Welcome to Story Quest, a weekly podcast where we bring your stories to life!
In this episode we bring Henry’s story – The Ice Cream Dream – to life.
It’s all about a dog dreaming about Ice Cream and Henry got the idea while looking after his huskies (he has 15!).
If you have a story idea, you could be like Henry 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 Henry did. You can watch the story he suggested come to life below, plus he 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 The Ice-Cream Dream
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.
Have you ever watched a dog sleeping? Sometimes they twitch, or snarl or bark a little bit and you can tell that they are in the middle of a dream. Maybe they are chasing rabbits in the long grass of the park, or perhaps they’re busy being very brave and protecting their family from a bad dog… and THIS story is all about dogs and the things they think about. It’s also about ice-cream. So let’s begin!
Hully was a husky dog who was part of a very big family. There were no less than six children in the family which was a good thing for Hully as it meant there was always someone to play with, or to pet him and taking him for the longest walks. Hully LOVED walks. But there was something else he loved and that was SNACKS.
And, as there were so many children in the house, there were quite frequently delicious snacks in the cupboards, on the tables, in lunchboxes or in the children’s hands. He was a very well trained and smart dog (most of the time) and was polite and did not steal food but he whined
He was given treats that were made for dogs and I have to be honest I don’t know if the company who made them had ever tried them out themselves but they just weren’t as tasty as human snacks.
“Don’t give him your snacks, they’re really not good for him!” warned dad and the children didn’t want to make their beloved pet ill so unfortunately they didn’t help him out. He was allowed to have broccoli from the leftovers sometimes and THAT was nice, and the occasional chew stick but never any human snacks. Well not OFFICIALLY.
You see Hully had worked out that the best place to get secret snacks was under the chair of the youngest member of the family. She had only recently got to grips with spoons and so her aim into her mouth was a bit wobbly and as a result there were quite a lot of drops and spills on the wooden floor and if he was lucky he could lick them up before anyone noticed.
It was Sunday and after the big roast dinner dad had made for lunch the family were having ice cream for pudding. Hully lurked hopefully. Then. YES! A blob of ice cream had fallen onto the floor. The little girl peered at the blob on the floor, and then made the reasonable decision that it was too far away to reach and returned to have another go at a scoop from her bowl.
Hully saw his chance and furtively wriggled his way underneath the chair and SCHLUP! With one lick the ice cream had gone. And oh my goodness it was as if a sprinkle covered sugar bomb had gone off in his mouth – it was DELCICIOUS! The most delicious snack he’d ever tasted! He waited hopefully for another dropped blob but no more blobs came.
Later on, as he dozed by the fire after a very long walk he thought about his snack and as his eyes began to close he felt a chilly wind… and to his surprise when he opened them again he was outside in a winter wonderland – far away from his family. Snow covered the land for miles around a dense forest – the sky was sparkling blue and flurries of flakes fell from the sky.
Now you or I might not like spending too much time in a wintery cold place but Huskies usually LOVE the cold. Their coats are so thick that they can find our homes to be too warm, and of course they are well known for pulling sleds for miles in snowy places. So this was all GREAT!
Hully scampered and jumped around the wintery scene rolling in the snow in delight and barking at the snowflakes. Where on earth had he ended up?
Just as he thought this another husky approached him and gave him a welcoming sniff.
“Welcome to Frozopia!” he said. Well he didn’t say it because dogs can’t speak like we do, it was a special dog language that we wouldn’t understand if we heard it. We would just hear a lot of barks.
“Frozopia?” said Hully? “Where’s that?”
“Why here of course! Where else could it be? Some dogs call it Husky Heaven. A frozen paradise – with a surprise!” said the dog who said his name was Slush.
“I’m already surprised!” barked Hully. “What do YOU mean by surprise?”
“The husky looked around to see if anyone else was listening but there was nothing but the silence of the sparkling snow.
“You can eat everything here!”
Hully cocked his head. He was an extremely smart dog as I have said, well, most of the time but this was baffling. He cocked his head to the other side to see if that might help but it did not.
“OK – so example. The trees are broccoli – go on take a bite!” Slush said – looking up at a nearby tree with overhanging branches.
Hully jumped up and grabbed at a clump of greenery which to his total and utter amazement DID indeed out to be broccoli. He loved broccoli!
“And the branches – and all the sticks on the ground – well they are all CHEW sticks – go on take a chomp!”
He didn’t need telling twice. He chose a nice thick stick and yep! It was a delicious meaty snack!
“Amazing! Brilliant! It’s one of my favourite things to eat. Well, if I’m not allowed to have HUMAN snacks!”
“Oh if it’s snacks you want – try a bite of the snow!”
Hullly didn’t need to be told twice. He stuck his snout into the snow and took a bite. It was cold… delicious…. sweet… ICE CREAM!
“All the snow is ICE CREAM? I am the happiest dog EVER. I LOVE ice cream!”
He jumped and barked in delight and took more bites out of the snow. Slush laughed and said he’d see Hully a bit later – he was going to find the pack to tell them all about their visitor.
Now I don’t know how long Hully was in Frozopia but what I DO know is that during the time he was there he ate a LOT of ice cream. I mean TONS. Well if you were surrounded by ice cream and didn’t just have to have one portion in a little bowl, well, YOU might end up eating TONS of ice cream too. It sounds kind of nice, right. What am I talking about. It sounds AMAZING.
Well it was and it wasn’t for Hully. You see something strange began to happen. The more ice cream he ate – the bigger he got – not just “I’ve eaten too many cakes” bigger but longer and taller, and well, yes his tum was getting a little tubby. And bigger and bigger and longer and taller and wider and higher until he could see the tops of the trees and all across the land. He was a GIANT husky now.
Slush reappeared one day and barked in alarm.
“What on earth happened to you! You’ve turned into a Husky GIANT!”
“Yeah I have, haven’t I? And to be honest I’m beginning to feel bit sick.”
“I’m not surprised! Look around you , there’s no snow for a mile around, you’ve eaten it all!”
Hully burped and the burp was like a thunderclap, given his tremendous heft. He towered over the trees now, and tried very hard not to tread on Slush who was scampering around his feet in quite the panic.
“It must be because you’re not from Frozopia – perhaps things affect visitors more”
“What you mean it makes them into one hundred foot high giant versions of themselves? Yeah I think you might be right pal” said Hully who was a little distressed.
“Well I’m really sorry!” barked Slush. “If I’d had known I’d have warned you! Perhaps you would be better off in your own world?”
Hully agreed and felt himself becoming more and more tired, he slowly turned on the spot and crashed down onto the ground to nestle curled up in his own tail, and the shockwave sent Slush flying into the air. Fortunately he was OK. He was quite well padded with his thick coat.
And then the snow seemed to rise up and the chilly winds whipped around – he could hear Slush barking a farewell bark…. and then warmth spread over Hully’s back and he awoke to find himself back in front of the fire after the family lunch. It had all been a dream.
As dreams go it was one that he would remember for a long time and he longed to taste the delicious ice cream of Frozopia again. But even when a blob of the stuff appeared under the chair for real, during a busy family meal he would think twice before secretly scoffing it. After all it had seemed that ice cream really WASN’T good for him, and like I say he WAS quite a smart dog. Well, SOME of the time!
And that’s the story of Hully’s Ice Cream Dream!
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.
