Polo from Planet Patchy

3asafeer.com

Author: Mayam Khartash

Illustrator: Mona Mohammad

The original work of this book was made possible through the generous support of the All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD) Partners (the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Vision, and the Australian Government). It was prepared by Asafeer Education Technologies FZ LLC and does not necessarily reflect the views of the ACR GCD Partners. Any adaptation or translation of this work should not be considered an official ACR GCD translation and ACR GCD shall not be liable for any content or error in this translation.

Sally looked at her messy room. Her toys were all over the place. She took a deep breath and said, “I hate clean up time just as much as I love play time”.

While she was cleaning up her toys, she stopped and shouted, “Oh no! Not again!”

“Who took my alligator’s teeth, and where is my doll’s red hat?! Every day at clean up time, Sally noticed that pieces of her toys were missing.

Yesterday a plate and a pot went missing from her toy kitchen set, and now her toy alligator couldn’t eat anything but soup.

She said to herself, “I’m going to find out who is taking my toys and I’ll get them back.”

Then she switched off the light and got in bed.

She wasn’t sleeping though. She was quietly looking around her room with eyes half open, half shut.

All of a sudden, she heard someone open her window. What was happen- ing?

A strange, scary creature quickly climbed in through the window.

He wiggled and wobbled like he was made of jelly as he made his wayacross her room.

He took the scarf off her doll

And the cap to her pen, too.

Then from her crayons, he took one that was blue.

Oh no! Not the blue one!

(It was her very favorite, you see).

Sally shouted, “Stop, toy thief! Let those things be!”

But, quickly, the toy thief tried to flee!

Sally wouldn’t give up and shouted, “Gotcha!” as she jumped off the bed.

He wiggled and wobbled as he tried to escape.

Sally shut the window - he’d have to find another way!

But the creature just flattened himself and slid under the door!

She followed him to the garden,

But there she slipped and fell

And the creature escaped her once again.

She wagged her finger at him and said,

“I’ll catch you, you’ll see,

If you keep bothering me.”

But off he wiggled and wobbled onto a giant spaceship that was round like a saucer.

Sally followed him on board, she wasn’t done with him yet!

After sneaking through a little door

and finally managed to hide, she had to admit, it was a bit scary inside.

She ever so quietly tip toed around.

And in a big box, all of her things she found.

She took her things and was about to go when something happened. What was that? Oh no!

The spaceship took off! Up, up, up it flew!

And Sally really didn’t know what to do.

They landed on a strange planet far in outer space.

Sally followed him closely to discover this place.

Tailoring Shop

Ice cream Shop

A planet full of craters!

Their only buildings were made from the blocks they get.

Their only vehicles were bikes and tricycle sets.

It wasn’t just Sally’s toys that were missing....

The aliens spent each night roaming around

to different houses bringing back whatever they’d found.

Sally carefully found all her toy parts, tiptoeing so quietly without making a sound.

Weee-oooo! Weee-oooo!

Sirens loudly began to blare.

Then suddenly stopped.

Oh no! Now they must know she was there.....

Planet Patchy’s people found their intruder.

They told her she was the one responsible for all the mess.

They decided to confiscate all her toys and send her back home.

They encircled her and tugged on her boxes of toys. They pulled, so she pulled.

Then suddenly…

She lost her grip and all the toy parts flew up in the air.

Sally burst into tears and just then the strange creature came closer.

He said, “I’m Polo. I took these toy parts because our machines don’t work without them.” He sadly continued, “A meteor caused lots of damage to our planet’s surface, and we needed your toys to help us fix it.”

Sally listened closely and she suddenly felt sorry for Polo and his friends. She thought for a while. She thought and thought. Then she decided…

“If you give me back these toy parts, I’ll give you parts from my broken toys that I don’t need.”

Polo and his friends thought about it and finally agreed.

Polo took Sally back to her window sill.

Since then, no more toy parts disappeared.

The aliens taught Sally how to build things from toy parts and so she converted her bike into a monocycle. She made ice skates and even a wagon from all the old parts!

Each night Sally would put all the broken toy pieces she no longer needed on the window ledge and by morning they would be gone! She would always smile and say “Polo must be making his nightly rounds.”

The End