Monkey's Noisy Boiling Tummy Jolly Phonics · Step 3, Unit 10: /oi/ mixed

High up in a big tree, hidden by vines and yellow blooms, there is a tree hut. And in that tree hut lives Monkey. Monkey enjoys just one food. Bananas! He eats them for each meal. And if his tummy gets loud at night, he eats more.

One morning, Monkey wakes up with a big, noisy tummy. He smacks his lips. He rubs his belly. 'Time for my first meal!' But his bunch of bananas is gone. He checks under his pad. He checks by his books. He tosses cups all over. Not one left! 'Who,' Monkey whispers, 'stole my first meal?'

Monkey leans on the railing and spots a little bee by the blooms. 'Bee!' he calls. 'Did Bee take my bananas?' Bee is in such fits that her wings shake. 'Me? Lift a big bunch? I can just lift one drop of sweet goo!' Monkey frowns. Bee has a point.

Then Monkey spots Snake, coiling round a branch up high. 'Did Snake eat my first meal?' he asks. He tries to sound nice, but his tummy is as loud as a storm. Snake grins a slow, hissy grin. 'I eat rats, not fruit. Peel bananas? With what hands?' Monkey frowns more. Snake also has a point.

Monkey swings past the branches and hangs upside down from a vine. His tummy twists and coils. 'A crook!' he wails. 'A bad crook stole my bananas! I will hunt that crook down!' But it is very hard to spy on a crook when his brain runs on zero bananas.

Monkey stomps back to his deck. He grits his teeth. He clenches his fists. He is boiling mad. 'When I hunt down that crook,' he says, 'that crook is in for it.' His tummy gets loud once more. It sounds like it agrees.

Then Monkey sees a thing down on the grass. A trail! A trail of bright yellow bananas, one by one, like little clues. The trail points away from the trunk. 'Aha!' Monkey gasps. 'Now I can hunt down that crook!'

At the end of the trail sits a white rabbit. Rabbit enjoys a little feast on the grass. Bananas sit all round him! Monkey grabs the railing and leans out far, not quite tipping off. 'Crook!' he yells. 'Rabbit stole my first meal! Those are my bananas!' Rabbit looks up and blinks.

Rabbit is not upset. Not a bit. He lifts one of them up and points at a small plant just by him. 'These? These are mine!' Rabbit says with a grin. 'I grow them all year in my yard. Come and see, Monkey!' Monkey's mouth opens. Then it shuts. No sound comes out.

But then Rabbit does a thing Monkey does not expect at all. He smiles and ties a big bunch of bananas to a vine, so Monkey can hoist it up to his tree hut. 'It was a big harvest,' Rabbit says. 'Enjoy this bunch, Monkey!' Monkey peeps down. He called Rabbit a crook, and now Rabbit gives him a gift. His cheeks get hot.

Monkey holds the bunch and looks down. 'Thank you, Rabbit,' he says. 'But who took my bananas?' Rabbit smiles. 'Think back to last night. Do not let blame spoil the day.' Monkey thinks hard. Last night. It was dark. His tummy was loud. He got a snack, and then...

'Oh no!' Monkey looks down at the peels all round his railing. Peel after peel after peel. 'I got up at midnight! I ate them all! Each one!' He claps a hand over his mouth. Then he is in fits, and he must grip the railing. 'The banana crook... was me!' From down below, Rabbit joins in, and their joy fills the whole tree.