Speaker 1: Welcome to Snuggle Cozy Stories for Kids, a production of
Speaker 1: Slumber Studios. To listen ad free, check out our premium feed.
Speaker 2: Good Evening, I'm Nadine.
Speaker 3: Tonight's bedtime story is about a toy panda named Bam Bam.
Speaker 3: The little boy who owns Bam Bam loves him very much,
Speaker 3: but accidentally drops him one day, and Bam Bam goes
Speaker 3: on a very big adventure before finding his way home.
Speaker 3: Before we begin, let's take a moment to become really,
Speaker 3: really relaxed so that we can be ready to drop
Speaker 3: off to sleep whenever the time is right. So first,
Speaker 3: let's wriggle down into our beds and find the softest,
Speaker 3: most comfortable position for resting. Then take a deep breath in,
Speaker 3: and when you breathe out, see if you can make
Speaker 3: a soft sighing sound.
Speaker 2: Ah. Very good.
Speaker 3: Now close your eyes and listen to the sound of
Speaker 3: my voice as I tell you about the little lost
Speaker 3: panda named.
Speaker 2: Bam Bam and how he found his way back home.
Speaker 3: In the southwest of England, there is a county called
Speaker 3: and it happens to be a lovely place. On its
Speaker 3: top and bottom there is the sea, and in its
Speaker 3: middle there are national parks that are full of trees
Speaker 3: and hills and strange, beautiful boulders that look like they've
Speaker 3: been dropped there by giants. Nestled in the middle of
Speaker 3: Devon there is a very pretty, very old, very tiny town.
Speaker 3: Its high street is lined with cottages of all shapes
Speaker 3: and sizes.
Speaker 2: They are all a different color.
Speaker 3: Some are painted white, some are still the color of
Speaker 3: the stones they're made of. Some are yellow, some are pink,
Speaker 3: some are blue, and some are very pale green. Some
Speaker 3: have been made into shops and cafes, and others are
Speaker 3: simply where people like.
Speaker 2: To live a little way out of town.
Speaker 3: There are more cottages, and in one of these cottages
Speaker 3: lives a family. There is a mum and a dad
Speaker 3: and a little boy named Henry. Henry is only nine
Speaker 3: months old and he is full of curiosity. In fact,
Speaker 3: he is so full of curiosity that it's sometimes hard
Speaker 3: to get him to go to sleep.
Speaker 2: When that happens, Mum.
Speaker 3: And Dad take him out in his pram with his
Speaker 3: favorite cuddly toy panther. The panther's name is Bampam. Together
Speaker 3: they walk around the town and by the time they
Speaker 3: come home, Henry is sleeping. Bam Bam is a very
Speaker 3: loved cuddly toy. He used to belong to Henry's mother.
Speaker 3: His burries old bobbly from all the cuddles he's had.
Speaker 2: His nose is wrinkled and worn.
Speaker 3: His panda paws are soft and silky, and one of
Speaker 3: his ears is bent in the wrong direction. His favorite
Speaker 3: thing to do is help people get to sleep and
Speaker 3: be there when they need comforting. One day, Mum, Dad, Henry,
Speaker 3: and Bam Bam were walking around the town. It was
Speaker 3: in the afternoon and Mum and Dad were rushing from
Speaker 3: shop to shop. Henry hadn't slept all day, and he
Speaker 3: was feeling very energetic.
Speaker 2: He held Bambam's.
Speaker 3: Paws in his chubby little hand and waved him around.
Speaker 3: Mum was peering at her shopping list, and Dad was
Speaker 3: trying to tell her about a problem he had at work.
Speaker 3: The little family was so busy that no one noticed
Speaker 3: when Henry dropped Bam Bam from the pram.
Speaker 2: But Bam Bam noticed.
Speaker 3: He felt himself falling through the air, and he felt
Speaker 3: himself bounce on the smooth, cold ground a couple of
Speaker 3: times before he stopped. Still on his side, he lay there,
Speaker 3: watching the little family hurrying away, one of Henry's chubby
Speaker 3: little arms still waving from the pram Curiously.
Speaker 2: Bam Bam wasn't afraid at all.
Speaker 3: He felt a little funny to be away from Henry
Speaker 3: and the rest of the family, but he was a
Speaker 3: very optimistic panda. So as he lay there on the ground,
Speaker 3: he thought to himself that perhaps this was going to
Speaker 3: be a good adventure, or perhaps he would learn something
Speaker 3: that he never would have learned otherwise. So he decided
Speaker 3: to just listen to the sounds of the birds singing
Speaker 3: in the trees that were rustling in the cool breeze.
Speaker 3: He could also feel the cool breeze rustling his fur.
Speaker 3: How peaceful, he thought. Then he heard another sound. It
Speaker 3: was the sound of slow, deliberate footsteps behind him.
Speaker 2: They were plodding nearer and nearer.
Speaker 3: Because Bam Bam couldn't turn around, he just lay there,
Speaker 3: and eventually the footsteps stopped right beside him. Then Bam
Speaker 3: Bam felt big, rough hands closing around his waist. He
Speaker 3: realized that the hands were also very gentle. They lifted
Speaker 3: Bam Bam up very carefully and turned him around.
Speaker 2: Bam Bam found.
Speaker 3: That he was looking at the kind, wrinkled face of
Speaker 3: the village grengrocer. The green grocer smiled. It was a
Speaker 3: smile that crinkled his already lined face and made his
Speaker 3: silvery mustache wriggle. He had kind green eyes, a color
Speaker 3: of moss, and they were flecked with little spots of brown.
Speaker 3: In his low, grumbling voice, he told Bam Bam not
Speaker 3: to worry, and that he would put him in the
Speaker 3: shop so that whoever lost him would be able to
Speaker 3: find him again. Bam Bam felt very good about that.
Speaker 3: Then the greengrocer carried Bam Bam along the road, passed
Speaker 3: the blue and purple cottages with flowery front gardens, and
Speaker 3: to the high street. They passed the cafe with the
Speaker 3: yellow door that smelt like fresh coffee and toasted bread.
Speaker 3: Bam Bam sniffed gratefully. Then they passed the floorist and
Speaker 3: Bam Bam looked happily at the buckets of brightly colored
Speaker 3: flowers outside it. And before long they reached the green
Speaker 3: grocer's shop. Bam Bam looked at the wide, shiny glass
Speaker 3: windows and the glossy, dark green front door. The green
Speaker 3: grocer unlocked the door and stepped through. In the middle
Speaker 3: of the shop was a large, low, rectangular platform. On
Speaker 3: top of it lay several square baskets that were full
Speaker 3: of different kinds of vegetables. There were carrots, cauliflowers, leaks
Speaker 3: and cabbages, onions, green beans, corgettes, aubergine and potatoes. All
Speaker 3: around the side of the shop, against the wall were
Speaker 3: more counters with baskets of vegetables and fruit. The shop
Speaker 3: smelt earthy and fresh. Bam Bam felt good to be there.
Speaker 3: The greengrocer turned around and moved towards the shop window.
Speaker 3: There was another low platform by the window light, a
Speaker 3: window sill. Three green pumpkins sat here, and a small
Speaker 3: basket of knobby fresh ginger. The greengrocer pushed the ginger
Speaker 3: aside and sat Bambam in its place, so that he
Speaker 3: could see out of the sparkling, clean window. Bambam was
Speaker 3: very happy to sit at the window. He had never
Speaker 3: had the chance to see the town like this before.
Speaker 3: He saw the smooth road the cars drove along, and
Speaker 3: the higgledy piggledy cobblestone path that everyone walked on. He
Speaker 3: saw the clock tower of the small church in the distance,
Speaker 3: and the green grass of the hills of Devon. This
Speaker 3: is wonderful, he thought, so he sat there very happily.
Speaker 3: Bam Bam watched the day pass. Different people came into
Speaker 3: the shop to buy fruit and vegetables. There were mothers
Speaker 3: and fathers, girls and boys, people with blonde hair, people
Speaker 3: with brown hair, and even people with gray hair. Bam
Speaker 3: Bam listened to them telling the green grave about their.
Speaker 2: Day of what was happening on the weekend.
Speaker 3: Some of them even asked about Bam Bam, and the
Speaker 3: green grocer always replied in his slow voice that someone
Speaker 3: who loved him would come to pick him up sooner
Speaker 3: or later. Bam Bam liked how the green grocer spoke.
Speaker 3: It made him feel safe and calm. Even though the
Speaker 3: green grocer had been at his shop nearly all his life,
Speaker 3: Bam Bam felt he was full of curiosity, energy and adventure.
Speaker 3: Bam Bam thought to himself that was a good way
Speaker 3: to be. Eventually, it came to the end of the day.
Speaker 3: The green grocer tidied his shop, turned the open sign
Speaker 3: around so that it said closed, and locked the door.
Speaker 3: He turned off all the lights and patted Bam Bam
Speaker 3: on the head before he climbed upstairs to his little
Speaker 3: flat above the shop. Bam Bam kept looking out the window.
Speaker 3: The sky was changing now, the sun was sinking, and
Speaker 3: it was turning everything pink and orange. The little fluffy
Speaker 3: clouds seemed to light up the color of cotton candy. Slowly,
Speaker 3: the pink and orange faded, and the sky became dark
Speaker 3: and dusky. At the same time, the street lights of
Speaker 3: the little town burst into life, flooding the road with
Speaker 3: a warm yellow glow. Bam Bam wondered what would happen next.
Speaker 3: He had never been away from his family at night before,
Speaker 3: and he had never sat at a window at night.
Speaker 3: Maybe nothing at all would happen, after all, everyone had
Speaker 3: gone home to their families and their dinners and later
Speaker 3: to bed.
Speaker 2: Surely Bam Bam would be bored, but he Wasn't.
Speaker 3: You see at night, when the town is quiet, all
Speaker 3: the animals come out.
Speaker 2: First.
Speaker 3: It was the cat from the shop next door, White
Speaker 3: and fluffy. It sneaked out the front door to play
Speaker 3: with a fallen leaf in the road, spotted a mouse
Speaker 3: and darted off after it. Then there were the foxes,
Speaker 3: three of them. They walked elegantly through the town sniffing
Speaker 3: at everything and chasing each other's tails. But it didn't
Speaker 3: stop there. Bam Bam saw more mice and bats and
Speaker 3: even a dog. That night, when the sun peeped over
Speaker 3: the horizon and signaled the start of a new day,
Speaker 3: Bam Bam saw birds soaring in the sky and perching
Speaker 3: on the roofs of the cottages, where they cleaned their
Speaker 3: feathers and sang their beautiful songs. Bam Bam was very
Speaker 3: pleased with his adventure. He had seen so much of
Speaker 3: the little town that he had never seen before, but
Speaker 3: he also missed Henry.
Speaker 2: Still.
Speaker 3: Bamburam was an optimist, so he sat patiently at the
Speaker 3: window and felt happy when the first customers of the
Speaker 3: day arrived for their vegetables. It was nearly midday when
Speaker 3: bampab spotted something he knew very well. It was Henry's pram.
Speaker 3: He saw Mom pushing it carefully along. She was looking
Speaker 3: at the ground and searching up and down and all
Speaker 3: around the street, and Bambam knew that she must be
Speaker 3: looking for him. He knew he couldn't speak or move
Speaker 3: to make her notice him, but he did have a
Speaker 3: special panda heart. He thought as hard as he could
Speaker 3: about Henry.
Speaker 2: And Mum and all the cuddles they had shared.
Speaker 3: His soft panda heart glowed inside him, and he imagined
Speaker 3: his glow reaching out to touch this family he loved.
Speaker 3: It must have worked, because Henry gurgled and pointed his
Speaker 3: chubby finger right at the green grocer's window.
Speaker 2: Mum turned to look, and.
Speaker 3: Her eyes rested on Bam Bam. Her face broke into
Speaker 3: a smile, and she hurried towards him. She burst into
Speaker 3: the shop and told the greenngrocer that.
Speaker 2: Bam Bam was theirs.
Speaker 3: The green grocer lifted Bambam up off the shelf and
Speaker 3: sat him gently in Henry's arms. Bam Bam felt the soft,
Speaker 3: warm touch of Henry's hands. He felt the warm glow
Speaker 3: of Henry's heart. Mum said many thanks to the greengrocer
Speaker 3: for keeping Bam Bam safe. They laughed and they talked
Speaker 3: a little, and then she pushed Henry and Bam Bam
Speaker 3: back out into town. Bam Bam felt so good to
Speaker 3: be back where he belonged. He had enjoyed his adventure,
Speaker 3: but nothing felt the same as being with the people
Speaker 3: he loved. He lay in Henry's arms and felt the soft,
Speaker 3: tickling feeling of breath on his fur. He sighed a big,
Speaker 3: cappy sigh. Henry's breathing began to slow down. Bam Bam
Speaker 3: could sense his eyes closing and his little limbs getting
Speaker 3: soft and heavy.
Speaker 2: Mum pushed the prayer together.
Speaker 3: They robbed from side to side in each other's arms,
Speaker 3: and slowly, softly and gently, Henry and Bam Bam slipped
Speaker 3: into a beautiful, peaceful sleep. Usus Nash