The Summer That Robby The Bear Made A New Friend

 

The Summer That Robby The Bear Made A New Friend

 

      It’s a sunny, very hot day, not quite summer.  The bears have just finished fourth grade.  They are very excited to start their vacation, because they get to go to a summer camp for two weeks. 

     The day before the trip the bears are packing their suitcases.  All of a sudden someone bellows, “Mom, where’s my favorite shirt?”  It was Robby; he could not find his maroon dragon shirt.  Mom said, “look in the clothes dryer.”  So he did.  After getting the shirt out of the dryer, Robby hollered “Thanks mom.”  Mom replied “You are welcome.”

     The bears were finally packed and ready to go.  They were so excited to go that they wouldn’t talk about anything else.

     It was time for bed, but the bears were not ready for sleep.  So they talked for awhile.  “Hey Bryan,” said Robby, “I’m going to ride the horses.”  Bryan told Robby, “I am going to paint pictures.”  Leslie said, “I want to make candles.”  Robby asked Leslie, “Could you make a candle for me that’s shaped like a horse?”  “I’ll try,” she said.  Then Bryan said, “I’ll paint a picture of one for you.”   “I’d like that very much,” said Robby.  They finally fell asleep, dreaming of the fun they would have and all of the things that they wanted to do.  In a few short hours it was morning and time to get up.  The bears started chattering amongst themselves almost immediately. 

    “I can’t wait to get there” Leslie told Robby.  “Neither can I, I want to go horseback riding,” said Robby.  Then Bryan joined in saying, “I want to learn how to paint and become an artist when I grow up.”  Robby replied “Well I want to be a jockey in the Kentucky Derby.”   Leslie then said “I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, right now I just want to relax and enjoy my summer, because it will be over soon enough and fifth grade is going to be harder than fourth was.”  Bryan and Robby joined in with their agreement.

     Mom called up from downstairs, “Are you all packed yet and ready to go?  We need to leave in about thirty minutes.”  The bears replied in unison “yes ma’am.”  They trampled down the stairs with their suitcases in hand.  They headed out the door and straight to the car.

     Now they were on their way and everyone was singing camp songs including mom.  When they got to the camp, the bears piled out of the car as if someone had put ants on the seat.  The camp counselor came out to greet them.  She said “Hi, my name is Miss Shirley; what are your names?”  Leslie piped up “I’m Leslie, and this is Robby, and that one playing on the log is Bryan.”  Miss Shirley said, “Well I’m glad to meet you.  Now let’s go to your cabins so you can put your suitcases away.”  Robby hollered to Bryan, “Come on we need to put our things up.”  As they were putting their things up Miss Shirley explained how things were done at the camp and what the schedules were.  The bears were so excited about all of the activities that were available.  There was horseback riding, swimming, hiking, fishing, boating, arts and crafts, cooking and music.

     By the time they had unpacked and looked at the schedules, it was time for mid-morning snacks; the cooking class had made s’mores for everyone.  Robby chose the seat next to this very shy looking tan bear.  “Hi, my name is Robby,” he said.  “What’s yours?”  The other bear replied in a low voice, “Cory.”  “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Cory.  What kind of activities are you interested in?” Cory said, “I am interested in riding horses.  I would like to race horses, I think!”  Robby could barely contain his excitement as he exclaimed,  “So would I, wow! Someone else with the same dream as me.  I can’t believe it!”  Then Robby asked “Where do you live, and what school do you go to?”  Cory said, “We just moved to MoreheadCity, and next year I will be going into the fourth grade at Morehead City Elementary.”  Robby couldn’t believe what he was hearing; this bear lived in the same city and would be going to the same school that he went to.  When Robby blurted out “So do I,” Cory’s eyes grew large with excitement.  “You have got to be kidding!”  He said.  Robby said “No I’m not kidding, we moved there in February, and I was in fourth grade at the same school, I’ll be there for fifth grade.”  The two bears were really tickled that they already had so much in common.  They each thought to themselves that they might just have made a long lasting friendship.  Robby could not wait to tell his mom, brother and sister.

     The two bears were almost inseparable during the next two weeks because they were doing the same activities.  Time flew by so fast for them, they couldn’t believe that it was already time to leave camp and go home.  So the two bears made sure to exchange phone numbers and addresses, and they were very happy to find out that they even lived close to each other, so they would be able to see each other very often.

     On the way home Robby talked about Cory more than anything else.  This saddened Bryan and Leslie, because they felt that someone else was taking their brother away from them.  They always thought that they would have the closest friendships since they were triplets.

     As time went on Robby and Cory’s friendship grew even stronger, and Robby didn’t have time for Bryan anymore.  Bryan became very sad; he really missed the times that he spent with Robby.  Robby did not know that Bryan was so sad until one night really late he heard a soft crying coming from Bryan’s room.  He went into the room and quietly asked, “What’s wrong Bryan, why are you crying?”  Bryan sobbing replied, “I don’t think you like me anymore.”  Shocked, Robby asked, “Why would you think that?”  Bryan said, “Because you don’t play with me anymore, and you hardly even talk to me anymore, because you are always with Cory.”  “I’m really sorry, I had no idea that you felt this way.  Why didn’t you say something before now?”  Asked Robby.  “I tried,” said Bryan, “but you were always ignoring me.”

     By this time Robby’s eyes were damp, and trying to hide it from his brother, he said,  “From now on, “I’ll include you in as much that I can, OK?”  Bryan said, “OK.”  Then Robby remembered that he and Cory were going skating in a couple of days.  He asked, “Bryan, would you like to go skating with us?”  Bryan’s face lit up as if a light switch had been turned on “Yes, I would love that very much.”  Then his face dulled again as he thought about the cost to get in to the skating rink and he said “but I don’t have any money, and it costs to go there.”  Robby said, “look don’t worry about that, I have enough for both of us.”  Bryan, beaming again said, “really, Robby, you would pay for me to go?’  Robby said, “yes, I would, you are my brother after all.”  Bryan’s eyes teared up again as he threw his arms around Robby’s neck, saying “thank you, Robby, thank you.”  Robby said, “You are welcome, Bryan. Now can we go back to sleep?”

    

Reviews

[Susan S.]

I like the story but I'm not sure why you made it a story about bears. There is nothing even remotely bear like about anyone in the story. It sounds like kids, and since there is nothing scary about this such that the children who read it would need to be buffered, I would think kids would relate to it better if this were about kids just like themselves.

Second problem is your paragraph structure. Every time the dialogue goes to a new person, there should be a new paragraph.

Other than those, I think your story is a great children's story. You might want to be warned, though. I hear the making of children's picture books are severely regulated... X amount of pages exactly--the X changing by age group of readers--with the breaks in pages being very specific; X number of graphics of very specific size... It sounded like too much trouble to me. I have a children's story but now I'm afraid to publish it. Good luck with yours.

[Gina Laurie Whitford]

Thank you so much for the review, this was my very first story so I know it was not very good.