The Handmade Card
A free A2-level English story for language learners, readable online in 5 languages, with an option to listen via the free Storyteller app.
Emre has little money for his mother's birthday and has to choose between a shop card and one he makes himself.
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Emre has only five dollars. Tomorrow is his mother's birthday. He wants to give her a card.
On the way home, he looks at the cards in a shop. One has a big yellow flower on it. It is beautiful, but it costs four dollars. Then he will have almost nothing left.
At home, he takes paper and colored pens from his desk. "I will make my own card," he thinks.
He draws a flower. The lines are not straight, and the colors are too dark. It looks like a green potato. Emre laughs, but he also feels sad. He puts the paper in the bin and puts on his shoes.
"I will just buy the card," he says to himself.
At the door, he stops. He looks at the kitchen. The blue kettle sits on the stove. His mother's red cup stands by the window, next to the plants. Every morning she sits there and drinks her tea.
Emre goes back to his desk. He takes a new paper and draws the kitchen. He draws the kettle, the cup, the plants and the window. It takes an hour. This time he does not worry about straight lines.
The next morning, he gives the card to his mother. She looks at it for a long time.
"This is our kitchen," she says. "And that is my cup."
She takes a magnet. She puts the card in the middle of the fridge door.
