Koala Stories for Kids

Coco the koala lived high in a eucalyptus tree, and she never, ever climbed down. Up in the branches she felt safe. The leaves were sweet, the sun was warm, and the ground, well, the ground was very far away. 'Coco, come and play with us,' called her friends from below. 'No thank you,' Coco said. 'I like it up here.' But one day, Coco looked down and saw a little joey koala sitting at the bottom of her tree, crying. 'What is wrong?' Coco called down. 'I climbed up too high and now I am too scared to come down,' the little koala sobbed. Coco's heart went out to her. 'I know how that feels,' she said. 'I have never climbed down either.' 'Will you help me?' the little koala asked. Coco looked at the ground, so far below. Her paws felt sweaty. But the little koala needed her. She took a deep breath. 'Yes,' she said. 'I will come down. We can do it together.' Slowly, carefully, Coco climbed down. One branch, then another. She talked to the little koala the whole way. 'Put your paw here. Good. Now this branch. You are doing so well.' At last, Coco's feet touched the ground. The little koala scrambled down after her and hugged her tight. 'You did it!' the little koala cheered. 'You climbed down!' Coco looked up at her tree, then down at the soft grass. She wiggled her toes. The ground was not so scary after all. 'And so did you,' she said. 'We were brave together.'

Koa the koala was always being told he slept too much. 'All you do is nap,' the busy ants said. 'You will never get anything done.' But Koa did not nap because he was lazy. He napped because he dreamed. And in his dreams, Koa saw wonderful things: flowers the color of the sunset, rivers that sparkled like stars, and gardens growing tall and green. One day, Koa woke from a nap with a wonderful idea. In his dream, he had seen the most beautiful garden in the world, and he wanted to make it real. 'I will plant a garden,' he told the ants. 'You?' the ants laughed. 'A sleepy koala cannot grow a garden.' But Koa was sure. He gathered seeds, one by one, even though he was slow. He dug small holes with his claws, and then he took a nap under the warm sun. When he woke, he watered the seeds with a little stream he had found. Day after day, Koa worked slowly and rested often. The ants scurried around, shaking their heads. Then one morning, Koa woke to find green shoots poking out of the ground. The shoots grew into stems, and the stems grew buds, and the buds opened into the most beautiful flowers any animal had ever seen. The ants stopped and stared. 'You grew a garden,' they whispered. 'How?' 'I did not rush,' Koa said. 'I rested, and I dreamed, and I kept going. Rest is how a slow koala grows big, beautiful things.' From then on, the ants never called Koa lazy again. And every afternoon, they all sat in the garden together, resting in the shade of the flowers Koa had grown from a dream.

Koji the koala was looking for a home. He had traveled from branch to branch, tree to tree, but nowhere felt quite right. 'This tree is too crowded,' he said, hopping down from a noisy gum tree full of squawking birds. 'This one is too lonely,' he said, leaving a tall, silent tree where the wind never stopped blowing. Koji kept looking. He tried a tree by the river, but the ground was too muddy. He tried a tree on the hill, but the branches were too thin. 'Maybe I will never find a home,' Koji sighed. Just then, an old koala named Grandmother Euca looked down from a big, leafy tree. 'What are you looking for, little one?' she asked. 'A home,' Koji said. 'But every tree is wrong somehow.' 'Then tell me what a home needs,' Grandmother Euca said. Koji thought. 'It needs a branch that is just right for my bottom. It needs leaves that taste sweet. It needs a view of the sunset. And it needs a friend to talk to.' Grandmother Euca smiled. 'Look up, little one. This tree has a wide branch, sweet leaves, and the finest sunset view in the forest. And if you like, you can stay here with me.' Koji climbed up and sat on the branch. It was wide and comfy. He nibbled a leaf. It was sweet. He looked out and saw the sun beginning to set, painting the sky gold and pink. 'It has everything I wanted,' Koji said softly. 'Even a friend.' 'Then you are home,' Grandmother Euca said. And Koji stayed, because home is not just a tree. It is a place where everything feels just right, and someone is glad you came.

Momo the koala loved quiet. He loved the soft rustle of leaves and the hush of the evening. So when a loud, chatty kookaburra named Kiki moved into the branch above his, Momo was not pleased. 'Hello! Hello! What a fine morning!' Kiki laughed loudly, her voice ringing through the trees from sunup to sundown. 'Have you seen my nest? It is the best nest! Would you like to hear a joke? I know fifty jokes!' Momo covered his ears with his paws. 'So much noise,' he grumbled. 'I cannot hear myself think.' But Kiki kept talking. She told Momo about the river, the new flowers, the funny thing the wombat said, and her cousin's cousin who once saw a human. One day, Momo was feeling sad, and he did not want to talk to anyone. Kiki noticed. 'What is wrong, Momo?' she asked, and for once, she did not say anything else. She just waited. Momo blinked. 'You are being quiet,' he said. 'I can be quiet,' Kiki said. 'I can listen too.' So Momo told her everything: how he missed his old tree, how he felt a little lonely, how the days sometimes felt long. And Kiki listened, really listened, without saying a word. When Momo finished, Kiki said, 'I did not know you felt that way. Thank you for telling me. And I am sorry I talk so much that you never get a turn.' 'It is okay,' Momo said, and he smiled. 'You are a good listener when you try.' 'And you are a good talker when someone finally listens,' Kiki laughed. From then on, Kiki still talked a lot, but she also stopped to listen. And Momo learned that a chatty friend can be the best friend of all, if you both remember to take turns.

Pip the koala was the smallest in the whole forest, and he was sure he could not do anything. He could not reach the highest leaves. He could not climb the tallest trees. He could not win the climbing races. 'I am too small,' Pip would say, and he would sit on the lowest branch, feeling sorry for himself. One hot afternoon, a great wind blew through the forest. Branches swayed, leaves flew, and a tiny nest tumbled out of a high tree. Inside the nest was a baby bird, too young to fly. 'Help!' the baby bird peeped, falling fast. The big koalas tried to catch it, but they were too slow and too far away. The nest fell and fell, right toward the ground. But Pip was on the lowest branch, right in its path. He reached out his little paws and caught the nest, soft as a whisper. The forest went quiet. Then everyone cheered. 'You saved the baby bird!' they cried. 'How did you do that?' Pip looked at his small paws in surprise. 'I was in the right place,' he said. 'My small branch was exactly where I was needed.' The mother bird flew down and hugged Pip. 'You are not too small,' she said. 'You are just the right size to save my baby.' Pip smiled for the first time in a long time. 'I guess small can be strong too,' he said. And from that day on, Pip did not sit on the lowest branch feeling sorry for himself. He sat there proudly, because he knew that being small did not mean being useless. It meant being exactly right, just where you are.

All the koalas in the gum tree were fast asleep, curled in the crooks of the branches. All of them except Kip. Kip's eyes were wide open. "Why can I not sleep?" he said. "Everyone else is dreaming." He tried counting leaves. One, two, three. He reached fifty leaves and was still awake. He tried humming a soft little song. It only made him feel more awake. He tried squeezing his eyes shut tight. That did not work either. Kip climbed down to find his grandmother. "Grandma," he said, "I cannot sleep. I have tried everything." Grandmother smiled. "You are trying too hard, little one. Sleeping is not something you push. It is something you let happen." "What does that mean?" asked Kip. "Come sit in the crook of my branch," she said. "Wrap your arms around the smooth bark. Feel the tree sway a little in the wind. Take one slow breath in, and one slow breath out." Kip did what she said. The tree swayed gently. He took a slow breath in, and a slow breath out. "That is it," whispered Grandmother. "Now let the night be quiet around you." Kip's eyes grew heavy. His arms hugged the branch. Before he knew it, he was fast asleep, dreaming of leaves and stars. In the morning he woke up rested and happy. "I slept!" he said. "Your secret worked." "The secret is not to fight the night," said Grandmother. "Just rest, and sleep will come to you." That night Kip fell asleep before the moon even rose. Rest, he had learned, comes when you let it.

Euca the koala had the best branch in the whole gum tree. From there she could see the whole green valley. She sat there every morning and munched her leaves. One morning she climbed up and found a young koala she did not know, fast asleep in her spot. "That is my branch," said Euca. "I sit there every day." The young koala did not wake. He only snored a little, hugging the branch tight. Euca felt cross. She wanted to poke him and tell him to go. But then she looked closer. The young koala looked thin and tired, as if he had traveled a long, long way. "He must be very tired," Euca said softly to herself. "Maybe I can sit on the branch beside him for a while." So Euca climbed onto the next branch over and munched her leaves quietly. The view was just as nice from there. After a long while, the young koala woke up. "Oh!" he said. "I am so sorry. I was so tired I fell asleep in your tree." "It is okay," said Euca. "You looked like you needed the rest." "I have been looking for a new home," said the young koala. "My name is Bindi. Thank you for letting me sleep." "Stay as long as you like," said Euca. "There are plenty of branches for two." From that day on, Euca and Bindi shared the tree. And Euca learned that a branch is best when it has room for a friend.

Koa the koala was a picky eater. He would only eat the leaves from one tall gum tree, the one by the creek. "These leaves are the best," he said. "I will never eat any other kind." One morning Koa climbed his tree and found a problem. The tree had lost many of its leaves, and the ones that were left were old and dry. "There is nothing good to eat!" said Koa. "Now what will I do?" His mother climbed up beside him. "There are other eucalyptus trees all over the valley," she said. "Their leaves are good too." "But I do not know those leaves," said Koa. "What if they taste bad?" "You will not know until you try a tiny bite," said his mother. "Come with me." They climbed to a different tree with round, shiny leaves. Koa sniffed one. "It smells a little different," he said. "Take a tiny nibble," said his mother. Koa took a small bite. He chewed slowly. "Hey," he said. "This is not bad at all." He took a bigger bite, then another. Soon his tummy was full. "There are so many good leaves I never tried," said Koa. "I was missing out." "Now you know," said his mother. "When you try new things, you find new favorites." That evening Koa tried leaves from three different trees. He liked them all. He was not a picky eater anymore, and his tummy was never hungry again. Koa smiled all the way home. "Tomorrow," he said, "I will try a new tree again. There are still so many leaves to taste."