Pals or Not? <igh>
Adapted from "The Lonely Prickly Pear" by Nghamula Justice Maluleke and Subi Bosa. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Spike had no pals. He went up to some trees to say hi. They wanted to start a fight.
Some trees are rude. Spike did not mind. He went off to find a plant pal.
He went up to an orange tree to ask if it needed a friend. It said it did not.
He tried a banana tree. It was scared of him. He let it be.
Next, he tried a mango tree. Then a guava. They let out big sighs.
He made his way to a pawpaw. The pawpaw had heard that Spike might ask to be pals.
The pawpaw felt bad for him. He said that they could be pals.
But when they were jumping off to play, Spike hurt the pawpaw by mistake.
The pawpaw told him to go and find a spikey friend.
Spike looked high and low, but there were no spikey plants in the garden. He left.
He went out to the dunes. There was a bush by itself. It had thorns all over!
Spike left his pot behind and went out to live in the dunes with his new pal.