The Green Sweater Girl Learns How to Swim

The weather was warm, and the Green Sweater Girl’s family headed down to the local river to cool off. Monica, her older sister, and Casey and Colin, her older twin brothers, knew how to swim, but the Green Sweater Girl did not.

At the river, she stayed close to the bank and only dipped her toes into the water. Then, her dad asked, “What are you so afraid of?”

“What if I can’t hold myself up or I get carried downstream?” the Green Sweater Girl replied.

“We won’t let that happen!” the twins exclaimed. “Take your time, but don’t let this fear keep you from learning something really fun.”

“Okay,” the Green Sweater Girl said. “I’m going to do it.” She spent that afternoon learning how to float and tread water.

“Hey!” she giggled. “This is pretty fun.” And it was.

A few weeks later, she and her friends were down by the same river. A bunch of bunnies were hopping around in the clearing. When one fell into the water, the Green Sweater Girl and her friends started to panic. Then, she had an idea. The Green Sweater Girl grabbed her butterfly net, hopped in the water, and scooped up the bunny. She saved it, and it was all because she had dared to learn how to swim!

Lesson: Don’t be afraid of learning new skills.

The Green Sweater Girl and Her Best Friends

One day, the Green Sweater Girl and her best friends, Molly and Sam, were in the school cafeteria, waiting in line for lunch.

“I’m going to get pizza,” Sam said. “What are you getting, Green Sweater Girl?”

The Green Sweater Girl looked at the lunch money Mama had given her. $3.00—enough for a regular lunch. Pizza was on the ala carte menu and cost $1.00 extra.

“I want pizza too,” the Green Sweater Girl pouted. “But I don’t have enough money.”

Suddenly, something amazing happened. There was a five dollar bill under the Green Sweater Girl’s shoe! She picked it up, and jumped with joy. Now she had enough for pizza!

Then the Green Sweater Girl heard someone crying. She saw a boy talking to Ms. Hart and sniffling. He said he’d lost his lunch money: a five-dollar bill.

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The Green Sweater Girl and the Overnight Camping Trip

It was the start of summer, and the Green Sweater Girl was ready for her first camping trip with her two best friends from school, Molly and Sam. With packed backpacks and walking sticks, they all headed out into the big backyard. 

“Fa, la, la off to camp we go,” they sang in chorus. The three friends laughed as they walked.

At the campsite, the Green Sweater Girl pulled out her Big Tree tent. Mama had helped her practice at the house. She knew what to do, but Molly and Sam didn’t know how to pitch a tent. Patiently, the Green Sweater Girl guided her friends through the process.

“First, we have to lay out the tent. Then we raise it up, but it will only work if we do it together,” she said, “One, two, three!” The tent was roomy and perfect for playing and sleeping.

Before bed, the Green Sweater Girl pulled out some cookies and milk from the cooler that Mama brought and watched a shooting star flash across the sky. “Thanks,” the Green Sweater Girl said to her friends. “I knew we could do it all on our own if we worked together.”

The tent protected the Green Sweater Girl, Molly, and Sam from wind, bugs, and the dew on the ground in the morning. The next day, the three friends told everyone about their camping adventure in the backyard. 

The Green Sweater Girl’s Family

One day, the Green Sweater Girl’s teacher asked everyone to draw pictures of their families. The Green Sweater Girl got out her crayons and got to work.

The Green Sweater Girl lived with Mama and Daddy. Her sister, Monica, was nine, and her twin brothers Casey and Colin were seven.

The Green Sweater Girl loved Monica, Casey, and Colin. Sometimes, though, being the youngest was hard. Monica could read long books, but the Green Sweater Girl couldn’t.

Casey and Colin got to help Daddy build a treehouse. The Green Sweater Girl wanted to help, but she dropped the hammer because it was too heavy. The hammer hit her foot, and left a purple bruise.

“You’re too little to help,” Casey said.

“See how you got hurt?” Colin said.

Remembering those things made the Green Sweater Girl sad. At home later, she found Monica doing her homework at the kitchen table.

“I’m tired of being too little,” the Green Sweater Girl said. “I hate being the littlest.”

Monica put down her pencil and smiled. “That must be hard. But being the youngest means you can learn cool stuff from me and the twins. You get to play and color while we have to do homework. And you know what else? There are some jobs that are perfect for you.”

Monica went to the pantry and got a box of cookie mix and a bag of chocolate kisses. “Your hands are just the right size to help me unwrap these kisses so Mama can make your favorite cookies!”

The Green Sweater Girl Gets Her Nickname

The Green Sweater Girl was not always called that, because she didn’t always have her green sweater. Her real name was Beth.

Beth loved the color green, and she had lots of green things in her house. Her favorite tree was a huge, dark green pine growing outside her window. She had a quilt with green and white squares on her bed, soft green pillows, and curtains with tiny green shamrocks on them. Her favorite stuffed animal was a green frog with a red and green bow around its neck.

Beth went to the Small Pond Preschool. This year, she would move from the Tadpole Room to the Frog Room, for big kids. Mama took Beth and her brothers and sister shopping for school clothes.

“You’ll need a sweater,” Mama said. She showed Beth a table full of colorful sweaters. “Choose the color you like best.”

Beth looked at all the colorful sweaters. There were red ones, blue ones, orange and yellow ones. There were purple and pink ones, and even some with many colors in them. They were all beautiful, but none were perfect.

Finally, she spotted just the right sweater. It had shiny gold buttons, and a pocket for special things. Most important, it was green, Beth’s favorite color.

“You have too many green things,” her older sister said.

“Green is ugly,” her twin brothers said.

But Mama just smiled. “It’s a lovely sweater,” she said. “You can be our Green Sweater Girl, because loving green is part of what makes you special.”