KS1 SATs-Style Reading Paper 2 - Worksheets, Questions and Revision

Amara and the Garden Visitor

Original short story written for Revision Library. Entirely fictional; no real places, schools or people are depicted.

It was a cold Saturday morning in October. Amara and her big brother, Leo, were raking golden leaves into a huge pile at the bottom of the garden. The wind rustled through the trees and made the branches creak.

'Race you to the shed!' shouted Leo, dropping his rake. Amara laughed and ran after him, her wellies splashing through the puddles.

Suddenly, Amara stopped. She had heard a strange snuffling noise coming from behind the old football net. She crept closer, her heart thumping.

Curled up in the corner of the net was a small, spiky hedgehog. Its tiny feet were tangled in the loose string, and it could not move.

'Leo, come quickly!' Amara called. 'There is a hedgehog stuck in the net!'

Leo ran over and knelt down beside his sister. The hedgehog trembled and rolled itself into a tighter ball.

'We need to be very gentle,' said Leo. 'Hedgehogs are shy, and its spikes might hurt if we grab it too fast.'

Amara fetched a pair of thick gardening gloves from the shed. Slowly and carefully, she lifted the hedgehog while Leo snipped the tangled string with a small pair of scissors. Bit by bit, the string fell away.

At last, the hedgehog was free. It uncurled just a little and sniffed the air with its tiny pink nose.

'What should we do now?' asked Amara.

'Mum said hedgehogs like dark, quiet places,' Leo replied. 'Let's put it near the compost heap, under the hedge. It will be safe there until it wakes up properly tonight.'

Together, they carried the hedgehog to a shady spot under the hedge and covered it gently with a few dry leaves.

That evening, Amara looked out of her bedroom window. In the last of the daylight, she saw a small, dark shape shuffle out from under the hedge and disappear into next door's garden.

Amara smiled. She felt proud that she and Leo had helped the little creature find its way home safely, and she made a promise to check the garden for netting every autumn from then on.