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FREE INTERACTIVE STORY · AGES 5–7

Picnic on the Moon: a free interactive story

Our hero is having a picnic at the moon base when the basket bounces off the moon buggy and rolls into a crater. Your child chooses how to get it back: big Moon jumps, the moon buggy, or the robot arm.

  • Reading age 6
  • 1 short chapter, 1 choice and 3 endings
  • About 2 minutes
  • Science fiction

Read the story

Choose your hero

Paint it your way

Chapter 1The bouncing basket

A painted moon base with glass domes full of plants, a six-wheeled buggy and a big planet in the sky.

Mei looked out of the glass dome. Grey dust and rocks went on and on.

“Picnic time!” said Captain Joy. They put on their space suits and helmets.

Captain Joy put the picnic basket on the moon buggy. Then the buggy hit a bump.

Boing! The basket bounced off. It rolled slowly down into a big crater.

“Our sandwiches!” laughed Captain Joy. “How can we get them back?”

What happens next is up to your child

How should Mei get the basket back?

Questions for grown-ups to ask

Did you spot it?

  1. EasyWhere did the basket roll?Answer: Into a big crater.
  2. MediumWhat did they wear to go outside?Answer: Space suits and helmets.
  3. HarderWhy could the hero jump so high on the Moon?Answer: The Moon pulls on you less than the Earth does, so you can jump higher.

Talk about it

  • What would you pack for a picnic on the Moon? Remember there is no air outside!
  • Which way of getting the basket back was the best? Why?

Words to talk about

crater
A big round hole in the ground, made when a space rock hits it.
dome
A round roof, like half a ball.
helmet
A hard hat that keeps your head safe.

Reading it together

Picnic on the Moon is a funny space story at Litsee’s reading level for age 6. The words are short and the sentences simple, with sound words (boing, crunch, whirr) that make reading aloud fun.

The story is careful with real space science: there is no air on the Moon, so everyone wears helmets, and the Moon’s weaker pull lets the hero jump very high. Each part of the story also has a real fact card from the Litsee app’s fact bank, with its source.

Afterwards, try Moon jumps in the garden or the park: jump as high as you can, then imagine jumping six times higher. It is a fun way to remember why things are different on the Moon.

About this story

Reading age
6 (ages 5–7). Written for Litsee’s reading level for age 6, where sentences are mostly 5–9 words long.
Length
1 short chapter, 1 choice and 3 endings. Each way through is 121–128 words.
Reading time
About 2 minutes for a 6-year-old reading on their own, at Litsee’s pacing of 60 words a minute for that age. Reading aloud to your child is usually quicker.
Book band
Roughly Turquoise to Purple, if your child’s school uses book bands (schemes differ; see our book bands guide).
Characters
Captain Joy, a robot arm called Grabber
Theme
Science fiction

About this story

Written for litsee.com by the Litsee team, Picnic on the Moon was drafted with AI help and checked against Litsee’s reading level for age 6. Its space facts quote the app’s fact bank word for word.

Pictures of the Moon Base: from the Litsee app, painted with AI image tools and hand-picked by the Litsee team. “Read to me” plays an AI voice recorded in advance.

Last updated: .

Questions parents and teachers ask

Is the space science in the story right?

Yes, simply. On the Moon there is no air to breathe and its pull is weaker than the Earth’s, so you can jump much higher. The fact cards are quoted from the Litsee app’s fact bank, mostly from NASA.

What age is Picnic on the Moon for?

Ages 5 to 7. It is written at Litsee’s reading level for age 6, with short sentences and space words explained by the pictures and the story.

Can my child choose who the story is about?

Yes. Mei leads Picnic on the Moon unless your child picks another of the 15 heroes above it. That hero’s name then fills every page, and “Put them in the pictures” paints them into the Moon Base. Nothing is typed, saved or sent.

Now let your child make a story of their own.

In Litsee, your child creates the hero, picks the world and chooses what happens next in an illustrated story that is read aloud.

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Try it in LitseeYour child creates the hero, picks the world and chooses what happens next, in an illustrated story that is read aloud.Start your free trialUse it in classRead an illustrated, narrated story together on the whiteboard, and let the class choose what happens next.Start a free classroom trialSee Litsee for schools