The Young Crab and His Mother Retold
One a warm summers day, a mother and her son were spending
the day together.
The mother did not get to see her son very often because he
normally lived with his father. So the
mother decided to ask her son what he wanted to do.
Mother: “What fun thing would you like to do today?”
Reece: “I’d really like to practice Lacrosse, so I can make
the team in the fall.”
Mother: “Okay, I’ll pitch the ball to you and you can
practice your stick skills.”
Reece ran to get his gear. He returned after sometime, he
had lost his stick. Luckily he found it. Reece had never played before and knew
he needed lots of practice. Handing mom
the ball, Reese backed way up. His mom
made a toss and Reese caught it. This happened multiple times when mom through
the ball underhandedly in Reece’s direction. They played like this for a solid
while. They decided to stop and have some lemonade while Reece looked up
important stick handling skills on YouTube. Once Reece decided what to practice
next he asked his mom to throw the ball overhanded so he could practice the new
skill.
Again, Reece backed way up. His mother threw the ball and it
landed nowhere close to where Reece was standing. Reece ran the ball back to
his mother so she could try again. His mother threw the ball and again it
landed nowhere near Reece or where he could reach it with his stick. They tried
a third time and a fourth…same results. Reece was starting to get flustered.
Reece: “Can’t you throw?!”
Mother: “Hey, you should try it. Its harder than it looks.”
They then switched places. Reece grabbed the ball and gave
it a toss. The ball landed pretty close
to Reece himself. He then gave it one more try…same result.
Reece: “You are right, this is harder than it looks.”
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"Do not tell others how to act unless you can set a good example."
(Original Message)
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| Lacrosse in Motion by Collin Donegan Author's Note: This Story is based off of the fable "The Young Crab and His Mother", part of which is quoted at the end. The original can be found The Aesop for Children, by Anonymous (1919). The original is about a young crab who is corrected by his mother, when asked to be shown how, his mother finds out she cannot do it either. I gave this story a modern twist. |
Shelly, I really like your retelling of this fable. I think it's creative how you updated it from sideways-walking crabs to a boy playing lacrosse with his mother. And how you reversed the roles. You added a lot of great detail, and the message of the fable really came through in your modern version. I look forward to reading more of your stories!
ReplyDeleteI thought your story being about the mother and son was very cute. I really liked how when the two characters spoke you used a script-type narrative instead of a story-type one. I thought it was cute that he looked up some skills on YouTube, like something we would definitely do nowadays. And I thought that the interaction between the mom and son was spot on for how it would actually go, with the kid getting so fed up with his mother for not doing it correctly. Great job!
ReplyDelete