Welcome to Story Quest, a weekly podcast where we bring your stories to life!
In this episode we bring Maya’s story – Maya Amazing – to life.
It’s all about Maya, a girl who speaks up for people with differences. We think that makes her a super hero already but in this story she has even more superpowers and comes to the rescue of people all over her town! Maya tells us more about her story at the end of the video.
If you have a story idea, you could be like Maya 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 Maya 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.
Listen out for brand new Story Quest episodes every Thursday!
Stories for kids and families from Fun Kids – the UK’s children’s radio station. Perfect for all ages – listen in the car, when chilling at home and before bedtimes.
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Read along to Maya Amazing
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.
Now you probably know that superheroes are good at disguising themselves as everyday people before they leap into action to fight the baddies and save the world. But you might not know that there are superheroes IN YOUR TOWN! Yes! Not in America or in Space but right here – and another crazy thing is – some people don’t even realise that THEY ARE a superhero! Well, until it happens.
Our story today is about a girl called Maya. And this may be a story but Maya is a real girl! She has a pretty great life. She enjoys hanging out with her friends and family and doing all the stuff you probably like. Maya’s particularly cool because has spoken up for people with differences because she likes to help other people and make the world a better place.
You might think that makes her kind of a hero from the start, but actually things were going to get alot more strange for Maya because one day she found something that changed EVERYTHING!
Walking back from the letter box a strange twinkle on the pavement caught her eye. It was a ring – shimmering and glittering on the ground. She picked it up and had a good look – two tiny wings were on either side of a big diamond. It reminded her of the dressing up box she used to play with in little school which had pretend rings and necklaces. She couldn’t resist and so slipped it on her finger and twisted it to fit.
And WHOOOSH! The world around her disappeared and she found herself standing outside her old school! The one she’d just been thinking about! How weird is that? She hurriedly twisted it again – surprised and a bit worried. She thought hard about home and slipped the ring on and WHOOOSH! She was there! Back home safe and sound.
There was no doubt about it – the ring had given her some PRETTY SERIOUS SUPERPOWERS.
Now it wasn’t just Maya who’d had a surprising week. The normally peaceful town was going to find things were about to change and not in a good way.
The news came in that there was an evil plan afoot by the master criminal, The Rogue Ripper – he’d escaped from a maximum security prison and was on the loose.
The Rogue Ripper – (once known as the eminent scientist Godfrey Splay), had discovered a way to teleport himself and has been using his powers to rob some of the largest banks and diamond dealers in the world.
The TV news showed a flash of light caught on the security camera of the Bank of England and then the empty shelves of the valult. The Rogue Ripper was no where to be seen by the time the guards arrived – and neither was the money from the vaults!
A serious looking policeman was being interviewed and he did NOT look happy.
“We can’t keep up with him – and now the banks are low on money – this could be a disaster for us all!”
Maya was beginning to get an idea. THEY might not be able to catch him but SHE could! She made herself a dashing black cloak from some scraps from the sewing supplies and dug out her sunglasses – after all it might not be a good idea for people to recognise her if she was teleporting around. And superheroes needed to look a bit well… cool, right?
The next day the internet was full of the news that the Rogue Ripper had teleported into the Tower of London and was in the process of stealing the crown jewels. He’d barricaded himself in was crashing and grabbing the precious stones and crowns.
Maya knew there was no time to lose and put on the ring and imagined being at the Tower. WHOOSH and she was there – in the Crown Jewel room watching a wizened old man smashing the cabinets and shoving precious stones into his bag. It was after the visiting hours and so the doors were locked – she could see a yeoman warder on the other side unaware of what was happening – but the door was barricaded and too thick to call for help. But Maya had an idea – she could use another of her powers – the power to communicate without words – how amazing is that? And HOW COULD she do that? Well – it was thanks to Makaton – a type of sign language (and if you don’t already it’s a language you can learn too!). As the Ripper was occupied stuffing his bags she got the attention of the warder through the window and made the signs for “QUICK! FIND HELP – BAD MAN!” The Yeoman jumped and gave Maya a thumbs up and she could see him shouting for back up. But Maya wasn’t done yet!
“Stop right there!” shouted Maya – The Ripper looked up in astonishment. Maya ran towards him and shoved him to the ground, the jewels spilling out on the floor – OOOF! He was down!
Maya scrambled over him to the door and threw off the barricades and the guards rushed in. Now some of them were holding guns and looking rather confused so Maya decided not to hang about and twisting the ring WHOOOSH! She was home.
“It seems like the Rogue Ripper was disturbed by someone who foiled his plan! Reports say it was a 16 year old girl with Down Syndrome – in a black cape???” said the news that evening. “He might have got away – but he had to leave the jewels, and police are looking for the mysterious stranger who came to their aid.”
Maya chuckled to herself – it was exhilarating and exciting to know that wherever the Rogue Ripper had gone, she would be there.
And the excitement continued! The Rogue Ripper had teleported himself into The Natural History Museum to steal the precious fossils and WHOOSH! Maya had been there – chasing him around the dinosaurs and using a dinosaur bone to bash him on the head – BASH! He staggered and dropped his haul before woozily teleporting away. Maya in her cloak and sunglasses waved at the crowd who were cheering loudly.
“Who are you?!” they yelled.
This was a difficult question, she didn’t want to lie but superhero’s had to have a cool name didn’t they?
“I’m…. Maya AMAZING!” she said finally with a giggle before twisting her ring and teleporting back to her bedroom, out of breath but happy.
“Did you see the girl?” whispered the crowds. Maya Amazing is a hero!”
News spread about the world’s newest superhero but she didn’t let up for a minute.
She tracked the Rogue Ripper down to the deepest depths of the pyramids of Egypt, to the palace Taj Mahal in India and in and out of a ton of mansions and banks – always outwitting him (after all he was quite old) and making him abandon his missions.
Even when the Rogue Ripper teleported himself across the globe to one of the most secure gold vaults in Saudi Arabia, she teleported into the glittering marble chambers, and chased him round in circles around the vaults until he was really out of breath but she didn’t let up. Up and and down up the enormous staircases she flew in pursuit.
At the top the Ripper launched himself onto a glittering chandelier and cackled as he prepared to teleport away – but Maya was there in a flash – she had teleported to the chandelier too – and they struggled and wrestled for control – his loot fell to the ground with a clatter and Maya wrestled him bravely as the chandelier chinked and tinkled and swung precariously – at one point it looked like she’d be thrown off but she was stronger than the old man and with a final push he was sent spinning to the ground. She lost no time teleporting herself to the bottom and grabbing some rope to bind him up and keeping hold of his wrist teleported herself and the Ripper to New Scotland Yard in England, the head of the Police in England. The officers were surprised to see the young girl in her dashing cape appear from nowhere and even more surprised to see her holding on to the most wanted criminal in the world.
“It’s Maya Amazing… And the Rogue Ripper!”
The Ripper was still in a daze and Maya had noticed that the Rogue Ripper ALSO had a ring – a ring with tiny wings. Just like hers. He must be using it like she did to teleport! Before the police could see, she slipped off the ring and put it in her pocket and as the Ripper groggily came around she could see him frantically looking for it but it was clear that he couldn’t teleport any more.
“I don’t think he’ll be giving you any more trouble!” Maya said to the police.
“Thanks Maya Amazing! – you’re Well, AMAZING!”
Maya found that once she was safely home, having TWO rings seemed to cancel out the special powers and she didn’t like the idea of leaving one ring around – who knows who might find it. So she couldn’t teleport again, but, as she thought, at least the Ripper couldn’t either now he was back in jail! She put the rings in a special box and often thought about her adventures.
She also wondered where the strange rings had come from – they were one of life’s mysteries it would seem, but mysteries can keep life interesting, if you ask me!
And that’s pretty much the end of our story. Like I said at the start of the story, and as we’ve found out sometimes superheroes don’t come from America or Space, they can be ordinary people just like you and me – and Maya. And the great thing is like Maya, we DON’T need magic rings to do good things, to make a stand to make things better – and just be AMAZING at times – although I’d quite like to have a go at teleporting – wouldn’t you? I wonder where you’d decide to go?!
Do you have a story you want to hear made into a Story Quest?
We’d love to hear from you, submit your idea here and maybe we’ll be hearing you on Story Quest soon.
