Excerpt from a Story for Children by Peter W. Collier

Peter W. Collier has lived in Port Coquitlam (KO-KUIT-LAM), B.C., Canada for almost 35 years. Peter is married with two grown sons. At first he wrote to entertain his own children, and then he began reading his stories to their classmates. Teachers were pleased that his rhyming stories were not filled with made-up words and objects.

He was approached by colleagues, schools, and libraries wanting more readings and more stories. Over the years, Peter received hundreds of enthusiastic letters from children and was continually asked to give readings. He never seriously pursued publication, several of his stories having been written 25 years ago, but he has now decided to share some of his stories with a larger audience.

Every day, Peter shares a free ebook for children via this Facebook page. For more samples and images of Peter's work, visit his Reading to Children site. He also has a wide selection of work available for download on Amazon Kindle.

The length of these stories is designed to be between 10 to 15 minutes, to act as a short break or bedtime activity. The stories are meant to encourage children's reading development, and because of Peter's use of rhyme, children are able to retain portions of each story, which helps to jump start reading skills that greatly motivate the young reader.

Below is an excerpt from a story called "Cross Your Fingers."

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Hubert Connors put horseshoes above all of his doors;
"It will certainly bring luck," the neighbour said;
Hubert awoke in a hospital bed;
One of the horseshoes had fallen on his head;

The neighbour told Hubert, "The horseshoes are all upside down, all the luck is pouring out."
So, Hubert fixed the horseshoes, by turning them all about;

Then his barn burned down;
He went swimming and almost drowned;
He even caught the flu that wasn’t going around;

The neighbour gave an opinion -- again, "Horseshoes are better than lucky charms on a chain;
Horseshoes are better that any four leaf clovers; so, let me explain;
The problem is that the nails just aren’t right;
The ones you used are much too tight,
The nails to choose must be those for a horse's hooves."

So, Hubert changed all the nails;
The next day his corn was all pelted by hail;
His cherry tree was blown down, by a sudden gale;

The neighbour had little to say by then;
It seemed like Hubert's troubles had no end;

To make the luck work, was way too risky;
The next thing to happen, Hubert lost his cat "Frisky";

By the end of the week, there were no crops to reap;
All he had left was one of his sheep;

This superstition the neighbour believes completely;
He bought, what was left of Hubert’s farm, very cheaply.