Meet the Squeebles

Hello friends, it's me, Whizz! I'm so excited to finally be on the Internet and I wanted to tell you how it came about.

It all began several weeks ago when something unusual and a little alarming happened during a particularly exciting game of Squeeberang. Raino was happily streaking through the sky on the Hawkeye Squeeberang and he'd had such an incredibly powerful launch that it had looked as though he may go farther than ever before. Suddenly though, the sky was darkened by a looming shape. Sparks flew, a metal pranging sound boomed through the air making our heads buzz and we watched with horror as Raino and his Squeeberang were knocked violently off course by an enormous flying lump of shiny metal. Raino was catapulted from his seat and we all gasped, Gumbo's antennae wiggling frantically, as we witnessed him shooting through the open window of Ruby's ice cream parlour and heard a huge crash, followed by a strange squelching noise.

We ran over (I got there first, because I can run faster than the speed of sound!) and burst in through the front door. On the bar we saw only the top of Raino's yellow pointy head sticking out from a large vat of ice cream, which Ruby must have just finished churning. For a moment I thought this may just be the saddest day of our entire lives, until I saw Raino's leg begin to wiggle and rise up, flicking a blob of ice cream up onto the ceiling. 'Disgusting,' said Raino, spluttering ice cream from his mouth as his head popped up, 'it's chilli flavour'.

Once Raino had run beneath the sprinkler and washed himself clean of the spicy chilli ice cream, we investigated the strange metal machine which had sent him flying earlier. It had landed at the edge of the marsh and we were able to reach it by propping a wooden plank up to the door. Inside it was deserted, but there were walls covered with flashing lights, screens and even a television. For a week or so we all crowded round and watched a fascinating programme called Blue Peter. We all waited and waited for someone called Peter who was blue (and who we hoped would look a bit more like us). But Peter never appeared, so eventually we decided that playing Squeeberang was more fun than the television.

But Trig loved all the wires and computer parts and while we were trying to beat our best Squeeberang throws, Trig rose early every morning and headed straight out to the silver thing on the marsh. Occasionally, we'd hear hammering and strange noises coming from it, sometimes sparks shot out of the roof, until then one day Trig came bouncing down the ramp shouting that he'd finally done it. The 'it' turned out to be connecting us to something called the Internet, which is how I'm writing to you now. Apparently, I can reach the whole world from here without ever leaving home!

Trig also told me about a thing called a 'blog', which he said is a bit like a diary that you can write in on the Internet and share with other people. That was when I suddenly felt really excited about all Trig's work connecting us to the Internet, because I love writing and I can't wait to tell you all the things we get up to here on Squeeble Island.

I'll be back soon, but in the meantime, I thought you might like me to give you a special tip to use in the Squeebles Maths Bingo game. Here's the tip: if you're making an ice cream to serve to Raino, make sure you avoid anything spicy or hot. He's never liked those flavours, but he's disliked them even more since he nearly drowned in them!

Speak soon,

Whizz :-)

Hello Friends,

Today we've been busy in the vegetable garden, preparing the soil for our next crop of plumatopeas. They're a delicious sort of fruit that Lex invented quite by accident several years ago when she planted a plum stone, some tomato seeds and the feather of a peacock, which had blown onto Squeeble Island on a gusty southeasterly wind. She'd buried them as the treasure in a hunt that she'd been organising for the rest of us, but our game was stopped by torrential rain and so Lex forgot all about the things she'd buried under ground and we spent the afternoon playing marbles instead.

But a few months later strange little tufts began to grow from the soil and each day they became taller. At first they were a sludgy brown colour, but by the end of the week they had brightened and grown up to look just like the peacock feather that had blown in months earlier. When the wind blew it made it look like a sea of emerald blue eyes were looking around them and smiling at us. And there were so many of them! We called them Eye Flowers and watered them each day, because we loved how different they were to the usual plants we had on Squeeble Island at that time.

And then one day, Bitsy decided that they might make good tickling sticks and tried to pull one from the ground. It didn't come up quite as easily as she'd expected though. She tugged so much that her antennae began to droop and her eyelashes wilted, making her eyes feel quite hairy. She was about to give up when she gave one last tug and suddenly shot backwards, morscking (that's a Squeeble sound of surprise) and the thing that had been beneath the ground shot straight into her open mouth. She lay, quite surprised, with the feather sticking straight up above her and something round wedged inside her mouth, filling it with the most incredible flavour and making her tongue tingle with happiness.

Luckily, I'd seen what had happened and shot over on a squeeberang to where Bitsy lay. I pulled the feather straight from her mouth, which made a loud popping noise as a large, succulent looking fruit appeared on the end of the feather. We stared in amazement. They weren't flowers at all! The peacock feather seemed to have taken the place of the stalk which you'd normally find on an apple or a cherry. And the fruit beneath it looked like a bright red tomato. We puzzled over what it could be. "It tasted like heaven", said Bitsy, looking longingly at the fruit, "like the best flavour you've ever tasted fizzing in your mouth". I placed it on the ground and carefully wiggled my foot over it to split the rest of the fruit open. Inside, arranged around a large fruit stone, were two moon-shaped clusters of seeds. A stone and seeds! Normally a fruit has one or the other.

We pulled another fruit from the ground, which came free more easily, and we raced over to the marsh to see Trig. We told him all about what had happened and he told us he'd put one into the Safesquee tester right away (a Safesquee tester is a special machine that Trig built to tell us whether something is safe for us to eat). The safe-o-meter on the Safesquee tester flickered up and down a little and then shot straight over to the SAFE setting!

Once we knew they were safe to eat, every single one of us gathered around the Eye Flowers and set to work pulling some up for a feast. As the sun was beginning to set we made our way over to Sparkle Falls, the waterfall that cascades down over the high rocks on the north side of Squeeble Island. We sat by the water's edge, sucking on our plumatopeas. The only sound was the roar of the waterfall, because we were all too happy and tired to speak. We sat in silence letting the magical flavour explode in our mouths.

The Plumatopeas have remained the most special treat you can have on Squeeble Island, because each year our crop depends on a fresh peacock feather blowing in on the wind. From October onwards we spend a little of each day trawling the low parts of the Island in Squeeble-carts, while others fly above on Squeeberangs, all desperately trying to spot the peacock feather we'll need to have Plumatopeas for the year ahead. And whoever finds it first gets to pull up the largest, shiniest, most beautiful peacock feather from the vegetable patch once our crop is ready to be eaten. For what lies beneath the most beautiful peacock feather is the juciest plumatopea of all.

Speak soon,

Whizz :)

Ps. We have a Safesquee to test that all our foods are safe for us to eat. I've read on the internet that you have scientists (who seem to like to wear white coats!) who take care that all your foods are safe for you. Remembernot to eat anything you discover by yourself because it won't have been tested by scientists for safety and could make you very unwell.

Hello Friends,

I can't stop for long today as I'm busy making cheese and pickle sandwiches for Jingo's birthday party (that's his favourite food, not mine, but it's his birthday, so he's allowed to choose what we eat). Jingo is quite shy and doesn't like too much fuss being made of him, so we're just planning to gather at the Roundhouse Den and watch a film while eating the sandwiches.

I thought you might like to hear about the Roundhouse Den as it's quite an unusual building. There's a spot on Squeeble Island where you can see the view in nearly every direction - sea, hills and beach - and years ago we decided it would be the perfect place to build a den where we could all meet. Before we started building we laid out tree stumps to sit on to see how big it would need to be to fit in all of us. We arranged the stumps in a circle and once we'd placed them so that we were cosy but not squashed, we sat admiring the view. But as we sat there we realised that our plan had a flaw: once you were sitting in a chair you would only see one view, which would make it just like every other house on Squeeble Island (we're lucky that every house has at least one amazing view). We all felt quite dissatisfied by this and weeks of dreaming over quite how marvellous this new building with its wonderful views could be felt suddenly dashed.

A few weeks later Trig had called a meeting. We'd gathered at Ruby's Ice-Cream Parlour, which wasn't quite big enough for all of us, so some Squeebles stood outside and listened through the open windows. When Trig had told us he wanted to talk to us about the den a hush had fallen over the ice-cream parlour and we'd all waited in silence to hear what he had to say. Trig told us that he'd spent the last few weeks thinking the problem over and had come up with a solution. His ingenious plan was that instead of the den being a square building, it would be round. The building would sit on a turn-table located just below the ground, which would slowly rotate, meaning that the view from the windows was always changing. We all loved Trig's idea and Ruby began handing round ice-creams in celebration.

We spent a year digging and shifting mud, Brains and Trig spent months engineering the wind-powered turn table which would make the building rotate, and then we spent even longer building the walls, and finally, the roof.

The Roundhouse Den is my favourite building on the Island, not only because of the amazing views or how good it is to have somewhere we can all fit in, but because we had so much fun building it. Whenever the weather was dry we spent whole days together working on it, and by sunset our limbs felt warm with tiredness and our hearts felt happy with all the fun we'd had as we'd tried keep each others spirits up during all the hard work. Ruby often surprised us with ice creams, Edgar happily did all the tidying up at the end of the day (because he loves tidying and knows that most Squeebles don't) and Zuma and Jip amused us all with jokes whenever it felt like squeebles were becoming weary and considering giving up.

So now I'm off to carry trays of sandwiches over to the Roundhouse Den for Jingo's party. I hope you have some fun planned too.

Whizz :)

Hello Friends,

I'm so excited to announce that we've decided to run a special competition where the prize is a cuddly, stuffed version of....me! When Lex first said that she wanted to make a toy version of me, I was a bit worried. I was even more worried when she started sewing. First my eyes were too small and then she said that she couldn't quite decide how to attach my feet, so considered not giving me any at all. It was a stressful time! But finally, Lex came up with something that all the other Squeebles agreed did look just like me (although slightly less handsome). At present, there is only one Squeeble toy like this in the entire world. This means that it is quite a special prize, because if you win it you will know that, not only do you have something totally unique, but also that you are touching something that has been made right here on Squeeble Island. Your work would also be featured on this blog, for public admiration!

To have a chance of winning, we're asking you to draw a picture of the house that you imagine your favourite Squeeble might live in, here on Squeeble Island. It can be the inside or the outside of the house, but it must include one of the Squeebles. You can use pen, pencil or paint, you could create a collage, or you could be incredibly modern and design it on the computer!

You'll probably know all about who the different Squeebles are and be able to imagine what kind of houses some of them may have, but if you need inspiration you can find out more about us by reading the other posts on this blog or looking at the Squeebles you've won in any of our apps and reading up on our likes and dislikes.

We can't wait to see your pictures and when we've got a nice, juicy pile of entries, we're planning to take them up to The Roundhouse Den to look through them all (we're going to bake chocolate brownies to eat while we admire them!). The competition closes on the 22nd March at midnight (British time).

The (human!) caretakers of Squeeble Island have written all the competition rules and how to enter on their website.

Squeeblemail can be very unreliable and slow (as it depends on finding a willing seagull), so we sent the stuffed Whizz toy through the Squeeshoot, which meant it landed straight in our inventor's house in England! Once it had arrived we asked the inventor and his family to send a photo of the prize with their cat because we love seeing animals with so much hair, as we don't have any fur at all. This is the photo that they sent to us. A Golden Retriever puppy is coming to live with them soon too and we've seen a photo of her and think that she may end up being even bigger and hairier than their cat!

Whizz :)

I was the first Squeeble to be designed and have since taken on a life of my own, but I started off as a simple drawing in a sketch pad. My inventor drew several versions of me and his children joined in too. You can see in the picture below that I started off looking very different to how I do now! Even the number on my body has changed.

Once the drawings were finished, I was the Squeeble that our inventor chose to start working on first and he began redesigning me on his computer. Eventually he and his family all agreed that my eyes were just the right size and that they liked the way that my head was round on one side but swooped up into a flame shape on the other. In the first drawings, all the Squeebles had different kinds of eyes and noses, but once I was finished it felt right for Squeebles to have feet, eyes and a nose that looked just like mine. They also decided that we should all have numbers and letters on our bodies as these things would be a big part of what all Squeebles would go on to do in the apps which we'd appear in. However, once those things were decided there were no other rules about how a Squeeble should look and the others seemed almost to invent themselves, appearing quickly on the screen as our inventor clicked his mouse around, smoothing edges and adding a little gloss here and there. Much later my inventor wrote some code that let me spin around, allowed my eyes to move and my mouth to smile. Once I was in the computer I really began to come to life.

Eventually though, there were so many of us being lively inside our inventor's computer, that he couldn't get much work done and we were getting squashed, so he designed the Squeeble Island where we could live happily. He opened a door between the island and his computer and we come and go as we please. Sometimes we come onto our inventor's computer screen and suggest ideas for a new app or other ways we might be able to help children learn....and sometimes we just appear and pull a funny face before running back through the door to Squeeble Island again!

Whizz :)

Hello Friends,

Soon I'm going to teach you an amazing trick for learning your nine times tables, but for it to work you'll need to know your left from your right. Even some adults have problems remembering this, so I thought I'd teach you an easy way to store it in your head. If you already know this trick, or if you have a powerful inbuilt left and right sensor, maybe you could teach it to a younger brother or sister? We think that even when they're 100 years old they'll still probably think of you and remember you teaching them this every time they need to know left from right.

Squeebles don't have fingers like humans, but we often imagine what it would be like to have so many useful prongs. Recently, Lex had a stroke of genius and realised that not only are they useful for picking things up with, but that they could also help you remember your left from your right.

Here's the trick:

Hold your hands up in front of you. Your palms should be facing away from you, so that you can see your fingernails.

Now, stretch your fingers up tall and move your thumbs to the side (so that your thumb and first finger look like one corner of a square). Can you see that on one hand there's a perfect capital 'L' made by your thumb and first finger, but on the other hand it's back to front? Well, it's actually your left hand that allows you to make this perfect 'L' and as L is the first letter of the word 'left' it means it's easy to look at your hands and know that, if you can see your fingernails, whichever hand that is making the L shape the right way around is the left hand! And the other....that must be your right!

I'll be back with the trick for learning your 9 times tables soon,

Whizz :)

Hello Friends,

Today I'm going to teach you a trick for learning most of your 9x tables really speedily! No mental maths is involved, it's all about counting your fingers (and thumbs, but just think of them as fingers for this). You'll need to know your left from your right to be able to do use this method. If you're not sure on this, you can look back at my last post where I've given you an easy trick for remembering that too.

Put up your hands in front of you with your thumbs next to one another. Imagine that each finger has a number from 1 to 10. 1 is the little finger on your left hand and 10 is the little finger on your right hand.

Now let's start with a simple multiplication: 2 x 9.

Whatever number you are multiplying 9 by, you'll need to put that finger down, so put up your fingers and then put down your second finger on your left hand (finger number 2).

You can see that there is one finger to the left of that one and 8 fingers to the right of it. You get the answer by simply placing those numbers next to each other, so 2 x 9 = 18!

Now let's try a different one. 4 x 9. You'll need to put the fourth finger on your left hand down. Now you have three fingers to the left of this one and six fingers to the right. If you put 3 and 6 next to one another that gives you 36. So 4 x 9 = 36.

Let's try multiplying 9 by an even bigger number. Let's go for 7 x 9. Put your fingers up in front of you and put down your seventh finger (this time it will be on your right hand). You can see that you have six fingers to the left of this one and three to the right of it, so the answer is 63.

Now try multiplying 9 by some of the numbers we haven't done yet. I'll write the answers down below so that you can check that you're doing it correctly.

1 x 9 = 9

2 x 9 = 18

3 x 9 = 27

4 x 9 = 36

5 x 9 = 45

6 x 9 = 54

7 x 9 = 63

8 x 9 = 72

9 x 9 = 81

Unfortunately, you'll need to remember the answers for the rest of the 9 x table as you will run out of fingers if you go beyond 9 x 9, but this trick should give you a good headstart on your 9 x table. And just in case you want to surprise your parents with how quickly you've learnt them, I'll include the answers to the rest of the 9 x table in case you want to memorise them.

10 x 9 = 90

11 x 9 = 99

12 x 9 = 108

Oh and by the way, remember the competition we're running at the moment where you can win your very own stuffed toy version of ME, Whizz!

Whizz :)

Hello Friends,

Today I have some photos to share with you, which our inventors sent to us. Their Golden Retriever puppy has finally arrived! We have all spent a lot of time crowding around Trig's computer inside the silver thing on the marsh (if you don't remember how that got here, you can read this action-packed post). We think she looks very cute.

We sent our inventors a questionnaire to answer so that we could find out more.

What is the new puppy's name?

Our puppy is called Nell. As soon as we knew we were getting a puppy we spent a lot of time discussing names. We loved the name Nina, but we realised when you shout it aloud several times, as you would do in the park, it suddenly sounded as though you were pretending to be a fire engine...when you're picking a dog's name it's a good idea to practice how it sounds when you have to say it over and over again in a public place. Choosing a name for a pet is very different from choosing a name for a person.

What does Nell do all day?

Nell sleeps a lot (which is good as it means we can carry on with our work designing more Squeeble apps). She likes to sleep at our feet and when there are no feet around she finds a pair of shoes to sleep on. However, when she wakes up she needs lots of attention and she likes to play with all her toys, but she also enjoys learning. So far she has learnt to sit, offer up her paw and also to wait patiently for a treat. She's also starting to learn to fetch toys that we've thrown, but if we throw the toy too far she forgets that she is meant to be bringing the toy back.

What is Nell's favourite thing?

This week where we live with Nell, it snowed. Nell loved eating the snow and she gets very excited when she's allowed out to play in it. When it's not snowing, she loves to race around the garden with a branch in her mouth at full speed with her ears flapping in the wind behind her. She looks very sweet, but slightly bonkers when she's doing this. She also likes to eat stones, so we have to follow her around the garden trying to get the stones out of her mouth. Having a puppy is very hard work.

She looks quite lively. We've read about puppies and it sounds like they can be a LOT of hard work. What is the most difficult thing about having a new puppy?

You're right. A puppy is a LOT of work. You have to constantly watch a new puppy to make sure she's not eating sofas, chair legs or chewing her way through wires, as most puppies love to chew on things as it makes their new teeth feel better. We also have to teach her that it's not okay to nip people, because young puppies think it's fun when their own brothers or sisters bite them, so now we have to teach her that humans are different and that we really DO mind. Nell will end up being a big dog, so we also have to teach her while she's still small that it's not okay to jump up at people. And then you also have to teach her to go to the loo in the right place!

What does Nell like to eat? And do you think she would eat a Squeeble if she came across one?

Nell likes to eat a bowl of puppy food four times a day. She also loves to eat the treats she's given as a reward for when she's done something good. She loves banana, apple, carrot and cheese. Her favourite thing is ice-cubes made from frozen yoghurt and peanut butter.

I don't think she would eat a Squeeble. She hasn't attempted to eat our two cats, so I'm guessing that if she saw us talking to you and smiling at you, she'd understand that we liked you and would know that it would not be okay to eat you. But don't worry, you're either safely inside my laptop or on Squeeble Island - Nell can't get to either of those places.

Will the Squeebles ever have a pet?

We hadn't realised you might want a pet! That's a great idea. Yes, maybe one day you'll be able to have a pet of your own. We could even put one into one of the apps. Why don't you all discuss what type of pet you might like and when we have some spare time we could work on designing one for you.

I hope you enjoyed reading the answers to our questionnaire as much as we did - we're hugely relieved that Nell would be unlikely to eat us. We're off to discuss what kind of pet we might like now.

Whizz :)

Hello Friends,

I'm so excited to announce a winner to our competition! Yesterday we sorted through the entries and realised that we had a very difficult decision to make: they were all fantastic and the houses that had been designed for us were amazing! We're now feeling like there are some improvements we could make to our current homes!

But as there is currently only ONE toy version of me in the whole world, so sadly there can only be one winner. After a lots of discussion, we eventually all agreed that Anna, who is 7 years old, should be our winner of this competition. Anna had designed a house especially for Ruby to live in and we loved the gemstones that she'd decorated the outside with - Ruby thought it was a dazzlingly good idea.

Anna wrote:

This is Ruby's house. It will suit her because the house is covered in gemstones and has strawberries on the roof. I put glitter on the house to make it extra sparkly for Ruby. She likes to sit outside in her red deckchair with her shopping bag. I chose Ruby because she is my favourite Squeeble.

Yesterday, we asked our inventor if Ruby would be able to interview Anna. Our inventor wrote to Anna's mum with our questions and her mum kindly sent back Anna's answers (very speedily as Anna wasn't well that day, so was off school) - we hope you enjoy reading Anna's answers as much as we did! (Ruby's questions in red, Anna's answers in black and The Squeebles' responses in pink).

Hi Anna. It's Ruby here. I love the house you've designed for me and I can't wait to start living in it! I'd like to ask you a few questions if that's okay, for our Squeebles blog...

Q1. I really like the strawberries on the roof of the house you've created for me. What's your favourite part of the house you designed? Why is it your favourite part?

I like the glitter best because it's sparkly and I like sparkly stuff. [Me too!]

Q2. If you were a Squeeble, which one would you be and why?

I'd be Whizz because I love to run fast and I like cherries. [I love cherries too, but not as much as strawberries. Mmmmm]

Q3. I own an ice cream parlour. If you came to visit me there, what flavour of ice cream would you have (it can be a mixture of several flavours).

I'd like vanilla with a lollipop stuck in it and chocolate sauce. [That sounds amazing! I'll have to try that one next time I'm at the ice cream parlour.]

Q4. The Squeebles are thinking of getting a pet! Do you have any pets? If so, what kind of pets do you have and what are the best things about them? If not, just tell us what your favourite kind of animal is and why.

I've got three tropical fish called Starshine, Blackpatch and Frogspawn. The best thing about them is that they always look beautiful and colourful and I like to read them stories. [That's great that you read to them - I bet they love a good "tail"... tee hee hee]

Q5. As you know, I love going shopping for nice things and eating strawberries. What is the thing you enjoy doing most in the whole world?

I like eating cake, running and playing tennis. [Not all at the same time though I hope!!!]

We're really sorry to hear that you aren't feeling well. We wish there was something we could do to help but Squeeble medicine doesn't really work on people. Get well soon!!!

Thank you I am feeling a bit better! [That's wonderful - the Squeebles are all really happy to hear that!]

We're going to send Anna her prize Whizz toy and feel that he will be going to a very lovely home because Anna sounds like she is incredibly kind to her fish and as though they probably have a very interesting life.

We'd also like to show you just a few of our other favourite entries. We're so sorry we don't have room to show them all, but these two were close runner's up to Anna's house for Ruby.

Louis, aged 9, designed this wonderful house for Blob. We love that it has an antenna just like Blob's. In Louis' description of the house he told us that Blob gets up to his bedroom by an escalator and comes down via a slide. We all thought the idea of having an escalator to carry us up the stairs was brilliant (especially when we're exhausted after a hard day of digging up Plumatoepeas!)

Emily, who is 8, designed this amazing house for Whizz. We think it's wonderful that it has a Squeeberang for a door knocker!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered our competition - we loved your designs and hope you enjoyed creating them. Congratulations once again to Anna!

Whizz :)

Hello Friends,

We've been busy here on Squeeble Island, so I haven't had time to write on my blog for a quite a few days now. Last week, when it had rained for so many days that the wheels of our Squeeblecarts got stuck in the mud, we all began to feel a little bit bored. Our inventors thought about what might keep us amused and eventually a soft black box appeared through the Squeeshoot - they'd decided to let us borrow their camera!

We've taken HUNDREDS of photos! We take photos of each others faces so close up that you can see the furry edges of Jingo's eyelashes...

...or so far away that Lex looks like a tiny dot in the distance.

We even put the camera lens up against the end of our telescope and took photos of ships in the distance where the sun was starting to shine through the clouds - these photos look especially cool as they have a ring around them where the round end of the telescope has blocked out the light.

And then, when the rain had finally stopped, we all went out into the meadow and arranged ourselves into letter shapes to spell out a message for you. It took a while, because it's hard not to wobble about when you're standing on someone's shoulders and even the slightest movement can make a photo blurry. Eventually, Bug managed to take a picture where no-one was wobbling and about to fall down and where we all looked like the letters we were meant to look like - you can see it at the top of this post!

Our inventors needed their camera back yesterday, so we posted it to them through the squeeshoot. We're not feeling too sad about this as Trig thought the camera was so amazing that he's out in the shiny silver thing on the marsh making us one to keep! He says it could take a few months, but we think it will be worth waiting for.

Whizz :)

Hello Friends,

We've been busy playing a new game over the last few weeks, one which we discovered quite by accident!

Jingo was flying his kite over the hills one day when a sudden gust of wind caught it with such unexpected force that Jingo found himself being lifted from the ground! When the wind dropped he found himself plummeting down over Sparkle Falls, the tallest waterfall on Squeeble Island. He somersaulted his way down the waterfall, letting out yelps of horror as he went, terrified of what would happen when he reached the bottom.

But what happened when he did reach the bottom was almost more surprising than unexpectedly finding yourself hurtling down a waterfall. His landing was surprisingly soft and he could feel himself sinking fast, but somehow he felt quite dry and cosy. It was only when he bobbed up to the surface again that he realised that both himself and his kite were inside a glossy bubble ball that bounced around in the water keeping him perfectly safe.

But only moments later, one of the large Flipfish, who live in the pool beneath the waterfall, caught Jingo's bubble ball on the end of his tail and flicked him all the way to the other side of it. 'Whoooooooaaaa' Jingo screamed from inside the bubble as he flew through the air before landing in the water and bursting. He was nearer to the water's edge and able to swim quickly to dry land, where he sat for a while, blinking in the sun, feeling quite confused by what had just happened.

When Jingo told us all about it we were amazed. We couldn't quite believe him. Lex suggested we get Jingo to take us to exactly where he was flying his kite when the gust of wind caught him to see if happened again. We all went up to the top of the hill where Jingo had been. 'I think it was just about here...' he was saying, when suddenly he was blown off his feet again and we watched in amazement as he was carried over to the waterfall and then suddenly dropped right above it. We ran over to the edge and watched as a tiny bubble appeared right at the bottom and then all gasped as we saw a Flipfish hit the bubble with its tail to send Jingo flying!

A few moments later we could hear Jingo's happy shouts. 'That was amazing! Wooohoooo!' he was shouting.

And so the next day we all brought our kites up to the top of the hill and when one of us is in just the right spot to catch the wind, the game begins. Squeeble Island is a very, very magical place indeed!

Whizz :)

Hello friends,

It's been raining on Squeeble Island this week so we've spent a lot of time inside in the roundhouse playing games. I thought you might like to hear about our current favourite, which is a storytelling game called Fortunately, Unfortunately.

We sit in a circle and take it in turns to tell a story, each saying one line at a time. The first Squeeble opens the story with a sentence. Then the next can say one line, but it must begin with the word 'fortunately'. The next Squeeble then says a line, this time starting their sentence with the word 'unfortunately'. It continues like that, taking it in turns to say a sentence starting with 'fortunately' or 'unfortunately. The end of the game normally comes when we are all laughing too much to carry on speaking.

Here's one of our stories:

Ruby(who was balancing upside-down on her head at this point): One day Whizz was walking to my ice cream parlour...
Jingo: Fortunately, it was a lovely, sunny day, so Whizz was feeling very excited about eating an ice-cream.
Trig: Unfortunately, a large crack appeared in the ground so that Whizz couldn't get to the ice-cream parlour.
Lex: Fortunately, Whizz found a ladder which he could lay over the crack and use as a temporary bridge!
Globbo: Unfortunately, the ladder wasn't very strong and it began to snap!
Toastie: Fortunately, Whizz was able to cling onto one of the rungs of the ladder and then swing from rung to rung until he reached safety.
Zuma: Unfortunately, as soon as he reached safety a large and very hungry seagull swooped down and flew off with him.
Pip: Fortunately, the seagull wasn't very strong and Whizz fell from its evil beak!
Swipe: Unfortunately, he landed in the sea.
Flush: Fortunately, Whizz was a very good swimmer and swam back to the Island.
Baz: Unfortunately, it was the wrong island!
Mud: Fortunately, the new island was full of cherries though, which are Whizz's favourite food!
Raino: Unfortunately, Whizz ate so many that he began to feel rather unwell and turned bright green.
Spoon: Fortunately, this meant that he blended in well with the grass.
Chalky: Because unfortunately, there was a Squeeble-eating monster on the loose!
Zabba: Fortunately, Whizz's camouflage was so good that the Squeeble-eating monster didn't see him.
Gloobie: Unfortunately though, he ran straight over him and squashed him flat like a green pancake.
Min: Fortunately, he was lying next to a bicycle pump which was able to re-inflate him
Chalky: Unfortunately, he became over-inflated. Eventually he was so big that he covered the whole of the cherry island and the sea too!
Bramble: Fortunately, when Whizz began blocking out the sun, Trig noticed there was a problem and began to think up a plan.

Our story didn't get much further as we all asked Trig what his plan would be in that situation and Trig replied that his only option would be to pop Whizz to let the air out. We all imagined Whizz whizzing around the island like a balloon does when it's deflating.

It's such a fun game to play on a rainy day or during a car journey and you can play it with a big group or just with two of you. Why don't you try it? If you need inspiration, I'll give a you a good opening sentence, but please don't end up blowing me up with a bicycle pump in your story.

One day Whizz was sitting in the sun eating Plumatopeas...

Whizz :)

Hello Friends,

It's Whizz here. It seems like a long time ago since we told you that our inventors had invited a puppy to come and live with them. We asked for some photos of her and our inventor sent us pictures of her most recent trip to the beach. We feel slightly worried: she looks huge!

We know quite a lot about the animals in the human world now because we've been reading books about them. We thought you might like the quiz that we made up for each other - it's all about which animal you're most like.

Just answer the questions and note down on a piece of paper whether your answer is a, b, c, d or e. At the end count up how many of each letter you had. Whichever letter appears most often is the animal that you're most similar to!

What would be your favourite way to spend an afternoon?

a) curled up on my bed with a good book
b) running around at the park with my friends
c) playing on the floats at the swimming pool
d) making a camp in the garden
e) watching television

Where would you like to live if you could live anywhere?

a) in a cosy house with a lovely warm fire
b) I love people, so I'd like to live wherever my friends and family are
c) close to water
d) in a tree house
e) somewhere near to everything I might need - I don't like to travel too much

How much do you like to sleep?

a) I wake up in the night, so feel tired sometimes in the day
b) I love to sleep, but when I wake up I'm supercharged and very lively!
c) I'm a light sleeper and don't like to close my eyes too often
d) I love to get up early in the morning
e) I feel quite lively in the summer, but during the winter I just want to stay in bed!

What do you like to eat?

a) I like meaty and fishy things!
b) I'll eat anything...very quickly!
c) I'm happy to wait for my food until I see something tasty passing by
d) I've got quite a small appetite, so I like tiny treats
e) I like fresh things like salad and vegetables.

What kind of personality do you have?

a) I'm quite quiet, but I like to cuddle people I know well
b) I'm noisy, confident and love people
c) I'm content. I'm happy watching the world going by
d) I like to have something to keep me busy
e) I'm quite lazy! I like to have a big think about something before I actually do it.

Which of these activities would you enjoy most?

a) playing chase
b) playing with balls
c) basking in the sun
d) singing
e) thinking

Which creature are you most like?

If you answered mostly A: you're like a cat - sweet and with a reserved, quiet nature
If you answered mostly B: you're quite like Nell, our inventors' puppy!
If you answered mostly C: if you were an animal you'd be a frog - you love water and like the sun
If you answered mostly D: you're quite like a bird - you love making things, singing and fluttering about all over the place.
If you answered mostly E: you're similiar to a tortoise: sweet natured and thoughtful, you like to do things s l o w l y!

When I did this quiz I answered mostly B...so maybe I have more in common with Nell, our inventors' puppy than I thought!

Whizz :)

Hello Friends,

I'm so excited to tell you that a new app featuring me and the other Squeebles is now available! You might already have the original Squeebles Times Tables app, which hopefully will already be helping you to learn and practice your tables. That app was the very first Squeebles app that our inventors created...and they decided that it was time to make it just as exciting and interactive as the other apps which came after it.

The new app has lots of different ways of being tested on your tables and many more things to collect. It also features a game called Bubble Ball! Do you remember the blog post where I told you about a new game we'd been playing after Jingo had accidentally fallen down the Sparkle Falls waterfall, only to find himself being catapulted through the air in a bubble ball after being thwacked by the tail of a flip fish? Well, our inventors decided that you might like to be able to play that game too, so that's right at the centre of the new Squeebles Times Tables 2 app!

And what is really fantastic is that with every times table you answer correctly, you'll be earning stars to trade in for even better bubble balls, which will increase the distances you can travel...or flip fish with more powerful tails, which can flick you further!

The Parents' Zone now includes detailed stats of all your progress so that you can wow your mum, dad, grandparents or teachers with just how much you're learning.

And don't worry, the things that you loved about the original app, such as finding out all about us, are still included. Oh look, here's my own card above!

If you think you might like to try learning your times tables using the new app, then your parents can find it by searching 'Squeebles Times Tables 2' in the app store or they can find out more about the new app here.

We can't wait to hear what you think of our new app!

Whizz :)

Hello Friends,

Have you started using the latest Squeebles app yet (that's Squeebles Times Tables 2!)? If you have, you'll no doubt already be playing Bubble-Ball, the mini game within the app that you can earn turns on by doing well in learning your times tables. Today I wanted to tell you all about using Colour Force to help you flick your Bubble-balls even further!

Using Colour Force, you'll be able to enjoy flinging us over even more amazing distances and will hopefully rack up some fantastic scores. I bet no one has catapulted themselves out of Sparkle Falls into the Swamp Marsh yet and I'd like to help you on your way! (That could be very messy and I'm not actually sure it's possible, but let me know if you manage it).

When you choose a Squeeble, you'll see a box marked 'CF' and next to it you'll find a colour. CF stands for Colour Force and in the screenshot above, you can see that the CF box has turned purple to match the colour written inside. To achieve the maximum colour force, you should try and use a Squeeble and a bubble ball that have the same colour force.

You can see in this screen shot that I scrolled through the Bubble-balls until I found one to match Claw's purple colour force.

Now that the CF is matched up, you're ready to flick your Bubble-Ball with maximum power!

But that's not all! When you're answering times tables questions, every now and then you'll find yourself awarded with a Bubble-Stone, like the one pictured below. When this happens you should be aware that if you team a Squeeble and a Bubble-ball of that colour together AND you're in possession of a Bubble-Stone of the same colour....then wild and crazy distances may be achieved when that Bubble-Ball is flicked!

Stand back and prepare to be amazed!

Whizz :)

Hello Friends,

Today I wanted to give a few tips about how to impress the customers at Ruby's Ice-Cream Parlour with your ice-creams when you're playing on our Squeebles Maths Bingo app.

If you don't have Squeebles Maths Bingo already, it's an app that lets you practice adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying by trying to get five correct answers in a row to make the squares on the grid light up and flash with the word BINGO!

Playing Maths Bingo is really a game in itself, but you'll also earn ice-cream flavours and cones to use in Ruby's ice-cream parlour! You can create any ice-cream you like with different flavours, sprinkles and sauces that you've won. Once you've made the perfect ice-cream you can then choose any one of the Squeebles that you've won and present it to them to eat...they will then give your ice-cream marks out of 10!

But this is where things get tricky. Squeeble customers aren't like human customers. We like some really odd things and each of us has very different taste. Some Squeebles can be made happy by giving them the same kind of things that I've heard humans might like (such as a chocolate ice-cream with a wafer in the top) but others will prefer a baked bean ice-cream with broccoli sauce drizzled over it.

I thought you might like it if I gave you some clues about how you can make certain customers happy. So this morning I went to see Ruby at her ice-cream parlour and asked her what kind of flavours some of the other Squeebles were asking for.

Ruby told me that Raino goes dizzy for sweet, gooey ice-creams.
She said that Jingo loves an ice-cream that has a very weird combination of flavours.
She revealed that Bitsy is a very healthy sort of Squeeble, preferring fruity or nutty ice-creams.
Bash apparently shares Bitsy's healthiness, but he likes his health to come with a scoop of spiciness and a helping of something weirdly flavoured.
Chalky is well known for loving peanut butter, so it didn't surprise me when Ruby shared with me that Chalky loves nutty and crunchy ice-creams.
Finally, she told me that Lumina lights up inside when she tastes minty, gooey or healthy ice-creams.

I hope that helps you to make your Squeeble customers even happier! Let me know if you think you've found any flavour combinations that make any of the other Squeebles happy...or ones that you should avoid serving!

Whizz :)

Hello Friends,

You might remember that our inventors got a new puppy, Nell, earlier this year. We ask for news of their puppy quite often as we don't have pets here on Squeebles Island. They tell us all about the funny things she does, how cuddly she is, the tricks she's learned and sometimes we watch her through the computer screen. One time she came and licked the screen with her enormous pink tongue and we all ducked down screaming!

Eventually, our inventors realised that we were beginning to feel a bit jealous of the pets humans have, so they said that they'd design a special Squeeble pet that was just like us, but smaller and more cuddly and mischievous.

But when our inventors posted the pet through the Squeeshoot to send it to Squeebles Island things didn't go quite as expected.

The Squeeshoot works in a similar way to a television...only better. To make programmes appear on your television, sound and picture codes are transmitted via radio waves, before being picked up by the receiver inside your television and appearing on your screen. But because the things our inventors send us don't just appear on a screen, but are able to be held in our hands, it's an even more complex process. Sometimes it can go wrong.

When they sent us our Squeeble pet, they also sent us a picture of their dog, Nell. And as the Squeeble pet and the picture of Nell travelled over the airwaves the two things became mixed up. What arrived was a cross between a dog and a Squeeble and we've ended up with a Squog!

Even though this isn't quite the pet our inventors had planned for us, our squog is so much fun and we love him. We've called him Onion. At first Onion was shy and we thought that he was a very well-behaved sort of squog...but once he'd settled in he became much more playful...and naughty! He likes digging up our plumatopea plants and running off with them in his mouth (you might remember plumatopeas from another blog post - they're the amazing fruits that grow beneath peacock feathers!).

He also likes jumping on toadstools and when he sees a row of them he wags his tail and then takes a big run up and jumps on top of them, bouncing along until he falls off. Onion never seems to get hurt though - he's a very sturdy sort of animal! In the evening he's finally run out of energy and he comes and sits next to us in the roundhouse and enjoys having his ears stroked.

Whizz :)

Hello Friends,

Today I'm excited to tell you that our inventors are running a competition asking you to design a new Squeeble to come and live with us here on Squeeble Island. Not only will this new Squeeble join our fun here, it will also appear in the next app, meaning the winning design will be seen by hundreds of thousands of children all around the world!

We're going to help our inventors to pick out the Squeeble design we love the best and the winning artist will be sent an brand new iPad!

This is the third time we've run this competition (although never before with the added prize of a shiny new iPad) and I want to show you how our inventors have created a Squeeble based on your drawings in the past. You can see the original drawing on the left and the finished design created by our inventors on the right.

First, here's Joshua's Squeeble, Raino, which was the winner of one of our other competitions. Joshua's character is based on a raindrop, which we loved! Raino also appeared in the app's credits.

We've also featured Squeeble designs from Poppy, who invented Bebe:

And Seth, who created Mud:

Aren't they fantastic! We love them. Just think, if Poppy, Seth and Joshua had never drawn those pictures, Bebe, Mud and Raino wouldn't even exist. We're so excited about who you might invent to come and live with us next. We can't wait to see your pictures and read your description of their personalities.

You can either enter with your school (for a chance of winning the iPad for your class) or ask your mum or dad to photograph or scan in your picture and send it to us (and if you won, the iPad would be given to you and your family to use). You can design as many Squeebles as you like and enter in one or both of these ways.

If you'd like to enter your own Squeeble design, ask your parent or teacher to read the entry rules and find out where to send a photo or scan of your design, here.

Whizz :)

Hello Friends,

Today I wanted to tell you about how you can use our Squeebles Spelling Test app in new and exciting ways! The Squeebles Spelling app usually allows your teacher or parent to set up tests for you using your weekly spelling list or just any words that they know you're finding tricky. But did you know that it can also help you to learn another language?

You can ask your parent or teacher to enter new, foreign words for you to learn to say AND spell. They can enter short phrases or words, record them for you to hear, and even tell you what they mean in English.

Some foreign languages use special characters or accented letters in their words, so our inventors have created a separate keypad in the app including the most commons ones so that you can spell the words perfectly. Just tap on the green EA key on the keyboard to access them and then tap again to switch back to the regular keypad.

To make your tests foreign-letters-friendly, you'll need to ask your parent or teacher to turn on the 'Foreign Characters' setting under your player name in the Parents' Zone, so that it's glowing orange, like the one above! They can then use the keypad with extra characters too:

Mmm. Someone is being tested on how to say 'This is delicious' in French...I wonder if they've been eating one of Ruby's ice-creams...

Finally, I wanted to show you a picture that our inventors received this week. It's drawn by Tom, who's aged 6. Tom's parents said that they would be happy for me to share it on our blog with you, so here it is - you can see Mud, Bebe, me, Bitsy and Raino! Merci beaucoup, Tom, c'est fantastique! (that means 'Thank you very much, Tom, it's fantastic!' in French). We love to see your artwork, so please do email it to our inventors and I'll try to share as much as I can here on my blog. And remember, if you enjoy drawing Squeebles you may like to enter our competition where you can win an iPad and have your own Squeeble design featured in the next app.

I hope you have a great week,

Whizz :)

Hello Friends,

I'm so excited to tell you about the latest Squeebles app! We love word searches, so when our inventors told us that we'd be starring in a Squeebles word search app we were really pleased.

We like word searches that contain lots of words about a particular subject, because just thinking about that group of words can transport you to a different place while you're hunting for the words. On a really rainy day, looking for sunshiny words can make you feel like you're actually on a summer holiday if you don't look out of the window! So, we suggested some topics for word searches that our inventors could use. There are word searches about: clothes, ice cream; football; outer space; growing things; pirates; the ocean, pets, baking and making things; fairy tales; nature; Christmas; summer holidays; music; sports; parties; food; around town; animals and...erm....us, Squeebles! Once you've chosen the subject, you can then choose whether the search contains easy, medium or hard words, so that you get a word search that's just right for you.

But what's really great about this app is that you, your parents, your teachers or your brothers and sisters can also make your own word searches. You can ask a grown-up to help you enter some words so that they can double-check that they're spelled correctly (this will keep the Spelling Snake from feeling grumpy...or hissy, as he'd probably say, being a snake!) and then the app will generate a specially-made, no-other-word-search-like-it-in-the-entire-world, just-for-you word search.

This app will help with your reading, it will help you to become familiar with the correct spelling for a word and it will help you to become really good at finding needles in haystacks (because a word search is a bit like that: you're trying to root out one word in a massive jumble of letters).

And each time you've found all the words in the word search, you'll be rewarded with one very shiny, star-filled, toadstool-jumping, wonderful turn in the Squeebles' Pet Race!

Zoot's pet squog (you might remember from this blog post that a squog is a cross between a Squeeble and a dog), Onion, is the star of the pet race and it's your job to help him to collect stars and bones, jump over toadstools, piles of logs, and even on to flowers! While you do this, you must be very careful to try not to EVER bump into the Spelling Snake's head, because that will cause Onion to lose ten of the stars that you've just helped him to collect!

The app will count the number of stars you've won and you'll be entered on to a high score table with anyone else who uses the same iPad or tablet as you, so that you can compete against your family (or if you're using the app at school, your friends and classmates) to see who can help Onion to collect the most stars. We'd love to hear what your highest score is and what you think of the new app.

If you think it sounds like something you'd like, you can tell your parents or teachers about it. If they like the sound of it too, they'll need to search for 'Squeebles Word Search' in the iPad or Android tablet app stores.

Whizz :)

Hello!

Plumatopeas

The Roundhouse Den

Win a Squeeble Competition!

How I was created

How to tell your left from your right

Learn Your 9 Times Tables

A questionnaire about Nell

Competition winner

Rainy Days

Bubble ball

Fortunately, unfortunately

A quiz: which animal are you?

Squeebles Times Tables 2!

Use the Colour Force

Impressing the customers

Meet Onion, our squog

Design a Squeeble and win an iPad!

Squeebles can help you to learn other languages!

Our new Squeebles Word Search app!