Tilly thinks the white sails across the harbour are boats. They are the roof of the Sydney Opera House, and nobody knew how to build it until someone saw that every curve came from one round ball. With an orange, a cheeky cockatoo and a picnic blanket, Tilly works it out too.
On a ferry across the harbour, Tilly thinks the white sails ahead are boats, but her grandmother explains that they are the roofs of the Sydney Opera House. Long ago, a man named Jørn drew those roofs, but nobody knew how to build such big curves. At a picnic, Tilly peels an orange and notices that every piece curves the same way, just like the roof shells, which are cut from one giant pretend ball. At dusk the sails glow, and Tilly heads home dreaming of building something curvy too.
What children can explore
A real landmark: the Sydney Opera House and its curved roof shells
Curved shapes, and how pieces of a ball fit back together
A hard problem can hide a simple idea
Talk about it after reading
What did Tilly think the white sails were at first?
How did the orange peel help Tilly understand the roof?
If you could build something from everyday things, what would you make?
Read, listen and explore
Follow the narration as each word lights up, or turn off the narrator and read at your own pace. Touch the pop-up scenes to see the characters and objects react. Switch the reading language from the language menu in the reader.
With a free parent account, you can save reading progress, add children’s profiles, collect achievement pins and enjoy the story quizzes.
Kaia is the loudest girl in Juniper Valley, and every morning the mountain echoes her hello. But after the first big snow, Echo goes quiet. To find her friend, Kaia must try the hardest thing of all: being still and listening.
