A SEARCH FOR FRIENDS ...

Hi Friends!

Nate decided to write a fictional story about a ring-tailed lemur for his zoo writing project. He used the animals he met at the zoo for inspiration. I like his imagination, and how he does interesting things with assigned projects.

Love,

Michele

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A SEARCH FOR FRIENDS ...

There once lived a lemur on the island of Madagascar. His name was Jack. He wanted a friend. He had no friends at all, and he was very lonely. He didn't even have a family, because lemurs don't stick around to raise their babies.

He searched the entire island of Madagascar, and he could only find a friend who was a spider. The spider seemed nice, but there was a problem. Spiders and lemurs don't speak the same language. So, they made do with sign language. It worked OK, because spiders have 8 legs and lemurs are very flexible.

The spider, named Josh, decided to come with Jack the lemur on his search for friends. Next they stumbled across a 100 year old sea tortoise named John. He weighed 1000 pounds, including his shell. Although he moved very slowly, he was wise because he had lived a very long time. Josh and Jack decided that not only would they make friends with John, but they'd also ask him if he knew of any other animals looking for friends.

"Yes," said John. "A mountain lion who lives on a volcano. People are afraid to visit him because of where he lives. He would love friends like you!"

So, Josh climbed on Jack's back, and Jack climbed on John's back. They slowly started off around the island of Madagascar and found the mountain lion, named Jim, had come down from his volcano. He was looking for friends, too, on the sea shore. So, they chatted for a while, and now Jack the lemur was in a group of 4 friends. He was so happy!

Next, they asked Jim if he knew of any animals looking for friends. He had a great view of the whole island when he lived on top of the volcano. He knew of one lonely baboon, whose family had sadly died during a cheetah attack. Jim wanted to be friends with him, but he had always been afraid to approach him, thinking he would scare the baboon off. "But I don't think he'll be afraid of a lemur, a spider, and a sea tortoise," he said. "You could introduce me and tell him I mean no harm."

So, off they went on a search to meet the baboon, whose name turned out to be James. In Madagascar, by the way, all the animals have J names. Now they were a group of 5 friends. They asked the baboon if he had ever seen any other lonely animals while he was swinging from trees. "Well, I've seen a king cobra snake who is always alone, but I don't know if he's friendly!"

They put Jim the mountain lion in charge of checking out the snake. It appeared he was the only friendly king cobra in the world. His name was Jamie. They played and laughed together for days and days!!! They became so close that they were like family.

So, the lesson in this story is -- if you're lonely, be brave and make friends. Sometimes they will be very different than you. But if you have friends, you'll be so happy and never have to feel alone!

by Nate Bland (4th grade)

THE END

P.S. --Meet the inspiration for my story:


These are animals I saw at the Moorpark Zoo -- a lemur, baboon, mountain lion, and tortoise (who was 86 years old). We also saw a tarantula, but we don't have a picture of him.