A View From the Other Side Series
Island & Land Stories
“Through a Magnifying Glass”
dedicated to you and to wonder
by
geo
geo geller – 280 9th Ave #20B – NYC NY 10001
geo@geogeller.com
copyright Jan. 30, 1993 ver 12/10/2001
(* = picture for story board film or childrens book)
– a work in progress –
through a magnifying glassSynopsis of Story Line
This is a story about Jeff. Like many his age, Jeff didn’t like to
read… he just didn’t. He was happy playing and running around, doing
what boys do… He was good at mechanics, sports, games, you name it.
Jeff was good at just about anything he wanted to do. Except, he didn’t
like to read…Why?! he would say. Why read?! His parents, teacher, aunts and uncles
all said the same things over and over again… about how important it
was to know how to read…Jeff would agree half heartedly when they finished, and say, yeah?! but
he just wasn’t interested in reading… he would rather do something,
anything than read. His teacher would say that you really don’t know
about something until you have read about… Jeff would answer, “well,
what if I don’t want to know about it.” When asked why he didn’t like to
read he would say it was just too difficult… and he would rather do
something else. Jeff read very slowly… and pronounced each letter in
the word… he wasn’t sure of himself when he read… always wondering
if he was pronouncing everything correctly. He thought he wasn’t good
enough and since he was good in many things, “why do something you’re
not good in,” he would say. Makes sense his teacher would say… and
then add, “if you’re not good at something that should challenge you and
drive you to work harder and practice so you become better.” Jeff
answered with a strange look, like it was the furthest thing from his
mind… He didn’t even like being in school except for his friends and
gym.His teacher said that if you’re not good at something and you became
good at it then you would feel like you really did something.Jeff agreed, But… reading is like eating something you don’t like… its
hard and I don’t have the mind or the patience.. I got other things to
do!On parents’ day, Jeff’s teacher said he could do better… he avoids
making mistakes by not trying.No matter what it was in school, Jeff always got could do better.
He wasn’t interested in reading and learning until one day. He was
walking through the park to see his friends and
saw a boy with a big magnifying glass looking at the grass.He almost walked by, thought for a moment and came back to
asked the boy what he was doing… had he lost something?…”No”…He was looking at bugs… he liked watching bugs, and ants…
they fascinated him.“I like discovering things”, he said. Next to him, he always had a book on
insects, a writing pad and pencil. When he saw a variety he didn’t
know, he would read about it in his book.He asked Jeff if he wanted to look through the magnifying glass…
“Sure,” Jeff got down on his hands and knees and they both looked
through the glass at the same time. Jeff was surprised at how much
there was going on.The ants were going one way, another bug was going the opposite
way, a small worm crawled bye, and someone was always bumping
into something or each. When that happened they both laughed.
This was a whole new world! He was amazed.He told Jeff about how different insects live; how some are millions of
years old, and were on earth with the dinosaurs… all sorts of neat
stuff. Jeff was impressed… really! It was a new world under the
magnifying glass.Together they spent hours looking through the magnifying glass,
and then at the picture books trying to find the names of the ones
they didn’t know. When they found one they would try and pronounce
it… some of the names were in a strange language called Latin.
He said his father told him that science uses a lot of Latin names.
They would work together, trying to pronounce the names and then
they would read about them. Jeff tried and was good at it… because
he was good at pronouncing each letter.They would have races with the bugs and name their favorite insects
and play games. Jeff wanted to know more and more about how
they lived, ate, slept, their families; how long they lived; what were
they were found; if they had relatives that were bigger and smaller;
how they communicated…In one game they imagined they were the first to discover a new insect,
which is still possible. They called the game, What would I call it? and
made up all sorts of different names and sounds. They went around
and renamed everything they could think of. They had their own
language… Nobody could understand them, and nobody could be
around them because they couldn’t stop laughing!Jeff didn’t even know he was reading until one day when his
teacher saw him with a book on insects under his arm… Jeff said
it was his friend’s book and that they were studying insects through a
magnifying glass. His teacher said that reading was like looking through
a magnifying glass because it opened up a whole world just like the
magnifying glass does.When Jeff grew up, he became a famous entomologist, one who studies
insect, and he prefers to call himself an insectologist. He even
discovered some new types of insects, and named them after some of the
funny names they had made up when he was a young boy and didn’t like to
read. Now, Jeff always has a magnifying glass in one pocket and a book
in the other. And even today you can find Jeff looking at the world
through a magnifying glass