The Baby and the Rocket

By

Harry Merttens

Illustrated by

Harry Merttens and

Travis Walker
Baby was playing in the park when a space rocket flew down and landed beside her.

A door opened and a ramp came from inside. It stretched out to the ground at Baby’s feet.

Baby went up the ramp and into the spaceship.

There was a seat inside and some plants arranged in front of a big television screen showing Baby’s park.

The rocket blasted off into the sky.

It flew round and round the earth. Baby looked down at the beautiful blue planet as they whizzed around it.

One of the plants spoke to Baby.

“Welcome Baby, sit down. We want to show you something.”

The rocket flew towards the sun.

They passed a planet called Venus.

It looked very hot and dry.

The rocket zoomed on, and then turned back around a small, very hot planet.

“That’s Mercury,” one of the plants told Baby.

As the rocket headed out away from the sun, Baby saw Venus and then Earth fading away behind, then as they headed out into space...

..the rocket passed Mars, a red and rocky planet,

then through the Asteroid belt…

… and on past an enormous planet, Jupiter.

Then they came to a very pretty planet, Saturn.


They zoomed on, further and further out into space. They came to Uranus …

… and passed Neptune …

…and finally rounded the icy planet of Pluto.

One of the plants spoke to Baby again.

“This is as far away from the sun as we can go. Now we will take you to our home.”

“This is a very pretty planet,” said another plant, “look at its rings. Our home orbits this planet.”

They landed on a moon orbiting Saturn. It had lots of plants on it.

The Plant Planet was very green and pretty with lush green plants everywhere.

“You can find one plant that you really like and choose one seed from it to take home,” the plants told Baby kindly.

Baby looked around the beautiful plant world. It was really hard to choose just one plant, but eventually she picked a large tree with big leaves and wonderful red flowers.

The plants gave her one seed, and Baby put it in her pocket.

Then she climbed up the ramp, back into the rocket.

On the journey home she was very tired and kept falling asleep.

She didn’t even notice all the planets as they flew past them.

The rocket landed in the same place in the park.

Baby walked down the ramp, and went home for her tea.

©Hamilton Reading Project 20031