Gloria's Porridge

Gloria's Porridge is an audiobook for young children about Gloria, whose cat eats all her porridge and sets off a chain of chaos, and a wise fox who helps everyone put things right. It is a fun story from Africa.

Gloria is making porridge, and her cat would like some. "I'm sorry, cat, but you can't have any," says Gloria. "I'm going to eat it all myself." The porridge is too sticky, so she runs down to the stream for more water. While she is gone, the cat licks the spoon, then eats a bit more, and a bit more, until the pot is empty. Gloria comes back, frowns and shakes her spoon at him.

The frightened cat runs out and jumps onto the back of the donkey, who is napping under a tree. The tickling makes the donkey leap about and shake the tree, so the bees fly out of their hive in a panic, and the bees scare the hen, who flaps her wings and scatters her drying corn everywhere. Everyone is shouting, meowing, braying, buzzing and clucking.

Then the fox passes by and asks what is going on. One by one, each of them explains, back to the cat, who says he was hungry from chasing mice for Gloria. The fox asks what they will do now. The cat says sorry for eating all the porridge, and Gloria says sorry too, for being too greedy to share. She makes another pot and shares it with the cat, and they all fall asleep under the tree.

It is written by Elizabeth Laird, illustrated by Toby Newsome and narrated by Paul Panting. It takes about five minutes and is music-free.