A long time ago, on the prairies of what is now Oklahoma, there lived a very anxious rabbit. While he was cheerful in his demeanor, he had a lot of fears about the world around him. There had been talk amongst the animals of change coming their way and we wasn’t sure what this would look like, but he feared that it would be the end of the world! One day, the rabbit got so overwhelmed with fear that he decided he had to run away to clear his head! He ran so fast that he couldn’t control where he was running and he ran into a bush! As soon as he hit the bush he saw something blue fall to the ground. He noticed that this blue thing was a similar color to the sky. In his surprise he quickly assumed that they must be pieces of sky that had fallen to the ground! This panicked the rabbit even more so! He decided he had to run back, this time even faster than before, to tell his friends and family so that they could all be safe! When he told all of the other animals that pieces of the sky were falling, they also began to panic and run away as fast as they could in every which way! This caused a huge ruckus, so much so that the bison near by started to notice. One of the bison, who was very wise, asked one of the prairie dogs caught up in the commotion what was going on. The prairie dog replied that the rabbit had told them that pieces of the sky were falling! The bison thought this seemed a bit peculiar, so he asked the rabbit to take him back to the place where pieces of the sky had fallen down. The rabbit was hesitant, but agreed. Side by side they went back to the bush that had pieces of the sky next to it. When they got to the bush, the rabbit showed the bison the pieces of sky that had fallen to the ground. Upon seeing this, the bison took one of the pieces of sky and ate it! The rabbit was horrified! After a brief minute of tasting and pondering, the bison informed the rabbit that these were actually not pieces of sky, but rather they were blueberries! The rabbit felt very foolish, but he was also glad to know that the world was not ending. The bison and the rabbit quickly headed back to the animals to inform them of what happened. All of the animals were overjoyed at the good news! They were also very thankful for their new favorite snack!
Here is a cartoon drawing of the bison that helped the rabbit.
Author’s note: This story is taken from the story of “The Foolish, Timid Rabbit” from the Jatakas Anthology by Laura Gibbs.
Bibliography
"The Foolish, Timid Rabbit" from Jatakas Anthology by Laura Gibbs.
"Oklahoma" from Encyclopedia Brittanica Online by John S. Ezell, Gregory Lewis McNamee.
"Where Blueberries Grow" by U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council
Hello Piper, I love your retelling of this story. This story reminds me of the animated movie called Chicken Little. In the movie it was a little chicken that spotted a piece of what he thought was the sky. It is a very interesting movie which is totally worth a watch. Your story was very interesting, and I love how the sky was blue berries! The only feedback I have is to watch the usage of exclamation marks. I felt as thought I was shouting half of the story. There were some points to where they were needed and made the story thrilling. Overall, I love your story and can’t wait to read more!! Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteHey Piper!
ReplyDeleteI loved that you put an Oklahoma spin on the story for the animals. I relate to the anxious rabbit so much, its not even funny. I find myself frantically running around without realizing what for. I feel like college often does that to students, so this is a great story to show that off. One critique that I had was to add something more to the story than just changing the animals. I love a good twist, so that could have helped change it up.
I think that keeping the character of the frantic rabbit and adding the bison was a great idea. A rabbit is the perfect animal that you would imagine frantically running around anxious about the world. A bison is a great animal I could imagine standing there eating and watching the commotion around him calmly and ends up fixing the situation. I wonder if you could have added some dialogue to give the story more depth? I think that your story line was great maybe just adding more details along the way would have been a great addition.
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