Story Hour
Dragon Appreciation Day
Written by Gene B. Williams
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A LITTLE ABOUT SEA DRAGONS
January 16 is Appreciate a Dragon Day. You are invited to learn a little about dragons. You’ve probably seen movies or cartoons about them. Maybe you have played games that have dragons. Your library will have plenty of books. Many of the dragons in them have wings and fly. Some breathe fire or poison gas. There are many legends of dragons that are dangerous and even eat people. Other stories tell of them as very intelligent and even helpful.
Nicker is a sea dragon. That’s a little different. He doesn’t fly, and doesn’t have wings. He swims (and very fast). Sometimes his breath smells a little like fish or peanuts, but breathing fire underwater is … well, useless.
Probably the most famous sea dragon (if she IS a sea dragon … I’m not sure) is Nessie. She lives in Loch Ness in Scotland.
Do you want to learn more? Visit About Sea Dragons on the Home Page.
Dragon Appreciation Day
Written by Gene B. Williams
As this story opens, Danny is looking through the calendar and is wondering about some of the strange holidays we have. He learned something you probably already knew. Nicker sure did! On the Chinese Calendar, 2012 was the Year of the Dragon. Now Nicker was a little sad. The Year of the Dragon is almost over. On February 10 – just 2 days before Nicker’s birthday (and Danny’s) – it becomes the Year of the Snake. Nicker didn’t have anything against snakes, but Nicker thought that EVERY year should be the Year of the Dragon.
Suddenly Danny said, “Hey, Nicker, look at this. January 16 is Appreciate a Dragon Day.”
Nicker was excited. (So what else is new?) He was dancing around, as best a sea dragon can dance around. “Woo hoo hoo,” he sang. “It’s Dragon Day, it’s Dragon Day” … and then knocked the lamp off of an end table. He looked at the mess, paused a moment, then began dancing and woo hooing again. “It’s Dragon Day, it’s Dragon Day!”
Danny knew for some time that having a sea dragon as a best friend wasn’t easy. Now he had yet another thing to explain. “Uh, well … Mom … uh, you see … it was this way.”
Oh, how many times he’d had to do that to explain. It wasn’t easy.
Do you remember the time when Danny was taking a bath – and suddenly found an octopus in the tub? Nicker and the octopus both drenched the whole bathroom. By the time Danny’s Mom came to see why it was so noisy … well, both Nicker and to octopus had gone to hide. Danny was left alone to explain the mess.
Then there was the time he and Nicker were playing in the leaves. It didn’t take long before Danny was covered with wet leaves and sticky peanut butter. Nicker, of course, was hiding. Imagine explaining that to your Mom.
Telling his Mom about Nicker wouldn’t do any good. As you know, adults can’t see sea dragons (except Santa and Captain Kazoo). I don’t know why this is, but it is, and there it is, how it is. Besides, sea dragons are so very good at hiding. Sometimes even you can be looking right at a sea dragon hiding under a bush and not see it. Or maybe get a tiny glimpse – then it’s gone.
This time, Nicker was really excited about it being Appreciate a Dragon Day. When Danny reminded him that that Peanut Day was also coming, and then Peanut Brittle Day, Nicker got even more excited. “I’m hungry!”
Danny knew just what to do. He got out some bread and a jar of peanut butter. “I’ll get a knife and make you a peanut butter sandwich.” He hadn’t taken two steps when he heard, “Doth blobber.” He turned and saw Nicker with his nose in the jar, and his tongue was busy. Let me tell you, it doesn’t take a hungry sea dragon long. In just moments, Nicker’s tongue was licking the last of the peanut butter from inside the jar. When he was done, the jar looked like it had been washed clean. Nicker’s nose, on the other hand was a mess. It covered with peanut butter from his eyes to his chin and every place between. Worse, the empty jar was stuck on his nose. “Helf helf!” he breathed into the jar.
Danny got the jar off. It was difficult to do, not because the jar was tight but because Danny was giggling. He laughed even more when he got Nicker’s nose out of the jar. He couldn’t help himself. Nicker’s grin can make you want to laugh at any time. When he grins through a face dripping with peanut butter … well, Danny laughed and laughed and laughed.
“I’ll get a towel and clean you up.”
When he came back with the towel, Nicker had his nose pressed against the window to look outside. A large, brown nose-print was on the glass. He announced, “You know what I want to do? I want to go swimming!”
Danny also looked out the window. “Nicker, there’s no water out there for swimming. This is January. It’s all snow and ice!”
“That’s okay,” said Nicker as he went out the door. “I’m a SEA DRAGON!”
Before Danny could get on his coat, boots and mittens, Nicker had already taken a dive into the snow. For a while, all Danny could see was a sort of hump where Nicker was “swimming” under the snow – and gaps where Nicker went into a deeper dive. Danny would have asked himself, “How does he do that?” but he knew the answer. Nicker had already said it. “I’m a SEA DRAGON!”
Suddenly Nicker popped up out of the snow. He looked back at the trail he’d made, took a pose and said, “Look at me. Now I’m a SNOW dragon.”
The two had a great time. Danny packed some snow between his hands then rolled it in the snow until he had a large ball. When it got too heavy for Danny, Nicker used his nose to roll it even bigger. Then they made a second smaller ball. Together they lifted that and put it on top of the first ball. Finally, they made a smaller ball to be the head on top.
Danny used his hands to pack snow between the three balls of snow. “My Dad says that makes it stronger,” he told Nicker.
When you color this, don’t forget that the snowman isn’t dirty, he has smears of peanut butter on him. He also needs you to draw on some buttons, maybe a scarf – help Danny and Nicker finish the snowman!
Click the image for the full version to print out and color.
Nicker had never made a snowman before. He had his own idea. Very quickly he slid his body around and over the snowman. This gave the snowman some very unusual curves. Danny smiled and said, “Now it looks almost like a statue.”
Soon it had dark stones for eyes and a smiling mouth, and a big carrot for a nose. Sticks were used to be the arms.
They were very proud of their snowman. Even better, that scooting around in the snow had cleaned all the peanut butter from Nicker’s face. He was clean again! Danny was about to say something to Nicker about that but when he turned, Nicker was gone. From behind he heard a voice.
“That’s very clever,” Danny’s mother said. “Those curves are so … different … like you rubbed the snowman with something smooth.” She looked closer. “But, why did you smear the snowman with peanut butter?” She paused a moment and said, “That reminds me. I came outside to ask you how that big splotch of peanut butter got on the window.”
Danny looked up, then down, and shuffled his boot in the snow.
“Uh, well … Mom … uh … you see, uh … it was this way.”
Now that you’ve read the story, flip over to Lunch With Nicker to make your own peanut butter, and peanut butter cookies. 
Marci loves it when Danny calls on the phone to tell her of some new adventure with Nicker. When she heard about the snowman they made, and how Nicker jumped into the snow to go “swimming,” she just had to make a drawing of it. After she did that, and thinking of the snowman sculpture that Danny and Nicker made, she got an idea. The drawing could be the adventure in the snow. Or it could be a snow sculpture IN the snow. Hmmm, imagine Nicker as a snow dragon! She just might do it, too. If so, you can see it in the January issue of Nicker’s Newsletter under “Marci’s Corner.” (Have you subscribed yet?)
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