"El orejón", a story about bullying

This story encourages self-esteem and tolerance. Aimed at children who suffer
bullying.
Written by Álvaro Jurado Nieto, Colombia.

It was his second day of classes at the "Rainbow Garden." Henry sat at the first desk
in the room, next to the window, as his mother recommended.

"Good morning children," Professor Mily said happily. "Today we are going to study
some animals. We will begin with the donkey, that animal so useful to humanity,
strong, with long ears and..."

"Like Henry," a voice interrupted her, coming from the back of the room. Many
children began to laugh loudly and looked at Henry.

"Who said that?" the teacher asked, although she knew well who had said it.

"It was Quique," said a girl, pointing to a 5-year-old freckled boy next to her.

"Children, children," Mily said with an energetic voice and making an angry face. "You
should not make fun of others. "That's not right and I'm not going to allow it in my
classroom."

Everyone remained silent, but some giggles could still be heard in various parts.

A while later a paper ball hit Henry's head. When he turned around he didn't see who
had thrown it at him and again some people laughed at him. He decided to ignore the
teasing and continued looking at the animal pictures that Mily was showing. He was
very sad but he didn't cry.

At recess Henry opened his lunch box and began to eat the delicious guava and yogurt
sandwich that his mother had packed for him. Two children who were nearby shouted at
him: "ear, listen, ear, don't eat so much that your tail will grow like a donkey" and they
started laughing. Other children around him looked at him and touching their own ears,
they smiled and murmured. Henry understood for the first time that he had really been
born with his ears a little bigger than everyone else's. "Like his grandfather Manuel" he
had heard his father say once, but he didn't understand what he meant. "Now I know,"
he said to himself.

Suddenly screams were heard from the music room, from which a lot of smoke was
coming out.

Henry approached and saw several children locked up, unable to get out, because some
naughty child had placed a broomstick in the locks. Through the glass you could see the
faces of the little ones crying, screaming and very scared. Something was burning inside
and the flames were growing rapidly. The teachers were gathered at the back of the
school and had not realized the danger and none of the children dared to do anything.

Henry, without a second's hesitation, left his lunchbox and ran towards the living room
door, and despite the smoke and heat coming out of it, he grabbed the broom that was
blocking it and pulled it hard.

The children ran out and everyone ran to safety.

Henry remained a hero. The teachers who came running when they heard the noises
hugged him and praised his courage. The children who had teased him about his ears
were sad.

At home, Henry told everything that happened to his family, so everyone was proud of
him. The next day, no children made fun of Henry. They had understood that the
physical defects were only apparent, but instead Henry's courage in saving his
companions was more valuable and worthy of admiration.

This is the story he wrote and titled: "The Fairy of Truth"

One day in the forest a lot of animals were gathered around a very small bunny.

He said that his house was a palace and the little animals told him, really? can we ever
go to your palace? And the bunny said "yes" sarcastically.

The little animals said "of course next time we'll go to your house."

The little animals left and the fairy of truth approached the bunny and said: "Is it true
that your house is a palace?" The bunny looked at her embarrassed. "No, it was a lie
and I feel very bad, it was because I wanted to have friends."

Then the fairy called the animals and the bunny told them: "My house is not a palace.
"It's a cave and I didn't say that because I was afraid they would make fun of me." And
a little animal said "thank goodness!! because it would be nice for us to go to a palace...
a cave is better."

The bunny told the truth and everyone went home and lived happily without lying.

Moral: make children not lie.

FABLE ABOUT BULLYING

It all started with a domestic enigma by the poet Luigi Amara and by thinking about the
idea, he ended up writing a story about bullying.

Petete, a striped sock, suffers harassment from the other socks in the drawer, who amuse
themselves by “grabbing him by his little pig”, humiliating him and torturing him in
every possible way, making him into underwear and a tube, to the point that the
afflicted protagonist denies to be a sock.
What happens to him in The Lonely Socks (Sixth Floor) is similar to what Amara had to
experience as a child, sometimes as a victim, and other times, as a bully.

“I was never very physical, but I did have a sharp tongue, that's when I understood that I
could be a writer. I used to, I still do, to fuck with talking,” says the poet.

There was cheek, yes, sometimes they grabbed someone as a pig but after a while they
changed roles, he adds.

“There wasn't that aggressive desire, it was more of a joke,” Amara notes.

Now, he says, bullying has become another phenomenon of psychological exclusion, of

oppression, promoted by social networks.

“The idea of being inside and outside has become more important,” he says.

Monero Trino (Guadalajara, 1961), illustrator of the book, his talent for drawing saved
him from bullying in high school. One day, the bravest ones approached him to say:
“You draw well, right? “Draw us Bety and Verónica naked” and they gave him an
Archie comic. It turned out so well that he earned his protection.

“They provided me with Playboy magazines to draw the naked monkeys until one day
they discovered my drawings. I thought, 'if I say: these bastards make me do it, I'll be
damned.' I said nothing. They called my parents at the address.

“My dad took it very well, he saw the drawings, he tore them up. He said, 'I'll talk to
him.' He took me home, grabbed a Rubens from the library and told me: 'if you draw
some naked women, do these, these beautiful nudes.' Of course, they were fatter, Bety
and Verónica were better,” he jokes.

Trino was excited that a garment like the sock was the protagonist of the book. Amara
thought that this way the savagery might be more obvious.

“And why not underwear?” Trino interrupts.

“Somehow socks are the most despised garment, which we continually trample in daily
life,” replies Amara, also author of The Adventures of Max and His Underwater Eye.

On the pages, readers will be able to recognize Trino's brown, black and white socks,
which he scanned to illustrate.

“The challenge was how to make the socks nice, they are not an easy garment to draw, I
don't know how many books there will be where the socks talk,” adds the monkey.

The intention, Amara clarifies, was not to make a book of advice or fall into didacticism
or morality, but to tell a story that would capture the imagination of its readers with
well-defined adventures and characters.

“If he manages, from that story, to make a phenomenon visible, the better,” says the
poet.
The Lonely Socks will be presented today by its authors at the Gandhi Bookstore in
Coyoacán at 1 p.m. and on Sunday the 20th at 6 p.m. at the International Children's and
Youth Book Fair at the National Center for the Arts.

The farm animals

Once upon a time there

was a man who lived on a farm. Every day he got up very early (Yawn as if we were
getting up). He always did it when his rooster Kiriko crowed (kíkiríki, kíkíríkííiíí,…. ).
Then he washed and then had milk and some very delicious toast for breakfast (Open
and close his mouth first slowly and then quickly, aumm, aumm,…. imitating eating).
Next, the animals were going to be cared for. First I cleaned the stables where they
were, and I did it singing (lalalala, lalala lalalala lale, lalalala lá lalalali,…. you can keep
inventing different rhythms).

All the animals were very happy because they saw that the farmer was happy and left
everything very clean so that they would be comfortable. After having cleaned
everything, he began to clap (different clapping rhythms), saying:

- Everyone have lunch.

And all the animals lick their lips, because they were already hungry (move the tongue
from one side to the other, passing it over the upper lips and then the lower ones, slowly
and quickly. Then they pursed their lips (uuummmm, uum, uumm,…) and prepared to
receive the food.

The farmer began to feed the chickens:

- Hello little chickens, (pita, pita, pita, pita, pita,….)

The chickens received it very happy (cooooco, cococoooooco,....) and the chicks too
(peep, peep, peep...) and they began to pick at the wheat that I threw to them.

Then he continued with the ducks:

- Hello ducklings, and I whistled to call them (try to whistle several times, even if only
the blow comes out).
The ducklings came quickly (cuaca, cuaca, cuaaa...) and began to eat.

Then he would go to where other animals were, the cow, the pig, the sheep and the
goats, which he also greeted.

-Hello, hello, (We have the children participate so that they say the greeting several
times, so that the animals can answer them).

And all the animals answered happily (the cow: moo, moo, moo,…. the pig: oinnn
oiíinnn oíiínnn,…. the goats and the sheep: beeee, beeee, beeee,…. ) and they started to
eat.

Finally his horse came running (tocotoc, tocotoc, tocotoc,...) and also the rabbits,
because they also wanted to eat. And when he gave them the food, they began to move
their mouths (movement of closed lips, open lips, slow, and a little faster), and they all
stayed there.

The farmer, when he finished the task, went home to eat and rest a little.

When the afternoon arrived he went to the field with his dog, they were both very
happy; the farmer singing (lalala lá, lalala lala lala la,….) and the dog accompanied him
(woof, woof, woof woof woof,…).

They were happy because they had to cut grass so that the farm animals would have
food the next day.

When they finished they returned to the farm just as happy (repeat the above, if you
want with other rhythms).

At the end of the day they went to dinner, and then to sleep (Breathe in through the nose
and breathe out through the mouth, as if pretending to be asleep).

All the animals on the farm also slept happily, because they had a farmer who took good
care of them, and that's why they loved him very much.

Therefore, as long as the animals are well cared for, they will love us very much.

Colorin Colorado,….