The Monster Maker. Short audio story narrated in American English.

Raymond didn't want to learn how to read. So many letters stuck together seemed like an enormous bore to him. He couldn't understand why so many adults and other children enjoyed reading so much.

He kept an eye on the letters and couldn't see anything of interest happening. He preferred hearing stories about monsters and horrible beasts.
One day, he went to Mr. Maskell's Fancy Dress Shop. He loved that shop. Mr Maskell could create the most amazing monster outfits, and every year there were many new ones, even when it must have been really difficult to make each one. That day the storeowner was reading, and this caught Raymond's attention.

-"Why do you read so much, when books say nothing interesting?"

-"What do you mean?"

answered Mr. Maskell.

-"It's obvious, they say nothing about monsters or beasts",

added Raymond.

-"I can't believe it!"

exclaimed Mr. Maskell, surprised.

"I still haven't told you my secret?"

Then he showed Raymond the book he was reading.

-"What do you see here?"

Reluctantly, and with some difficulty, Raymond started reading it.

-"No, no! Not like that. You have to see all of it. If you want to get it, you have to step back a bit, and even maybe turn your head a bit. Do you now see anything different?"

Right that second Raymond saw it: The lines and letters of the page formed a big picture which reminded him of a dinosaur! An enormous smile spread right across Raymond's face. He started turning the pages, and discovered many other creatures traced out by the length of the lines. They were on the right, on the left, everywhere...

-"Well, now you know how I can invent so many monsters",

said Mr. Maskell, winking.

-"All you have to do is read that page and then look at the shape of the lines to find which kind of monster is hiding there. Did you know that everything has something special about it? You just have to know how to find it."

Raymond left, excited by his new discovery. From then on, it was unusual to see him without a book in his hands, looking for whatever the page was hiding, and hardly realising that he was learning thousands of new things as he did so.

How about you? Have you found anything hidden in this story?... Don't forget you can turn the writing around :-)