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This switcher only changes the instructions — the reading is always in English.
In bold: key vocabulary. Tap any word in the text to see its definition.
On the last day of the summer holidays, Mina went to the park with her brother's old football. She kicked it too hard, and it rolled behind a huge oak tree. When she went to get it, she saw something strange. At the bottom of the trunk, there was a tiny green door, no bigger than her hand.
She knelt down and knocked. Nothing happened. She pushed, and the door opened. Inside, there was a little market under the roots of the tree. A squirrel was selling nuts, a hedgehog was mending a tiny coat, and two frogs were playing music on leaves. Mina was so surprised that she could not speak.
"Are you lost, tall one?" asked the hedgehog. "We don't get many visitors." Mina shook her head. "I found your door by accident. What is this place?" "The Market of the Roots," the squirrel said proudly. "Everything here costs only one button." Mina remembered that she had an old blue button in her pocket.
She gave it to the squirrel, and he gave her a tiny paper bag. "Open it when you are sad," he said. She spent an hour in the market. She listened to the frogs, and she watched the hedgehog sew a coat for a sparrow. Then the light in the roots became orange. "It's late," said the hedgehog. "The door closes at sunset."
Mina crawled out just in time. The park was quiet, and the sky was pink. She looked back at the oak tree, but the little door was gone. There was only rough bark, and some ants walking up the trunk.
That night, Mina felt sad because the summer holidays were over, so she opened the paper bag. Inside, there was a perfect, tiny coin, as shiny as a star. She did not know where to keep it, so she put it in her pocket. Every day since then, she has walked to the oak tree after school. She has not found the door again, but she has never stopped looking.
