Maya and the Emergency Spoon: a funny kids storytelling podcast about big feelings, emergency systems, and kitchen catastrophes

Maya Peck has a system. When things get too big and too loud and too much, Mum opens the kitchen cupboard, takes out the peanut butter, and hands over one spoonful. Not on toast. Not in a sandwich. On a spoon. It does not fix things. It does not make maths less insulting or brothers less annoying. It just makes everything feel less enormous.

The system is excellent. Until school goes nut free.

Now Maya needs a replacement emergency spoon. And her brother Dylan, who is seven, full of bad ideas, and currently wearing his school tie round his head for reasons nobody can explain, has decided to help.

What follows is one of the funniest fun kids stories about feelings, coping, and the sort of kitchen disaster that makes parents stand in the doorway saying nothing for several seconds because nothing is the only reasonable response. Things go wrong in ways that escalate magnificently. Something gets stuck to the cooker hood. The cat leaves in disgust. And at some point Maya willingly puts liverwurst in a bowl, which tells you everything about where the afternoon has ended up.

This funny bedtime story for kids is perfect for audio stories for children who feel things very loudly, for families who recognise the particular chaos of trying to solve an emotional problem with food science, and for anyone who has ever had a coping system and worried what happens when it disappears. Children will love the kitchen carnage and Dylan's catastrophic helpfulness. Parents will recognise the moment Mum walks in and surveys the damage in absolute silence.

• Episode length: approximately 14 minutes
• Ages: 4 to 400
• Best enjoyed: bedtime, car journeys, after school wind down

Press play. The peanut butter is on the table. Dylan has just found the honey, the syrup, and the jam. Maya has not yet made the decision she is about to make. But she is getting there.

More stories at MrMortonsBarmyBook.com.