The Scary Scarecrow
Scotty was a scary one-eyed scarecrow who lived in a salad garden in sunny Madagascar. His favourite time of the year was Christmas time because this was when his family came to stay. Every year, Scotty would organize a Christmas feast of salad, sausages, seafood, and sandwiches for his family.
At six pm on December 24th, Scotty’s Christmas feast was delivered from Suzie’s Feast and Snack Supplies.
Suzie’s Feast and Snack Supplies always delivered Scotty’s Christmas feast a day early. So, it was Scotty’s job to keep all the pests away from his family’s Christmas feast until they arrived.
On Christmas morning in 2007, Scotty woke to find six rabbits and seven crows eating his family’s Christmas feast. Scotty tried to scare them away but for some reason they were not scared of him. Instead they were laughing at him. “How do you expect us to be scared of a scarecrow who can’t even say “s” said one of the crows. “Maybe you should get your tongue fixed and then you might be a little bit “scary” said one of the rabbits.
Scotty had always thought he was one of the scariest scarecrows going around. He only had one eye and looked scary but that just wasn’t enough anymore. Scotty certainly didn’t think he had a broken tongue but obviously he was wrong. So Scotty went to see his friends, Scooby, Scruffy, Stabby and Stella to see if they could fix his tongue and make him scary.
First they bought Scotty a silver tongue from Madagascar chemist. Scotty gave the silver tongue a go but it just made him sound worse. The silver tongue was too big and when Scotty tried to say a s sound, he spat the silver tongue out of his mouth.
If you were standing in front of Scotty when he was trying to talk with his silver tongue it was a good idea to wear a helmet and a raincoat. Stabby learned this the hard way. When Stabby stood in front of Scotty when he was trying to talk with his silver tongue, Scotty’s silver tongue flew out of his mouth and hit Stabby in the head, knocking him to the ground. Stabby also got drenched in Scotty’s saliva.
Next they tried taking Scotty to the straw doctor. The straw doctor said that the only way to fix Scotty’s s sound was to take all the straw out of his mouth and insert some wooden bones. Scotty did not like this idea at all! What’s a scarecrow without straw in his mouth, he thought.
Finally, Scooby, Scruffy, Stabby, and Stella thought they would try to teach Scotty how to say his s sound and see if that worked…
“It’s a long sound just like me” said Scooby the snake
“You don’t use your voice when you say ‘s’ Scotty, just try being quiet like me” whispered Scruffy the spider.
Your tongue has to be behind your teeth” said Stabby the Scorpion. “I never let my tongue poke out of my teeth”.
“And your teeth should look like they do when you smile” said Stella the horse. “Just like me”.
Scotty tried to say s using all the tips he got from his friends and it worked. What a miracle, he thought. Now every time Scotty went to say a s sound he thought of his friends and what a spectacular s sound he made
The End
Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2007.