Pictures by Sophie Green
There is a terribly romantic mood on the pond where Prince Bertie the Frog lives. All the pond life are excited by Valentine’s Day. But nobody is more excited than Bertie. All he has to do is to lure the Lovely Princess Beatrice down to the pond, receive a kiss from her Royal Loveliness, and he will turn back into his true self – a handsome prince. Sadie the Swan has a plan… but Colin the Carp is certain that it won’t be so easy to persuade a princess to kiss Bertie.
And if you are interested in the background to St. Valentine’s day, try our story of St. Valentine.
Read by Natasha. Duration 15.20
Bertie Valentine
Hello, this is Natasha, and I’m dropping by to tell you the true storynory of Prince Bertie the Frog’s Valentine’s Day.
Have you heard about Valentine’s Day?
It’s a very special day. Every year, on the 14th of February, you send cards to people you love, and care about.
And if there is someone you have been secretly admiring, you can send them a card, and not say who it is from.
That sounds terribly mysterious and exciting.
Anyway, a few days ago, I was going for a walk, and I was thinking about who I might send a Valentine’s Card to this year, when I walked past the pond where Prince Bertie the frog lives with all his friends.
And I saw Bertie sitting there, looking very sad.
Tim the Tadpole was trying to cheer him up.
“Let’s go for a walk, Bertie,” said Tim.
“You haven’t got any legs, Tim” said Bertie.
“Let’s play hopscotch.”
“No,” snapped Bertie.
“Or skipping ….”
Bertie looked blankly at his legless little friend as if he were a rather silly tadpole – which of course he was.
“C’mon Bertie,” said Colin the Grumpy Carp “There’s nothing like a good old moan to improve everybody’s mood. One two three…..ugggggggg!”
When I saw how my friend Bertie looked, I felt rather sorry for him, and I knelt down by the edge of the pond. “Why so sad?” I asked.
Bertie blushed a shade of deepest green, and got all shy. He sighed a bit, and at length he said, ‘Well let me tell you a story, and it will all become clear.”
As his story was rather short – I’ll just tell it to you quickly. Once upon time there was a handsome, brave and gallant prince who was engaged to be married to a beautiful princess. Then one day a wicked queen got rather cross and shouted out a magic spell that turned him into a frog. For a whole year he sat on aLilly leaf and cried big fat tears, but then, on a bright wintry day, his princess came wondering by the pond. She saw the sad little creature, picked him up in her hand, and kissed him. For you see, although he was a frog, he was still terribly handsome and she just couldn’t resist his charms. No sooner had she kissed him, than he turned back into a prince and they got married and lived happily ever after. THE END.
When I heard the story, I knew what Bertie meant. He was hoping for a Valentine’s day kiss from the lovely Princess Beatrice, for that would turn him back into a prince. But Colin the Carp was far from convinced:
“Boring!” he said.” Fairy tales always end in soppy kisses and happy ever after – but that’s because they are made up.. If you ask me – which nobody ever does around this pond – in Real Life no self-respecting princess would kiss an ugly little frog not if even if you gave her a whole palace made of gold and filled to the top of its towers with pearls, frilly dresses, diamond tiaras and Girls AloudCDs, not even then could she bring herself to kiss Bertie.”
Just then, Sadie the Swan glided across the pond: “Oh yes she could,” she said. “Princesses are always on the look out for frogs to kiss…It’s their royal duty. We must lure the Lovely Princess Beatrice to walk past he pond on Valentines Day, when she’s in her most dreamy and romantic mood, and she’s sure to kiss Bertie because being a true princess, she’ll just know that really he’s a handsome prince under a magic spell..”
So all the pond life thought very hard about how to get The Lovely Princess Beatrice to walk past the pond and see Bertie. They thought and thought…and Tim was thinking so hard, he fell over backwards.
And then Sadie came up with a clever plan — because Sadie knows all about Valentine’s Day, and usually gets dozens of cards from swans all over the world.
“I know,” she said. “We’ll ask Natasha to send an announcement to The Palace Radio Station. Princess Beatrice will hear it, she’ll know it was meant for her, and she’ll come down to the pond, plant kiss on Bertie, and they will both live happily ever after.”
“Gosh, I say, that’s really jolly clever, Sadie,” said Bertie.
And so it was done.
On Valentines day, the Royal DJ was only playing romantic soppy love songs, and in between records he was reading out even gooier Valentines messages. It was all rather boring really, but everyone in the palace was listening out, just in case they heard a message that was meant for them.
Eventually he read out the lines for Princess Beatrice – but because it was a Valentine’s message, and meant to be sort of secret, it didn’t actually mention any names. The DJ purred.
“Greetings Royal pop-pickers: here’s a message to get young hearts beating – not arf. if you go down to the palace pond today, only kiss a frog and your every wish will come true – all right, stay bright. And now here’s a cool chart-topper from years gone by – Save All Your kisses for Me by the Brother Hood of Man.”
All the girls who lived in the palace and in the houses near by heard the message on the palace radio, and each one of them wondered who would be the lucky girl who found the right frog to kiss, and whose every wish would come true. And the same thought popped through the heads of quite a few of them: “I wonder if maybe, just maybe, it might be me.” Even I thought the same for a moment – and then I remembered that I’m not a true princess, just Bertie’s special story teller, and so my wishes wouldn’t come true even if I did kiss him. So I decided not to after all.
On Valentine’s Day, His Royal Highness Prince Bertie the Frog peeked out from behind his lilly pad and looked at his reflection in the pond. His skin was a nice shiny shade of green. He sipped up some water and swilled away all the traces of green slime from around his mouth. It was apity that he he couldn’t do anything about the bumps on his head and back, but all the same, he was certain that if the Lovely Princess Beatrice felt like kissing a frog that morning, it might as well be him.
The mood on the pond was terribly romantic. He could see that Sadie had already received a sackful of Valentine cards.
Tim had received one – from his mum.
And Colin had received one as well, from Chloe Carp, and he was swimming around in quite an excited way – but actually that card was from Bertie playing a joke on him.
Bertie couldn’t wait for the lovely Princess Beatrice to come down and kiss him.
So he hopped up onto the bank of the pond, and looked out across to the Palace.
Soon a small girl came along and immediately she saw bertie she cooed,, “Oooh Look Nanny, a frog, let me kiss him quick and all my wishes will come true.” Bertie tried to hop away as fast as he could, but the girl’s brother caught him and held Bertie up to his sister’s lips.
“Go on now” said the boy – who was really rather horrid – “kissy kissy!”
“Ooooh,” said the girl, scrunching up her face, “He’s so shiny and green – quite, quite, the ugliest little creature I ever did see – but I’m sure that he’ll turn into a prince if I kiss him, so I suppose I had just better get it over with” And she closed her eyes and kissed Bertie. Bertie thought the kiss was perfectly horrible, and he wriggled and wriggled trying to escape, but the boy thought it was hilarious, and he put Bertie in his satchel and took him to school. In the play ground the girls queued up and paid the boy with their pocket money, or toffee apples, orchewie sweets, and each one of them kissed Bertie to see if he would turn into a prince for them, and each one of them was disappointed that nothing happened – because none of them was a true princess. Some of them burst into tears.
It was a very miserable Bertie who eventually hopped back to the pond after receiving more kisses than he could count.
He was about to dive into the slimy green water, when he saw Princess Beatrice. She was walking down to the pond, looking for a frog to kiss – for – when she heard the message on the radio, she suspected that her wicked step mother might have turned her beloved Prince Bertie into a frog, – because she hadn’t seen or heard from him for quite a while now – and she knew that she must find him, and kiss him. Bertie became ever so excited, and started to hop up and down , but Beatrice didn’t see him. Instead, she spotted Old Tommy Frog, Tim the tadpole’s grandfather, who’d been sent down to check that Tim had received his card.
“Beatrice, my darling” Bertie tried to cry out – but the only sound that came out of his mouth was a big “croak!”:
And Princess Beatrice was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t even hear his croaking.
Instead, she knelt down and gave old grandfather Tommy a peck on the bump of his head. He got the shock of his ancient life, and dived straight back into the pond.
“I wish that Prince Bertie would come home soon,” said Beatrice, before adding, “hmmm I ‘m not sure that I really like kissing frogs, but I suppose it’s my royal duty once in a while”. And then she turned around and headed straight back to the palace.
And Bertie felt a bit sad about that. But then he cheered up…because he knew the lovely Princess Beatrice still loved him, and was thinking about him on Valentine’s Day and wishing that he would come home.
And as Bertie went to sleep under his lilly, he could see Colin swimming around, looking at his card and saying, “I wonder who Chloe Carp is?”
And that’s the true storynory of Bertie’s Valentine’s Day.
I hope you have a great day
Until next time, from me, Natasha, and all your friends at Storynory.com, bye, bye….
74 Comments
Yes it was very fun.
I thought this story was super cute and my son loved it i actually passed it on to his teacher so she can read it to the kindergarden class
Love it .I listen to on feb 14. and enjoyed.
It is a great story
great story.ilisend to it 5 tines so far and love it and showed it toallof my friends and they love it also
Delightful! We enjoy it again and again.
It was excellent beyond my expectation.
DREW4RE RERE
It was great ,but I fell a little bad for bretie and he can always try next year ,right?
And my mom says I can make my voice like yours!
Yuor lisener,
melodie
P.S>bye
actually i like this story it is lovely , thank you
Gimme more Gimme MORE Bertie NOW NOW NOW!!!!Hurry up and gimme more. just hurry up and gimme more Bertie…………..
.PLEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAASEEEEEEEE!
I’m DYING please gimme more. i’ve listened to every single storynory.please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please
Yvette, we would love to give you more, more more, but we can only manage one story a week. Jack and the Pirates 4 is coming up very soon.
It was really nice!Poor Bertie…I wonder if he will ever get kissed by Princess Beatrice.I hope so!
It was really nice!I like storynory very much.
Poor Bertie…I wonder if he will ever get kissed by Princess Beatrice.I hope so!
I am kind of a princess Bertie.Where is your pond so mabe I could kiss you.
But i dont want to do it if u want princess beatrice instead. i’ll tell her which frog is u ok?
is bertie ever going to turn in to a frog again?
i hauted it
cool man
BERTIE I WISH I HAD MY OWN COMPUTER SO I CAN SEE ALL
YOUR STORIES
HAAAAAA
p
this was okay but a littel bit sad but I’m glad Bertie did not feel sad!
poor bertie tell me anything you want ok
any thingg
Thanks Jasmine, that’s very kind of you. I’m ok though.
hi, cool story—birdy, whi don’t you listen to my podcast or read my comments?
anyway check out my podcast at http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/38744
cute
cute i love this
cute i love this> we need moer storys they are very cute so this just makes everything better for people when they read them
do yall love writting storys yall do a great job i love them alot
Smokie, Glad you like the Bertie Valentine story. We’ll try and think of some more cute ones for you. (and yes, it is fun writing them).
HAPPY V. DAY
I love bertie’s valentine!
(Joel–age 6)
I love bertie’s valentine!hi
please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please,I love bertie’s valentine!hi
hi
Bertie, this story is wonderful how long did it tack you to wright it?
oops i mean take you to wright it? lol sorry.
Hi Maddi
I think about the stories for a few days while doing other things, and then sit down and write them in a couple of hours usually. Sometimes it takes a bit longer.
it is interesting story and romantic. I think I’ve learn my lesson on sending Valentine Cards. (Sherilyn)
It is very interesting but we don’t know when is Bertie going to be kissed.
i love this story nory
hey bertie, checkout my websiet! here’s the link-everthing girl.com
It was a wonderful story, this is my first time to hear your stories, Im going to try to listen anothers. bye and thanks
VERY funny
You know, I liked the story it was very good.
Nice story I lurve it!!!!!!!!!!
Bertie,answer me this time!!
When,when,when is the next story?
I hope you get turned back into a prince soon~~
Loyal fan
Michelle^^
P.S. I luvvvvvvvvvvvv the story!
P.P.S.You are very handsome indeed!!
Michelle, Little Mermaid part three might be a bit late this week, but it will be out on Monday, then following weekend a new story
i loved it id kiss birdy then again im a mind prinsess
Wow you made this story two years ago!
i like it its pretty good
sorry my name is Travis but excellent story!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was a typo
very fun!!! ^.^
nice story!! kip up the gud work,,,thanks
In Real Life,perhaps we have to agree with Colin the Carp sometimes.
This morning,I was jogging in a park when an unkown old person came along and said to me,”Hello,poppet,I see you jogging and …”
I became very uneasy and nervous ,going by him as soon as possible,without listenning to what else he said.
Maybe he didn’t mean any harm, but I cannot trust such a stranger.
I feel sorry for Real Life when we have to be as pessimistic as Colin the Carp to protect ourselves.
please make a story where Bertie terns back into a prince please answer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mary, if we do a story about Bertie turning into a prince, how will he have any more adventures?
***Reply to me Bertie!!!***
I think it was a great story!!!!
Especially beacause it has lot’s
and,lot’s of picture’s!!!!!!!!!!!
(What? It really does!!!)
And Bertie just don’t forget this, okay? That you’ve GOT to reply to this comment!!
And I mean it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Royal fan
Phoebe.
Phoebe, I’m really glad you like the pictures !
Dear Bertie
I have joined the site of storynory from the very beggining.And i like it very much.I know a lot of story sites but this one in the best of all.Thanks for makin such a joyfull website.I like it a lot.
dont tell me theos geting chotclet
I llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee it
i love this story
bertie your poplouar
To Bertie
I know you really love the Princess Beatrice. If you know her number, tell me so I could tell her which frog to kiss. If you want something else, please reply.
From Eva
A royal fan
Eva, thanks ever so much for your kind offer to call Beatrice. When I was a prince, I had her number in my phone, but I could never remember it. It’s a pity !
I quite like it.
i can’t find any that bertie turns back into a frog again!!!
Can’t natasha go tell the princess beatrice to kiss the frog???
hey, i have a website! so check that to! i want you to… you know the rest
Dear Bertie
I REALLY love happy endings.
could you probably tell us a story that when princess b. kisses prince b.?
PREEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTYYYYYY
PPPPLLLEEEEAAAASSSSEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PS. and PLEASE reply!
Oh, and bertie
I have a really good question:
If also Natasha wants prince B. to turn back into a prince, why doesn’t she tell Princess B. where prince B. is and kiss him?
Dear Shannon, People keep on asking me when I’m going to turn back into a prince. I wonder sometimes too why Natasha can’t tell princess Beatrice. I think Natasha likes reading my stories. Maybe that’s why.
If prince Bertie wants to be kissed so much cant Natasha just tell princess Beatrice that her best beloved is in the pond.
from Kiley and Zane Hearst
Dear Kiley, have you tried trying to persuade a princess to kiss a frog?
This is a great story.Its brilliant.