The Little Potato Gang

… on the way to their dreams

Under guidance of potato girl Molli, six little potato kids run away from Farmer Billy's barn in order to find their dreams. They run into a mole called Volli who has never had friends before.

The potato kids decide to take Volli along on their trip. As a mole, he is particularly able to smell and hence his job is to smell all the different odours and scents on behalf of the potato kids. In return, the potatoes will tell the almost blind mole Volli what they can see on their trip. United they stand!

Author: Erika Bock

Translation: Declan Donaghey and Melanie Böke

Illustrations: Volker Nökel

www.volker-noekel.de

Typesetting and Layout: Miri Zymny

www.tingmarke.de

©2014 Erika Bock

Stakenteich 9, D-24257 Köhn

eb.@tingmarke.de

All rights reserved

ISBN

Contents

In Farmer Billy's barn

A little mole with no friends

Christa's dream

A carrot for the way

A green chap with a crown

Molly's dream

A professor collects comprehensive knowledge

Sieglinde's dream

Who's so busily darting to and fro?

Danger from the air

A fighter on the chicken yard

A trail on the way

Desiree's dream

Blue Swede's dream

Red Emmalie's dream

In Farmer Billy's barn

Another fine day draws to a close on the farm. Organic farmer Billy takes one last look around the big barn. There are crates and crates filled and almost bursting with yummy scrummy potatoes!  Farmer Billy feels proud of his hard work. He really likes growing potatoes. But he doesn’t just plant and tend to them, he also likes breeding new kinds of potato. It’s not only great fun it’s very interesting too!

„Now my work is done for the day. I think I’ll have a quick peek at what my Rosy has cooked for tea. I’m so hungry!” says Farmer Billy aloud to himself. Billy switches off the barn light and makes his way over to the farmhouse. On the way, he chuckles to himself for speaking loudly even though there is no one else there in the empty barn. Or is there?

As soon as it gets dark in the barn something begins to move and fidget and wriggle … in the crates of potatoes! If you listen carefully with your mind’s ear you might even hear them giggling, joking and even teasing one another! With a huge sigh Molly, a potato, climbs up onto the edge of the potato crate and sits down. She shakes the dust from her hair and announces loudly:

„Ohhh. Every night, I have the same delightful dream. I dream of a blossoming potato field. Potatoes grow beneath the ground and down there we never get to see our own flowers. I would love to see what they really look like. If only just the once.” Molly sighs and then stops staring into the distance and turns and looks around at the others. “Do any of you dream every night?”, she asks.

For a moment, there is silence. Just then another potato pipes up, „I also have the same dream every night. I dream of seeing the sunrise in the early morning. Oh how beautiful that must be! You can hardly see a thing through that little window over there!” She sighs and then blushes and quickly adds, “Oh and by the way my name is Christa.”

One after the other, four more potatoes climb out of their crate and sit themselves on the edge letting their little potato legs hang down. They look like anything but “normal” potatoes.

Molly is surprised at the blue peel of a little potato boy and asks him „You look really blue! Are you cold or did you fall into a tin of paint?”

„No. That’s just the way I look. I’m a Blue Swede! People all look different too. There are people with white skin, people with yellow skin, people with brown skin and even people with almost completely black skin. There are people with blond hair, chestnut hair, black hair and white hair. People have blue eyes … green eyes brown eyes and so on. I think it is really good that we don’t all look the same. That would be very, very boring, don’t you think?

„Exactly!“ Desiree shouts. „Look at me! I have red skin and my blue dress even has white frills on the sleeves. It almost looks like a princess’s gown, doesn’t it?“ What do you think?

„Yeah! And look at me! My skin is bright pink! Don’t you just love that colour!?  My name’s Red Emmalie!”

“Wow...  and your punk hairstyle is so cool!“  the other four say, eyeing her curiously.

Suddenly, the sound of an angry voice comes from a sixth potato crate:

„Ah now stop showing off, Red Emmalie! We normal potatoes look just as good as you! Our fine skins are available in so many different shades of brown!”

Sieglinde, the owner of the voice, climbs out of the crate and, putting her hands on her hips, she announces defiantly „and as well as that I belong to an old variety and taste absolutely delicious … so there!”

The Blue Swede bends over the potato crate and grabs his baseball cap, puts it back on his little potato head and turns to Molly.

„Molly, you have asked about our dreams before. Well, I dream of seeing the sea. Just the other day an old lady was here in the barn and looking for Farmer Billy. She told him all about her trip to the sea. The sea must be ginormous! She said big waves were hitting the beach!”

„Yes! That’s what I heard too!“ Desiree screeches with delight. “I want to visit the sea too but I’d like my own dream to come true as well. I’d love to climb the sand dunes at the beach!”

„And I dream about climbing up a huge, giant tree“ Sieglinde says getting more and more excited. “A tree so big that it reaches right up to the sky, you know. Then when I climb it, I could maybe touch the clouds! There are always forest workers buying potatoes and telling stories about cutting down huge trees.”

„And what about you, Red Emmalie, what do you dream about? About crazy clothes or pink hair?” the others ask but only just to tease her a little.

“No no !” shouts Red Emmalie excitedly „My whole potato life I have dreamt of seeing the moon and the stars properly. That barn window is too small and I can hardly see any through it. I have no idea how many stars there are. Do any of you know?”

„Thousands, millions, billions ... even trillions!“ say the others together. The little potatoes cannot count all of them. Probably, no one can.

„I have an idea“ shouts Molly. “Why should our dreams stay dreams? I think we should try and make them come true because nothing is impossible!

We just have to want it enough and believe that we can do it, and then it will happen. Who’s with me?”

„Me!“  „...and me! “ ..me too!“ „..don’t forget me!“ „Yeah. I‘m coming!“
Five little potatoes are very happy with their idea.

„The catflap over there is just big enough for us to get through! Let’s use it to get out of the barn! Let’s go gang!” Molly says to the other five potatoes.

And so, one after the other, the five little potatoes climb through the catflap, out of the barn and into Farmer Billy’s orchard.

"Wow! That blows my mind", Red Emmalie cries out. She goes round in circles, tosses and turns in the soft grass.

"Jippeee . …… this can go on forever!" Molly is thrilled.

A little mole with no friends

It’s getting light already. A new day is dawning.

At the edge of the garden, they find a little pile of earth. Desiree stares and after a while asks in disbelief “Is this a dune… but where’s the sea then?”

Suddenly the pile of earth moves and a small grey furry animal with paws that look a bit like little shovels appears from the pile of earth, shakes the pieces of mud from his snout which he then uses to take a nosy sniff.

„Who are you then?“ the Blue Swede asks.

„Why I’m a mole of course. Everyone can see that, can’t they? I have heard you lot. I am very good at hearing even though my ears are well hidden under my fur. But the fur stops little bits of mud and dirt getting in. I am really good at feeling for things with my whiskers. That’s the hairs here of the side of my snout” he says pointing with his shovel-like paws at the little hairs next to his nose.

„I only have a problem with seeing stuff but I’m always in the dark anyway. I am really fast at digging tunnels. I can go from one end of a garden to the other in an hour and I live in a nice, cosy nest packed with leaves and grass under the ground. That’s where I keep all my supplies. Mostly bugs and worms. Delicious!“

„Eeeuuuuwwwwwww! Worms? We don’t like worms one little bit,“ says Red Emmalie. “Why do you eat worms anyway? They are good for the environment and help air get into the soil.”

„That may well be but they also happen to taste absolutely delicious as well!” the little mole confesses.

„We are six friends and we want to see our dreams come true“ Molly explains.

„Friends? Oh how wonderful! I don’t have any friends. I am always on my own”, sniffs the little mole. “I spend most of my time underground and it’s hard to meet any friends down there.”

"Oh, that's really sad", Desiree realises sympathetically.

"What's your name?" Sieglinde wants to know, looking seriously at the little chap.

„Volli!“ answers the little mole as he wipes a very big teardrop from the end of his nose.

„It’s not so bad, Volli. You have a very good nose that you can use to smell things”, says Christa, who is trying to make Volli feel a little better.

„Would you like to come with us?“ Molly asks.

 “We will use our eyes to look and your nose to smell. What do you think?”

„Sounds great!“ Volli says „... and maybe we could be friends?“

“OK! Then let‘s build a power tower using our hands and paws. You have to stick out your thumb so the person next to you can grab hold of it!” Molly says as she shows them how to do it.

„Now let’s all swear our oath together “On your own is wrong, together we are strong!” “Believe us when we say, together is the way” “we are friends, friends to the end!”

The six little potatoes and new friend Volli swear their oath and soon afterwards, they all feel much better and brave. Now, come what may come.

Christa's dream

A new day dawns. A huge fireball, the sun, appears on the horizon and starts its climb up into the sky. The sun, a glowing ball whose warm rays shine down upon the Earth and gently wake nature up. Birds chirp happily, flying from branch to branch. Trees begin to blossom and bees awake from their sleep and buzz a mellow morning melody.

Christa is fascinated. She lies down in the grass and closes her eyes. She is enjoying the sun warming