Welcome to Story Quest, a weekly podcast where we bring your stories to life!

In this episode we bring Stefan’s story – Skye The Chattering Skeleton – to life.

Skye and her Skeleton friends are only allowed to scare humans once a year on Halloween, and then they have to live in silence…! Which isn’t good news for Skye who is a total chatterbox.

The silent life isn’t for Skye as she breaks free and tries to live in the human realm for good!

If you have a story idea, you could be like Stefan 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 Stefan did. You can watch the story they suggested come to life below.

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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Story Quest - Stories for Kids

Stories for kids and families, perfect for all ages! New episodes every week.

MOBILE: Story Quest - Stories for Kids

Stories for kids and families, perfect for all ages! New episodes every week.

Read along to Skye The Chattering Skeleton

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.

Skeletons look pretty scary but in this story you’re going to find out that they’re actually just like you and me – which when you think about it isn’t that surprising as we all have a skeleton – ours is just on the inside!

We only really think about skeletons around Halloween, (or I suppose you might if you’re unlucky enough to have needed an X Ray) but of course they are actually around all the time, we just don’t see them.

One of the reasons that we don’t see them is because they go to a lot of trouble to keep quiet, most of the time. They live in the Silent Spooky Shadows – a realm you can glimpse sometimes if you’re somewhere dark and mysterious – like the woods on a winter’s night – or in the shadows of the streetlights. You’ll know if you’ve caught a glimpse because you will feel an icy shiver run all the way down your spine even though there’s nothing to see. I wonder if you’ve ever had that feeling? If you have, then maybe you have gazed into the realm yourself.

The skeletons come out of the Silent Spooky Shadows once a year at Halloween and they can be as noisy and scary as they like on that one day – but when dawn breaks the following day they must return to their realm, to quietly lurk in the blackness. They aren’t allowed to scare humans on any other night of the year you see, and have to remain unseen.

Sky was a skeleton who didn’t like being quiet and spooky. She was quite a chirpy cheerful sort of skeleton and liked nothing better than to talk. And boy could she talk!

“So I was thinking we could brighten the realm up a bit – maybe get some jazzy new carpets.. maybe paint the walls, I don’t know maybe yellow and pink – make a nice change from the gloomy black don’t you think… and then…”

One of the older skeletons – a venerable chap called Ralph hissed at her in frustration.

“Sky – you have to stop chattering! The Silent Spooky Shadows are meant to be, well – SILENT!”

She got told off a LOT. She just couldn’t help herself.

“So why do we even have to stay in this rotten old realm, I mean surely we could find somewhere less dark and spooky – I mean why do we even have to be spooky at all? Sure it’s fun to jump out and make people go “eek!” and all that but why can’t we just get along with the living?”

“SHHHHHHHHH!” whispered a whole bunch of skeletons who were trying to sleep. “Please stop with the chattering!”

The only skeletons who didn’t seem to get irritated by her chattering were the younger ones. They too got rather bored having to stay quiet and out of the way for so long and they loved to hear Sky talking about all the things she’d seen over the years at Halloween.

“So last Halloween was AMAZING! I danced around the bonfire for hours – you know the big one in the park – they had a fair and there were toffee apples and hotdogs and even though I haven’t even GOT a stomach I swear it was rumbling…”

The little skeletons giggled and begged her for more stories. She told them of the fireworks she’d seen, the bright light from inside the houses where the trick or treaters would visit in costumes – and all the sweets the children would get from doorsteps decorated with pumpkins.

But as always the stories were brought to an abrupt end by the elders telling her to be quiet.

This made Sky feel sad, and like she wasn’t welcome at all in the skeleton’s realm. So one day she made a decision. She would leave the spooky shadows and go into the world of the living – even though it wasn’t Halloween!

Now if you see a skeleton at Halloween it might be scary but it’s scary in a fun way because it’s meant to be a scary night – but seeing a skeleton in the full light of day, at a different time might be scary for all the wrong reasons and this is what Sky was about to find out.

She crept along the pavement and noticed a lady coming along the pavement pushing a pram.

“Hello! I’m Sky! Can we be friends? How cool would that be!”

“SKELETON!!!” screamed the lady and ran away in fright, the pram bouncing along the pavement.

Well that was a shame. She walked around the corner and could see a school – it must be break time as there were children kicking balls and running around the playground.

She ran eagerly up to the railings.

“Hi there! I’m Sky! Can I join in? Skeletons are brilliant at football! I’m great in goal too”

“SKELETON!!!!” the children shrieked and they all ran back into the classrooms. Sky skulked away before the teacher came out to see what the fuss was about.

This happened every single time Sky tried to chat – a postman was so startled he dropped his postbag before running away, an old lady even poked her with a walking stick and she made a dog so afraid he slipped from his leash, whimpering, and went pelting across the woods, his owner in pursuit.

This was RUBBISH. She’d been so envious of the living – being able to be loud and chatty, playing and singing and making a noise all year around, but it seemed as if there was no place for her, and so sadly she trudged back into the Silent Spooky Shadows. She was expecting to be in a LOT of trouble but to her amazement she found herself surrounded by smiling faces all jostling to give her a hug.

“We missed you!” they said – and they weren’t even whispering!

“But I thought I’d be told off…?”

The skeletons told Sky how boring it had been without her – how deathly silent, and how miserable the children had been without Sky’s chattering and her stories of Halloween. Even grumpy old Ralph smiled to see her back in the realm. She felt happy but then a wave of sadness washed over her.

“I couldn’t be with the living… but how can I be here if I can’t chatter – it’s just who I am, I don’t think I can stop…”

Every skeleton looked at Ralph. He was pretty much in charge. He stroked his bony chin and looked thoughtful. Then he spoke.

“Maybe we CAN live in the Spooky Shadows without being QUITE as silent as we have been” he said. “Aside from Halloween we aren’t allowed to scare the living – that’s why we have to be so quiet – but you’re the LEAST scary skeleton in the world Sky! Just TRY not to talk too loudly or too much… and well… it should be alright!”

A cheer went up from the skeletons and Sky was happy to be home. And she did as Ralph said – trying very hard not to be heard by the living but sometimes her stories were so exciting she forgot herself – but no one told her off – they were just happy to have her back.

So if you’re ever walking through a dark wood in winter, or see the shadows from a streetlight on a misty autumn evening you may not see a skeleton – (although they’re never far away) but you might just hear Sky, chattering away and telling her stories to the skeleton children. How cool would that be?

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.