Ferngleam
Cover of Nuri and the Cracked Lantern by Ferngleam: Kiko the squirrel, Nana Hala the owl and Nuri the hedgehog stand around a glowing golden lantern under a starry night sky.

FreeAges 4–8Honesty

Nuri and the Cracked Lantern

A Picture Book About Honesty, Courage and Making Things Right

Willowmere Hollow Stories (Book 1)

Free to download, read, print and share. No sign-up.

About the story

Lantern Night is only three days away, and little Nuri the hedgehog can’t stop staring at the glowing Moon Lantern on Nana Hala’s highest shelf. “Look, but never take it down by yourself,” the wise old owl reminds him.

But one quiet evening Nuri climbs up for just one tiny moment. The stool wobbles, the lantern tips over on the shelf, and CLINK! A crack zig-zags across the golden glass.

Nuri hides the crack. When the villagers blame his friend Kiko the squirrel, Nuri says nothing, and the secret grows heavier every day. After a stormy, sleepless night, Nuri must find the courage to put the heavy secret down.

A warm, gently paced story about:

  • telling the truth even when it’s scary
  • never letting someone else take the blame
  • saying a real sorry and making things right
  • forgiving a friend, even when feelings take time

Inside the book: 10 illustrated spreads (picture on one page, story on the facing page), a “Meet the Friends” page, the moral of the story, six simple life lessons, an Islamic educational lesson on truthfulness (sidq) with cited Qur’an verses and hadith, eight reflection questions for families and classrooms, and a closing note.

Free audio edition: a 14½-minute MP3 narration of the whole book, read by a computer voice, so children can listen along.

Look inside

Each spread has a picture on one page and the story on the facing page.

Book spread. Left: inside her oak-tree home, Nana Hala the owl points up at a glowing golden lantern on a high shelf while Nuri the hedgehog gazes up at it. Right: the opening page of the story text.
Spread 1: Nana Hala shows Nuri the Moon Lantern on her highest shelf. View larger
Book spread. Left: on a rain-washed morning under a rainbow, a tearful Nuri stands before Nana Hala and Kiko the squirrel. Right: the page where Nuri admits the lantern fell and cracked when he tried to take it down, and says sorry.
Spread 7: the morning Nuri tells the truth. View larger
Book spread. Left: on Lantern Night, Kiko carries the mended Moon Lantern on a pole, its left panel glowing green-gold, while Nuri walks beside him, Nana Hala spreads her wings and Rumi the rabbit carries a round paper lantern under strings of paper lanterns. Right: the final page of the story text.
Spread 10: Lantern Night, with the mended lantern. View larger
Book spread. Left: a character sheet showing Nuri the hedgehog, Kiko the squirrel, Nana Hala the owl, Rumi the rabbit, the Moon Lantern before and after it cracks, and an acorn. Right: short introductions to each friend.
Meet the friends of Willowmere Hollow. View larger

Listen to the whole book

The full narration (14 min 40 s) reads the whole book: the introduction, all ten story spreads, the lessons, the questions and the conclusion.

Jump to a part
  1. 0:00 Title
  2. 0:11 Introduction
  3. 1:07 How to read this book together
  4. 1:43 Meet the friends
  5. 2:25 Story, part 1
  6. 3:15 Story, part 2
  7. 3:56 Story, part 3
  8. 4:28 Story, part 4
  9. 5:07 Story, part 5
  10. 5:50 Story, part 6
  11. 6:36 Story, part 7
  12. 7:18 Story, part 8
  13. 8:00 Story, part 9
  14. 8:44 Story, part 10
  15. 9:37 The moral of the story
  16. 9:51 Lessons to remember
  17. 10:49 Islamic educational lesson
  18. 13:09 Let's talk about it
  19. 14:05 Conclusion

Read by a computer voice, not a human narrator. Download the MP3 (10.1 MB).

The lesson

Telling the truth takes courage, but it sets your heart free; never let someone else take the blame.

Islamic values section: Truthfulness (sidq), with Qur'an and hadith references explained for children.

  • Surah At-Tawbah 9:119: “O believers! Be mindful of Allah and be with the truthful.”
  • Surah Al-Ahzab 33:70–71: “O believers! Be mindful of Allah, and say what is right. He will bless your deeds for you, and forgive your sins.”
  • Surah An-Nur 24:22 (part of the verse): “Let them pardon and forgive. Do you not love to be forgiven by Allah?”
  • Sahih al-Bukhari 6094 (also Sahih Muslim 2607): “Truthfulness leads to righteousness, and righteousness leads to Paradise…”

These are English translations of meaning, not the Arabic words. Qur’an verses are from Dr. Mustafa Khattab’s The Clear Quran (Quran.com), and the hadith follows the English on Sunnah.com, shortened for children. We checked each quote against those sources on 11 October 2026. The section hasn’t been reviewed by a scholar, so please check it with your own teacher if you rely on it.

How this book was made

Story and text
Story and front/back matter drafted by AI, then edited.
Illustrations
The cover and all interior illustrations were made with an AI image generator, using a character sheet as the reference.
Narration
The narration is read by a computer voice (Piper text-to-speech, voice “Cori” by Bryce Beattie, public domain), not a human narrator.

We disclose AI use on every book.