Welcome to Story Quest, a weekly podcast where we bring your stories to life!
In this episode we bring Victoria’s story – Tiny Jack’s Wonky Webs– to life.
If you have a story idea, you could be like Victoria and have it turned into a Story Quest. All you have to do is send us your story idea here. We know you have the best imaginations and together we can create the most brilliant stories!
That’s just what Victoria did. You can watch the story she suggested come to life below, plus she tells us all about the inspiration behind the story at the end.
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Read along to Tiny Jack’s Wonky Webs!
You can read along to the story while you listen. Just follow the text below. Don’t worry if you find a word tricky – you can pause the video whenever to give yourself more time.
Tiny Jacks Wonky Webs
How do you feel about spiders? Maybe youâre a big fan of them – or maybe you find them a bit icky and scary. Well I should tell you that spiders can be really helpful – after all theyâre great at chomping pesky bugs that might be in our homes and spiders webs are pretty amazing too – donât you think? Well todayâs storyquest is all about a spider – so letâs begin.
Tiny Jack was the spider in our story. He wasn’t a particularly brave or daring spider, as a matter fact he was quite kind, caring and shy. Most spiders are pretty shy in fact – after all people often shout EEK! And ITâS A SPIDER in loud voices when they see one and thatâs enough to make anyone a bit jumpy. Now the trouble was that the only way to make friends if you were spider was to be able to spin a beautiful web. Now you may be thinking why is this a problem, all spiders can spin webs. That that is where you are wrong my friend, for one spider, there was just one spider who could not spin a web and that spider was, Tiny Jack. Heâd tried and tried but sometimes they wouldnât stick to the ceiling – and almost always they came out wonky and so he spent most of his time hiding away, feeling quite lonely, sometimes begging to sit on other spiderâs webs in return for helping look out for juicy flies.
Now the day story starts Tiny Jack was walking along the rafters of an old, abandoned house when which many spiders called home. He walked past the community noticeboard – made of webs of course – and so something that made him stop in his track. A notice said that there was to be a web spinning contest – it was a very grand occasion because it only happened every seven years – Now a tiny Jack had never had to deal with this problem because just this Sunday passed, he had celebrated his 8th birthday (That is quite old for spider) – he had only been a baby spider – even tinier than he was now – when the last contest had taken place. All the spiders HAD to take part and the winner of the contest would be the new leader of all the spiders – how about that? Tiny puffed his chest out and thought how amazing that would be – no one would call him Tiny if he was in charge – theyâd have to call him – MY LORD or maybe YOUR MAJESTY or something. Maybe finally he would be able to make some friends – after all no one was interested in a tiny spider who couldnât spin a web. So Tiny Jack hurried to his home which is which he had constructed from sticks and bark (after all Iâve said he wasnât much good at making webs) and had a think. Then he remembered the thing. The whole ânot being any good at making webs thingâ. His feelings of excitement were taken over with worry. The other spiders would laugh at him. He took a deep breath and started to try to make a web. But he couldnât remember how to get the edge bits to join together and soon all he had resembled a birds nest – nothing like a web at all.
âWhat will I doâ he moaned to no one in particular âRun away?â
A squeaky voice came from the shadows. âDonât be sillyâ said someone somewhere in Tiny Jackâs house. âWhoâs thereâ Tiny Jack called out in a surprised sort of way. âItâs meâ the voice replied. A EVEN tinier spider no bigger than a fingernail crawled out from under one of the leaves. âYou just need to believe in yourself, thatâs why your web isnât spinning. And you need a reminder on web basics. That probably wouldnât hurtâ. âWho, what, whereâ Tiny Jack stuttered. âOh, that doesnât matter. What matters now is getting you ready for the web spinning contest. Oh, by the way my name is Lily.â If Tiny Jack felt any sort of surprise, he didnât show it.
âBut my webs always come out wonkyâ
Lily shrugged – âso what? Itâs like your trademark – wouldnât it be boring if everything was the sameâ
Tiny Jack thought about this. Lily certainly wasnât the same as most of the spiders he knew – she didnât seem to mind that he was failing at this very basic spider thing. And It was true that his webs were certainly – well, ORIGINAL, for want of a better word. He felt a little bit better.
âLetâs get to work!â said Lily. First of all instructed Tiny Jack to stand up tall and concentrate. She also gave him the 101 on webs – the sort of lesson youâd give a very young spider – so that was kind of embarrassing but it turned out to be just what was needed – Tiny Jack had nothing to lose so he got up and tried⌠and suddenly something amazing happened âŚ.. he was ACTUALLY spinning a web! With the instructions fresh in his head he found himself making web after web, all he had to do was believe. Lily coached him all through the night and by the morning Tiny Jack was about to drop to the floor with tiredness. But he had managed to create great strings of nearly perfect webs – only a few were wonky and he was very proud of them.
It was time to go. When he arrived at the contest with Lily by his side Tiny Jack was feeling more confident than he had ever felt in his life. But as Tiny Jack’s name was called, his confidence was beginning to disappear. He walked to the middle of the stage with all eight of his knees knocking and began trying to spin a web. He tried and tried and tried but he lost his place and had to start again. The crowd began to boo and jeer. The last wisps of Tiny Jackâs confidence were lost in the crowd. He was ready to give up, to go back to solitary life when he remembered Lilyâs words. âYou just need to believe, thatâs why your web isnât spinning.â Tiny Jack just couldn’t give up, not when he had come this far. So, he stood up one last time, he concentrated, remembering his night of coaching and he tried and he tried and most importantly, he believed.
So – the big question is – did Tiny Jack win the competition? Did he become the leader of all the spiders – did they all have to call him YOUR MAJESTY and bow down to himâŚ. ?
WellâŚ
No.
Obviously not.
That day Tiny Jack didn’t create the most beautiful web and he didn’t win either. But do you know what – but Tiny Jack HAD sort of won in a way – he had won something else that day, the ability to believe in himself and the confidence to actually spin a web – and so Tiny Jack felt very proud indeed. He didnât need to lurk on other peopleâs webs or hide in his house of leaves and sticks any more. He practiced and practiced and even if some of his webs were a little wonky he didnât mind. After all as Lily had said – wouldnât it be boring if everything was the same?
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