One-Offs - Big Sister’s Clothes

One-Offs - Big Sister’s Clothes book summary

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This is a story about two sisters:

The big sister was called Debbie. And the little sister was called Daisy. Debbie was seven. And Daisy was four. And most of the time, they were great friends. Even when Daisy broke some of Debbie’s toys, she didn’t mind too much. And most of the time Daisy didn’t mind being the little sister. But just occasionally, it made her very cross indeed. And this story is about one of those days.

A modern story specially written for Storynory. 

Read by Natasha. Duration 11.30 minutes.

It started out a pretty ordinary sort of day. It was the holidays, and there was no school, so as soon as the two girls got up, they started playing. They played with their dolls in their room. They went down to breakfast, and played with their eggy soldiers. And then they went out to the garden and played on the swings.

And Daisy decided it was shaping up into quite a nice day. Because the thing she really like best of all was playing with her big sister.

But then it all started to go very wrong.

“Come on Debbie,” said their Mum. “It’s time to go to Girl Guides.”

“Me come too, me come too,” said Daisy, jumping up and down.

“Don’t be silly,” said Mum. “You have to be seven to join the girl guides.”

Daisy felt a bit cross about that.

Still, it would be fun when Debbie got home.

But when Debbie did get home, she didn’t have any time to play.

She had to work on her school project.

“Can I work on my school project?” asked Daisy.

But Mum just laughed. “Don’t be silly,” she said. “You don’t even go to proper school yet.”

And Daisy felt a bit cross about that as well.

After that, it was time for bed.

“I’ll take you up,” said Dad, picking Daisy up off the sofa.

“What about Debbie?” said Daisy.

“She can stay up later,” said Dad. “Because she’s the big sister.”

And that, thought Daisy, is that. Now I’m really cross.

Really, really.

“It’s not fair,” she wailed. “When am I going to be the big sister?”

Dad paused for a second. “Well, never,” he said. “Debbie’s always going to be the big sister, and your always going to be the little sister.”

“But, but, but….”

But Daisy was so cross she couldn’t even finish the sentence.

“That’s just the way it is,” said Dad.

“Night, titch…” said Debbie.

And after that, Daisy sat in bed. And she felt so, so, so angry, she felt she might explode. Never be the big sister, she thought to herself.

“It’s just not fair.”

She was just about to close her eyes when suddenly she saw a fairy at the bottom of her bed.

“Who are you?” she asked.

The fairy skipped across to Daisy’s pillow. “I’m the age fairy,” she said.

“The age fairy?” asked Daisy. “What’s that?”

And then it dawned on her.

“Can you…can you help little sisters who really want to be big sisters?”

The fairy nodded. “But only if they really want to.”

“I really do,” said Daisy. “Really, really.”

And so the fairy skipped into the wardrobe. She waved her wand, and then she pointed to a red dress. “I’ve turned that into Big Sisters Clothes,” she said. “Just put on that dress, and suddenly you’ll be the big sister, and Debbie will be the little sister.”

And then the fairy vanished. And as she closed her eyes and went to sleep, Daisy was wondering what it might be like be the big sister for a change. She was a bit frightened, but also excited…because big sisters seemed to have so much fun.

The next morning Daisy woke up early. She was really excited about being the big sister, so she snuck into the wardrobe and put on the red dress.

And suddenly she was the big sister. “Oh-my-gosh,” she said. “This is so amazing.”

She whirled around a little bit. And then she saw that Debbie was waking up.

And Debbie was the little sister.

“I want to play with you, said Debbie, holding out her favourite Barbie doll.

But just now Daisy wasn’t sure she wanted to play with Debbie. She was enjoying being seven a bit too much.

“In a minute,” she said.

“I want to play with you NOW!” shrieked Debbie.

And then Dad walked into the room, carrying a cup of coffee and a newspaper. And Debbie was crying and crying about how she wanted to play with her big sister, and stamping her foot, and going bright red in the face.

“We, er, just play with her for a bit will you Daisy,” said Dad.

But Daisy didn’t really want to. “But, er, Dad…”

“Great, thanks,” said Dad, walking out of the room.

And so Daisy had to play with her little sister just to cheer her up.

“Daisy, Daisy, where are you?” shouted Mum, running into the room.

“What?” said a startled Daisy.

“You haven’t taken the dog out,” shouted Mum. “She’s barking and barking.”

So Daisy put on her coat, and walked outside with the dog. But the dog was quite strong and was pulling her this way and that, and she was feeling quite cold.

So she was relieved when she got inside, because she was really hungry now and needed some hot breakfast.

“Sorry,” said Debbie, when Daisy arrived at the table. “I thought you’d gone out so I ate your eggy soldiers.”

“Wha, wha, whaaaaaaat!” screamed Daisy.

“Now don’t argue girls,” said Mum.

“But she ate my breakfast,” shouted Daisy.

“Well, she’s only small, she can’t help it,” said Mum. “I’ll get you some museli instead.”

“I don’t like muesli,” grumped Daisy.

“Well, you have to eat it because you’re a big girl, and you have to eat healthy foods.”

“I want a chocolate milk shake,” said Daisy.

“Don’t be silly,” said Mum.

And so Daisy had two spoonfuls of muesli but she really couldn’t eat any more than that because it was yucky.

And when she had finished, she thought she would go out on the swings to play.

“Where are you going, young lady,” said Mum.

“To the swings,” said Daisy.

“Not until you’ve tidied your room,” said Mum.

“Done what?”

Daisy was shocked and horrified. She never tied her room….not ever.

“Go on, quick,” said Mum.

So Daisy trudged upstairs. And on the bedroom floor, Debbie had pulled lots of toys out of their boxes and spread them everywhere.

And now Daisy had to pick them all up.

“It’s so unfair,” she said out loud.

Finally she was finished, and she went back downstairs.

Maybe at last she could go out to the garden and play.

“What about your project?” said Dad.

“My…my….”

But Daisy was speechless.

“It has to be finished by today,” said Dad.

“Just a minute,” said Daisy firmly.

And she went back upstairs to her bedroom.

She went to the wardrobe.

And she took off the red dress.

And put on a little girls dress instead.

So that suddenly she was the little sister again.

“I want to play with you,” she said to Debbie, when she went back downstairs again.

“Oh, I’m busy now,” said Debbie.

“That’s okay,” said Daisy sweetly. “I’ll go and play in the garden by myself.”

She played by herself for the rest of the morning. And decided that being the little sister wasn’t so bad after all.

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