← Koala Moon: Kids Bedtime Stories & Sleep Stories for Kids Podcast
Koala Moon: Kids Bedtime Stories & Sleep Stories for Kids Podcast
All Aboard The Moonbeam Express 🚂🌝 Bedtime Stories For Kids About Trains
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Hello and welcome back to Koala Moon, a podcast of original bedtime stories and sleep meditations for kids designed to make bedtime a dream. Hello to you lovely sisters Cressida and Elena from Narcusp in B.C. canada. You've been listening for two years and you've just subscribed. Woo. We appreciate you. Thank you. It means the world when you choose to support the show because then we know we'll be able to keep making stories for you. So lots of love to you from all of us here in Sleep HQ from Sleepy Forest and beyond. Now then, for those of you who love vehicles and going places, be it via airplane, monorail, tractor car or sleigh, we've got a transport treat in store for you tonight. We are going on a cosmic railway. Yes. In tonight's travel tale, we go with Koko the Koala to a special place he's been longing to visit for ages. The magical city of Moonbeam Heights. It's a short distance from Sleepy Forest and it requires a bit more effort to get there. But with his backpack packed and his heart full of excitement, Koko boards a shimmering golden train through enchanted forests and starlit skies. Before we begin, a quick message for the grown ups. If you'd like to support our podcast, enjoy ad free listening, unlock four bonus stories per month and much, much more. You can join Coco Club. Subscribe in just two taps via the link in the show notes, but now here's a quick word from our sponsors. We know our listeners have the most incredible imaginations. From sharing story ideas to showing us how creative they can be with characters, the new Paw Patrol Fire Rescue Toys celebrate that same spirit of creativity, helping little heroes feel proud of the stories they create. Your little storyteller can join Marshall and the team on their biggest adventures yet. With the all new Fire Station HQ where they can gear up and slide down the pole. And Marshall's Rapid reload fire truck ready for action. Every pup has their own vehicle so kids can recreate their favourite rescues from the show or dream up their own. It's creative, hands on play that inspires teamwork and confidence. The perfect way to keep their imaginations shining bright. So when the time comes for a new adventure, check out the Red hot Paw Patrol Fire Rescue toys. Available now at all major retailers. Hey Koala parents. It may be unexpected for our calm bedtime show to be part of Black Friday, but I wanted to offer you and your little ones a little peace amidst all the chaos. So for this week only, you can get 30% off Koala Moon Premium or what we call Coco Club Forever. That means ad free bedtime stories every night with hundreds to choose from, including our brand new festive tales. That's right, we've got Potato and beans snowed in at the diner and Cappy and Tito Jungle all the Way. Two highly requested stories just for our Coco Club members. It's the perfect way to bring calm, cosy endings to busy December days. Join coco club before November 30th to get 30% off for life and make this the calmest bedtime season yet. You can claim this offer on Apple Podcasts, yoto, Spotify, or by downloading the Sleepiest app. Let's snuggle down in bed and get ready to go. All aboard the Moonbeam Express By Luke Prendergast. Deep in the heart of a faraway forest stood a cosy wooden cabin. Inside the cabin lived a family of koalas. Koko and his parents lived there and his grandparents too. Far away on the other side of sleepy Forest, through the dense thicket of trees that whispered secrets to each other, beyond the tinkling waters of the sleepy river, beyond the elementary school and Betty's Bakery, beyond Papa Praline's Chocolate Factory and Boba's Bubble Tea Cafe, which lay nestled within the wondrous jungle leaves, there stood a very mysterious city. It was mysterious primarily because Koko had never been there, and Koko had been to a lot of places, if he did say so himself. No, he had never been to Moonbeam Heights, but he wanted to. Everything Koko heard about the city made it seem more and more beguiling to him. In class they learned that it got its name Moonbeam Heights because when the koala moon's glowing light touched the tops of the city's dreamy spires, the building seemed to sing. All the pictures Koko had seen of Moonbeam Heights showed a city of tall pink and yellow stone buildings glittering with glass windows, whose tower tops and turrets disappeared into banks of swirling clouds as though they were not, in fact the high buildings of a city but the peaks of an ancient mountain range. Many of Moonbeam Heights citizens who were affectionately known as Moonbeamers were in the business of dream making. They conjured dreams up out of thin air, refined them into perfection, then tied them up in little linen sacks for the magical rainbow feathered birds who soared across the twinkling city skies to bear in their beaks throughout the universe, dropping the dreams through windows and straight into the heads of peaceful sleepers. But it wasn't just dreams that were made in Moonbeam Heights. They made movies, they made music. They made everything you could dream of. It was a grand city, wondrous, exciting and swathed in mystery. If Koko had 31 paws, he still wouldn't be able to count on his fingers the number of times he'd asked his mum if he could visit Moonbeam Heights. But every time he asked, the answer was a no. Not an outright adamant no, but a vague no whose excuse seemed to change every time. Sometimes his mum said no because it was too far or there was no easy way to get there. Sometimes it was because she was too tired, or there was no gap in the calendar for taking a trip to the city. A lot of the time it was because he was too young. The time for Moonbeam Heights would come, she told him, as though the city was not a city at all, but instead a late running train that Koko simply had to have faith would arrive at some point. But Koko suspected his mum was just trying to get him off her back. The time for Moonbeam Heights, he feared, would never come. But then, quite miraculously, one day it did. Sorry, said Coco, sticking a finger in his ear and giving it a swivel around. I don't think I heard that properly. Could you say it again, please? His mum raised a bushy eyebrow, a wry smile dancing on her lips. I said, she repeated, yes. Yes. As in yes we can go to Moonbeam Heights? Koko asked. Yes, said his mum. As in we can go. And a moment later Koko had disappeared from the room. He came back two minutes later with his walking boots and his backpack on and a scarf wrapped around his neck. His mum let out a bell like laugh. Oh no, Coco, she said. We can't go right now. Tomorrow. We'll go tomorrow afternoon. And so Koko had to wait a whole 24 hours. And believe him, that wait was harder than the wait for any birthday or Christmas or Halloween he could ever remember. But soon enough the wait was over and Koko was once again standing in his kitchen with his boots on and his red scarf on and his backpack on his back. His mum was pulling on a jacket too. She tied the strap under her tummy and then turned to Koko, smiling and said it was time to go. Together they headed out into the autumnal, sleepy forest. The trees had changed their colours, swapping the lush green leaves of the summer for a collage of red and golds and browns. There was a pleasant chill in the air and a mist that rose from the crunching forest floor in swirling spirals that tickled Koko's cheeks and joined the misty puffs that billowed from his mouth with each breath. His mother wouldn't tell him where they were going or how exactly they were going to be travelling to Moonbeam Heights. She seemed to be enjoying preserving the element of surprise, so instead Koko just let her lead him down the woodland paths between the crackling pines and moss covered rocks and into a part of sleepy forest that Koko had never seen before. Where are we going, Mum? He asked, but his mum just pressed a finger to her lips. Wait, she said softly. We're almost there. Just round this corner here. Koko's breath caught in his throat. What stood before him was the most magnificent train he had ever seen. Tall and wide and made of sleek rose coloured panels of glass with a shining golden frame and big golden wheels that sparkled in the autumn sunlight. Koko had seen a number of trains in his life, like the old fashioned red and blue steam train that transported the sleepy foresters around the peripheries of the forest, but in all his wildest dreams he'd never imagined a train like this. Sleek doors opened and closed to let passengers on and off. There were all kinds of creatures carrying their bags or small suitcases onto the train or saying farewell to their families, and a friendly looking pink elephant in a pale blue train guard's uniform was raised her trunk into the air and let out a trumpeting sound. All aboard to Moonbeam Heights. She called out, using her trunk like a loudspeaker. The train will depart in just a couple of minutes. All aboard please. All aboard. Come on. Koko's mum said to him, and their train tickets gripped in her paw. They joined the queue of animals getting up onto the train. There was a dragon in a smart silver suit, a couple of badgers who were obviously going on an away break, and a family of geese with all the children gabbling with excitement. Koko stepped onto the gold train behind his mum, blinking around in wonder, and followed her through into their carriage. Inside the train gleamed as much as it did on the outside. Pale blue leather seats with golden trims arranged around tables, each with little golden bells on them. Above these golden rails ran the length of the carriage upon which people were carefully balancing their bags and luggage. As they walked down the gangway, Coco glanced out of the windows and was amazed to see that the train's special coloured glass had given the forest trees beyond a kind of rosy glamour, as though the trunks had all been dipped in glitter. Here we are, Koko's mum announced once she'd found their seats. She took a seat and Koko sat next to her, gazing around in wonder. He wasn't sure he'd ever been anywhere so plush and magical. Certainly he'd never been on a mode of transport like this. He looked up and gasped. The roof of the train was no roof at all, but had been enchanted to resemble a night sky. Stars twinkled as though a million miles away, and further down the carriage a big golden moon glowed like a wheel of cheese. Quite stupendous, isn't it? Said a voice to the side, a voice that Coco would recognise anywhere. Cuthbert, he said, beaming over at the elderly camel with his wispy beard and his rheumy eyes, who were sitting at the table next to him. What are you doing here? Cuthbert was one of Koko and his family's oldest friends, a camel who must have lived in Sleepy Forest since the dawn of time. He was so old. But with great age came great wisdom, and Cuthbert was definitely the wisest of all the sleepy foresters. He ran the Sleepy Forest Observatory where he studied the skies through his telescopes, watching the transit of stars and planets in great arcs above them. Why, hello there, Koko, cuthbert said. I'm taking the train to Moonbeam Heights. Of course. And just like you admiring the enchanted ceiling, doesn't it make you feel just like you're not on Earth at all, but somewhere off in space? Koko had to agree that it did. Cuthbert let out a wistful sigh. It all rather makes me think of the Starway Express, he said. You know, he added, the cosmic railway. Actually, Coco didn't know about any cosmic railway. But before he had the chance to ask Cuthbert any further questions, there came a sound from somewhere deep beneath them. It started as a rumbling, a low and pleasant growling. Then there came a whoosh and a creak, and next thing Koko knew, the world outside was moving, as though the trees and the grass and the moss strewn rocks had all grown little legs and were now walking backwards in perfectly planned unison. But in fact, it wasn't the world outside moving at all. It was them. The pink elephant train guard's friendly face echoed down the corridor. Welcome aboard, everyone, she said. Time to settle in and enjoy the ride. Our next stop will be Harmony Cove, and from there, Moonbeam Heights. Koko pressed his fluffy little face to the glass as he watched Sleepy Forest flicker by in a blur. Trees, leaves, cabins, glittering splashes of water. It all swept by as the train gathered speed, slipping swiftly along the tracks towards its destination. Now, Coco said his mum wasn't Cuthbert about to tell you about the Starway Express? Oh yes he was, said Koko, turning back with delight. But then there came another sound. Another rumble in fact. But this one didn't come from below them. It came from inside Koko himself. It sounds like your tummy's getting hungry, Koko, cuthbert said. There's a food carriage just behind us. You two go and get some food and I'll be waiting to tell you all about the Starway Express when you get back. So Koko and his mum slid off their seats and made their way down the carriage between the quietly chattering passengers beneath the sparkling stars of the train's enchanted roof. They opened the door to the next carriage and the smell of all kinds of mingled delicious foods met them. The food carriage was more like a beautiful kitchen with a big sweeping bar behind which a troop of pelicans in chefs hats baked and roasted and fried and simmered and handed plates of delicious food and over to the waiting passengers. What can I get you? One of the pelicans asked, clicking his beak happily at Koko. Oh, said Koko. Um, what do you have? Anything you want, the pelican replied. Anything? Repeated Koko. The pelican nodded. Anything your heart desires. This is the train to Moonbeam Heights, after all, and anything you can dream up, we can make. Ooo, said Koko, rubbing his paws together with glee. In that case, please may I have a plate of noodles with some eucalyptus leaves and all drizzled with maple syrup? Then he glanced quickly up at his mum. If that's allowed. Of course, he said. His mum let out a little laugh. Maple syrup on noodles? She said, shaking her head. Coco nodded. Ever since he'd been on a recent trip to Canada, he'd become absolutely obsessed with maple syrup. If he could have it his way, he'd have it drizzled on everything. Not just noodles, but pie and cheese and his little sister Kira's bamboo brownies too. Well, said his mum, since we're on an adventure, it's allowed this once. A eucalyptus and maple syrup noodles, said the pelican. Coming right up. Koko and his mum watched as the pelican chopped ingredients, sizzled them in a frying pan, added a sprinkle of this, a touch of that, and turned back around with a steaming plate, which he handed over to Koko. Koko took a deep inhale. Thank you, Mr. Pelican, he said, and began to tuck in. Koko hadn't yet worked out what he wanted to do when he was older, but eating his meal. He thought to himself that he definitely could be a recipe inventor, if recipe invention was even something you could do, because he was pretty sure he had a knack for it. Eucalyptus and noodles and maple syrup. Who would have thought it up? No one else. But it was absolutely delicious. Koko's mum was hungry too, and so the pelican made her a warm soup of vegetables and spices, the perfect meal for a chilly autumn afternoon. As Koko wound his noodles around a fork, she dipped a spoon into her soup and mopped up bits with a wedge of bread, and soon enough the two of them had both finished their meals. Thank you, koko said, handing his licked clean plate back to the pelican. His mum stroked the top of his head. She'd always done that, and even though sometimes it did muss up his hair, Coco still let her do made him feel warm and full of love. Is that better, Coco? She asked. Yes, he said. But now my tummy's so full I think I need to sit down again. They returned to their carriage and to their seats. Through the train windows, Koko saw that they had left sleepy Forest entirely. Now there were great expanses of grassland and in the distance the shadows of some mountains. He didn't know where they were at all. It looked like the middle of nowhere. Koko turned back to Cuthbert, who was gazing down through his glittering spectacles at a newspaper. Except the newspaper appeared to be upside down. Coco wondered whether Cuthbert hadn't noticed the paper was the wrong way round, or whether it was deliberate. Maybe Cuthbert found secret messages in upside down newspapers. He was always discovering strange and mystical things like that. Cuthbert, coco said, I don't mean to disturb you, but I'd love to hear about the Starway Express now that my grumbling, rumbling tummy has been satisfied. What is the Starway Express? You said it was a cosmic railway. What does that mean? Ah, sighed Cuthbert, folding closed his newspaper and turning to gaze at Koko through his half moon shaped spectacles. The Stalway Express, the cosmic Railway is a train that runs in outer space, connecting planet to planet, star to star. Koko blinked up at him in wonder. A railway up in space? He repeated. But how do you know about it? And then, quite unexpectedly, a big yawn took hold of Koko. Oops, he said, blushing ever so slightly. I think all that warm food in my belly has made me sleepy. That's the sign of a good meal, cuthbert told him kindly. So why don't you get yourself comfy and you can rest while I tell you all about The Starway Express. That sounded to Koko like a very lovely idea indeed. So he took his scarf and folded it into a pillow, which he placed on his mum's lap. Then he inched down the chair and lay his head on his makeshift pillow. His mum placed her hand on his head, gently stroking his hair, and Coco let out another little contented yawn. Perfect. Had he ever felt so cosy in his life? Cuthbert cleared his throat, an important preparation for anyone beginning a story of some significance. I discovered the Starway Express, he said one evening while I was at my observatory studying the skies through a telescope. Everything seemed perfectly normal that night, the skies the same as they had ever been until I noticed something unusual, a phenomena I'd never spotted before. I turned the zooming wheel on the telescope so that I could take a better look and just imagine my surprise and awe when I saw a railway with a train moving through the sky. But this was no ordinary railway. No tracks made of wooden sleepers and metal, no train made of glass. The tracks of this railway were composed of starlight itself, glittering avenues of light trailing through the universe. And the train that travelled along the tracks was a glowing silver moon. I turned my telescope to watch the moon train take its journey along the tracks of starlight and saw that it travelled from star to star, from planet to planet. I watched all kinds of wondrous beings getting on and off the cosmic railway. Aliens and families of little meteorites and space cowboys with astronaut suits and lassoes on. They'd get at one stop at Venus, say, or Jupiter, and then they'd get off at another at Neptune or a passing comet. And I saw that the universe, which I had once believed was made up of isolated planets and stars, celestial bodies separated by millions of light years, were in fact linked together in an extraordinary network. The Starway Express turned distant galaxies into neighbours. Let an astronaut from one side of the solar system visit her family on the other side of the solar system. In the time it took for the stars to whisper choo choo. It turned the whole universe into a village. While Cuthbert spoke, Koko listened closely. He pictured the family of meteorites getting onto the train. He imagined starlight glimmering a path between Venus and Jupiter. But then, try as he might, he found it harder and harder to concentrate on Cuthbert's words. His tummy felt so pleasantly full, his head rested so comfortably on the scarf pillow, he'd lain on his mother's lap. His limbs felt so sleepy. Stretched out on the seat of the train, Cuthbert's words began to Sound as though they weren't coming from right beside him, but from somewhere very far away. Soon enough, Koko was asleep. And as he slept, he dreamed. He dreamed strange and wonderful dreams that mingled Cuthbert's story about the Starway Express with ideas and objects that arose from his own imagination. He dreamed not only of stars and planets, but a city in the sky with tall pink towers and turrets submerged in clouds. It wasn't only cosmonauts and space cowboys clambering aboard the Starway Express, but rainbow coloured birds with dazzling feathers, linen knapsacks full of dreams clutched tightly in their beaks. They were off to deliver dreams not only around the world, but around the universe too. And in Koko's dream, the Starway Express was how they travelled. It occurred to Koko even as he slept, that perhaps this very dream he was having had been delivered by one of these rainbow birds. He would have to keep his eyes out at night in Sleepy Forest to see if he could spot them passing overhead. Then Koko himself was on the Starway Express. He was sitting on a fluffy cloud as soft as a pillow that hovered on the Moon train as it travelled around the wide, dark expanse of the universe. All around him were friendly looking aliens, cats in spacesuits, shards of starlight. Where were they all heading? He asked them in his dream and they all answered together. Moonbeam Heights, of course. Yes, they were travelling to Moonbeam Heights. But until they got there they would enjoy their ride on the Starway Express. And so it was that Koko slept through the train journey. He was so busy dreaming that he didn't see the landscapes shift and change through the rose coloured windows. He didn't feel the tug beneath him as the driver put the brakes on the train. He didn't hear the low rumbling sound as the train slowed down. Nor did he hear as the passengers around him began to ease themselves out of their seats, slipping books into their bags, taking their luggage off the long golden racks running overhead. But what he did notice was the feel of his mum's paw on his shoulder. The gentle pressure of her paw on his shoulder to wake him up, just as she did each morning to let him know it was time to get up and head to Sleepy Forest Elementary School. Koko's eyes flickered open. The low glow of mystic light shone in. Koko's mum lowered her head down to Koko's ear, so close that he could feel her breath stirring at the fur of his cheek. Koko, she whispered, wake up. The time for Moonbeam Heights has come. We're here.