A long time ago, many animals lived in a beautiful, green country, with trees, and plenty of food and water. But after many years, there was little food or water left. So a clever monkey, who was more powerful than the other animals, employs a porcupine to store and protect some food for him. The other animals, a hare and a mole, try to deceive the porcupine and steal the food. They try many tricks and eventually succeed. The monkey becomes very angry, and orders his workers to shoot at porcupine with bows and arrows. But instead of dying, the porcupine remains covered in spines, and is able to protect himself.

Long ago, there lives a rich and beautiful cow and her daughter. Although the cow likes to stay clean, she and her daughter are lazy. So they set about finding an animal who is able to clean up after them. Many animals try working for them: an elephant, giraffe, squirrel and hyena. But the cow is not satified. She turns to the insect population, thinking that although they are small, they might work harder. And so the insects compete for the job. It is the resourceful beetle who finally wins. The beetle is able to roll cow-dung into balls, in which she can lay her eggs to produce more beetles to work for the cow.

The Black Hand Gang is a neighbourhood group of young Kenyans, which meets in the eastern part of Nairobi. The gang members, Onyango, Waithaka, his sister Jane, V.J. Patel and Hassan make a lot of friends trying to help other people. The story is intended as a supplementary text for children fluent in reading, to encourage reading for pleasure.