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Hello, Super Great Story fans.
This is our pick of the month story from our archives.
If you like it.
You might be interested to know that it's also featured in our first Super Great Kids book, which is published this autumn.
Welcome to Super Great Kids Stories.
Fun tales to make you laugh and cry with some of the best storytellers from around the world.
Recommended for ages 5 to 105.
I'm Kim and I love stories.
In this episode we're going to hear a story about whales from Toop.
Toop is a wonderful storyteller from London with Guyanese parents.
He's going to tell us a story from Northern Canada about how the whale got its sad song.
So sit back, relax and let the magic begin.
Or as we storytellers say, mouth open, story jump out.
Long time ago there was a frog and the frog was resting by the river bank.
And one day the frog looked into the water and he could see that there was a huge, hefty fish.
And the huge hefty fish was eating up all the small little fish and swimming further and further up the river.
And the frog thinks to himself if that big, hefty fish swims further and further up the river, the river shall become narrower and narrower and narrower.
Then it should become stuck.
Then it will not be able to turn around and swim out to the open sea.
Oh, calamity could be a problem.
I better go and see my friend.
He might help me and tell me what to do.
So the frog, he leaps and he jumps to the house of his friend.
Boom, boom, boom, boing, boing, boing, boing.
His friend has silver blue black feathers, round greyish eyes and a sharp black beak.
It's Brother Crow.
Brother Crow, Brother Crow, says Brother Frog.
Brother Crow, I was by the river bank and I saw in the river there was a big hefty fish.
It was eating up all the small little fish as it swam further and further up the river.
The river shall become narrower and narrower, and narrower and narrower, and then it shall become stuck and it can't turn around and swim out to the open sea.
It could be a problem.
What shall we do, Brother Crow?
And Brother Crow says, I do not know.
I do not know.
But I have a friend and I will go and see him.
And so the crow opens up his wings and flies to the house of his friend.
Who lives up high on the side of a mountain ledge.
He makes his house out of a bed of twigs.
He has a huge chest with round beady eyes and a hooked beak with big strong talons.
Brother Eagle. and the crow lands into the house of Brother Eagle, your gracious soy to disturb you.
My friend the frog and I we talk and he was telling me that he saw a huge, hefty fish which is eating up all the small little fish.
And as it swims further and further and further up the river, the river shall become narrower and narrower and narrower.
Then it shall become stuck.
It won't be able to turn around and swim out to the open sea.
It could be a problem.
What shall we do?
And the eagle says, I do not know.
I do not know, but I will go and see.
So the eagle says, opens his wings and begins to glide over the land.
And he looks down into the river and he can see the big, hefty fish eating up all the small little fish.
He flies down with his open talons and he digs them into the back of the big hefty fish, which is very heavy indeed.
But the eagle is known as the Thunderbird, sometimes it's known as the lightning bird, and the eagle beats his wings and cries to the sky and he lifts the huge hefty fish out of the river, taking him into the sky higher higher higher, and then, over some high top mountains, he drops the big hefty fish And that's where the big hefty fish stays.
Everyone goes back to their homes.
Eagle back to his mountain retreat.
Crow back to the treetops.
And the frog back to the riverbank.
A day passed.
A week passed.
A month.
A year.
And then one day, just like that, there's a sound which they have never heard before.
MMMM!
MMMM!
MMMM!
Hmm.
Hmm.
Oh, says the frog, what is that?
I've never heard a sound like that before in my life.
Is the sky falling?
Is the ground moving?
Oh, my gosh.
The frog, he runs to the house of his friend, the crow.
Brother crow, brother crow, have you heard the sound in the valley?
And the crow listens and he has.
Hmm.
Hmm.
Hmm.
Hmm.
Whoa, says the crow.
I've never heard a sound like that in my life.
Is the sky falling?
Is the ground trembling?
I'd better go and see my friend.
So the crow opens up his wings and he flies to the house of the eagle.
You're gracious.
Sorry to disturb you.
Have you heard the sound in the valley, says the crow to the eagle.
And the eagle listens and he hears.
Whoa, says the eagle.
That is not thunder.
That is not lightling.
I am known as the lightling bird, sometimes the thunderbird.
I will go and see what it be.
So the eagle, he opens his wings once again and he glides.
Over all the houses, over all the jungle and come to the high top jagged mountains.
There is the big hefty fish crying.
Whoa, says the eagle.
Stop all this noise.
Why are you making this noise?
People are complaining in the valley.
And the big hefty fish says, I am cold here on top of the mountain.
Please put me back inside the water.
I am so cold.
I'm drying out.
And the eagle says no, if I put you back inside the river, then you are going to eat up all the fish and the people that live by the riverbank.
And they make their livelihood by fishing the fish from the river.
And little Truton, they like their fish.
No, I cannot put you back inside the river.
And the big hefty fish says, hmm, then I will die here on top of the mountain.
It's so cold, my teeth.
Please put me back inside the water.
I make you a promise.
I promise that I will open my mouth but I will not open my teeth.
Ah, says the eagle, now I know you are telling me fibs.
Everyone knows that to eat food you must open your mouth and your teeth to chew your food, says the whale.
I'm making my promise just my mouth, but not my teeth.
Put me back into the water and the eagle thinks to himself being a royal bird, he will give the big hefty fish the benefit of the doubt.
So he flies down and he picks up the big hefty fish, which is much more lighter now.
And he takes him off the top of the jagged mountain and flies over the jungle, gets to the edge of the land and flies way way, way out into the open sea.
He drops the big hefty fish from the top of the sky into the open ocean and the big hefty fish is so happy he swims to the bottom, twisting his body.
He swims up up up, breaks the surface and does a somersault back down into the water again.
All the time the eagle is circling to make sure that the big hefty fish will keep his promise.
And he sees that the big hefty fish opens its mouth, But he does not open his teeth and he begins to eat.
And by and by, The eagle notices that the big, hefty fish grows larger and larger and larger and larger from eating the smallest thing that swim in the open sea like a soup, sucking in the food through the slats of its teeth.
From that day, that big hefty fish became a mammal and grew into what you know as a whale.
The eagle went back to the mountain retreat.
The crow went back to the treetop.
And as far as I know to this very day, frogs still love to be by water.
And that is how the whale got its sad song.
And why, to this very day, he sucks food through his clenched teeth.
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