Pella flaps excitedly on the yellow pier as her larger father, wearing a red knit cap and blue vest, arrives in a blue fishing boat through the fog.

A PICTURE BOOK

Pella Pelican’s Pocket of Morning

Get comfortable, then turn the page when you’re ready.

3 min read5 pages

You can listen to each page as you read.

Want to read it all at once? Open the whole story below.

Read the whole story

Pella Pelican’s Pocket of Morning

At a blue harbour, Pella the small white pelican stands on a yellow pier beside a large blue fishing boat and reaches toward its dark bell. Two boats, a red lighthouse, and a rising yellow sun sit in the distance.

Pella, a young pelican, woke before the sun. The harbour was blue and quiet. Fishing boats rocked beside the wooden pier.

Pella listened for tiny sounds: a rope creaking, a fish plopping, and a sleepy gull saying, “Mrrp.” Every morning, she pretended to tuck one sound into the soft pouch under her beak. Today she chose the first boat bell. “Clink!” she whispered, patting her pouch.

Pella stands in pale white fog with a small red crab at her feet. A blue boat and red lighthouse are only faintly visible behind them.

Then thick fog rolled over the water. It hid the pier, the boats, and even the bright red lighthouse. Pella could see only her two webbed feet.

“Clink?” called a boat bell somewhere in the fog.

Pella’s wings trembled. Her father was out on the water. He always came home when the lighthouse blinked three times. But now the lighthouse had vanished.

A little crab clicked beside her. “Fog makes every sound seem far away,” he said.

Pella calls out with her huge yellow beak open as bold blue and red sound shapes sweep overhead. A smiling red crab raises its claws, while a white gull flies above the harbour.

Pella opened her beak wide. “Then I’ll make our sounds louder!” She sent the bell sound back into the harbour. “CLINK!”

A sleepy gull answered from the mist. Pella sent out its call next. “Mrrp!” Then came the rope’s creak. “Eee-rrk!”

The crabs clicked their claws. The gulls called. A seal slapped the water with one flipper. Soon the harbour was singing a noisy, friendly song.

Out in the fog, Pella’s father heard the song. He followed the bell clink, then the gull call, then the seal’s splash.

At last, the pointed nose of his boat appeared beside the pier. Pella flapped both wings. “You found us!”

Her father smiled. “I heard the whole harbour calling.”

In golden morning light, Pella and her red-capped father smile together on the yellow pier while a red crab raises its claws nearby. Blue water, fishing boats, and a red lighthouse fill the harbour behind them.

Just then, the fog grew thin. The red lighthouse blinked once, twice, three times. Golden morning spread across the water.

Pella listened closely. This sound she did not tuck away. Everyone on the pier was laughing, and that sound was far too big for one little pouch.