How to Play Book Bugs: Tales of Travellers

Twist the Story Your Way! 

1) Pick one of the available stories from the Simple or Medium levels below.
2) Pick any Book Bug(s) from any Book Bugs season.
3) Change the tale in some way by inserting your selected Book Bug(s) into the story!
Consider how your selected Book Bug(s)’s personality, skill, held item(s), clothing, or text description can affect the story and result in a different ending.
4) Fill in the following activity sheet below!

You can also upload an image of your twisted tales in our Community Gallery!

Click to download.

Story 1: Jamie and the Wall

Jamie was a ghost with a problem: she could not walk through walls. All the other ghosts could do it, but try as she might, her ghostly body refused to cooperate.

“Why is this happening to me?” Jamie cried out in anger. She always had to take the long way around while her fellow ghost friends could take the shortcut through the walls.

“This is so unfair!” Jamie exclaimed as she floated down the street.

Feeling grumpy, Jamie decided to find a child to scare. It was late at night, and there were plenty of boys and girls fast asleep in their beds. However, there was one problem.

“I can’t get through this door!”

That was how everyone was kept safe from Jamie’s scaring.

(130 words)

Story 2: I Swear It's an Accident!

In Pulau Ubin, there lived Mr. Howler, a kind and friendly man.

But Mr. Howler had a secret identity... He was a werewolf! Most of the time, Mr. Howler appeared like a human man. However, whenever he saw something cute, he would turn into a werewolf.  

You would think that Mr. Howler was safe from cute things in Pulau Ubin, but danger lurked around every corner... 

One day, Mr. Howler saw two fuzzy otter pups playfully fighting each other near the lake.

“How adorable! I want to give them a big hug!” Mr. Howler thought to himself.

“Oh no!”

In an instance, Mr. Howler turned into a werewolf.

Just then, the mama otter nearby turned her head and saw the werewolf near her pups. Without any hesitation, she dashed across the forest to protect her baby pups.

Mr. Howler raised his hands to show that he meant no harm, but the mama otter thought that Mr. Howler was threatening her. So, the family of three dove into the lake. Saddened, Mr. Howler nibbled on a nearby leaf.

“But I’m a vegetarian…”

(181 words)

Story A: Plastic Flowers

Once, there was a handful of plastic flowers. 

They were so beautiful that their owner put them in expensive white porcelain and displayed them for all his guests. So beautiful were they that he watered them, and put them in light, although they required neither of those things.

Outside, birds chirped wistfully on the window ledge. “The owner will not let us in to dance around the flowers. What does it matter that they are false? How beautiful!”

The butterflies and the bees, too, often risked venturing into the house to flit around the flowers. “These flowers cannot provide us nectar, nor pollen, but so beautiful are they that we forget what they cannot do.”

It so happened that the young owner of the plastic flowers was called away on a trip.

As time passed, dust began to settle on the petals. What was once beautiful and bright became dull and grey. However, the plastic flowers waited, hopeful for his return.

(161 words)

Story B: Marty the Monkey

Marty the monkey had lived in the rainforest all his life with his family.

Marty loved to hang out on the tallest tree by the river, as it had large, comfortable branches and plenty of fruits.

One day, while Marty was on his favourite tree, he saw huge machines coming into the forest. They were loud and scary!

“Boom! Boom! Boom!” Marty watched in horror as the trees started to fall.

In the following months, houses were built on the deforested land. Humans started to come and stay in them. They were noisy and did not seem to care about the forest.

On a hot afternoon, Marty went to the river. There were some children playing there. He stared at the children curiously, but they screamed and ran away. Just a few minutes later, the children came back with some adult humans, who started hurling rocks at Marty to scare him away!

Terrified, Marty scrambled away.

Back at home, Marty told his parents about what happened. To his surprise, his mother yelled at him. “Stay away from them! They are scared of us, and fear makes them do bad things!” she hissed.

Marty did not understand.

“Why are they scared of us?” he asked. “They have big machines, and we don’t.”

“I don’t know, but please promise me you will not go near them again.”

Marty nodded and never returned to the river again.