Magnet Magic! (3+ syllables)

Rin loves the handwriting of her elder brother Jin. He writes with a very special shiny ink pen. But she is never allowed to touch it. He thinks she will break his stuff. Jin even put a sign on his desk that said, 'RIN GO AWAY'!

One day, when Jin is not at home, Rin looks for his pen. She slides open his drawer, ignoring the sign. Jin has all kinds of things in here. He likes to collect all sorts of weird and wonderful objects. But he doesn't let Rin play with any of them.

Finally, after some digging, Rin finds the pen. But what's this? It has something else stuck to it. It's a smooth black block, shaped like a domino. Rin does not recognize it.

The pen is stuck to the block, but she does not know how. It's not with glue, or slime, or tape, or by design. She pulls them apart, and they stop being stuck. But as she does, a bottle cap from the drawer flies out. It sticks to the block, just like the pen did!

Rin decides to try out her new toy. Does it stick to the stapler? Yes. Does it stick to the cat? No! The cat just ignores Rin. He gets used in her experiments all the time.

Does it stick to the ruler? Yes. The stapler and the ruler were both made of metal. The cat is made of fur and cuteness. 'I wonder if this thing will stick to anything else not made of metal,' says Rin. 'Does it give off some sort of signal?'

Rin tries one final experiment. She sees if it sticks to a hairy brown coconut. But it does not. 'Maybe it ignores living things?' she says to herself. 'Or maybe metal is the only thing it likes!'

Rin got a bit too close to the hairy coconut. She sneezes, and the coconut falls off the shelf. But she also drops Jin's pen, which she was holding in her other hand. It bounces off the floor, and rolls under the bed. 'Uh oh, huge mistake,' says Rin.

The pen has rolled pretty far under the bed. Rin tries to align her hand with it and sticks her hand under as far as it can go. But it's no use, no matter how many times she tries. If she can't get the pen back, Jin will know she has been in his drawer! But then, Rin gets a brilliant idea.

Rin gets the metal ruler and sticks the black block on it. She makes sure it sticks to the very end of it. Then, aligning her hand just right, she pushes the ruler under the bed. Click! The pen sticks to the block, and is still stuck to the ruler! 'I did it!' Rin laughs.

Rin dances around with the ruler, block, and pen still stuck together. Then, she puts everything back in Jin's drawer, hoping he will not notice. Much later, when Jin comes back from school and opens his drawer, Rin asks him. 'What's that black block there?' 'Oh, that's just my magnet. It sticks to metal things, isn't it cool?' says Jin.

The black block in the story is a magnet. Magnets come in many shapes. A magnet cannot stick to all objects, only metal ones, and even then, not all metal! Gold and silver do not stick, but things made of iron and steel like the ruler and pen do. Go out and try one out for yourselves!