Stranger Danger

ndad s Gar ra

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The G

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lection

or h t u About This A Grace was born in Nottingham in 2003.

She registered in the nursery at Chaucer Junior School in Ilkeston when she was 3 years old.

Grace started school full time in September 2007 and is due to leave in Summer 2014.

This book is a parting gift to Chaucer Juniour School, to the headmistress and to the teachers that have taught her along the way!

A big thank you to you all.

ndad s Ga ra

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The G

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Col

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Published by Lance Publishing Ltd, 1st Floor, Tailby House, Bath Road, Kettering, NN16 8NL www.lancepublishing.co.uk First published in the UK by Grace Freeman 2014 The moral right of the authors, editor and illustrator has been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.

here was this garden. Grandad's garden. It was quite big. Mainly grass. Halfway down on the left was grandad's greenhouse. At the bottom on the right was grandad's shed. Running along one side there was a public footpath and on the other side of the footpath was a spinney.

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In the spinney there lived lots of different animals. Most of the time they come in to grandad's garden and play lots of games on the fresh, plush, green grass.

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The bottom of the garden was fenced off by a six-foot high wire fence and on the other side of the fence was a large field with lots of broken trees, wild flowers and weeds.

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The sun always shone in grandad's garden and the sun dial, which was grandad's pride and joy, always told the correct time.

Even in the winter it was always sunny in grandad's garden.

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Grandad knew that there were lots of different animals around and always put out food for them.

There were peanuts and suet balls for the birds; seeds for the mice and squirrels; lettuce leaves and carrots for the rabbits and even raw meat for the red kites. All the animals lived in peace and side by side.

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Everything was wonderful in grandad's garden and everyone enjoyed having fun. But all that was going to change this Friday afternoon.

Freddie the fox was on the prowl this particular day.

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He had heard of this wonderful place from a silly little squirrel that he had eaten who had strayed from grandad's garden.

Freddie had risked crossing the busy motorway to find another meal of squirrel or even rabbit. He was going to make sure this trip would be worthwhile.

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Freddie approached the six-foot wire fence as silently as he could and kept low so that he was out of sight. He was in luck. He could see three little rabbits playing just on the other side of the fence on the grass in grandad's garden.

All the birds were eating and none of them saw Freddie in the field behind grandad's garden. Freddie was cleverly hidden in the broken trees and the rabbits were unaware of the fox.

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Two large red kites were circling above and Freddie was unaware of them.

The three little rabbits were playing hide and seek and not really taking any notice of anything else around them.

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The smallest of the rabbits was looking for a place to hide and slipped under the wire fence and hid in amongst some nettles.

Freddie the Fox was only a few feet from the rabbit and silently licked his lips.

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''Hey'', Freddie called and the little rabbit jumped in fright. ''Are you playing hide and seek?'' he asked.

The rabbit nodded. ''Come and hide over here. They will never find you.''

Not sure what to do the rabbit froze and quick as a flash Freddie pounced and had the little rabbit in his jaws.

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Luckily up above the red kites, Victoria and Albert, saw the rabbit go out of grandad's garden.

They saw what happened and swooped gracefully down startling Freddie.

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Frightened, Freddie dropped the rabbit and tried to run away but tripped over a branch.

Freddie was no match for the two large birds.

Victoria and Albert warned Freddie not to come round grandad's garden again.

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Once Freddie was sent away, Victoria and Albert turned to the lucky rabbit. “You have been very fortunate today. Be aware at all times and never, NEVER talk or go off with strangers.''

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