Jellybean’s Nighttime Adventure

Jellybean is a young wombat living in a rainforest. When the humans living nearby go away, she decides to sneak into the human family's vegetable garden at night to eat, after a drought has left little food. On the first night, Jellybean tunnels under the fence and gorges on the delicious greens. After sleeping for two days, Jellybean returns and accidentally knocks down the fence. She then discovers some strange plants that the humans had tried to protect behind a wall of corn. After nibbling on the leaves, Jellybean begins to feel strange effects and lies down, staring at the stars, before falling asleep. In the morning, the humans return from a trip and discover Jellybean asleep in their trampled vegetable patch. The little girl tries to approach Jellybean but her mother stops her, realizing the wombat is "woozy" from eating the strange plant. Jellybean stumbles back to her burrow, embarrassed. After that, the humans leave vegetable scraps out for Jellybean until the rain returns and new grass grows. Jellybean learns her lesson and never tries to eat the human's magic plant again.

Target age: 5-8 year olds

Mia the Cicada

The story follows Mia, an adventurous cicada who has just emerged from her underground burrow. She stretches her new wings and legs and is excited to start her above-ground adventures. Mia's cousin Jeremy emerges impatiently from his burrow before climbing a tree, putting himself at risk. When birds start circling, Jeremy sings loudly to scare them away, saving himself and impressing Mia who is a little jealous of him.

Mia and Jeremy explore together, discovering what they see as a strange black path where fast-moving red creatures zoom by. Two cousins are killed by a vehicle when they don't heed Mia's warning. Later, Mia and Jeremy watch the vehicles stop and creatures emerge, realizing the vehicles are like cocoons.

Curious Mia explores the empty vehicle but gets stuck when the humans return. As the car drives off, Mia clings to the windshield wiper. A child sees Mia and asks her mom to stop the car and let the "beautiful insect" go free. Mia jumps off once the car slows. Exhausted, Mia can't fly home but Jeremy finds her and protects her from predators. At dusk, Mia regains her strength and they fly home, where Mia recounts her adventure. She is sure to tell everyone how Jeremy rescued her, sharing the glory. She tells Jeremy he is her favorite cousin and he agrees.

Target age: 6-8 year olds