Little LeafLibrary
Create a picture book ↗
LITTLE LEAF LIBRARY · A free, open bookshelf

A little leaf.
A world of stories.

From first sounds to first independent reads.
Find a story to share, then print it and bring it home.

Discover a story ↗
✓ Chinese & English stories✓ Free to read✓ Download & print
✳
Featured story illustration
Start with a little story today.
Let’s read ↗❧
AI picture-book studio

Love a good story? Create your own.

Bring your imagination to our picture-book creation platform.

Visit the story studio ↗Opens in a new tab
GROW WITH STORIES

Stories for every stage of growing up

Choose by age and reading confidence.

Ages are our editorial suggestions, not publisher ratings. Reading abilities vary.

A STORY FOR EVERY LITTLE READER

Find your next favorite book

Loading stories…
FROM SCREEN TO LITTLE HANDS

Make stories part of life.
Take them home, too.

Explore together on screen, or turn a few sheets of paper into a storybook of your own.

01

Find a story your child loves

Age is a starting point; interest matters most. Let children pick an illustration and describe what they see.

02

Read together, then talk

Turn pages online and switch between Chinese and English. Every book includes a conversation prompt.

03

Print the whole story with credits

Choose “Print book” in the reader. Use A4 landscape, fit to page, and disable headers and footers. You can also print the original PDF.

OPEN BOOKS, CLEAR CREDITS

Free stories. Credit where it belongs.

Each reading page records its creators, source and applicable license or public-domain declaration. Most books use CC BY; one catalogue entry carries a publisher Public Domain Mark declaration. Check the individual edition before sharing, adapting or reusing it. Site layouts and synthetic narration are described separately.

Books come from Book Dash, African Storybook / Storybooks Canada and Pratham Books. Source and language details vary by edition. Age, theme and reading prompts are editorial suggestions. Little Leaf is independent of these organizations.

Chinese story collection ↗About CC BY 3.0 ↗About CC BY 4.0 ↗
YOUR READING MOMENTS

Reader feedback

← Back to the bookshelfDownload printable edition

A Book for Puchku

Puchku loves reading, but the books she wants are out of reach. An inventive plan brings her friends together.

Suggested age: 4–6岁 · Reading level L2 · 22 illustrated pages

A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 1, English text included

Read and listen

This book can be read page by page, heard with synthetic Voice 7 narration, downloaded and printed. Enable JavaScript for the interactive reader, or open the story pages below.

Puchku loves reading, but the books she wants are out of reach. An inventive plan brings her friends together.

Shared-reading note: Talk about asking an adult for help with high shelves. The climbing scene shows a problem, not an activity to copy.

Read all 22 story pages
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 1, English text included
A Book for Puchku
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 2, English text included
“Puchku! Have a bath!” “Puchku! Eat your food!”
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 3, English text included
“Puchku! Go to class!” "Puchku! Get on the bus!” “Puchku! Do your homework!”
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 4, English text included
“Where is Puchku?”
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 5, English text included
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 6, English text included
Puchku is busy. She has a book to read. Puchku reads all the time — at home, in school, in the park, in bed. Page after page, book after book, one by one, she has read them all.
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 7, English text included
"Why are you always reading Puchku?" asks Boltu. "Come, watch a cartoon instead!" says Dodla.
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 8, English text included
"Books are so much more fun!” says Puchku. “Look! You see a circle? And this straight line? Push it in, pull that out, and it becomes a letter. Line up the letters, and you have a word! Words can be wise, words can be funny, words can be sad and words can be sunny. When you put words together, they make sentences. And sentences become stories. Read it and WHOOSH! You are in another world! ”
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 9, English text included
But today, Puchku is in a fix. She has run out of books to read! All the books that she could reach in the library, she’s read from Chapter One to The End.
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 10, English text included
"What will I do? No more books to read!" wails Puchku.
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 11, English text included
Wait! What’s that over there? Puchku looks up and sees not one, not two, but three more shelves, FULL of books. “More books!” Puchku whispers in delight.
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 12, English text included
There is still one problem though. She is too short. And the bookshelf is too tall. How can Puchku get up there?
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 13, English text included
Maybe she can use a washing line? Or Ma’s sari to climb? How about the chairs and tables in the room?
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 14, English text included
It would really be helpful, thinks Puchku, to have a giraffe at hand. Even a monkey. Or both!
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 15, English text included
Puchku has a plan. She calls Boltu and Dodla for help. As quiet as they can, they climb on top of each other. “Boltu, you’re heavy!” Dodla complains. “Told you not to eat that last rasgulla.” “It’s not me,” Boltu hisses. “It’s Puchku!” “Shh! Almost there,” says Puchku. Just then, it all goes wrong.
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 16, English text included
AHHHHHHHH!
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 17, English text included
“What is happening here?” It is the Very Tall Librarian! She puts Puchku down. Boltu and Dodla run away! Puchku looks up sadly at the book she almost had in her hand. “Can I help?” asks the Very Tall Librarian.
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 18, English text included
“I was trying to climb the bookshelf. I have run out of books to read,” says Puchku, sadly. “Why didn’t you say so?” says the Very Tall Librarian. “As long as I am around, you do not have to climb a bookshelf. May I pick you up?” Puchku nods.
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 19, English text included
“I will take this, and this, and this one too!” says Puchku happily. “Thank you!” “Take this one too,” says the Very Tall Librarian. “When I was small, I loved this book.”
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 20, English text included
“You were small once?” Puchku asks. “Oh yes, even smaller than you,” says the Very Tall Librarian. “But then I grew, and so will you. Until then, all you need to do is ask for a book and I will be here to give it to you.”
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 21, English text included
But is Puchku listening? No she is not! She is inside her book, through a circle and a line And a letter and another. Then a word! And another, A sentence. And another. And now a story.
A Book for Puchku — original illustrated page 22, English text included
Because Puchku has a new book.

Creators and open license

Written by
Deepanjana Pal
Illustrated by
Rajiv Eipe
Created by
Deepanjana Pal (author); Rajiv Eipe (illustrator)
Full source attribution and license notices
This book was made possible by Pratham Books' StoryWeaver platform. Content under Creative Commons licenses can be downloaded, translated and can even be used to create new stories ​‐ provided you give appropriate credit, and indicate if changes were made. To know more about this, and the full terms of use and attribution, please visit the following link. Disclaimer: https://www.storyweaver.org.in/terms_and_conditions Some rights reserved. This book is CC​-BY​-4.0 licensed. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. For full terms of use and attribution, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Story Attribution: This story: A Book for Puchku is written by Deepanjana Pal . © Pratham Books , 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Other Credits: 'A Book for Puchku' has been published on StoryWeaver by Pratham Books. www.prathambooks.org; Guest Art Director: Maithili Doshi. Illustration Attributions: Cover page: Girl standing in the middle of library, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 2: Girl reading a book while filling a bucket and during breakfast, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 3: Girl reading a book on a swing, empty study table, Girl leaving for school, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 4: Lady looking suspicious , by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 5: Girl sitting in the garden with a book, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 6: A girl lying down and reading a book, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 7: Boys talking to eachother , by Rajiv Eipe © Rajiv Eipe, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 8: Girl visualizing a story, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 9: A sad girl sitting in front of a bookshelf, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 10: A little girl crying on a pile of books, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 11: A little girl looking amazed at the book shelf, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. This book was made possible by Pratham Books' StoryWeaver platform. Content under Creative Commons licenses can be downloaded, translated and can even be used to create new stories ​‐ provided you give appropriate credit, and indicate if changes were made. To know more about this, and the full terms of use and attribution, please visit the following link. Disclaimer: https://www.storyweaver.org.in/terms_and_conditions Some rights reserved. This book is CC​-BY​-4.0 licensed. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. For full terms of use and attribution, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Illustration Attributions: Page 12: Girl looking confused, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 13: Girl figuring out how to get on the bookshelf, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 14: Girl standing with a giraffe and a monkey, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 15: Boys helping girl to get on the bookshelf, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 16: A little girl stuck on a bookshelf, boys on the floor, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 17: Tall lady holding a girl, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 18: Teacher talking to a tiny girl, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 19: Lady showing girl books on the bookshelf, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 20: A very tall lady putting a girl down, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 22: Lady watching a girl read book, by Rajiv Eipe © Pratham Books, 2017. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.

Source: Pratham Books
Original: A Book for Puchku
License: CC BY 4.0 (story and original illustrations)

Web and printable layout adapted by Little Leaf. Age and reading-level suggestions are editorial. Original stories and artwork belong to their credited creators. Website narration uses the selected synthetic Voice 7.