A short story designed for Grade 1-3 readers about self esteem. |
In Spiders Lagoon lived a big group of Butterflies. Some were Yellow with Red Freckles. Some were Green with Orange Stripes. Some were Blue with Purple Blotches. All of them were Beautiful. All of them had beautiful names. Like Clarabelle, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Chloe, Meredith and Sebastian, Christian and Angelo, But then there was Bruce. Bruce wasn’t what you would call a “pretty” butterfly. He was black all over. He didn’t have colour. He didn’t have speckles. He didn’t have lines. He was just plain black. You can imagine how the butterfly kids teased Him at school. “Bruce, you’re plain!” said Sebastian. “Bruce, your dull!” said Meredith. “Bruce! What a Boring Name!” said Clarabelle. “B-O-O-O-O -O-O-RING Bruce” said Elizabeth. “Bruce isn’t ridiculously good looking like I am! I’m not playing with Him” said Christian. Bruce cried. Nobody thinks I’m special! thought Bruce. Will anyone think I’m special? Ever? Bruce was so sad he flew away. Far Far Away. He sat alone next to a rock with a hole in it. “Why are you crying?” said a little voice. “Nobody thinks I am special” said Bruce, without even looking at the little voice. “I have never seen a pure black butterfly before”, said the little voice from behind him "I think you are beautiful". There before him was a pure white butterfly. Bruce had never seen one like him before either. Now Bruce was smiling.javascript:updateLine('BigSmile', '1'); “I think you are beautiful” said Bruce. “Come meet my friends” said the little voice. “Sure”, said Bruce. When He got to their home he saw so many Little White Butterflies. They all thought that Bruce was wonderful. “What’s your name?" Asked his little white friend. “Bruce” said Bruce. “Woah! That’s special!” they all seemed to say. “Bruce is not a special name” said Bruce. “Yes it is” said one of the white Butterflies “We are all called Eric. Bruce is a very exotic name” said Eric. (well, one of the Erics). For the first time Bruce felt special. but Bruce though hard about his friends and family back home, and started to miss them. He didn’t want to leave all of his little white Eric friends, but he wanted to go home to forgive all of the beautiful butterflies back at school. When he got back, He had a wonderful surprise waiting! All of His old schoolmates were talking together about trying to find Him. “Surprise!” said Bruce. The Butterflies were surprised. Eventually Christian spoke up “We’re sorry... We didn’t mean to be so mean. We really do think you are special”. But Bruce wasn’t angry at them anymore. He knew he was One of A kind; and not ugly at all. |