Sarah Alexander - Small Billy and the Midnight Star CBeebies Bedtime Stories

.

CBeebies Bedtime Story.

Yes, that star is shining very brightly, isn't it, Teddy?

Hello. I'm Sarah.

We just love to look at the stars in the night sky, but not as much

as our friend Small Billy, who you'll meet in tonight's story.

Billy is a bilby, which is a little animal that lives on Australia.

It looks a bit like a rabbit and likes to go out at night.

The story is called Small Billy And The Midnight Star

and is by Nette Hilton and Bruce Whatley.

Every night, Small Billy, the smallest bilby

in the bilby patch, sat under the midnight sky to watch the stars.

He loved them all.

Every single one of them.

But the one he loved best was the smallest one,

which hung close to the edge of the sky.

Every night, he reached up to her and she shone down on him.

But she was so very far away.

"Sometimes, I'm scared that you won't be there," Small Billy said,

after a long hard bilby busy day.

He stretched his arms out wide and called, "I love you, star!

"I love you best of all."

The star shone down an especially bright shine.

"See?" said the oldest bilby in the bilby patch, "She loves you too."

And for a little while, from the time it took the moon to wander from the

low side of the hill to the high side of the hill, Small Billy felt better.

But when a passing cloud hid the star from view,

he grew frightened all over again.

"What if she goes away and forgets me and never ever comes back?" he said.

"She'll be there," said the oldest bilby, "she always comes back."

The star hurried out from behind the cloud and beamed down on him,

splashing his whiskers with starlight and brushing his ears with silver.

But Small Billy could only think of the midnight sky without his star.

"I need to give her something," he said,

"something to make her remember me forever and always."

"I know," he called out to the star, "I'll give you a kiss."

He stretched up on tiptoe and tried to kiss her,

but he just wasn't tall enough.

"Was that a kiss?" asked one of the little bilbies.

"Not yet," said Small Billy, "but it soon will be."

He stood on a rock on the top of the hill and opened his arms wide

and reached up high, but still he couldn't reach.

So he set off to fetch another rock and then another.

The star shone down, leading Small Billy from one star-shiny rock

to the next. "What are you doing?" asked the oldest bilby.

"We know," said the little ones, "he's building a kiss."

"You can't build a kiss," said the oldest bilby with a smile.

"He can, he can," sang the little ones, "and so can we."

One by one, two by two, three by three,

the little bilbies joined in,

fetching and carrying, lifting and pushing

each star-shiny rock all the way to the top of the hill.

And high above them, the star shone down from the fading night sky.

Little by little, rock by rock, the kiss grew higher and bigger

and rounder and fatter until it almost, almost, touched the sky.

"Are we there yet?" asked the little bilbies, "Are we? Are we?"

"Almost," said Small Billy.

"That's not a kiss," said the oldest bilby in the bilby patch.

"No," said Small Billy as he climbed from

one star-dappled rock to another,

"this is a kiss."

And opening his arms wide enough to hold the whole heavens, he reached

up on tiptoe and kissed the smallest star at the edge of the dawn sky.

All the bilbies in the bilby patch caught their breath -

not a whisker or a nose twitched.

The little star grew bigger and bigger and brighter

and brighter until the desert glowed with the colours of the morning sky

and the rocks on the top of the hill blazed gold and purple and crimson.

She sparkled on the pools in the river bed

until they flashed like glass beads.

She dusted the tops of the spinifex with copper.

She danced above the little bilbies in the bilby patch

and tickled their tummies with starshine.

And then she shone her deepest, clearest light,

right onto the smallest bilby of all.

"Look at that," said the little bilbies.

"She won't forget you now," whispered the oldest bilby in the bilby patch.

"And I'll remember her," said Small Billy, "forever and always."

I hope you enjoyed that story, which was called

Small Billy And The Midnight Star.

Why don't we blow our stars a kiss good night before we go to bed?

Ready, Teddy? One, two, three.

SARAH BLOWS A KISS

I'll see you soon for another bedtime story.

Sleep tight.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd