DontdoIt and the Tower of Vines
A screen-free audio story about Pentecost Island, Vanuatu for kids 4-10. DontdoIt blows his whistle and shouts "Don't do it!" at everything, until a banana peel sends him flying onto a tower of vines on Pentecost Island, Vanuatu, with a giant coconut crab climbing after him.
Runtime: about 28 minutes
The story
DontdoIt is a careful Goop in a yellow helmet, knee pads and an orange vest, with a silver whistle he blows at anything even a little bit risky. Don't climb the tree. Don't jump in the puddle. Don't eat that cookie, it might be too crunchy.
On Try Something New Day, he climbs the big slide to stop the twins' banana-peel prank, slips, and flies right into the clouds. He lands on top of a wobbly wooden tower on Pentecost Island, with a jungle vine tied to his ankle in his very own double knot.
When his whistle tumbles to the ground, a giant coconut crab snatches it, drags him into its treasure-filled tunnels and chases him all the way back up the tower. With nowhere left to go, the Goop who always says 'don't do it' has to decide if he is brave enough to do it himself.
The real place: The Land Divers of Pentecost Island
Three things to tell your kid after the story.
- 1Long before bungee jumping was invented, people on Pentecost Island were jumping off wooden towers as tall as a ten-story building, with only jungle vines tied to their ankles.
- 2Each jumper measures his own vines so his hair just brushes the soft dirt. The jump is said to bless the soil so the yams grow big and strong.
- 3The coconut crab is the biggest crab in the world that lives on land. It can crack coconuts with its claws, climb trees, and is nicknamed the robber crab because it carries off shiny things.
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