Hello, I'm Joseph Coelho, children's author and poet, and I've been asked
by the British Library to make a mini book. So I made this mini book. We have a little
short story in it called Fossils. On the cover of this book is a fossil found on this very beach.
And this beach was the inspiration for the short story inside, which I'm going to read to you now.
Kofi saw a large glittering area in the surf of the tide, a fossil, a huge fossil. The
gray clay on this part of the beach was known for containing ammonites, treasures that were
over 2 million years old. Kofi was so excited to find his first one. And it was huge, as big as
a lorry's tire. And it was just sitting there in the sand for anyone to find. As Kofi stared at it,
it started to move. Kofi had read that ammonites were extinct, mollusk-type creatures resembling
a modern-day squid with a curly shell, so he was even more surprised when two hands
stretched out of the shell and out crawled the top half of a slimy, sea-green man. His eyes
were large and round and the brown of seaweed. From his head two fleshy antennae bobbed about.
Kofi fell onto the sand scooting backwards as the shell man crawled towards him, his antenna
bobbing, his eyes gazing at Kofi with a deep curiosity. “Please don't eat me," yelled Kofi,
as the creature dragged his spiral shell closer. “I'm not going to eat you," said the creature as
Kofi stood, ready to run. “I'm here to grant you a wish." Kofi paused. “Grant my wishes?" said Kofi,
eyeing the creature and noticing how wide his mouth was. “I am a wishamite. I come ashore once
every 100 years to grant a wish to whomever finds me first." Kofi thought about this. “Can I wish
for more wishes," he asked, his interest piqued. “No," said the creature and Kofi noticed the
slightest edge of a growl in his wet, slimy mouth. Kofi had a quick look around. No one else was on
the beach, which was strange for this time of year. The creature was slowly pulling itself
closer to him. So Kofi took a few paces back, feeling a knot forming deep in his
stomach. “You could wish for anything," said the creature, “jewels, money, fame. You could wish
to be the most popular boy in school or even a superhero." As he spoke, the creature crept
and the knot in Kofi's stomach got tighter. “What do I have to do to get my wish?" “Oh,
that's easy. You just have to drag me back into the waves just so I can return to the sea. Once
the waves cover me, your wish will be granted." Kofi thought about all the things he could wish
for, like a bike or a laptop or better yet millions of pounds so he could buy a house
for his family and they could move out of the flat they rented from their horrible
landlord. Kofi stepped closer to the creature and saw a smile play over his teeth, his small sharp
teeth. Kofi got behind the creature's shell and started to drag. It was heavy. And as the waves
splashed his feet, he realized just how cold the water was. It's worth getting a bit wet, if I
can be a millionaire, he thought as he heaved the creature's shell further into the waves. “Just a
bit deeper," said the creature and very soon Kofi was up to his calves in freezing seawater and that
knot in his stomach turned even tighter. “Make your wish now and drag me just a bit deeper."
The creature's voice had a new, hungry quality to it and Kofi felt scared. He
thought about everything he had waiting for him at home. He took a deep breath and yelled,
“I wish you to leave and to never return!" And with that, he dropped onto his back and used
both legs to push the shell hard away from him into the crashing sea and he raced to
the shore. Kofi looked out to the sea and saw not one but many deep green man in the waves,
their bodies oozing from dark spiral shells, chittering through their sharp-toothed mouths,
anger sloshing in their dark seaweed eyes as they sank beneath the ravenous waves.
Kofi went home to his mother's hug and his father's laugh, thinking about all the treasures
he already had at home and wondering what other unknown secrets were hiding under the waves and
deep in the ground in the fossils. The end. I had a lot of fun planning and writing that
short story and making this tiny little book. I made it using cardboard and paper, and I had a
really old broken leather bag at home, which I cut up to use for the cover. And on the back, I have
even got a little wax seal with my initials on. I hope you have fun making your own little books and
planning your own little stories to put inside them. I wish you all the best of luck. Bye-bye.