There was once a very cute toddler. His parents absolutely adored him and called him 'Buddy' because he was such a sweet child and had such a sweet kid.
One night, after Buddy went to bed, his parents watched a movie about robbers. They thought Buddy was asleep, but he wasn't. So Buddy overheard what the robbers were saying.
"We need to make sure we take as much as we can. We can't share a thing, it's all ours. We have to look out for ourselves," the robbers in the movie said.
Buddy overheard this and thought to himself, "This is how I'm supposed to behave, I need to make sure I take all the toys and look out for myself."
And the next day at daycare, that's exactly what Buddy did. He took all the other kids' toys and refused to share with anyone. He treated the other kids so poorly, they all started to cry. The teachers were all surprised. How had Buddy changed so much overnight?
When Buddy's parents got the report about how naughty he had been that day at school, they were shocked. They began to brain storm as to what had changed overnight. Finally, Buddy's mother wondered if he had heard the movie last night. To test her theory, they played a much nicer movie about a man who gave everything for his friends.
"We need to help everyone," the kind man said. "We need to make sure we share what we have and we want to leave people happier than we left them."
When Buddy heard this, he decided to try this method the next day at school.
Sure enough, the next day at school Buddy was so much better and shared all of his toys with all the kids. He had everyone laughing and smiling and having a good time. And Buddy enjoyed that so much better than making everyone sad. So that's how Buddy became so kind.
Bibliography: The Elephant Girly-face by Ellen C. Babbitt
Authors Note:
When reading the original story, I thought of how impressionable the elephant was and how much that reminded me of young children. That's why I decided to write the story about Buddy the toddler, overhearing a bad movie his parents had playing.
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| Toddler From Flickr Images |
Hi Jess,
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you decided to write this story in the perspective of a child. Children are very impressionable so it was a perfect fit and something that could happen in real life. I would love to read more in the author's note about what the original story was about versus the new one. Overall I think the story was great and love the picture you chose to use!
I really liked the original story and I liked your version of it. I really liked how you linked a child's impression of the world with the story and thought this idea was perfect to use a child especially a toddler to do this story. Overall very good story and paid great homage to the original story but yet uniquely your own.
ReplyDeleteHi Jess, I must say I'm not familiar with your source material, but your story gives me a good idea of what it was about! You do a great job encompassing the impressionability of younger children, and your example is incredibly creative! I wonder what other phrases would have changed Buddy's perspective on life? Is he now able to distinguish between right and wrong? Either way, I enjoyed the story.
ReplyDeleteHi Jess,
ReplyDeleteI like the modern twist you have throughout all of your stories. As for this specific story, I think you can incorporate more explanation in the author's note. Though I get an idea of the direction you were heading with this story, you may want to clarify the paralleling of the original Jakata and your rendition. Overall, I always look forward to reading your stories!
Jess, what a charming story about an innocent toddler! Honestly, children are indeed so impressionable and this story definitely represents how much their environment imparts the kind of morals and attitudes they internalize from the examples from adults and media particularly. I can really see how the inspiration from the original ignited the concept for this story, very well done!
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