A grandfather enters an invention contest and builds a secret machine that tells stories with pictures, sounds, and scents. When it breaks down, he tells his grandchild a bedtime story instead, reminding them that the best inventions come from imagination and time together.
Chapters
Grandpa's Inventions by Richard Johnson. This is me with my grandpa. My grandpa is very old and very clever. At the bottom of the garden, in his dark, dusty workshop, he makes the most marvelous things. My grandpa is an inventor. One day, a letter arrived for Grandpa. This is what it said: "Dear Sir, you have been invited to take part in the World's Latest and Greatest Invention Contest, Grandpa Category. Use your imagination and build something amazing to win the first prize trophy." Grandpa scratched his head. "What shall I build?" he wondered. Then Grandma had an idea. How about an amazing speaker zooophone gizmo that lets us talk with the animals? Imagine chatting with the giraffe. What would you ask it? Hmm, that's been done before, said Grandpa. What else? I know! You could build a fabulous deep-sea tentaclon. I suggested. "We could dive down to the bottom of the ocean, gathering up treasure from sunken wrecks, and live down there as rulers of the ocean." "Imagine a fine red double-decker space bus," Grandpa said dreamily. "We could catch it to the end of our road and take a day trip across the galaxy. Picnic on the moon, anyone? I've heard the views aren't bad. Yeah, or you could make us super bouncy heated balloon suits, I said. We could bounce around the park and never hurt ourselves or get cold. Or perhaps you could build me a multi-action dirtoid digger to help with the gardening, Grandma suggested. I could use it to burrow deep underground and spy on the neighbor's turnips. "Wh-what about making a magnificent magnifying beam machine that can make things 10 times bigger?" I said. "Hmm, you'd have to be careful where you pointed it, though," murmured Grandpa. "Hey, I could build us some fabulously feathered mechanical flip-flappers," Grandpa said, waving his arms and leaping about. "We could fly with the birds over the tallest towers and into the clouds. Up, up and away!" It was getting late when suddenly Grandpa shouted, "I know exactly what I will build!" He rushed off down the garden path into his workshop where he stayed all night, hammering, sawing, banging, and crashing. The next morning, a tired Grandpa emerged from his workshop with a grin. His mysterious machine was hidden under a large blanket. We begged him to tell us what he had made, but he wouldn't. "It's a secret," he winked. "You'll have to wait and see." It was the day of the competition. While Grandpa made a few last-minute adjustments to his machine, I decided to explore. I saw a gizmo called the Fancy-Pant Washing Wonder Bot, a gadget called the Super-Duper Self-Scaping Soaping Copter Bath, and all sorts of other amazing things. The World's Latest and Greatest Invention Contest. Then it was Grandpa's turn. Everyone fell silent as they waited for him to reveal his amazing invention. "Ladies and gentlemen," announced Grandpa, "I would like to present my incredible storytelling show and smelling marvelous magic machine." He whisked away the blanket and he flicked a switch. The machine whirred into action. The crowd were enthralled as Grandpa's invention told them wonderful tales, accompanied by little pictures and sound effects and even smells that drifted amongst them. Everyone clapped and cheered and agreed that Grandpa's invention should win the first prize trophy. Later that evening, it was finally my turn to try the story machine, and when Grandpa switched it on, all that came out was a puff of smoke. Crackle pop! Once upon a pigeon, three bananas cooked up a game, fish fingers, the end. The Amazing Invention was broken. "Oh dear," said Grandpa, chuckling. "Never mind. I think I had better tell you a bedtime story of my own." So Grandpa invented a wonderful story about a little girl who owned a pair of fabulously feathered mechanical flip-floppers and flew around the world with them, having all sorts of magical adventures. Who needs a storytelling machine? I thought drowsily, my eyes beginning to close. I've got a wundermarvelous creatatastic crinkle-wrinkle magic-making grandpa. The best grandpa in the whole world.
