In class we read and discussed stories from the book Wisdom Tales by Heather Forrest (full of myths and folktales). A folktale is a story that teaches a lesson or moral. A myth explains something in nature that is otherwise hard to understand. Sometimes in myths and fables, the characters are animals! We all wrote our own wisdom tales as well. Our teacher taught us how to use Adobe Photoshop. Below is my wisdom tale about a turtle and how he lost his ears.

       Once there was a turtle. He lived in the jungle. The turtle had big ears. The very rude turtle was always listening to what all of the other animals said and repeated the animals’ secrets all over the jungle. Sometimes the animals wanted to have a private conversation and even when they whispered, their words spread as if they had shouted them.

      One day all the animals realized that the turtle was listening to their conversations, so they decided to trick the gossiping turtle and teach him a lesson. Their plan was to whisper lies about the hot tempered lion that lived in the jungle. They were to all say things about the lion that weren’t true and if the turtle overheard them, he would of course spread the lies.

       Soon, the lion heard about all the lies that were spread about him. He asked all the animals who spread these lies. They all said it was the turtle. The lion went up to the turtle and with one swipe of his sharp claws, he cut the turtle’s ears off. The turtle couldn’t hear as well as he used to and could no longer eavesdrop on the other animals. That is why today the turtle doesn’t have ears.