The Quietest Dinosaur — by Dan and Sarah Fullerton
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, lived a young dinosaur named Cornelius. Cornelius loved to run and play with the other young dinosaurs. He especially liked to dance in the rain and sing dinosaur songs. But Cornelius wasn’t like the other dinosaurs.
The other dinosaurs loved to roar with loud and frightful roars. They would have roaring contests, in which they would take turns make as loud a roar as they could manage. But when it came time for Cornelius to roar, all he could manage was a very small, quiet, squeaky “roar.”
The other dinosaurs laughed at Cornelius. They thought it was funny that a dinosaur had such a small and quiet roar. But Cornelius didn’t think it was funny. It made him sad. He wanted to roar like the other dinosaurs, but he didn’t know how.
One day Cornelius decided to go searching for his roar. He wandered over the mountains, through the trees, across the rivers, around the lakes, through the canyons, up the cliffs, down the ravines, and into the forests. But no matter how hard he searched, he couldn’t find his roar.
Disheartened, Cornelius decided to give up and go home. He turned around and walked out of the forests, up the ravines, down the cliffs, through the canyons, around the lakes, across the rivers, through the trees, and over the mountains.
Just as Cornelius rounded the last bend on his way home, he tripped over a log on the ground. He hadn’t seen the log, and he fell a long way toward the ground. As he fell, he yelled “WHHHOOOOOAAAAAA” at the top of his lungs, afraid he would hurt his nose when he hit the ground. Just before he hit the ground, though, he caught himself with his little dinosaur arms. He was unhurt.
“Whew,” Cornelius sighed. “That was a close call.”
When he got up and looked around, he saw that his dinosaur friends were standing in a circle around him. His yell was so loud and frightful that all the other dinosaurs for miles around came to see what could make such a tremendous noise. When the other dinosaurs saw that Cornelius had learned to roar, they cheered and congratulated him, every dinosaur making sure to shake his hand.
Cornelius was a dinosaur in a land far, far away. He loved to dance in the rain and sing dinosaur songs. And, Cornelius could roar a very loud and frightful dinosaur roar.