Gloria's Porridge

Gloria's Porridge is a picture book for children aged 4 to 9, a fun story from Africa about a cat who eats all of Gloria's porridge, the chaos that follows, and a wise fox who helps everyone put things right.

Gloria is making porridge, and she will not give her cat any: she is hungry and wants to eat it all herself. While she runs to the stream for water, the cat means only to lick the spoon, but the porridge is so good that he eats the lot. When Gloria shakes her spoon at him, he flees onto the back of a sleeping donkey. The donkey jumps about and shakes the tree, the bees fly out of their hive in a panic, and the frightened hen scatters her drying corn everywhere.

Then the fox passes by and asks what is going on. As each animal explains, the chain of events runs back to the start, and the cat says he was hungry after chasing mice for Gloria. The cat says sorry for eating the porridge, and Gloria says sorry too, for being too greedy to share. She makes a new pot, shares it with her cat, and everyone falls asleep under the tree.

The story shows children, with humour and a lot of noise, how one greedy act can spread trouble to others, and how listening to each other and saying sorry, on both sides, can put things right. It is written by Elizabeth Laird and illustrated by Toby Newsome. It takes about five minutes to read and is music-free.

Gloria was making porridge, and her cat sat watching her. "I like porridge," he said, winding his tail round her legs.

"Well, I'm sorry, cat, but you can't have any," said Gloria. "I'm hungry, and I'm going to eat it all myself."

The porridge took a long time to cook. When Gloria tasted it, it was too sticky and needed more water. So she took a pot and ran down to the stream to fetch some.

While she was gone, the cat crept up to the porridge pot. It looked very good. "I'll just lick a bit of the spoon," he thought. But the porridge tasted so delicious that he ate some more, and then a bit more, and a bit more after that, until it was all gone.

Soon Gloria came back with her pot of water. "Oh, what's this?" she cried. "My porridge pot is empty!" The cat was washing the porridge off his whiskers. He began to explain, but Gloria would not listen. She frowned and shook her spoon at him.

The cat was scared of Gloria's spoon. He ran out of the house and jumped onto the back of the donkey, who was having a nap under a tree. "Oh, you're tickling me!" laughed the donkey, and he frisked about all over the place, shaking the tree until its leaves rattled.

Up in the tree, the bees were busy making honey in their hive. "Why is everything shaking?" they hummed and buzzed. They flew down out of the tree and zoomed about in a panic.

Below them, the hen was laying out her corn on a mat to dry. "Here come the bees!" she clucked. "What if they sting me?" She flapped her wings in fright and scattered her corn everywhere.

What a fuss it was. Gloria was shouting, the cat was meowing, the donkey was braying, the bees were buzzing and the hen was clucking.

Just then, the fox passed by. "What's going on here?" she asked. Everyone stopped and looked at each other.

The hen said the bees had frightened her, and now she had to pick up all her corn again. The bees said they had not meant to scare her, but the tree had started shaking. The donkey said he had shaken the tree because the cat had tickled him. The cat said he had been running away from Gloria, because she had shaken her spoon at him.

"Yes, because you ate up all my porridge," said Gloria.

"But I'd been chasing mice for you," said the cat, "so I was hungry too."

"Never mind, cat," said the fox. "What are you going to do now?"

The hen said she would go back to picking up her corn. The bees had their honey to look after, and the donkey needed another nap. "I'll say sorry to Gloria," said the cat, "because I ate up all the porridge."

"And I'll say sorry too," said Gloria, "because I was too greedy to give any to my cat."

So off went the hen, the bees and the donkey, and Gloria made another pot of porridge. When it was cooked, she gave some to the cat, who was not quite full. After they had eaten it all up, they sat down under the tree for a rest. The cat climbed onto Gloria's knee, and she stroked and stroked him.

Everyone fell fast asleep, except the fox, who just smiled her clever smile and went on her way.