Scotty The Snail

A perfect book for children ages 2-7

A Grandparents Book
 

Buy this book to read to your grandchild

Miles Flynn Erie Chapman - at 8 months

Scotty the Snail                                                                                   
Copyright © 2004-2005 Erie Chapman
October Press
Nashville, Tennessee
112 Dunham Springs Lane
Nashville, Tennessee 37205
eriechapman.com
 
By Erie Chapman
Illustrations by Patti Sharpe
How a little snail learns why it can
be good to be slow
 

Sample Text:

Scotty was a very small snail — the smallest
in his family. He felt small next to his older sister
Sally. He felt even smaller next to his mom.
 
He felt smallest of all when in the family photo
next to his big, happy dad.
 
One day Scotty was out crawling along the
sidewalk, looking up at the tall blades of bright
green grass that were taller than he was. A gray and
white rabbit came racing by. When he saw Scotty,
he screeched to a stop and smiled.

“Hey snail,” the rabbit said. “How come you are
sooooooo slow?”
“I don’t know, rabbit” said Scotty, feeling little
hurt. “By the way, rabbit, my name is Scotty.”
“Hi, Scotty, my name is Robert Rabbit. You
know, Scotty, you are so slow I couldn’t even tell
you were moving. Then I saw that silver trail you
left behind you. How do you do that?”
 
“I don’t know,” said Scotty, looking behind him
at the long silver trail that showed where he had
been. “It just happens whenever I move.” Scotty
wanted to ask Robert if he had noticed the tall
blades of bright green grass and the butterfly and
the frog and the ladybug and the two birds in the
tree and the twin rabbits, but Robert was already
hopping away.
“So long, slow poke,” the rabbit said. And he
raced off.
 
As Scotty inched down the sidewalk, he looked
up at all the green trees and the pink and yellow
flowers blooming above him. Suddenly, a squirrel
came prancing by carrying a basket of acorns. As he
jumped up to Scotty, he held up one of his acorns
and said,
“Hey snail, why are you soooooooooooooo
slow?”
“I don’t know,” Scotty said. “By the way,
squirrel, my name is Scotty.”
“Hi, Scotty, my name is Sparky the Squirrel,”
the squirrel said.
Scotty wanted to ask his new friend Sparky the
Squirrel if he had noticed the pink and yellow
flowers and the green trees and the frog and the
curled up kitty and the butterfly and the ladybug
and the cardinal and the tiny black ant. But Sparky
had already raced away and run up the side of a tree.
 
That night at dinner, Scotty’s mom and dad
asked him what he had done that day.
“I saw lots of pretty green grass and lots of big
tall trees and lots of pretty pink flowers and lots of
other animals,” Scotty said. “And I met two new
friends, Robert Rabbit and Sparky Squirrel.”
“Oh, what a busy day you have had,” his
mother said.
Then, Scotty looked up at his big sister and his
even bigger mom and his very big dad. “Daddy,”
Scotty said, “why am I sooooooooo slow?”
His father looked up at the ceiling, as if maybe
the answer were written up there. “All snails are
slow, son. That’s just the way we are,” his father
said solemnly.
“I want to be fast like my friends Robert the
Rabbit and Sparky the Squirrel,” Scotty said.
 
“Don’t be silly,” his sister Sally said as she threw
back her head and gave a big laugh. “There is no
such thing as a fast snail.”
Scotty felt sad. If he couldn’t be fast, maybe
nobody would like him. He decided he would
practice moving faster. He imagined himself as the
fastest snail that ever lived!

The next day Scotty inched himself up to the
top of a small hill, turned around, and tried to
come down the hill as fast as he could. When he
was part way down the hill, going as fast as he
could, a turtle came walking by him.
“Hey snail,” the turtle said. “What are you
trying to do?”
“First, turtle, my name is Scotty. And I’m
trying to learn how to go really fast.”
“My name is Thomas L. Turtle. Why do you
want to run fast, Scotty?”
“Because rabbits and squirrels and the other
animals can all run really fast,” Scotty said.
“I can’t run fast,” Thomas L. Turtle said
calmly.
“Does that make you sad?” Scotty asked.
“Nope,” Thomas said. “Have you ever noticed
all the things you and I see that the other
animals don’t?”
“What do you mean?”
 
“Look at the flower over there,” Thomas L.
Turtle said, pointing with his right front foot to a
bright red rose. “Isn’t it beautiful?”
“It certainly is,” Scotty said.
“What about that pretty little tree?” Thomas
said, pointing to a dogwood that was covered with
bright pink blossoms, “Isn’t it just lovely?”
Scotty leaned back his head and looked up at
the tree. “It certainly is,” he said.
“Well,” Thomas said, “I’ll bet Mr. Rabbit and Mr.
Squirrel haven’t seen either the rose or the tree or
the puffy clouds up above because they were
running so fast.”
 
“That’s kind of sad,” Scotty said, “because the
red rose and the pink dogwood tree and all the
puffy clouds are soooooooo beautiful.”
Scotty was starting to feel better about all the
things in the world he could see by moving slowly
and looking around.
“This makes me very happy to be able to see
things and to smell them and to hear them,” Scotty
said.
“Yes, we slow pokes can see a lot,” Thomas L.
Turtle said, as he reached out his right foot and
lifted up Scotty so he could see even better.
 
That night at dinner his mom asked, “Scotty,
what did you do today?’
“I met a turtle named Thomas L. Turtle. And I
smelled lots of pretty flowers and I saw lots of
lovely trees and I heard lots of beautiful birds
singing through the blue, blue sky. I think I saw
and heard and smelled almost everything,” Scotty
said proudly.
“How wonderful! I’m soooo happy for you,” his
mother said in a way that made Scotty feel very
glad.
“That’s terrific, Scotty, I’m sooooooo very proud
of you,” his father said in a way that made Scotty
feel strong and warm all over.
“That’s very nice, Scotty,” Sally said in a way
that Scotty thought was very nice.
 
That night when Scotty went to bed, he
thought of the birds sleeping up in the high
branches and the snoring squirrel and the cozy
rabbit and the sleepy frog and the orange butterfly
resting his wings.
He also thought about his friend Mr. Thomas L.
Turtle and how wise and kind he was and how he
was probably reading to his son or daughter. Scotty
thought how good it was for everyone to be happy
with who they are.
 
“Slow can be good,” Scotty said to himself,
“because when you slow down, you can see all the
beautiful things in the world and you can have
happy thoughts about them when you are lying in
bed at night. I just love being slow.”
With that, Scotty curled back into his shell and
went to sleep. He dreamed of lying down on a
green leaf in a big, soft, slow-moving cloud, gazing
down at all the pretty red flowers dozing in the
breeze and the pink blooms yawning on the trees
and the blue, blue sky. And even though he was
asleep, when his mother peeked in, she noticed
that Scotty the Snail was smiling a big happy smile.

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