Thumbelina Story Volume 1 | Page 4

“While we prepare for the wedding, we will place her on a water
lily leaf in the middle of the river so that she cannot escape.” And
that is just what they did.
Poor Thumbelina awoke the next morning and found that she
What’s
Happening?
Ask your child to recall
what has happened so
far to poor Thumbelina.
Why is she crying in
this picture?

was no longer in her cozy walnut shell bed. When she looked about
her and saw only water everywhere, she began to cry. Soon the
mother toad and her son appeared on
the river bank, which only made
Thumbelina cry harder and
harder. The mother toad and
son left her alone and
continued to make
wedding plans.
But Thumbelina’s
cries had not gone
unheard. The little
fish in the river felt
sorry for the poor little
girl. They nibbled at the lily

Explain It
Water lilies root in the
soil at the bottom of a
lake or pond. A long
stalk reaches from root
to the leaf, which floats
on the water’s surface.
Talk It Over

pad stalk beneath the water until the leaf
broke free and floated down the river, carrying Thumbelina along
with the current.
Thumbelina floated down the river, far, far away from the
mother toad and her son. It was summertime, and she spent the
next several months drifting peacefully from place to place along
the river. She ate wild berries for food, listened to the birds chirping
in the trees above her, and made friends with the butterflies who
floated on the breeze nearby.

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©2008 Core Knowledge Foundation

Thumbelina Preschool Read-Aloud

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