The Little dragon "I-can't" (extract)

1. Edition 2014 Copyright © 2014 KreaTiVi-Production Timo Firtina and Vivien Stennulat All Rights Reserved.

Idea and Text © 2014 Timo Firtina Illustrations © 2014 Vivien Stennulat Layout and Design: Vivien Stennulat Typesetting: Dutch809 and Jacoby ICG Black ISBN-13: 978-1502358660 ISBN-10: 1502358662 You can find us on the web at: www.kreativi-production.de

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Oh dear! What does it look like in here?

What an untidy nursery! Everywhere there are toys lying around, spread all over the room. There are building blocks, a teddy bear, balls and a lot of puzzle pieces all over the place. And who stands in the middle of the chaos? The Little Dragon I-Can’t.

“Little Dragon, please tidy up your room now!” says Mummy Dragon.

“But I can’t!” is the pitiful reply, and the little dragon looks at her with wide, round eyes.

“Just try to clean up at least a little. Look, the ball should go back into the box there and your teddy bear belongs in your bed, otherwise you’ll feel sleepless tonight,” says Mummy Dragon and gives the little dragon a stern look.

“I can’t! Will you help me?” and his large dragon eyes well up with tears.

Mummy Dragon, who cannot see her little dragon cry, quickly replies, “Come on, let‘s clean up together then.”

She starts to put the toys in their proper place, and explains one more time how to clean up properly. The little dragon stands back and in the end, Mummy Dragon has cleaned up the mess all on her own.

“Enough play, little dragon! It is time to go to bed. And brush your teeth beforehand. Go to the bathroom and start brushing your teeth!” Mummy Dragon calls from the kitchen. But when she comes to the bathroom shortly afterwards, she finds the little dragon splashing around and playing with the water.

“Little Dragon, have you already brushed your teeth?”

“I can’t!”

“Your toothbrush is over there in your toothbrush mug, please put toothpaste on it and start to brush your teeth, Little Dragon.”

“But I can’t!” moans the little dragon and crosses his arms over his chest.

“Give it a try. I‘ll help you if you can’t handle it on your own.”

The Little Dragon takes his toothbrush mug in his claw and lets it drop.

“See? I can’t!”

“Pick up your toothbrush mug and clean your teeth! You have to go to bed now, Little Dragon,” Mummy Dragon says firmly .

The little dragon jumps down from his stool and begins to brush the floor with his toothbrush. He whines piteously, “I can’t, will you help me?”

Mummy Dragon smiles. She lifts up her little dragon and puts him back on his stool again. Then she explains him one more time how to brush his teeth properly.

“Mummy!” it echoes through the large dark cave, and Mummy Dragon sticks her head into the nursery. “What‘s the matter?

You‘re supposed to sleep now, Little Dragon.”

“I can’t, Teddy is gone!” the little dragon complains.

“Have you already searched for your Teddy?“ Mummy Dragon asks, already knowing the answer.

“I can’t!“ comes back the sad answer.

“You see, Little Dragon, if you don’t clear up your room properly, you can’t find your things again. We will look for your Teddy tomorrow.”

“No, now! I can’t sleep without Teddy!” the little dragon whines.

“Well, here goes. Where did you see your Teddy last? If you have cleared it away somewhere, you have to search for him yourself,” Mummy Dragon replies firmly.

“I can’t, will you help me?”

The little dragon looks at her pleadingly and crawls into his bed.

In order that he can go to sleep quickly, Mummy Dragon looks for his Teddy and puts it into the bed next to the little dragon.

She gives him a goodnight kiss and whispers, “Sleep well, little one.”

The little dragon enjoys flying on the back of his daddy and he is happy to feel the wind in his face. Interested he watches the landscape passing by underneath them.

Quite suddenly there is a strong gust of wind. The little dragon did not hold on tight enough to his daddy, and he loses his footing and falls off his daddy’s back.

However, Daddy Dragon does not notice, and just continues flying.

It gradually gets dark in the forest. The little dragon has still not found the way home and he gets very cold. The squirrel has crawled away to sleep in his little tree hole, and the little dragon does certainly not fit into it.

All of a sudden a pile of leaves rustles beside him, and a spiky animal comes out. As the hedgehog notices the dragon, he stops and curls up immediately into a spiky ball. The little dragon has never seen such a thing before.

Slowly he comes closer and carefully touches the sharp spines.

“Go away, I‘m quite spiky and I don’t taste very good!” the hedgehog shouts anxiously.

“I don’t want to eat you,” replies the little dragon.

“And what are you doing here in the forest, then?” the hedgehog asks curiously.

“I‘m lost and can’t find the way back home.

Do you have a cave for me?” Sadly, the little dragon sits down on the forest floor.

“No, I don’t have a cave for you, you have to find one yourself,” answers the hedgehog.

Very, very cautiously the hedgehog peeks out of his sharp spines and spots the little dragon sitting sadly in front of him. Full of compassion he backs down. “Well, I may have no cave for you, but I can show you how I keep myself warm.”

Timo Firtina was born in 1985 and is from Lüneburg in Germany. During his work in kindergarten, the idea of the little dragon “I-Can’t” came to him. Today he is not only an officially recognised child care worker, fitness- and personal trainer, but also a qualified communications designer. He holds a Master’s degree in Digital and Visual Communication from the University of Wolverhampton.

Vivien Stennulat was born in 1992 in Lübeck, Germany and has loved drawing since childhood.

She studied Communication Design at HTK in Hamburg, and has done a Master’s Degree in Digital and Visual Communications at the University of Wolverhampton in the UK. With her illustrations she makes the little dragon „I-Can’t“ alive.

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Acknowledgements I thank all friends and family members for their help and support, for the proofreading and feedback. And I can calm you down – this book is done. But there are more to follow.

Many thanks to my grandmother who has brought the world of books and stories home to me by her tireless hours-long reading aloud. Without her I probably wouldn’t have become the bookworm I am today.

I have searched a long time for a suitable children‘s story, until I met a little girl named Darla during my time as a child care worker. She has inspired me to the story of the little dragon.

Another great thanks goes to my friend who has created the perfect little dragon with her wonderful illustrations. Only her illustrations make the story really alive.