Reading Notes: How The Turtle Saved His Own Life

"turtle"

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This story is basically about a few princes who always go to a lake, so the king puts fish in the lake for them to see. Among those fish is one turtle. The boys had never seen a turtle before and are instantly frightened of it and want it gone. The king eventually sentences the turtle to death. However, the turtle saves himself by tricking the people to believe he will die in water. 

This story gave me the idea of writing something involving racial issues. I thought it fit well with that topic. For example, I could have three boys who live in a very rural part of the south. They will be of white descent. 

One day, a young African American boy will move to the town where they reside. Instantly, they would want to segregate him from everything because he is different. The new boy will become very popular with the other open-minded kids because they see him as another student, not someone different because of his skin. In school, the three boys would try to pick on him. Outside of class they would try to fight him and scare him away. 

Eventually, the young African American boy would stand up to the other boys and prove that he is more than the color of his skin. Also, that he is proud of his heritage. His fellow students will help him due to how well-liked he is by all of them. I thought this would be an interesting story to write. I have not worked out the small details, but that is the basic plot. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY
How the Turtle Saved his Own Life - Babbitt