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Grade: Pre-School
Subject: Reading/Writing
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Season's Greetings,Please forgive this intrusion into your busy day. I'm simply hoping to guide your attention to something that the world seems to need...and it's as free as the smile of an unbroken child.
A children's book I wrote, illustrated, and put on the Web, "The Ogre and The Angel" is teaching kids all over the planet how to avoid or escape abuse. Its lesson is one of the most important they can learn. It works really well:
*The Mayor of San Francisco recently told his staff to make the book known to all the teachers in that city's Unified School District.
*The California Dept. of Education asked me just last week for copies of the book pages so their School Safety and Violence Prevention Office can print and distribute it.
*Yahoo.com put a link to the free online storybook on their kids' site, Yahooligans.(This is the only time you will receive mail from me. I'm just trying my best to share the story as widely as I can. As you can imagine, when you can only get it to a relative
handful of the kids it can help, it's a big responsibility to have been given something that really works against child abuse.)How many things do we have that really work against child abuse?
One of the things that works, "The Ogre and The Angel," is online at-
http://members.tripod.com/~helpthekids
Though I retain copyright to "The Ogre and The Angel" to keep it free and out of uncaring hands, there is no need to ask my permission or acknowledge me in any way before printing out copies of the website, or this letter, and distributing them to adults who care about kids. Please publicize it as widely as you can. I don't care if you even mention my name. This isn't about gold and glory. It's about helping children..
Every year over one million children are abused
in the United States...alone.Happy Holiday to You and Yours,
Micheal Hardgrove
Wewoka, OK 74884
tiwinke@renet.com
http://members.tripod.com/~helpthekids[On the page of the website just following the story, you will also find a play
version of the story that I wrote for children's theatre. This too is free.]{Please share this with your kids}
"The Ogre and The Angel"
(Copyright by Micheal Hardgrove, December '98)
Once not long ago on a mountain far away,
A little angel called a little ogre out to play,
The Ogre lived there in a cave, alone and in the dark,
And when the Angel came to play, it blessed the Ogre's heart;
That's why the Angel was surprised to hear the Ogre yell,
"I don't wanna play today! I'm not feeling very well!"
The Angel flew down to the cave and called out once again:
"If you won't come outside, is it all right if I come in?"
"Oh, no!" the Ogre shouted and stepped back from her light;
The Angel knew a thing or two, and she knew this wasn't right;
She waved both hands, and suddenly the darkness left the cave,
(That's because Love's magic happens when an angel waves);
When she peeked inside and saw him, she thought that she would cry;
Her friend, the little Ogre, had a big, black eye!
"I just fell down," the Ogre said. "Now make it dark again!"
The Angel said, "You shouldn't tell a fib to your best friend."
The Ogre turned away and said, "What makes ya think I'm fibbin'?
I don't have wings like you do to keep my feet from trippin'!"
"I only asked because I care," she said. "Don't get excited.
If you had only fallen down, you wouldn't try to hide it."
The Ogre said, "Okay, you win," and gave his eye a rub;
"I went down the mountainside and the Grumbles beat me up."
The Angel turned and flew outside, and the Ogre came along;
The Angel said, "It's just not right! In fact, it's very wrong!
I think I'll have a talk with them and ask them to be nice."
The Ogre said, "Oh, no! Not that! You can't talk to these guys!
If they find out I told you, they'll beat me twice as bad!
Promise me you won't go down and make the Grumbles mad!"
"It's okay," said the Angel as she flew toward Grumbletown;
"Hey, wait!" the Ogre hollered as he followed on the ground;
The Grumbles down in Grumbletown were standing in a group,
Outside their caves, around a pot, cooking Junebug Soup--
They didn't see the Ogre or the Angel coming near,
Until the biggest one looked up and said, "Well, lookee here!
That little ogre's back again, and he's got some company!
I'm big and strong. This won't take long. Just save some soup for me!"
The Big One snarled and threw a rock which barely missed the Ogre;
"Angel!" cried the Ogre. "Please! Let's not go any closer!"
All the other Grumbles laughed and yelled the Big One's name;
The Angel said, "Don't be so mean! You all should be ashamed!"
The Big One threw a rock at her, and all the Grumbles hollered;
But then the Angel waved her hands and Grumbletown got smaller...
...And smaller and smaller and smaller until,
Even the great Big One was no bigger than a pill!
The Ogre looked down in surprise and heard the squeaky noises,
That the itsy-bitsy Grumbles made with all their tiny voices;
He said, " You needn't be afraid, but I'll give you all a penny,
If you'll be nice to smaller things, that
is if there are any."The Ogre turned and walked away back up the mountainside,
As what was left of Grumbletown ran away to hide;
Back up on the mountaintop in his bright-as-daylight cave,
The Ogre and the Angel sat and drank some lemonade;
The Ogre asked the Angel,"Will they always be that size?"
The Angel said, "They'll learn and grow when they want to be nice."
So the Angel helped the Ogre, and he was glad he let her;
They laughed and played again, and pretty soon his eye got better;And the Ogre learned the lesson that it's never ever naughty,
When ANYONE is hurting you, to go and tell somebody.The End
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