Maureen Lipman - Never Tickle a Tiger CBeebies Bedtime Stories

And in tonight's story, we're finding out about a little girl

Ollie. Ollie. Great news! I've got the most wonderful story for you.

Oh! I'm forgetting. You should never excite an elephant.

Hello. I'm Maureen.

And in tonight's story, we're finding out about a little girl

who goes to the zoo and ignores all sorts of rules, like that.

It's called Never Tickle A Tiger.

And it's written by Pamela Butchart, with pictures by Marc Boutavant.

Izzy was forever shuffling and jiggling,

squirming and twitching, wriggling and fiddling.

MEOW

She just couldn't help it.

It happened at home.

"Izzy, stop playing with your peas," said Dad.

At school. "Izzy, stop painting your pigtails," said Miss Potterhurst

At Grandma's. "Izzy, stop knotting my knitting," said Grandma.

And as for parties, well.

"Izzy! Stop jiggling the jelly!" cried everyone.

No matter how hard she tried, Izzy just couldn't keep still.

"It's no good," she sighed. "I'm just a jiggler, and that's that."

So when, one day, Class 4B went on a trip to the zoo,

it came as no surprise to anyone that Izzy was wriggling, jiggling,

shuffling and fiddling, as soon as they walked through the zoo gates.

"Erm, stop stroking the snakes!"

called Miss Potterhurst.

"Don't excite the elephants!"

"Forget about bothering the bears!"

IZZY GIGGLES

BEAR SNORES

"Don't mess with the monkeys!"

MONKEYS CHATTER

"Izzy, Izzy! Stop tapping the tortoises."

IZZY TAPS TORTOISE

"And oh! Stop poking the peacock!"

PEACOCK CAWS

"And never, EVER, tickle a tiger!"

At lunchtime, Izzy sat shuffling her sandwiches.

"It's so unfair," she said. "I'm never allowed to do anything.

"And what's wrong with fidgeting, anyway?"

Little did Izzy know that she was about to find out.

Whilst all the other children finished their lunch,

Izzy fidgeted her feet...

..bounced across the bench, shimmied onto the floor,

wriggled under a bush, skipped past the aviary

and danced along a path all the way to the tiger enclosure.

"I wonder!" thought Izzy.

And with that, she reached out a feather

and tick-tick-tick-tick-tickled the tiger.

"RAAAAAA-AAAARGH!"

roared the tiger.

He threw his furry paws in the air, which broke a branch,

which startled a snake,

who bit a bear,

who walloped a walrus,

who splashed a sloth,

who punched a penguin,

who kicked a croc,

who snapped at a skunk,

who ponged a panda,

who rammed a rhino,

who hit the hippo,

who wibbled and wobbled and SPLASH!

The lion roared, the parrot squawked, the snakes hissed

and the elephants trumpeted loudly.

Miss Potterhurst squealed, the children giggled

and the zookeeper came running.

It was pandemonium.

And it was all Izzy's fault.

But then...

"STO-O-P!"

shouted Izzy,

at the top of her voice.

"Stop squealing, squawking, splashing and flapping.

"Enough running, ramming and bumping.

"No jiggling, wriggling, shuffling and squirming."

And guess what...?

It worked.

The zookeeper stopped running.

Miss Potterhurst stopped squealing.

The children stopped giggling.

And all the animals went back to their homes.

And as for Izzy...

"You were right all along, Miss Potterhurst," she said.

"I'll never, ever tickle a tiger again."

"But...

"what can be the harm of prodding a polar bear?"

She thought.

I hope you enjoyed that story as much as I did.

And I hope you did too! Hmm?

Oh, Tiger, did you brush your teeth?

OK. Elephant, did you wash behind your ears? Ooh, yes.

Goodbye, we're all ready for bed!

And I hope you are too! Sleep well.

Night-night. Night-night.

SNORING