Sophie the Swan's Gray Feathers
Sophie is fuzzy and gray, not white and graceful like the grown-up swans. Will she ever fit in?
On a quiet lake lived a family of swans. The grown-ups were tall and white and glided across the water like floating clouds.
But Sophie was small, fuzzy and gray. Baby swans are called cygnets, and they don't look much like their parents at first.
"Why am I gray?" Sophie asked the frog on the lily pad. "Why can't I be white and beautiful like Mama?"
"You're still growing," said the frog. "I used to be a tadpole with a tail! Look at me now."
Sophie wasn't sure. Every day she watched the grown-up swans stretch their long necks and spread their huge wings, and every day she felt a little less special.
One day, a young duck paddled over. "Do you want to race?" he asked.
Sophie paddled as fast as her little feet could go. She didn't win, but she laughed so hard she hiccupped. The next day they raced again. And the next.
She practiced diving for water plants with the ducks. She learned the songs of the frogs. She was so busy having fun that she forgot to worry about her feathers.
Then one morning, months later, Sophie looked down at her reflection in the still water.
Her fuzzy gray was gone. In its place were smooth, bright white feathers. Her neck had grown long and curved. She spread her wings — and they were enormous!
"Mama!" she called. "Look at me!"
Mama swan glided over and touched her beak to Sophie's. "You were always beautiful," she said. "You just had to grow into yourself."
⭐ The End ⭐
💬 Talk about it
- What is a baby swan called?
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A cygnet. - What color are baby swans at first?
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Fuzzy and gray. - What did Sophie do while she was growing?
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She raced ducks, dove for plants and learned frog songs — she had fun!
