Once upon a time there was a boy who couldn't read at all. What's more, he didn't want to learn to read either. He was already 7 years old and should have been starting school. Yes, they accepted him into school, even though he didn't know his letters and numbers. But the boy wasn't upset. What's the big deal about school anyway? Besides, now he had more time to play with his friends and with his favourite toys.
On 1st September, many of his friends went to school, so there was no one to play with in the yard. Little children were playing in the sandpit, but playing with small children wasn't interesting to him at all. Besides, his toys were waiting for him at home. He had a huge collection of them, so the boy wasn't bored at all.
His parents tried to instil a love of books in their child. They bought many colourful books from the shop: the fairy tales "The Turnip," "Little Red Riding Hood," "The Three Bears" and "The Gingerbread Man." They hoped that the colourful pictures would interest their son. But it was all in vain. He was stubborn and refused to read.
Come on, let me read you the fairy tale "The Gingerbread Man" or the fairy tale "The Turnip."
His mum said one day when the boy was about to go to bed.
Well, any one then.
He replied with great reluctance.
Mum began to read the fairy tale, but noticed that her son wasn't listening at all.
Surely you're not interested?
Not at all.
The boy answered lazily and turned to face the wall, and then fell asleep altogether.
One day the whole family was supposed to go and visit grandmother during the school holidays, and she lived far away. To do this, they needed to travel by train. The boy took a long time packing because he needed to take as many toys as possible with him. Of course, he couldn't pack all his toys, but he filled his suitcase to bursting.
And so the parents and their son arrived at the station.
Look. There's the departure board showing which platform our train will arrive at.
Said dad.
Nothing interesting about that.
Replied the boy.
The train arrived at the first platform. The parents showed their tickets to the conductor and went to their seats on the train.
Are these definitely our seats?
Asked the boy.
Of course. Look, they're written on the ticket.
Replied his father.
The boy took the tickets and began to study them, but since he didn't know either letters or numbers, he soon got bored with it. After 2 hours they had arrived. Grandmother was there to meet them.
They all got into the car and drove to the dacha. It was "Indian summer" outside. Despite it being autumn, the temperature was high, it was very warm and pleasant. The vegetables and fruit in the garden had just ripened.
Why don't you want to learn to read?
Grandmother asked the boy one day.
Why do I need to?
It's very important. Just imagine, you go into a shop and want to buy an ice cream, but you won't be able to read the name.
I'll just point at what I like.
Don't you want to read books? Look at the interesting fairy tales your parents bought you. There's "The Gingerbread Man" and "The Turnip" here. They're my favourite fairy tales.
No, I can't be bothered.
Muttered the boy and ran off to play with his toys.
The parents' holiday came to an end, and the whole family set off for the station to go home. There the boy got distracted by a toy vending machine and fell behind his parents. And so he found himself alone in the middle of a huge station and had no idea where his parents were.
But then he remembered that his father had shown him the departure board where it said which train he needed. He ran up to the black board, but couldn't understand anything on it at all, although he could see how children with their parents, walking towards the platform, looked carefully at the board and their tickets and immediately went where they needed to go.
The boy looked around bewildered and couldn't work out what to do. His confusion only grew, along with fear and a lack of understanding of everything that was happening around him. The boy suddenly realised how wrong he had been when he was stubborn and didn't want to learn to read or write. The boy sat down and cried bitterly.
Then a station worker came up to him and asked what was wrong. Learning that the boy was lost and very upset, he took him to the station manager, who announced over the loudspeaker that the boy was looking for his parents. Very soon, the boy's breathless parents, who had been searching for him all over the station, were standing in the office.
The son rushed to embrace them. He asked their forgiveness for being so foolish. They got on the train and all the way home the boy kept asking his parents to read him fairy tales and teach him to read. After all, reading is an important life skill that you simply cannot do without.
