Johnny's Home Away from Home
by Daniel Romans

Johnny's house was in the country

Every day he played outside until the sun went down

He climbed trees
Swam the creeks
Ran through the fields

He would look under rocks and watch the bugs

Sometimes Johnny would stay outside TOO long

Every night he listened to the frogs croak, the crickets chirp and the birds sing until they put him to sleep.

One day a big truck came and Johnny had to pack up all his things and move.

The truck took him away from the hills of the country and brought him to the big city.

There were no trees to climb or streams to splash or fields to run through.

At night there were no crickets chirping or wippur-wills singing, but sirens, horns and other scary noises.

One day, Johnny's mom got him a TERRARIUM.

He put in rocks and sticks and grass and water for turtles, fish and a bright yellow salamander!

It reminded him of home.

It wasn's quite the same as Johnny's home in the country...but it was close!