Week 4 Story: The Boys Who Befriended Frogs
Week 4 Story: The Boys Who Befriended Frogs
NOTE: This story has been added to my portfolio! Please click here for the current version of the story.
(Frog: image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images)
There were frogs who lived in a pond. They had just been scared for their lives due to some boys who had skipped rocks across the pond for fun.
The boys finished having their fun skipping stones in
the pond. At some point, the boys noticed a few frogs also occupied the same
pond where they skipped the stones. They did not think much of it. Surely the
frogs would be fine. The boys did not even spare enough attention to the frogs
to notice when one of them tried speaking up before the boys.
As the boys departed from the pond, the frogs collected
themselves from their earlier panic. The oldest frog spoke in a frustrated tone, “If
only those boys were more considerate of others around them! We could have died
from that!”
One of the slightly younger frogs replied, “Their
focus is on themselves only. They’re likely to never notice the kind of
harm they’re causing us.”
The family of frogs sighed and went about their
business dejectedly, hoping for a change in behavior from the boys, though they did not
expect it.
The boys who had earlier left the pond headed to
a nearby field to play some more. They brought a ball with them and intended on
using that. The boys had just become situated how they wanted in the field when
some older boys from their area showed up. The younger boys were instantly quiet.
The older boys were known to be the bullies of the area, so the younger boys had done their
best to avoid them until now.
The tallest and strongest looking of the older boys
walked up to the boy from the younger group who held the ball they
brought along. The tall older boy looked at the younger one for a moment, smirked at him, and quickly snatched the ball away. All of the younger boys
looked upset right away.
The younger boy who had the ball snatched away from
him tried to reach towards the tall older boy to retrieve it and said, “Hey!
Give that back, it’s ours!”
The tall older boy held the ball above
his head where none of the younger boys had any hope of reaching it and said, “No
way, it’s definitely more fun this way. Right guys?” The older boy had looked
back towards the rest of his group with his question. The rest of the older
boys snickered and nodded along with the tall boy, who appeared to be their
leader.
The tall older boy continued, “How about we
all have some fun? Let’s trying skipping this ball. But instead of doing it on
water like stones…”, he pointed at the head of the younger boy who stood closest
to him, “Let’s skip this ball on all of your heads.”
All of the younger boys looked helpless and felt like
it too. They knew at this point they could not do anything against these older
boys. They hoped they would be left alone quicker if they went along with what
the older boys said. After a few attempts of trying to get the ball to skip
across the heads of the younger boys without much luck, the older boys just threw the ball at their heads for fun instead. The older boys grew tired
of this after a while and left the younger boys in the field with heads that ached.
The younger boys trudged back to the pond from
earlier, all of them still upset over what had happened with the older boys.
The boys approached the pond and rested on the banks very close to the water.
The sat there for a moment and then heard movement in the water. The boys
looked to the water and noticed frogs. They realized these were the same frogs
they had briefly saw earlier when they skipped the stones. After the terrible
event they had just experienced thanks to the older boys, the younger boys were
painfully aware of how similarly they had acted earlier towards the frogs. They
had not cared if what they did put the frogs in danger or
upset them. They had only focused on their own fun. Now the boys wished to
apologize to the frogs and make amends.
The boys bowed their heads in shame and scooted closer
to the water. One of the boys spoke up, “Excuse us, family of frogs. We would like
to apologize to you for earlier, and any other time we caused you trouble.”
The oldest frog who had spoken first earlier popped his
head out of the water and looked wide-eyed at the boys. For a moment, he thought he hallucinated the boys and their apology. The frog replied, somewhat confused, “I beg your pardon? Did you say
apologize?”
The same boy spoke again, “Yes I did. We were reckless
and selfish. If there is anything we can do for you, please tell us.”
The oldest frog blinked a few times and then smiled, “I
can think of a few things.” He then called for his family and they all spoke to
the boys together for a little while. They all became friends and the boys ended
up coming back to the pond everyday to play with the family of frogs.
Author's Note
I wrote this story because I liked the main idea of the original, The Boys and the Frogs, and wanted to expand upon that idea some more. The original story is about a group of boys who are skipping rocks on a pond but pay no mind to a family of frogs who happen to live there. The boys are putting the lives of the frogs in danger by carelessly skipping their rocks right by the frogs, but do not care since they are focused only on the fun they're having. One of the frogs speak up about the situation, but the story ends there. I felt this was a great story to add a sequel to, since we do not know what happens to the frogs or the boys after the end of the original story. The boys could have continued tormenting the frogs, which seemed somewhat likely. However, I wanted to make the story more positive. Flipping the story around and using it to teach an important lesson was also quite easy to do because of what was already established in the original. This is also the perfect kind of story for my portfolio, which focuses on lessons being learned in stories.
Bibliography. "The Boys and the Frogs" from The Aesop for Children, with illustrations by Milo Winter (1919). Aesop (Winter) Unit
The meaning behind this story was great. I like it how it kind of invoked karma as a concept with the boys carelessly treating the frogs and then being carelessly treated by some bigger, older boys. On that note, I think the dialogue between the two groups of boys could've been a little stronger. Maybe some more personality-revealing words that showcase the boys' emotions instead of just the general dialogue. I think that could also paint the similarities in how the boys felt and how the frogs felt. That would make the connection between the boys and the frogs at the end even stronger. I thought that part towards the ending when the frog such his head out of the water, wide-eyed, was really cute. I love when frogs give you that kind of wide-eyed stare so it was funny to picture a frog with some sort of intelligence behind it staring at me like that. The ending definitely wrapped up the story nicely. Overall, i enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteHi Caitlyn! I have never read the story The Boys and The Frogs so I didn't know what to expect as I was reading your story. I really liked your story but what do you think about adding names to the frogs? It would help with explaining which frog you're talking about instead of saying the younger one or the older one. The overall lesson of the story really stuck with me. You did a great job of putting a problem and a solution to your story. I liked how you had multiple characters of different ages, it really helped to picture what was going on in my head while I was reading. Your story was really fun to read, keep it up!
ReplyDeleteHey Caitlyn! Thank you for telling us why the boys stopped skipping the rocks at us! I was sure that I was going to get hit in the head by them one of these days, as it was only a matter of time before that happened. Even though it is a little sad that it took them receiving their own medicine for them to change, thankfully it happened in the end. Do you think they ever would have changed if the older boys had not shown up and been bullies to them? I would like to think they would have changed before that, but then again, I also would have thought they'd avoid skipping rocks at us frogs without the older kids having intervened like they did. Maybe the cycle will continue and the older boys will learn not to pick on our new friends. Maybe we'll find a way to save them if it happens again in the future!
ReplyDeleteHey there Caitlyn! First of all, frogs are one of my favorite animals and I think they’re cool so it’s nice reading a story about them because there aren’t many out there. I like how your story has a happy ending and good values, and how in the end the boys and frogs become good friends. Have you considered naming the boys and the frogs? I really think it would add to the detail of the story to give them names because it makes them more relatable. I also wanted to know more about the ending to the story, like what exactly the frogs want from the boys. I think a friendship between humans and frogs is a little weird, but I want to know more about it and what kinds of things they do around each other if the boys stop skipping rocks. Overall, your story was super cute and original!
ReplyDelete