 Hello. Welcome to Stories and Art for Children here at ACMI, TV and Arlington. My name is Peggy and this is my friend Little Bear and we have two great stories to tell you today. One is real and one is not. Which do you want to hear first? Well, that doesn't really matter. Tell me, well, what are they about? Well, they're about mice. This is a story, the real one. It is called Desmond Gets Free. It's about a mouse? Yes, it is. What do you got up by your shoulder? I saw you stick something there. Oh, oh, he's starting to tickle me. This is a little mouse, a little tiny mouse. Oh, he's so cute. Oh, I like mice. Why are people scared of them? I don't know. I think it's because they surprised them. Have you ever had one run across your head at night? No, never, never, never. Well, guess what? The other night, here is the story I want to tell you about. That is the real one. A little mouse came running across the room in my bedroom and I saw him and all of a sudden I was kind of scared. Really? Just of a little mouse? Yes, but you know what, little bear? We were told we were supposed to catch them in our building and trap them. And a few years ago, you know what I did? What did you do? Well, I bought this kind of a trap and everybody had these and we were catching mice in them. Oh, that's too bad. But then this year, this little mouse was so cute. You know what? I told a friend about it and he said, I have a book for you and I think you should get a humane trap. What's that mean? Well, that means that you trap a mouse but you don't kill him or you don't hurt him. See, there's food in here right there inside and then you go like that, click and the little mouse goes in there. Oh, he gets trapped? Yes. If this starts to work, he does. And then, what are you going to do with the mouse? Well, I'm going to take him outside and I'm going to let him go free. Just like something that happened in this story book. Are you ready to listen to the real story? Yes. But will you tell me what happens with your mouse? Yes, one day I will, but I haven't caught him yet. He's under my couch and you know what he likes to eat? What? Pretzels and granola. That's weird. Okay, let's get to the story right now. I'm going to put you down over here. Will you listen? Yes, I want to hear the other story. Okay, so everybody, we're going to tell you a nice mouse story and then afterwards, to make the story last a little longer, we're going to have an art lesson and I'm going to teach you how to draw mice that you've seen in other stories. So let's look at the story about Desmond right now. Okay, so little bear, you're going to sit right over here. Okay. So I'm going to put him down right there and put my glasses on and let's see what happens. This is a story about Desmond gets free. Desmond, the mouse, lived in the most beautiful meadow in all the land. There's little Desmond. Every morning Desmond woke with the sunrise and would spend the day playing in the meadow. And every evening Desmond would go to sleep in the middle of that meadow underneath a beautiful starry sky. He looked so comfortable there. One night though Desmond awoke when it was still dark out. He tried to roll over and move to a more comfortable spot but something wasn't right. Desmond realized that his tail was stuck right to the ground and he was beginning to throb with pain. He felt behind him and there was this huge boulder that seemed to have fallen in the middle of the meadow just on his tail. Oh my! Desmond pushed on the boulder and tugged on his tail. He pushed on the boulder and he tugged on his tail again and he pushed and he tugged and he pushed and he tugged but it was no use. When he was out of breath and he had just about given up he saw a giraffe nearby in the grass. The news he thought. Oh giraffe! Desmond cried. Could you please push the boulder a few inches in the other directions so that I could get free? The giraffe looked at Desmond and laughed the way giraffes do. Silly mouse said the giraffe. That's no boulder. That's an elephant that's fallen asleep in the middle of the meadow just on your tail. Well, if you could just wake up the elephant and ask him to roll over a few inches in the other directions I could go free. Well replied the giraffe. You know what they're saying about letting sleeping elephants lie. I find it's best not to get involved in other animals' business. I find it's best to remain neutral in all times like that. Now you know what neutral means? It means don't get involved. Don't do anything. Desmond quickly replied. I don't appreciate your neutrality. The giraffe wandered off and Desmond tried calling out to the elephant to wake him up but those giant ears were just too far away on the other side of the giant's elephant body. So again Desmond pushed on the elephant and tugged on his tail. He pushed and he tugged and he pushed and he tugged but it was no use. When he was out of breath and had just about given up again a gazelle walked by. A gazelle he cried. A gazelle it seems that the elephant has fallen asleep on my tail in the middle of the meadow. I'm stuck and it hurts and it really hurts awful. I wonder if you could gently wake him up and ask him to roll over just a few inches in the other direction so I might go free. Well said the gazelle. I see your problem there. But you know what they say about elephants. They say letting sleeping elephants is the best thing to do is just let them lie there. I find it's best not to get involved in other people's business. I find it's best to remain neutral at all times like this. Desmond replied almost to himself this time I do not appreciate your neutrality. He's getting a little sick of this neutrality stuff isn't he? Well let's see what happens. Desmond tried again to call out to the elephant. He tried again to push away the giant animal away. He tried again and again to tug his little tail free but it was no use. When he was out of breath and he had just about given up for the last time he saw another mouse wandering through the meadow. My name is Nelson. Nelson this great elephant has fallen asleep on my tail in the middle of the meadow. I wonder if you might run over and call out into his giant ears and ask him to roll over just a few inches in the other direction so I could go free. Desmond asked of course said Nelson. Nelson ran all the way to the other end of that giant elephant body and he called up to those giant elephant ears at the top of the giant elephant's head but the elephant didn't budge. The elephant heard Nelson's small voice far away but he was just too comfortable to move. Nelson ran back to Desmond a little bit out of breath and said Ivan idea don't move. He ran off. I won't. Mother Desmond a little while later though Nelson emerged through the tall grass and he wasn't alone. Nelson had found three other mouse friends to help him and each one of them brought some other friends with them. The whole group of them ran over to the giant head of that giant elephant. One mouse scrambled up under the shoulders of another and another mouse scrambled up under her shoulders and then one after another they climbed up until the whole group of them had formed a long mouse ladder right up to the side of that elephant. At last Nelson climbed up to the shoulders of the mouse of the friends one on top of the other until he was way up on the giant elephant's head standing next to that giant elephant's ear right there. Excuse me. He called right out to that ear. It seems as if you've fallen asleep on my friend's tail in the middle of the meadow. I wonder if you could just roll over a few inches and you'd be in a different direction. So he might go free. The giant elephant made a giant low groan. Grompf. I'm comfortable just where I am. Grompf. Go away. So Nelson asked more of his mouse friends to climb up one by one. They helped each other to the side of the elephant one by one. The elephant's ear on top of the giant elephant's head and again the giant elephant made a great big low groan. Grompf. I'm comfortable just where I am. Just go away. Then Nelson had an idea. He whispered to the mouse and then all at once they yelled out together Excuse us. It seems you've fallen asleep on our friend's tail in the middle of this meadow. Roll over just a few inches in the other direction so he can go free, please. This time all those voices together right next to the elephant's ear were too loud to ignore. I was comfortable where I was but I'll move over if you just agree to stop making such a racket. The elephant cried out then the elephant finally rolled over just a few inches in the other direction. Nelson and the other mice helped each other climb back down Desmond where he was and guess what Desmond was finally free. Desmond and Nelson and all the mouse friends spent the rest of that beautiful day playing in the middle of that beautiful meadow. And I bet they sang and danced all day because they helped each other and they solved the problem. And guess what? This book was written by a man named Matt Meyer and the pictures were illustrated by his friend Kim Pham. And they dedicated to this man, Nelson Mandela who was a man who always always wanted people to be free and not separated from each other and always to help one another. He was from South Africa. You may learn more about him as you grow up but wasn't that a great story about that mouse? Now, what we're going to do is we're going to have an art lesson and it's always fun to make stories last by drawing pictures that you saw in the book. And I'm going to show you how to do that right now over at the easel. Okay, so stay tuned. You might like to get out some paper and I hope by now this is our third story that you have your own art journal and that you will keep drawing and loving art as much as I do and a lot of my friends do. And Little Bear does too, right, Little Bear? Yes, I love to draw. Sometimes it's hard because I pause but I try. Here we go. Thanks for staying tuned. Here we are at my easel. Now, I'm going to show you how to draw a very easy mouse. This is so easy. It's not funny. Remember I talked to you last time about curves? Well, here's one. Now, here's going to be the bottom of the mouse. Here's the mouse's tail. Here's the mouse's ears. Little eyes, little nose, little whiskers. And maybe just a little piece of cheese. Is that simple? Cute? All right, let's go to one that's a little bit more exciting. Now, this is very simple. You have mice that look just like this. And I remember what they look like. They head ahead. Here comes the curve. Little curves for the ears. And then the little mouse head comes down like this. Little eyes. Put on a little nose, little whiskers. Now, let's go for the body. Very easy. Little shoulders come down to the side. About this far. This little mouse has got little skinny legs but big feet. Artists love to make feet in different ways. It doesn't really matter. You can make them your own way. But that's the beginning. So let's make this into a lady mouse. She's going to have on a little apron. And these are going to be her hands tucked right into the apron. And then, remember last time I talked to you about details? Making something look like it's not plain. It's decorated. So let's give her some stripes for her sleeves. And let's give her a little scarf. All right? It might be blowing in the wind. Might have some little circles on it. It's always fun to make details and then color them in. And is there anything else? You could have the bottom of her apron come right here. And there could be little curvy lines here. It's fun to use dots too. Just put those in. Now I didn't make her hands because it looks like she's got her hands in her pockets. And maybe she's got a picture right here on her apron. Maybe it's a little flower. You can put on anything you like. But there's the lady mouse. Here we are with the boy mouse. And we just need to put his eyes in. And a little nose. And his little whiskers. And then I'm going to draw this that same easy body that we had for the girl mouse. But then I think we'll give him a little collar. Little shoulder straps. You can do little pockets here. His arms are here. We can make this look like it's a pair of pants. And we're going to give him those little skinny legs. These are cute. Just straight lines. Put those out like that. And I think I'm going to put a baseball cap on him. And I'll do a curve like this. He's all set to go outside. Now if you want again to put details on. You could put cuffs on his pants. You could put things hanging down from his pockets. Anything you like. So have fun making a boy and a girl mouse. Now let's see if we could do a couple of mice that look like the ones that were in the story about Desmond. Now if you remember Desmond had a very, very pointy nose. The artist made a shape like this. A curve. But it comes down just like that. Remember? And he had a little black nose. Little ears at the top. His beady little eyes. Looks like him already doesn't it? A little bit. So the artist decided to make a body that was a little bit fat. He used a curve at the bottom like this. And then little feet, tiny, tiny, tiny feet at the side. And then we could make him with his arms out like shouting, please help, help me. Easy, easy, easy Desmond like that. One of my most favorite illustrations was the illustration of Desmond screaming. And the artist made this wonderful face. Starting with two little points like this. And we'll make the continued body of Desmond like this with a curvy line all the way up there. Now let's put in the details. Here come two ears at the side. His hands are up again screaming for help. Please help me. Nobody would at first. And then the way he got it to look like he was really screaming is his wide open mouth like this. And guess what's at the top? Two little teeth. And maybe there was a little tongue there too. My teeth could be better. But anyway, and then those little tiny feet that he had like that. And there he is. Stay here all day. I would like to bring out my magic markers and coloring. And then I could do little backgrounds, little grass, little leaves. Easy to make grass around things. You just have fun. A little flower, remember? Little mice love to run in the meadows. A little bit of ground here with grass coming up. Grass is easy to make. Little shoots, little dots. Like this. Little stones. So if you used one piece of paper, you could make a lot of little extra details. Same thing here with nice bigger leaves. Have fun. Just wiggle your marker. See where it wants to go. Here's a wiggly flower. Yep, with wiggly leaves. And over here, big stones. They're outside. And then little shoots growing. Little dots for little teeny things growing out of the plants. Here's Desmond on the ground. And you know what I could do to make it look like he's outside. I was thinking I could make that big ol' elephant, but I could make a great big lump there that shows maybe there's something there on the ground. You could stick things in. But have fun. Even if you take a drawing and make one thing on one page, that's fine. You can make a whole collection. And then you can put them all together. And then, you know what I was just thinking? I could go like this. And I could make wiggly lines all over the place to connect these. And this could look like a quilt. I could spend all day coloring this in. And then doing all kinds of things with this design. So when you guys get tired of watching TV, tired of watching your little electronics, go to your journal and draw. And have fun. And then go back to your drawings afterwards and say, oh, I think I'm going to put some more details in. And you are going to have masterpieces. You are. I'm so glad you watched this whole program. And I think Little Bear is too. What do you think, Little Bear? Oh, I liked it. I think I'm going to be a great artist one day. You do? Yes. And I hope you catch that mouse and you take him outside. Would you take me outside with you? When you let him go? Oh, sure. Well, I hope that he'll come out from under the couch. Maybe tonight. OK, good. Let's go home and watch. OK. Bye. Tune in next time. We'll have another story for you. Bye.