The Smart Frog

The Smart Frog Author: Nguyễn Trần Thiên Lộc Illustrator: Trần Lưu Đăng Nguyên Translator: Gouri Srinidhi

Frog lives in a garden. Everyone there makes fun of him. Nobody plays with him.

One day, Frog is so sad that he runs away. He jumps into a house and hides under a boy’s bed.

The boy's mother comes in and looks at his homework. “You don't have good grades,” she tells the boy. “Don't you want to become a smart boy?”

But the boy doesn't work hard at all. In fact, he's so lazy that one day, all the alphabets and numbers in his books fall off their pages!

Frog is still under the boy's bed. He jumps up with excitement when he sees all the letters and numbers. “I'll learn all of them!” he says. “Then I will be smart, and no one will make fun of me!”

The letters and numbers are dusty from not being used for so long. Frog cleans all of them.

Frog learns how to spell and write with the help of the letters. The numbers help Frog learn how to count and do math.

Frog studies hard over the next month...

...And now, Frog can read like an expert!

Uh-oh! One day, the boy’s mother discovers Frog in the house. He is forced to leave.

But Frog has learned so much already, and continues to learn back at the garden. “Frog can read, write and do math,” say the other frogs. “Wow! Can you teach us, Frog?”

The next day, the lazy boy opens his notebook. “What! Where are all the letters and numbers?” he screams. He doesn't know that Frog took all the letters with him, and is now the smartest in the garden!