The Christmas Barn The 200-year old barn sat empty and lonely. No longer did horses stamp their feet inside his walls; cows didn’t warm the stalls with their breath; no sheep snuggled against each other to sleep the night away. The barn missed these animal friends. He missed the chickens who used to gossip and […]
Nov 29, 2025
The Christmas Barn
Filed Under: Children · Tagged: adventure, animals, children's stories, fiction, forest, imagination, The Christmas Barn
Jul 14, 2025
Canebrake ABC’s
By Blanche Manos · 2 Comments
Canebrake ABC’s Red ants, black ants marching all together, through a canebrake by the river in the lovely summer weather. Many-colored butterflies drift or dream or flit among tall stalks for the very fun of it. A caterpillar wriggles and a cricket creaks a song, surrounded by the river cane, thick and green and long. Dragonflies […]
Filed Under: Children · Tagged: Canebrake ABCs, children's stories, fantasy, fiction, imagination, rhyming stories
Dec 22, 2024
The Tail of Buz the Fox
By Blanche Manos · 2 Comments
Buz the Fox by Blanche Manos You see, it might have happened this way: once upon a time, about two thousand years ago, some foxes dwelt in the hill country and plains around Bethlehem. I hate to tell you this, but it was their custom to follow, at a discreet distance, the flocks of sheep […]
Filed Under: Children · Tagged: Buz, children's stories, Christmas, fiction, Fox, mysteries., tail
Dec 18, 2024
Little Cedar and the Big Storm
Fierce winds tugged at Little Cedar. His scrawny boughs bent and swayed but he dug his roots deeper and hung onto the rock buried beneath the mountain soil. “The wind is so cold,” said Little Cedar. He shivered from his topmost limb to the bottom of his twisted trunk. “It must be nearly Christmas again.” […]
Filed Under: Children · Tagged: Big Storm, children's stories, Christmas, compassion, friendship, Little Cedar
Apr 8, 2024
Tea and Cake
By Blanche Manos · 2 Comments
A frog and a toad have inspired generations of children and adults. Although they existed only on the pages of books by Arnold Lobel, these small amphibians taught real life lessons. Frog and Toad were friends and never a day went by that one didn’t go visit the other and, over a piece of cake […]
Filed Under: Musings · Tagged: authors, books, children's stories, fiction, friendship, Frog and Toad, tea and cake, writing
Jan 31, 2024
Where Is Elmer Now?
By Blanche Manos · 2 Comments
He was been around for two generations–that’s a pretty good long while for an earthworm. Maybe it’s because he was daring and brave or just went from one adventure to the next without noticing the passing of time. His name was Elmer and he existed only in my imagination and in the minds of children. […]
Filed Under: Children · Tagged: bedtime stories, children's stories, earthworm, Elmer, fantasy, Manos
