About How the Rainbow got its Colours
Status: Second draft completed. Undergoing a copy edit by Bobbi Beatty of Silver Scroll Services
When the rainbow first came into existence, she had no colours and was invisible. This made her sad and she cried tears of rain. She came across a little girl with a red kite who gave the rainbow her first colour. The rainbow travels over the land encountering an old farmer, a monkey, and other boys and girls who, through ingenious means, are able to transfer a bright colour to the rainbow until the rainbow has her full complement of colours.
The seven colours provide a different story for each colour and each story can be read to a child, one a night, to give them a week of stories.
Sample
Indigo
All through the night, the rainbow drifted over the land and no one could see her colours because it was as dark as the big black crow the rainbow had just met. In the morning, the sun came up and her colours began to glow in the wet misty sky. The rainbow looked down from high up in the sky and saw children walking to school. On their backs were packs full of books and a nice lunch to eat.
Today was “Crazy Hair Day,” a day when the children could wear their hair any way they wanted. One boy had put lots of mousse in his hair and made it spiky like one of the dinosaurs in his school book. A girl that was walking beside him had made her hair up with small braids. Her mom said she looked great.
There was one girl who’s mother was a hairdresser. She had brought home a bottle of bright indigo dye from her shop and dyed the girl’s blond hair so that now it was a rich dark blue called indigo. With her hair dyed an indigo colour, the young girl was too shy to leave the house.
“Go on,” said her mother. “You’ll be fine when you mix with all your friends. They will all have crazy hair too.”
She reluctantly left the house and ran down the road as fast as she could go. She wanted to catch up with her special friend, the boy with the spiky dinosaur hair. As she ran along the road, she heard the rainbow call out to her.
“Oh! I love the colour of your hair. I haven’t seen such a beautiful colour before. What is it?” asked the rainbow.
The girl stopped running and turned around to see where the voice was coming from. In the sky, she saw a beautiful rainbow with the colours red, orange, yellow, green and blue, high above her.
“Hello,” she called back. “Who are you?”
“I’m a rainbow and I’m collecting colours. Once I had no colours at all, then as the days went by, I gained each of the colours I now have. I have red, orange, yellow, green and blue and I would love to have the beautiful colour of your hair,” answered the rainbow.
“My mom told me it’s called indigo, but I call it dark blue,” said the girl. “I would like to give it to you, but I don’t know how.”
“It’s easy,” said the rainbow. “Look over there. Do you see that water sprinkler in the park?”
“Yes, it’s watering my soccer field,” the girl answered.
“Go over to the sprinkler and you will see my colours in the fine misty spray,” said the rainbow. ”Run through the sprinkler and I will be able to catch that beautiful indigo colour from your hair.”
“But I’ll get wet,” said the girl.
“Not if you run fast, and I know you can,” said the rainbow. “I saw you running along the road. You were so fast!”
The girl jogged over to the sprinkler and saw that the rainbow was right. There, in the fine mist above the water coming from the sprinkler was a rainbow of red, orange, yellow, green and blue.
“Get ready!” said the rainbow.
She dug her feet into the soft wet grass and brought her arms up.
“Get set!” called the rainbow.
She leaned forward and held her arms steady.
“Go!” shouted the rainbow.
The girl sprung forward like a big coiled up spring. Her arms were pumping as fast as they could. Her legs were flashing so fast under her body, they were a blur. She ran through the sprinkler so fast, she didn’t feel the water.
After she stopped, she could feel her heart pounding. “Ba Boom! Ba Boom! Ba Boom!” her heart said.
She could feel her lungs sucking in the cool moist air. “Whoooosh! Ahhhh! Whoooosh! Ahhhh! Whoooosh!” her lungs said.
The girl looked up into the sky and saw that the rainbow now had six colours. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo. It had become such a beautiful rainbow.
“Thank you so very much! I am now very happy. I have such beautiful colours,” said the rainbow. “But you must hurry off to school now or you’ll be late.”
“Okay,” said the girl.
The rainbow watched from high above as she ran across the park, ran down the road, ran into her school yard, ran up the stairs, ran through the big heavy doors and ran out of sight.