HEAR this story read aloud by Barbara M. Nelson! Just click on the link below and wait for the file to load.

Click for sound (4.3 MB)

Alvie the Little Brown Burro's First Halloween

Fall came early this year to the town where Alvie lived with his new family. There was a nice cool nip in the air and when he went outside in the morning, the brisk air felt so good he just ran and jumped all over the place! It was such a relief from the heat of the summer.

The leaves on the trees began to change colors too. There were gold, red, orange, yellow and green leaves. Alvie had never seen this before, because he had been stuck in a bin in the toy store where he was born. But now that he had a home, it was such fun to go out in the yard and see all the pretty colors.

As the leaves continued to fall, he sometimes went outside and jumped in the piles of leaves. He also liked to play with the pumpkins and Mums his Mommie had put on the front porch.

Playing outside was fun, but he had to watch out for the squirrels. He was such a small burro, even the squirrels (who by the way, weren't all that big themselves) were bigger than him. They sometimes tried to sneak up behind Alvie and nip at his tail.

They were bullies. Alvie didn't like that at all!

Alvie needed a way to keep the squirrels from sneaking up on him when he was outside. He didn't know what to do, so he asked his Mommie to help him - that's always a good thing to do when you are stumped by a problem.

Mommie and Alvie put on their thinking caps and thought and thought but they couldn't come up with an idea. Then his Mommie said, let's go online to see if we can find any good ideas for squirrel repellants.

And guess what? They did find some ideas. There were some pretty drastic measures he could take, that's for sure. Things like traps, and guns, and snares - oh my!

First of all Alvie knew his Mommie wouldn't let him touch those things. And second, Alvie didn't want to hurt the squirrels, he just wanted to keep them from sneaking up on him and nipping at his tail. But most important of all, he remembered the meaning of his name 'Alvie'. He remembered that it means 'wise friend'. Alvie wanted to be a wise friend to everyone. He knew that it's not nice to hurt anyone, even if they do try to nip at your tail.

And then POOF! It came to him. He had a great idea!

It was almost Halloween, and Alvie knew that if he would wear a scary Halloween outfit, the squirrels would be too scared to sneak up behind him. BRILLIANT!

So Alvie asked his Mommie to help him make a scary Pirate costume for Halloween.

His costume was black with a big white skull on the back. Ooooooo! It was VERY scary. When he put it on and looked in the mirror, he almost scared himself!

Alvie in his pirate costume

He wore it outside that very day, and when the squirrels saw him, they ran the other way! You see, the squirrels were really not very brave.

He stayed outside playing in his pirate costume for a long time, and not one squirrel tried to sneak up behind him and nip his tail.

What did Alvie learn? He learned that you don't have to do harmful things to protect yourself from bullies. Most of the time, they are not very brave. You just have to keep your cool and sometimes ask your Mommie for help.


Here are some good discussion questions to ask your children after reading them Alvie's story:

1. What time of year is it in the story?
2. What did Alvie like to do everyday?
3. What happened to Alvie when he went outside to play?
4. What did Alvie do about it?
5. Have you ever been bothered by a bully?
6. If so, what should you do about it?
7. What did Alvie learn?

Need some resources to help you with a bully?
Here are a couple of good web sites:

Back to Top