The Boy who hated Books

Jack hated reading. His mother always bought him books but he would prefer playing on his Playstation and Nintendo rather than read. The books remained untouched, stacked in a neat row on his shelf. They were all in order, starting from fiction and ending with non-fiction.

One day Jack looked at his book shelf. He counted the books: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. "Eight?" Jack said. "Last time I checked I had eleven books. What happened to the rest?" Jack spoke to his parents but they hadn't touched them. Jack was puzzled! Who took his books?

Jack decided to hide under his bed at night to see who was taking his books. He waited and waited but nothing happened for a very long time. Suddenly he heard his window open and an enormous wrinkled hand came in. The hand took a book and went back out of the window. Jack was petrified!

The following night Jack did the same thing again. Once more, the hand appeared and it took another book. This time, Jack attacked the hand. It was all smelly, green and full of warts! Then he noticed that it belonged to a giant. The giant was about thirty feet tall and reached the clouds!

The giant didn't notice little Jack. He looked like a tiny mosquito. The giant flew over the house tops as fast as a jet plane, with Jack still attached to his hand! He flew over Malta and crossed over to Gozo. The giant landed in abandoned green fields and made his way to a huge cave. The entrance of the cave was blocked by a big stone. The giant moved the stone over and joined other giants inside. Everywhere was covered with enormous plants. "This must be giant land in Gozo!" Jack thought.

The giant made his way to another cave, called 'Pringles 55'. It was full of books. Jack's books! He was furious! He wanted to jump in and take them but knew that it wouldn't be a good idea.

The giant settled down to read while Jack hid under the table. The giant was laughing and laughing. Jack couldn't understand what was so funny. "It must be something that he is reading," he thought.

All of a sudden the giant banged his hand on the table, so hard that he broke it in half. Jack scampered away like an athlete! The giant said: "Fe fi fo fum, I smell a Maltese 'un!" Then the giant saw Jack and ran after him. Jack ran as fast as he could but the giant was too fast. He caught him and hung him in mid-air.

The giant spoke to Jack. He didn't speak fluent English but Jack understood him. The giant claimed that he was a kind giant and that he didn't eat people. Jack asked him about the books and the giant told him that he started taking them when he saw that Jack wasn't reading them at all. The giant loved to read.

That night Jack read his first book. He spent all night with the giant and enjoyed it immensely! From that day on, the giant picked up Jack from his house and took him to his cave, where they spent many happy hours reading awesome books.

Andre' Theuma

Winner of the Short Story Competition

World Book Week 2012