The Deer Who Didn’t Listen
Tricia, 11, California
2014 Award Winner
The moral of my fable is: Listening can keep you safe.
My fable is:
A long time ago in the lush, green forest of Oakwood, there lived a deer herd. The herd was very large with twenty deer in it.
One of the deer was called Lucy. Lucy was very annoying and she never listened. She only had one friend, Susan. Susan was very patient and, unlike Lucy, Susan was a very good listener. Susan and Lucy always met at a stream to play. Lucy changed the rules a lot and never listened to Susan. Susan did not like how Lucy never listened but she stayed her friend because she knew that Lucy had no other friends.
Billybob Joe was the deer who told everyone where food or danger was. Lucy never listened to Billybob Joe. For example, whenever Billybob Joe came to tell everyone that he had found food, he always lead them to it. However, Lucy never went because she didn’t listen and she didn’t hear Billybob Joe. Furthermore when Susan told Lucy to come Lucy didn’t listen and she got in trouble.
Because of all this Lucy’s parents knew that one day their child would not listen to something important. When Lucy’s parents tried to teach Lucy to listen she did not pay attention to them.
One day Lucy and Susan met by the stream and they had just started to play when Billybob Joe came galloping to the herd yelling, “The wolves are coming, the wolves are coming!” The herd began to run.
Susan told Lucy to come and run away from the wolves, but Lucy didn’t listen. Susan had to run away, leaving Lucy behind. Lucy played a little more until she heard a branch snap. Lucy then saw a wolf in a bush not too far away from her. She then spotted many more wolves all around her. Just as Lucy began to run a wolf jumped out of his hiding place, just barely missing her. Lucy ran as fast as she could with the wolf pack hot on her trail. Lucy barely escaped them by jumping over a huge ditch a mile deep.
The wolves knew that going around or through the ditch would take way too long so they left. Lucy then went to find her herd. When she found them Susan and Lucy’s parents ran to her glad to see that she was OK.
Lucy now knew that it’s important to listen. From then on she was more kind and she stopped being annoying and began to listen. Lucy now had more friends and she was more enjoyable to be with.
The Monkey And The Bear
Matthew, 11, Victoria, British Columbia
The moral of my fable is: Be patient.
My fable is:
There was a really kind bear. He let the cheeky monkey eat his food at the campfire.
One day the monkey came to the campfire and asked for lots of food. The bear said that it wasn’t cooked, but the monkey didn’t listen. He took all the food and quickly ate it.
Luckily the bear still had some food left and after a few minutes his food was cooked.
The bear was enjoying his meal while the monkey got sick.
The Sea Gull and the Pelican
Jaeger, 10, Australia
The moral of my fable is: Never take anything without permission.
My fable is:
One day on a beach, a greedy sea gull kept stealing fish from a pelican.
The pelican ignored the sea gull and flew to the ocean to catch another fish.
When the sea gull flew back to the dock with his fish, the sea gull flew to the pelican and stole his lunch.
Sea Gull didn’t realize the fish was coated with oil and ate it. Oil isn’t good for sea gulls so sea gull got very sick.
The Greedy Goat and the Perceptive Chick
Mazie, 11. Iowa
The moral of my fable is: Do not lie to a perceptive person.
My Fable:
Long ago, there was a goat named Oscar who was very greedy.
One day Oscar went for a walk in the fields to find another farm. When he found one, he went into their barn and stole all of the hay, apples, corn, and alfalfa in stock. After that, he was full and tired, so he hobbled home.
The next day he decided what he stole was not enough, so he went the completely opposite direction to a huge farm with many horses, cows, and chickens. When he was in the barn, he heard a little voice saying, “Hey!”
He ignored it and kept looking around. For the second time, but louder, a voice uttered, “Hey!”
Oscar turned around to find a tiny, golden chick right behind him. “You! Are you here to steal our food?” “Why no. That is a silly thought,” he said and went back to looking.
All of the sudden, the chick screeched and in no time, the goat was surrounded by two horses, three cows, five chickens, and six chicks. They led him to a cellar by the house. The cellar was full of rocks. They locked him in overnight.
By morning, Oscar had chewed himself out of the sturdy wooden doors and had run home.
Since then, Oscar has been more calm and he actually shares his food with his goat friends. Plus, there has been no mysterious goat thievery reported on any other farms. That is very good.
The Kitten And The Puppy
Clara, 7, Minnesota, USA
The moral of my fable is: Face your fears.
My Fable:
A long time ago there was a kitten. She was a good kitten. One day, while she was chasing a butterfly, a puppy came along. The puppy growled and scared the kitten up a tree. The puppy growled again and sent the kitten even farther up the tree.
At this point on the upper branches, the kitten was too scared to come back down. The kitten said, “Oh puppy! Please let me down and I will be your friend forever. I promise!” The puppy said, “No! I don’t want to be your friend.” How mean, the kitten thought.
Suddenly the kitten knew what she had to do. It would scare her, but she had to do it. So she took a slow deep breath and started climbing down, down, down. When she finally made it to the ground she yelled to the puppy, ”You should learn to be nice!”
So from that day on, the kitten always faced her fears.
The Cat and the Dog
Ethan, 9, Oregon
The moral of my fable is: Teaching someone how to do something small can have a great reward.
My Fable:
A cat and a dog were best friends. But, like a lot of best friends, sometimes they didn’t get along very well.
The dog was bored and wanted excitement. He wanted to get outside the fence! The dog knew that the cat knew how to get over the fence so he asked the cat how to do it. But the cat was too busy playing with his yarn and didn’t want to help.
The dog could hear kids playing on the other side of the fence. He longed to see what they were doing and whined at his owners to let him outside. Unfortunately they didn’t understand him and gave him food instead. So the dog ate the food.
When he was done he asked the cat for help again. But this time the cat was playing with a toy mouse and too busy to help. So the dog chewed his bone. But soon he could smell a neighbor’s BBQ’ing hot dogs and he wanted one! That made him whine again. This time the cat put his toys down and helped.
The cat showed the dog how to unlatch the fence. The dog couldn’t believe how easy it was! When they got on the other side of the fence they went on an adventure. The dog used his nose to find the neighbor who BBQing hot dogs. Once they found him, the dog used his best doggy eyes and was rewarded when the neighbor tossed each of them a hot dog.
The cat enjoyed the adventure with the dog and the two friends looked forward to more adventures together!
Luke And The People Of The Village
Elise, 7, Surrey, United Kingdom
The moral of my fable is: Liars cannot be trusted.
My Fable:
There was a man called Luke who lived in a little cottage beside a mountain. He also lived near a village.
One day, he decided that he was going to steal other people’s money. He went to all the houses in the village and said to the people who owned the houses, “My daughter is very sick. Please, will you give me ten pounds? I will give you twelve pounds back.” So that’s what he did and said to all the people in the village.
After all that, he went home with his pockets full of money, feeling pleased with himself. The next day, he spent all the money on drinking and eating and buying fancy clothes, but he forgot his promise that he was going to give twelve pounds back.
He never returned to the people’s houses. All the home owners bumped into each other, talking about the man who asked for ten pounds and promised to return twelve pounds to them.
They went to Luke’s house and said, “You lied! You don’t even have a daughter!” They never got the money back, because Luke spent it all.
Soon, Luke got married and had a daughter. One day she got sick. Luke went to the people again, but they never gave him anymore money, because they didn’t trust him anymore.