and join the party….
And especially in memory of our beautiful little man
Freddy Dexter,
who will forever be our little pride and joy,
our little darling boy.
Goodnight my Angel

Tomorrow will be a good day
Contents
Foreword
Chapter 1 Opening the Book
Chapter 2 Riding a Bike
Chapter 3 Silly Old Duffer!
Chapter 4 Growing Up and Down
Chapter 5 An Important Year
Chapter 6 Bunlins!
Chapter 7 A Smart Fella!
Chapter 8 A Step Up
Chapter 9 The Face of an Angel
Chapter 10 Jerry, Joyce, and Crusty, oh, and Harold too!
Chapter 11 Drumlins
Chapter 12 A Life-changing Time
Chapter 13 The Lost Years
Chapter 14 A Boat with Two False Legs
Chapter 15 Someone Else
Chapter 16 Fish in the Sea
Chapter 17 The Summer of ’69, Part 1
Chapter 18 L’été de ’69 - Deuxième Partie
Chapter 19 Some Unexpected Outcomes
Chapter 20 Return to Life
Chapter 21 Changing Times
Chapter 22 Mince Pies and Soot
Chapter 23 Number Thirty-two
Chapter 24 A New Era
Chapter 25 A Christmas Bonus!
Epilogue
 
Edition 6
Foreword
HELLO there! So that you know, and in case you were wondering, this book was originally intended for children in the age range from about 12 to 18 years old, or however young or old you want to be really. However, and as I was writing the book, it became clear to me that older readers will also identify with many of the events which happen to the main character in my story. This book will therefore hopefully appeal to a wider range of readers too.
For younger readers, this may be your first novel. In case you didn’t know, a novel is a fictitious, or made up story typically about a character with some degree, or in this case lots of realism, which means that most of this story actually happened.
But I hope people of all ages, and of course rabbits and squirrels too will find this book interesting and enjoyable.
The objectives for this book are quite simple. They are to make you laugh, to make you cry a little too, to teach the younger reader about growing up and what to expect as they become older and more experienced, and to remind the older reader of things they thought they knew but perhaps had misplaced along the way. However, and with all these in mind, my book’s main objective is to entertain you!
Now you may already be confused by the title of this book and the top hat on the cover. “And whatever have butterflies and wrens got to do with rabbits and squirrels?” I hear you ask. Well, if you read on, everything and more will be revealed, and you have to call a book something, don’t you! After all, if I had called it something like ‘The Life and Times of Hector Bunny’, I doubt if you would have been interested at all! So even before we proceed into the chapters of this book, already there is mystery and intrigue, or something to arouse your curiosity.
Now, this may be quite a long book. Well, it’s actually three books joined together in one cover, and there’s a bonus Christmas story at the end too, so it’s good value if you’re bargain hunting! But as you will no doubt conclude from the remainder of this foreword, or introduction below, there is indeed much to cover during our main character Hector Bunny’s childhood and young adulthood. So rather than aiming to speed read (and just why do people need to do that), I would propose that you take your time to both savour and enjoy this book, and when you put it down at the end of a chapter to go and make a drink, or go to bed, or do your homework, or catch-up on social media, or whatever else your busy life requires you to do, please look forward to picking it up again to read the next instalment.
You will discover that the words and phrases I use, together with the complexity of the story become increasingly more grown-up as you progress through the chapters of this book. In fact, the increasing complexity of my story is commensurate with, or is similar to the complications and challenges that Hector faces as he becomes older and wiser, and more experienced.
The first few chapters are therefore a fairly easy but nonetheless essential read, because you will learn about Hector’s early childhood, and discover who Hector’s friends are and how he interacts with them, and how their relationships begin to develop. However, as you progress further into the book you will discover that the complexities of our young rabbit’s life introduce him to the inevitable challenges that we all, at some stage of our lives will also face and have to deal with during the roller coaster of growing up. You will therefore find yourself being absorbed into the story and virtually living alongside Hector and his pals, and hopefully learning from their experiences, and perhaps comparing them with your own too.
Your understanding of some of the more difficult words, which you may already know the meaning of anyway, will hopefully be assisted by having their meaning stated in the sentence where they are first used in the book, like ‘ commensurate’ is above. But don’t worry, because this isn’t a schoolbook, and there will be no test at the end to see if you’ve been paying attention! Instead, this book is to be enjoyed.
So let’s get started. My name is Robert, and I will be your storyteller. You may remember me from my first book called ‘ My Bunny Rabbit Adventures’ . Time has moved on and I am now an old man who has retired from work, and so with time on my hands I spend most of it looking after my garden, being with my family, walking my little black and white cockapoo dog Ruby, and seeing my grandchildren, who I love dearly. Oh, and of course, I do a little writing too! I have two lovely grown-up daughters called Helen and Lucy, and will always enjoy the privilege and pleasure of the company, and memories of my beautiful grandchildren, Millie, Tia, Archie, Sonny, Betsie, and Freddy.
So this book is about a young rabbit called Hector Bunny, my lifelong friend, and how he grew up, what happened to him, what he did, what he became, how he enjoyed the good things that happened to him and how he coped with the inevitable bad things too, what he learnt from his experiences and from those of others, and how he matured into a grown-up rabbit with a family of his own. I hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I did recalling the events and, of course, writing about them too!
Let me give you some background ….
When I was a little boy I lived with my Mother and Father in a nice house with a lovely garden in the countryside near a city called Norwich in England, which is the largest country in Great Britain which of course, you already knew. Next to our garden were woods where lots of animals lived in the little animal towns dotted here and there. Most of the animals were very shy and only came out to eat and play when it was quiet. However, there were lots of bunny rabbits who also lived in the warrens and burrows there, and they were all my friends, and together we all learnt much from the lessons our adventures taught us as young ones. Of course, those adventures happened many years ago now, and both I and the bunnies have grown up and made our own ways in the world.
Those of you who kindly read my first book will remember the story about the little brown fluffy bunny rabbit called Hector. I was barely seven years old when I first met him, and the circumstances under which we met were quite extraordinary! My Mother and Father had hired a boat one afternoon, and we were making our way down the river when all of a sudden we saw a log floating towards us with a little fluffy bunny sitting on it. I slowed the boat down, drew alongside the bunny, and my Father lifted him safely into our boat. Hector told us his name, and explained that he lived in the woods and had seen other children and their parents in boats on the river, and thought he would like to do that as well.
As Hector didn’t have a boat, he thought he would get an old log to float on instead. But after Hector had pushed it away from the riverbank, he realised he hadn’t got a sail, or an engine, or any oars either, and was therefore stuck in the middle of the river! We ended up taking