Children's Corner

Welcome to our Children’s Corner pt2

Zebra Tales

by Miss TZ

Hi boys and girls! I have an email account now, so you can talk to me. So if you have questions or comments, or want to share a book you have read, please contact me at mstztravelingzebra@gmail.com . I love reading new books! Hope to hear from you soon! bye, Miss TZ

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Hi boys and girls! For those of you who have not met me, I am a traveling Zebra. I have a name in Zebra, but it is hard to pronounce in human, so a little girl from Newark, New York named me Miss TZ! Short for Traveling Zebra. I love my new name! And I think everyone should have a special magical name. Not that my birth name is any less important, it is just nice to have choices. Plus it does fit me. After all, I am a Zebra, and I do travel! I go on adventures all over the world! I meet all different kinds of animals, and make new friends all the time. I think having friends is so nice. I get to share my thoughts and dreams, and adventures with them, and we have lots of fun too! I hope you want to be my friend too. I used to feel different because my stripes are so loud, but I have met a lot of different animals in my travels, and now I can see that being a little different is not a bad thing. In fact, I am going to tell you about a new friend I met.

I saw the neatest animal this week on my newest adventure! It was a very VERY BIG animal. It had a VERY LONG nose. At least I thought it was a nose, but she called it a trunk.

She could bring water up into it and spray it over her back to cool her down. I thought that was really cool! She also had very big ears. She is an elephant. Her name is Twinkles. She told me about her cousin, Grace, who was always getting into trouble. They named her Grace because she had an extremely long trunk and was always tripping over it.

Well the story goes like this.

Grace lived in a very warm place in Africa, a long ways from the river that only came to life with the rainstorms. And that did not happen very often. So they had to make use of the river as much as they could before the dry weather took it away again. Her family had a very organized way of getting the river from where it was to their home. They would dig the ground making a big round hole like a pond, and then they would pack down the ground with their huge flat feet and heavy bodies, till it was sealed and would hold water. They called it a holding pond. They would make many trips to the river, filling their trunks and then walking the water all the way back to their holding pond. This was very tiring, and often they would have to stop and rest before they got all the way home with the water. They would not let Grace go with them because she would trip on her long trunk and spill the water long before she made it back home. She wanted so much to go and bring water with them, but they always said no. The water was too precious to take the chance of her spilling it. And she was so little she would tire out too quickly from the long walk.

This was all the water they would have till the next rainy season. No, they could not let Grace help them. She was just too young and had not grown into her trunk yet.

Still Grace would watch them leave and wish she were a grown up fitting into her trunk so she would not trip on it. Then she could be bringing water home just like the other grownups!

Everyday Grace would go to the pond and practice being an adult. Placing her trunk into the water and sucking up the water till she could hold no more. Then she would turn around and pick her trunk up so she would not trip on it. The problem was, after a few steps, the water would be too heavy for her to carry, and down the trunk would come, and over her trunk she would trip, and out would come the water, spilling onto the ground, and washing back into the pond. Again and again she would try until her trunk was sore from stepping on it. She didn’t think she would ever be big enough not to trip on her trunk. After several days of trying, Grace gave up and became very sad. She did not care to drink the water, and she did not even want to go down to the pond to celebrate with all the others when it was filled. Grace thought, “Why should I go down to the pond? I did not even get to put one ounce of water in it. I don’t even want to look at it!”

Grace’s mother, (Tulip) began to really worry about Grace. “Come on Grace, we want you to be a part of the celebration.”

Then her father, (Lightfoot) would look at her and say, “I used to have a trunk just like yours, and I grew into it.” Grace did not listen to them. How could they know how she felt. They could go and collect water without tripping and spilling it all over the ground. Grace felt useless.

She did go down to the pond celebration, but she did not talk to anyone. In fact she decided not to talk until she could help bring the water to the pond.

The months went by, the water started going away, and the family became very careful with the water they had left. They had just enough till the rain came if they did not waste it. And Grace kept silent, not speaking a word. She would go to the pond and look at her reflection in what little water was left, hoping she had grown into her trunk. But each time, she was reminded that she was still not perfect like everyone else.

She did not believe her father’s story about growing into her trunk. She was so depressed. She felt so different from the other elephants. She felt worse than Rudulf the Red Nosed Reindeer. At least he was not always tripping on his nose! Well boys and girls, I am out of time, so I will have to tell you the rest of Grace’s story next week. You be here so I can tell you the exciting part. Something really special happens!

Bye for now! Mis Tz

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Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Part 13