The Bear’s Birthday Party

Written by Bertie for Storynory
Picture by Adobe
The Bear’s Birthday Party.

Hello this is Jana,

And I’m here with one of our mischievous monkey stories. in this story you will hear that he is a real party animal.

There were three things in life that the monkey liked above all else and they were:
Bananas, music, and tricks. This story combines all three.

It was the time of year when the bear was getting ready to celebrate his birthday. He was going to be five years old, which meant that he was almost grown up.

He was preparing to spend the whole day on his own, lazing on the bank of the river with a big pile of his favourite foods. But as he stood on his hind legs collecting cherries from a tree, a little mouse asked him:

“Hey, Mr Bear, are you having a party this year?”

“No,” growled the bear.

“Why not? Parties are fun. I had 200 mice come to my birthday bash.”

“Good for you,” said the bear. “But I don’t have any friends.”

“Oh that’s easy to solve,” said the mouse. “When you are throwing a party, everyone’s your friend, especially if you have plenty of delicious food and great music.”

“Yeah?” said the bear. “I could collect fish, nuts and berries for my new friends, but where would I find music?”

“Well, you should ask the monkey,” said the mouse. “He played his guitar and sang with his cousins at my birthday bash and everyone raved all night long. He loves music so much that he would play for free, but if you pay him bananas, he’ll play even better.”

“I bet he would,” mumbled the bear, who had no intention of asking the monkey to play music at his party, especially if he had to pay him. Why, he didn’t even like that annoying monkey who was always playing tricks that made the bear look foolish.

“Naaaa,” said the Bear to the mouse. “I don’t think I’ll have a party this year. I’m not in the mood.”

And so he scooped up all the cherries in his arms and waddled off to his cave to enjoy them on his own. But not long after he was back in his cave, his neighbour, the Tigress, dropped by and roared:

“Hey Bear, what are you doing for your birthday? Let’s have a party.”

“Naaaa,” said the Bear. “I’m not in a party sort of mood.”

“Well get yourself into one,” said the Tigress. “Otherwise, the word will get round that you’re an old party-pooper, and you wouldn’t want that, would you?”

“Grrrrrr,” growled the Bear. “Why should I have a party if I don’t want to? It’s my birthday, and I can be a pooper if I want to.”

“But you do want to have a party, you just don’t know it yet,” the Tigress purred, which the bear thought was a very strange thing to say, because how could she know what the bear really wanted?

“Don’t shake y0ur grizzly head,” said the Tigress. “Listen up. Our friend the monkey is a real party animal. If we invite him to play the music, he won’t be able to resist. We’ll have free music and dancing all night.”

“But I don’t like music and dancing,” protested the Bear.”And I like the monkey even less. GRRRRR ! Just the thought of him makes my hair bristle.”

“You won’t regret it,” said the Tigress, “because as soon as the party is nearly over, I’ll give the secret signal, and we’ll both jump on the monkey, and that will be the end of him, and all our troubles. Won’t that be the best birthday present you’ll get this year?”

“You’ve got a point!” said the bear smacking his lips at the thought of finally getting his claws on the monkey. “That would be the best birthday present EVER!”

So the bear asked the mouse to ask the monkey to play the music at his party. And the monkey agreed. Then the bear invited all the animals to his moonlit birthday bash in the clearing outside his cave.

The monkey, together with his three cousins who were in the band, built a treehouse above the cave from where they rocked the jungle!

And of course they didn’t forget to play Happy Birthday for the Bear!

All the animals were dancing and having such enormous fun that the bigger animals even forgot to eat the smaller ones - at least for the evening.

But just in case anyone stood on them, the smaller animals were dancing up in the tree house where the monkeys were playing. Meanwhile, the big beasts, like the elephant, the bear and the tigress, were stomping down on the ground making the whole jungle throb to the beat.

Occasionally arguments broke out, such as when th hippo accused the rhino of stepping on his toes, but the bear smoothed the argument over saying:

“Now, now, no quarrelling or else I’ll throw you out of my party and you’ll miss all the fun!”

Finally, as the first rosy rays of the dawn appeared in the sky behind the volcano, the monkey announced:

“Thank you for being such a lovely audience. For our final number, we’re going to play a slow song, so find your favourite partner and gaze into their eyes!”

“Hey Bear, would you like to dance with me,” asked the Tigress. And the bear said sleepily:

“All right, if you insist.”

And the bear began to lead the Tigress round in a two-step, until the bear said: “Hang on, when are you going to give the secret signal to catch the monkey?”

“Very soon,” purred the tigress, who had been having such fun she had almost forgotten about the plan. “But first we have to sneak up close to the monkey so we are within pouncing distance.”

Then the two of them danced towards the tree where the monkeys were playing. The tigress jumped onto a lower branch and the bear pulled himself up onto another. Up and up they climbed while the monkey crooned away. Eventually they reached the treehouse. There they pretended to dance together, just like they were deep in love. The smaller animals all started to leave, because they did not want to be trodden on.

The Monkey was reaching the final notes of his slow number, when a little voice - it was the Mouse - squeaked “Encore!” and all the little animals who were leaving called out, “Encore! Encore!”

Immediately the Monkey and his band launched into a bouncy number with such a great beat that the Tigress and the Bear could not help themselves - they started to jump up and down in time to the music. The treehouse began to shake, but they didn’t notice because they were having such fun - and then the branches began to creek - but they didn’t notice because the music was so loud - and then - just as the Tigress was about to give the secret signal to pounce on the monkey:

CRASH! Bang! Wallop!

The whole dance floor collapsed and the Tigress and the Bear went flying with it, tumbling head over heels through the branches, snapping them on the way, until eventually they landed on the jungle floor with a great big thud!

But of course the monkeys weren’t hurt at all - laughing hysterically, they just swung onto the nearby trees, taking their instruments with them.

And the little animals had already left, so they weren’t hurt either.

Only the Bear and the Tigress were bruised and very annoyed. But the Bear was most annoyed of all, in fact, he was very very angry, not with the monkey, but with the Tigress. “You ruined my party! You’re the worst Party Pooper of all time!” he roared - and the Tigress, seeing how angry the bear was, hobbled away as fast as her legs could carry her.

And that was ‘The Bear’s Birthday Party’ read by me, Jana, for Storynory.com.

Drop by soon for more exciting stories! And don’t forget to ask your parents or older siblings to tune into our sister podcast for grownups called Relaxivity!
Bye for now!