Ruby Makes Room for a Shark

A free shark bedtime story, written for ages 5–7 and ready to read aloud in about 3 minutes. Tonight's hero is Ruby.

Ruby kicked through warm, shallow water at Coral Cove. Summer sun made wiggly stripes on the sand. Her friend Finn swam beside her. Finn was a young reef shark with one crooked tooth. Today, they were having the Coral Cove Race.

Ruby had made the course from fallen kelp. She bent each long strip into a round gate. Smooth rocks held the ends on the sand. The gates went left, then right, then left. At the last gate sat a big pink shell. “Touch the shell to finish!” Ruby said.

Ruby darted through the first green gate. “Swish!” she called. Finn started after her. Then his wide head bumped the kelp. It was a soft bump, but Finn stopped. He looked at the tiny round hole. “My nose says yes,” he said. “My fins say nope.”

Finn tried turning sideways. The gate wrapped gently around his middle. He backed out at once. A strip of kelp tickled his crooked tooth. Finn puffed out three cross bubbles. “I can watch you race,” he said. But his tail drooped toward the sand.

Ruby swam back. “I don’t want a race without you,” she said. She looked at all three gates. Each one had two rocks below. Those rocks showed where to swim. The kelp only joined them at the top. Ruby noticed the pattern at once. Left, right, left. The round tops were not needed!

“I can make the same path wider,” Ruby said. She untied the top of the first kelp loop. The loop opened into two waving green strips. Ruby did the same at each gate. Now every gate had a wide middle. The rocks still marked the left-right path. Finn swam through one. Nothing bumped his nose, belly, or fins. “Everything says yes!” he cried.

They lined up beside a lumpy orange sponge. “Ready, steady, swim!” shouted Ruby. Ruby zipped left through the first wide gate. Finn swooped right through the second. They curled around a coral mound. Finn’s tail flipped up a puff of sand. The puff landed on his own nose. “Excellent racing dust!” he said.

At the last gate, a kelp tip caught on Finn’s crooked tooth. It hung below his nose like a green moustache. Ruby laughed until bubbles popped from her mouth. Finn wiggled his moustache and raced even faster. Ruby kicked hard beside him. Hand and fin touched the pink shell together. “Same time!” Ruby cheered.

They floated above the finish shell, warm and happy. Behind them, the open gates waved left, right, left. Finn plucked off the kelp and tucked it under Ruby’s nose. Now Ruby had the green moustache. She twirled its ends while Finn blew bubbles around her. Ruby’s laugh sent them wobbling toward the sunny surface.