Week 4 Story: Never Judge a Book by it's Cover

The World Awaits

Picture by Lisa L Weidemier

Source: Flickr

There once lived a puppy named Tommy. He was the nicest, most hyper, and most curious little puppy to exist. Tommy was ready to make new friends, and have an adventure into the unknown.

Wow, the sun is so bright, the trees are so green, and the clouds look like cotton candy! Tommy was finally on his first ever adventure to the unknown world—the backyard!

Tommy looked at something moving in the bushes. He was amazed, and a little scared. It had big eyes, a fluffy tail, and long ears!

“I think I should go talk to the fluffy little creature,” he said.

He kindly walked over to the animal with a big tummy, and a cute little nose.

Tommy introduced himself, and the animal said nothing. Tommy figured the big guy was having a bad day, so he decided to leave, and come back later.

On his walk back he ran into a slimy, scaly, with itty-bitty eyes. He’s never seen such a creature. He introduced himself, and the creature hissed at him. Scared, he ran back to his mother and told her everything!

She scolded Tommy for talking to the bunny, but not the snake. The bunny’s name is Jim, and he was known to be the meanest bunny in the entire neighborhood. He ate everyone’s yummy vegetables, and hopped from home to home stealing carrots! Little did Tommy know, this bunny was actually the nicest bunny of them all. He took the carrots and vegetables to all the baby bunnies in the neighborhood because they didn’t have a home, family, or a place to live.

Tommy didn’t see the scar on his face that made him look scary to others. Tommy and his new friend decided to plant a garden for all the other bunnies in the neighborhood. Tommy went back home to tell his mother “never judge people by their looks.” His mom was so proud of her son that she joined them to plant the garden. Soon after, all the animals living in the backyard wanted to be Jim and Tommy’s new friends. 

Bibliography: 
The Aesop's For Children's with illustration by Milo Winter, "The Cat the Cock, and the Young Mouse"

Author's Note:
The moral of this story was to teach kids to never judge people by their looks. The original story portrayed a mouse's adventure seeing the world for the first time. The mouse encounters a cock and a cat. At first, the mouse is frightened by both because he's never seen anything like a cat and a cock before. His mother tells the mouse that the cat is actually bad, and will eat him. He just looks "gentle." I wanted to portray the moral of the story in my own way by changing the characters, and intentionally putting a scar on the bunny to represent blemishes every individual has. "Never judge a book by it's cover" is a saying everyone is familiar with. Even adults make the mistake of judging someone by how he/she dresses, looks, and acts. In my story, the character that everyone thought was bad turns out to be good. This was just another reminder to "never judge a book by it's cover."

Reading Notes: The Cat the Cock, and the Young Mouse, Part B

Mouse

Picture by Liz Henwood

Source: Flickr

This was such a good short story to read. My favorite part had to be the end where the author states the moral of the story, “never judge people by their looks.” In other words, “never judge a book by its cover. I think this is definitely a valuable lesson to learn as a child. This short story was put together in a very simple way that everyone can understand, and have fun reading. I admire that element about these short stories the most.

That being said, I want to keep the simplicity in my own story. I would like to change up the characters to animals that are a little more exotic like a peacock because they are beautiful creatures with a lot to offer to see if you were to witness a peacock for the first time like how the mouse in this story encountered a cat for the first time. I also would like to have an extra character that serves as a “helping hand.” I would like to keep the moral of the story.

This story had a lot of vivid imagery included. The word usage, and description of the animals is something I want to include—meaning I would like to describe all the characteristics of my characters while writing this story. 

Bibliography:  The Aesop's For Children's with illustration by Milo Winter, "The Cat the Cock, and the Young Mouse"