Crack A Story

A red squirrel—

A stone squirrel—

A stone squirrel of red carnelian— runs up and down a little nut-tree, cracking nuts.

For every nut she cracks, she must tell a story…

So many nuts to choose. Nuts with shells of bottle glass— shells of china—shells of gold and silver, shells of paper, shells of flint…

When the poison nut is cracked, what story will be released? What story is held in the steel nut or the bronze?

Stories of love…Stories of hatred... Tales of adventure, danger and triumph…

Which nut will you crack?

Which story will you hear?

Susan Price is the author of the best-selling The Wolf's Footprint and the Carnegie medal winning writer of The Ghost Drum. She has loved folk-tale and myth all her life. Crack A Story is one in a series of folk-tale retellings. The others are: The Story Collector, Head and Tales, The Carpenter and Other Stories and Telling Tales.