← Koala Moon: Kids Bedtime Stories & Sleep Stories for Kids Podcast
Koala Moon: Kids Bedtime Stories & Sleep Stories for Kids Podcast
Koko & The Dreamcoaster 🐨🎢 Kids Bedtime Stories
00:33:44
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
Foreign hello and welcome back to Koala Moon, a podcast of original children's bedtime stories and meditations designed to make bedtime a dream. Tonight's Coco Club celebs getting their special shout outs. Akali, who just turned 10, Francesca H from Sydney, Australia. Elliot from Salem, Oregon and London, and Evely from Kenmore, Washington. You are the best. Thank you for subscribing for the year. Keeping you well stocked in bedtime stories and us well stocked with ideas is brilliant. We just love all the suggestions that are pouring in via the videos. Email cocoalakids FM and you can send us voice notes there too. Check the show notes to see the ways you can talk to us. There are loads. Right, I'm going to let you into a secret. Are you ready? Koko isn't always great at going to sleep. He too can have days that he just doesn't want to end. And we're meeting him this evening as an over excited, overstimulated, sleepless little koala. And he's all out of ideas. He can't go out for a calming walk or get some inspiration from his sleepy forest friends like Zen or Sunny. So what's he going to do? Well, just as he's going dizzy, watching the fan above his bed go round and round and round, and here, you get the picture, something unusual happens before we find out what it is. Are you in bed yet? Okay, lie back, relax and take some even and steady breaths. As you close your eyes, imagine a faraway forest of tall trees gently swaying in the breeze. Down in a little clearing, there's a cosy little cabin. And who's in the cabin? A little fidgety koala in his bed. Let's go there. This is Coco and the Dream Coaster by Jane Thomas. Coco is coming to the end of a seriously exciting day. The whole day has been so much dashing about, he doesn't know what to do with himself. And he's lying in bed, eyes wide open, staring up at the ceiling. There's a fan rotating just slowly, slow enough that he can watch and count as the blades turn once, twice, three times, four times. He gets distracted quickly and stares at the curtains instead, watching how they move in the breeze of the night. And then an owl hoots and that takes him away from the curtains and he's sitting up in bed trying to see out, hoping to catch a glimpse of the owl sweeping through the sky. And right when he's about to give up, right when he's on the point of thinking he will never actually sleep again because Life is far too exciting for that. There comes a knock at the window. Koko shakes his head and rubs his eyes and holds his breath and there it is again. It's definitely a knock at the window. As quietly as he can, he pushes back the blankets and tiptoes across to the window and looks out. And there, standing right there, and he's pretty sure it wasn't there when he came home just a few hours ago, is what looks to be a roller coaster once more. Koko shakes his head and rubs his eyes and then he closes them and counts to three and opens them again. And yes, there's definitely a roller coaster there. Only there's something odd about it. A squirrel wearing a shiny black cap coughs and Koko looks down. The squirrel, sitting in the front carriage waves his clipboard at him, showing Koko's name right there on a list right there above Kira, and then taps the watch on his wrist. He gestures towards the roller coaster and Koko, not wanting to be rude, climbs out of the window and slips into the seat the squirrel is pointing towards. Only it isn't a seat at all. It's a bed. And looking back, Koko realises that all the seats are beds and they're all made up with big piles of soft blankets and cosy cushions and big plump pillows. Koko settles in, slipping the seat belt around his waist and then following the squirrel's instructions to put the seat belt above the blankets. It reminds him of the time he flew on Albatross Airways and they had the same rule there. The squirrel passes him a leaflet, then blows his whistle and the roller coaster jolts forwards, lining up an empty seat. Well, bed with Kira's window. Koko watches as the squirrel taps on the window and then sees his sister come forwards, rubbing her eyes and yawning a little and then doing as the squirrel says and cozying up into the bed behind Koko's. He turns around to look at her and they exchange shrugs and raised eyebrows. Neither really knows what is going on, but if a magical roller coaster suddenly turned up at your window and a talking squirrel instructed you to get on board, wouldn't you? Koko looks at the leaflet and sees he isn't on a roller coaster at all. He's on a dream coaster. And a dream coaster, it seems, will whisk him around Sleepy Forest, then away from there, whisking him, in fact, to the far side of the world. And all in the space of a single night, the dream coaster crew promise him a gentle journey and one that will see him end up in his very own bed. He glances back at his bedroom window, now disappearing into the distance, and isn't quite sure how the squirrel is going to carry him through that and put him back in bed. But maybe there's a whole crew of these squirrels with shiny black hats and clipboards. Who knows? He didn't know until a few moments ago there was such a thing as a Dream Coaster after all, and when we find something brand new to us, while it's a good thing to question, can also be a good thing to sit back for a while and see what we can learn. So Koko settles back into his pillows, takes the hot chocolate filled with little islands of floating marshmallows that the squirrel offers him, and looks out at the view. The Dream Coaster is for now, in very familiar territory. It's passing through Sleepy Forest, picking up a zebra here and a piglet there. The squirrel, ushering all of them into their spaces, handing them the leaflet and checking their seatbelt, is just as it should be, nestled above the blankets. Coco looks down and sees the playing fields he knows and the schools and the shops on the high street and the homes of his friends, and there's the bakery and there's the river, a single slip of silver weaving its way through the forest, and finally the squirrel bounds forwards to the front of the Dream Coaster, glances back quickly, running his finger down the names on his clipboard, and then disappears into a capsule where he can no longer be seen. With all the passengers on board and safely stowed in their beds, it seems the trip has begun. The Dream Coaster has heads over the very edge of Sleepy Forest, where the trees reach high, high into the sky, and looking down, Koko can see birds sleeping peacefully in their nests, all curled up together as little bundles of feathers, the soft grasses and straws of their nest acting as the perfect cushion. And then he sees a little gate, and on the other side of the gate he sees a small path disappearing into the undergrowth and up there is a cabin, and on the porch of the cabin is a man in a rocking chair with his feet up on the veranda rails, and Koko sees a little girl headed out of the cabin with a basket over her arm, and he thinks for a moment that he might just have seen a slumberjack. But then the Dream Coaster is rising above a cottage, one where the roses are always in bloom, and he looks down and sees good luck gnomes busying themselves in a garden, going this way and that with little wheelbarrows filled with Horseshoes and four leaf clovers and acorns too, and goodness knows what else. And there on the corner is a cafe that he's heard about called the Dimpled Dumpling. And he knows he's looking down at Lower Starry Skies. And now they're heading up the hill and Koko searches for the school and the church and for where there's a Wool, There's a Way, and for the little bookshop of Neither Up Nor down and the clock shop called Rise and Chime. As he looks down, a little round man with little round glasses looks up at the Dream Coaster and smiles and waves. And Koko wonders If that isn't Mr. Timelove himself, who's seen him flying by. Up, up, up the hill they go, rising as far as the village of Upper Starry Skies. And then they're racing across fields and meadows, everything made silver by the light of the moon and the stars. Koko didn't realise that the moon could shine so brightly that there could even be shadows at night. But here he is, looking down at fields where the trees cast shadows out across swathes of wildflowers, where buttercups and cornflowers and dandelions and wild roses are all turned into silver. And now they're over at the coast, and Koko looks down to see a silver beach. And there are waves crashing against the shore. And as they roll and splash, they throw out dashes of bright blue lights. And Koko remembers something from school about how these tiny creatures live in the sea. And at night they shine bright just like fireflies. And here he is watching it, thousands of tiny lights showing where the sea meets the shore. Someone is rowing a boat out at sea, and Koko watches as silver pours off the oars with each dip into the water, sheets of silver filled with these tiny blue lights that sparkle and sprinkle themselves across the sea. The Dream Coaster swoops and swerves, gliding this way and that through the night, finding the best route with the best views and the best moments. And that means Koko goes from watching dolphins race through the water to seeing a whale reach slowly up, up, up, and then crash back down onto the surface, spray almost reaching to Koko and his blankets. And the sea is clear, so wonderfully, perfectly clear. And it is as smooth as glass. He can see down into it, and he sees a shoal of a thousand fish moving together as one, sweeping left and then right, rising and sinking, rushing through the water. And suddenly here they are, and Koko is looking down at familiar, unfamiliar places. Because he's seen pictures a hundred times of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty, and he knows that this is New York, even though he's never been there before. He knows that is Central Park. And he watches as suddenly tiny horses and carriages move their way slowly and steadily around well worn routes. Couples snuggled up together in the back beneath blankets, making their evenings last just a little longer. Still, the Dream Coaster dashes on, heading out across Canada, moving over these vast areas where there is nothing and yet there is everything. There are lakes, pools of silver in the moonlight, surrounded by mountains that are still touched with snow, and Koko can reach out and brush his paw against the snow just for a moment. Then he snuggles back down into his blankets where there is nothing but warmth. He sees bears strolling through a meadow, heading for a stream, slow and steadily pacing their way through the grasses, and they look up and see the Dream Coaster and pause for a moment, stopping to shield their eyes from the light of the moon so they can see properly. They watch this great thing in the sky, swooping and swerving, a line of beds filled with animals the likes of which they have never seen before. Koko waves and the two big bears stay still. But a small bear, a baby bear, chases after the shadow of the Dream Coaster and waves and waves, excited by the magic he's seeing. And then there is nothing but ice beneath them and the world has turned white. Sometimes the white is huge and pointed and rises up from the ocean. Sometimes it's in jagged, ragged sheets that seem to be in an eternal slow dance, shifting gently around each other as if they're ballroom dances on a crowded dance floor. Then the Dream Coaster sweeps to the side and they're heading south, away from the ice. There are these cities, huge cities, cities filled with what look like a million skyscrapers all piled together. Koko thinks to himself that they are over China, and perhaps he has seen Shanghai or Beijing or some other mega city the likes of which he's never visited. And then he looks down and knows he's right, because there is a wall working its way along between the rise and fall of hills and mountains. And the wall is wide, so wide that people can walk on it. And as he watches, he sees a few people out there in the dark of the night, looking up at the stars and seeing the Dream Coaster glide its way through the sky. Then they're once more over jungles, and Koko peers through the trees and here and there sees elephants moving slowly and steadily, pulling at branches with their trunks, skimming Leaves from twigs. They stop by a silver pool to throw silver water over their silver backs that gleam in the moonlight. And there are islands, hundreds of islands, spread out across a bay, each of them more jagged and ragged than the last, throwing themselves up into the world as if they're climbing out of the sea. Around them are dozens of tiny boats safely sleeping, tied up for the night and bobbing gently on the rise and fall of waves. Koko sees tiny palm trees and tiny huts and tiny monkeys sleeping in tiny nests they've made in the trees. And from up here in the Dream Coaster, up here in his cosy bed that rushes through the sky, everything is miniature. And as they pass over a single teardrop shaped jewel of an island, a land that sends the scents of spices up up into the sky. Koko looks down with longing at a place where temples hide in the heart of jungles and people dance with arms covered in hundreds of bangles that flash and shine by the light of the moon. Koko keeps thinking about how tiny everything is, how very small the world looks from up here. But now. Now Koko has reached the coast of Africa and the Dream Coaster is rushing along the beaches of Kenya. An endless strip of silver sand that never break. Suddenly, everything doesn't seem so miniature anymore. And everything seems as if it must go on forever. Because now they are crossing a desert. And as far as Koko can see, peering as he is into the distance, all he can see are the folds and rolls of sand rising and falling. There is nothing and nobody out in this vast wilderness, out in this vast, empty, empty world. Only space and freedom and silence. Once more they head further south, moving down to the sorts of places Koko has only seen in pictures and read about in books. He sees giraffes moving slowly through the night, long necks bobbing up and down as they walk carefully between the trees. He sees hippos floating in pools, silverheads rising above silver waters. And then they disappear. And all that is left are ears flickering above the surface. He sees hundreds, no, thousands. No, hundreds of thousands of zebras. A huge mass of black and white that moves as one. And they are maybe a hundred wide and maybe a thousand long. And they are going up and down and through a river, heads up, hooves kicking, dust behind them. So there is a mass of black and white, and behind them a cloud of dust that reaches almost as high as the Dream Coaster and is silver, silver in the light of the moon. And once more, they're over an ocean. And there is a boat, a huge boat, covered in Containers. And Koko knows that in those containers are all the things that all the people in the world want. Sending them from one country to another, one person to another, from one shelf to one shop, from one factory to one home, and it is almost impossible to imagine that all those containers, and there are hundreds of them, can possibly be filled with things. Suddenly, Koko, tucked up in his bed with his mound of cushions and blankets and pillows, feels very, very small indeed. Isn't it strange, he thinks to himself, how you can look down one moment and every everything is miniature and you can look down the next and everything is enormous. How you can go from feeling like a giant in one moment to believing you're just the size of a mouse the next? He turns and looks back at Kira, who's fast asleep in her bed, her purple bow dancing a little in the breeze. Koko wonders about falling asleep, but he isn't ready yet, not quite, because there are more islands down below, more palm trees to look at, more fishing boats resting on silver beaches waiting for the first light of dawn before they head out to sea. There are tiny villages, lanes lined with the soft glow of street lamps, and here, and there is a light in a room. Koko wonders what this person and that is doing awake so late. Maybe there is an artist in one room, and maybe there is a writer in another. Maybe there are people who are talking, talking, talking deep into the night and sharing stories from other lives. As he looks to the side, Koko sees there is a tiny sliver of golden light on the horizon. He knows that means the sun must surely be rising here soon, and soon the world that was awash with silver is glowing with touches of gold that the gentle rising of the sun pushes ahead of it as it rises slowly, slowly in the east. Coco imagines all those people in Asia who must now be waking, and all those villages coming to life. He imagines people standing on mountains and moving their arms slowly this way and that, pushing the energy of the world with the palm of their hand. And he imagines all the animals who slept through the night, waking and stretching in their nests and dens, seeing if they can have an extra few moments in bed before they must get up and start their day, burrowing down into their pillows and beneath their blankets for precious extra minutes when they can linger in that world that is neither asleep nor awake. And then the dream coaster is back over Sleepy Forest and in places that Koko knows and loves so well, he has seen the world. He has seen the whole world in a single night. He has seen magic out there in the deserts and the mountains and the jungles and even those cities, those vast cities that are filled with a million skyscrapers and twinkle their way through the night. But somehow home is the most wonderful place of all. Home with its forest and silver river easing its way through the trees. With the playing fields and the schools and the bakery and the cottages and the homes of his friends and the porches that he sits on and drinks iced tea when it's hot. And the fireplaces he cuddles up beside when it's cold. And here is the thing that Koko doesn't know. Somehow he will wake up in the morning in his own bed. And he will never have had to climb out of that dream coaster and back through his window and tiptoe across the floor and slip silently beneath the covers. But when he wakes, he will lie there for a moment and wonder if it was real, if a squirrel knocked on his window and beckoned him to come outside. He'll wonder how he is back in his bed with the fan slowly turning. 1, 2, 3, 4. And the curtains flapping gently in the breeze. And the hoot of an owl returning home drifting through the window. And he will never quite be sure if he did see all of that. If he did wave to a bear, if he did see a slumberjack and elephants and giraffes and beeches that stretched along shores as if for a thousand miles. But beneath his pillow he will find a leaflet, and on it will be the word Dream Coaster. And the promise that he will see the world in a single night. Sometimes there is magic in not quite being sure if something was real or not. Sometimes we just need to let the world unfold and show us its beauty in its own quiet way. Sometimes all we can do is dance in our dreams.