childrens fantasy – Donna Goddard

February 19, 2025November 25, 2025

Foxie: the Contact Child—Cha Chu Pani

A novel by Donna Goddard and her granddaughter Aisha Bailey, written for 7 to 12-year-olds. Together they draw on imagination, family stories, and the beauty of everyday life to create tales for children.

Foxie is no ordinary child. She comes from Cha Chu Pani, a peaceful world where children grow in glowing bubbles, all creatures live in harmony, and everyone communicates through thoughts. As a hybrid Contact Child, her first solo mission is a big one — Earth.

After a quiet night landing in Tanglewood, Foxie is taken in by Aunty Em and Uncle Harry, who believe she’s simply a lost girl with no memory. But Foxie knows exactly who she is…

Earth brings many surprises: new foods, strange customs, powerful emotions, and a maddening foster girl named Maddie.

A magical, uplifting adventure about belonging, kindness, and seeing Earth through new eyes.

Chapter 1: Cha Chu Pani

My name is Foxie, and I come from a long way away. A very long way away. Much farther than you’ve ever imagined.

My solar system has one sun, like yours. We have seven planets. You have eight.

My planet is called Cha Chu Pani. In our language, cha means one, chu means two, and pani means dancer. My planet and its twin turn around each other like two dancers circling the sun. One full dance takes 454 days. That’s a Cha Chu Pani year. Yours is 365 days.

Cha Chu Pani and its twin planet share seven moons between them. You have one moon.

Unlike Earth, our dancing planets don’t have much axis tilt. The axis tilt of Earth makes your seasons. Cha Chu Pani doesn’t have seasons. The temperature is a pleasant 23 °C all year round.

My planet looks like Earth, but healthier. There are more plants, more colours, more animals. By the way, animals on Cha Chu Pani are not predatory. They don’t eat each other. And the people don’t either. That is, the people don’t eat animals—not that the people don’t eat each other. Of course, we don’t eat each other!

The Cha Chu Pani people are kind to animals and also kind to each other. Our planet is a very happy place. But don’t worry—it’s not boring. We get special assignments.

Riverland Audiobook

Riverland: For Children and Their Young-at-Heart Old Folk is now available as an audiobook. Here is the first part of the book. The audiobook links are below.

Riverland is for 6 to 9-year-olds and their young-at-heart old folk. Author of many spiritual books, Donna Goddard wrote Riverland with her 8-year-old granddaughter. It is based on things that happened in their family over two generations. They would love to share Nannie’s Nest, Moon Hill, the Rock King, the Dividing Lines, and, of course, Riverland with you and your family.

February 13, 2023February 5, 2025

Riverland Series (children’s story age 6-9)

Riverland Playlist on YouTube

I wasn’t the first one in my family to visit Riverland. The first one was Uncle Tim. He was five when he went. I wasn’t around when he was five. I was invisible. My mother says that nowadays, I’m very visible. That’s because I’m seven and a half. Seven and a half is much older than seven. Halves matter a lot when you’ve only been visible for a short amount of halves. I guess halves don’t matter much when you have been around as long as Nannie.

Uncle Tim went to Riverland because of his dog, Bella Number 2, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, which is a rather grand name for a roly-poly, snorty-porty, smoochy-pouchy sort of dog.

Lie flat on your back with your arms and legs stretched out. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath into your stomach—in and then out. Take another breath in. Slowly breathe out. Feel your body relaxing into the bed. One more deep breath in. This time when you breathe out, completely relax as if your body is sinking into the middle of your mattress.

What about me? When did I go to Riverland? I was five, and a dog was also involved. You guessed it—a Cavalier. Nannie says for her, all the Cavaliers roll into one jolly, round, fluff-ball of smilingness.

I’m sorry that the next part of the story is sad but don’t worry. Sometimes, the very happiest things come from the very saddest things.

GOODWOOD

At nine, you know a lot of things. You know more than your parents think you know. You know a lot, but you don’t know so much that you have forgotten everything you knew before you came here. Nannie tells me not to forget what I knew before here. She also says not to worry if I do because I’ll get it back again later. So far, so good. I have not forgotten Riverland, and it has not forgotten me.

Learn more about Riverland