Hey, JJ.
Want to hear a story?
Yes, I do.
Can I please help tell it too?
Yes, listen close.
Let's imagine and rhyme.
It's Coco Melon Storytime!
How's your ice pop, JJ?
It's yummy, Daddy.
Good.
Mine's yummy too.
Uh-oh.
My ice pop is melting.
Mine is too.
Do you know what's making it melt?
The sun!
Yes, JJ.
You know, this reminds me of a story that's kind of like the Greek myth Icarus.
It's called Sticky Russ.
One day, a bird named Russ was headed to a picnic in the forest with lots of his animal friends.
A picnic?
The friends were bringing all sorts of yummy food to share at the picnic.
And Russ was bringing a big basket full of ice pops.
Yummy!
I love ice pops!
Russ was getting a little cold flying through the shady forest.
Brr!
It's chilly down here!
Russ noticed the sun peeking through the trees above him and wondered if the sun could warm him up if he flew a little closer to it.
So he flew up, up, up. and found that the warmth of the sun felt really nice on his wings.
He flew closer to the sun.
He liked how it felt, but the hot, hot sun made the ice pops melt.
Oh no!
The sun's melting the ice pops in Russ's picnic basket.
They went drip drip, drip down to the forest floor where all of Russ's friends were walking to the picnic.
All of a sudden, down on the ground, Little Groundhog felt a drip on his arm.
Oh, what was that?
Little Groundhog sniffed the drip and said, This smells sweet.
Just then, Little Frog felt a drip on her nose.
What was that?
Little Frog stuck out her long tongue to taste the drip.
This tastes sweet.
Suddenly, other animals felt sticky sweet drips on them, too.
They all looked up.
What was dripping on them?
Russ's ice pops!
Yep.
Russ kept flying closer and closer to the sun, so his ice pops kept drip drip drip, dripping down on his friends.
His friends were getting real Oh, yeah.
So they shouted up at Russ.
Hey, up there.
We're sticky, Russ.
You're dripping ice pops all over us.
Russ heard his friends shouting from the forest floor, but he couldn't hear what they were saying.
So Russ swooped down, down, down.
Down, down, down.
When he landed, he looked in his picnic basket and saw the ice pops were gone.
All that were left were the sticks.
The sticky sticks.
Yeah.
And when he looked around, he saw all his animal friends covered in colorful dots.
From all the different colored ice pop drips.
Right.
Now Russ didn't have anything to bring to the picnic.
And he got his friends all sticky and messy.
What was he going to do?
I know.
They're stuck. so they need to take a bath.
You got it, JJ.
Russ knew he helped make this mess, so he wanted to help his friends clean off.
Together, they all walked over to the pond and... Splish!
Splash!
Splish!
Splash!
Then, Russ felt the sun peeking through the trees again, and he got an idea.
He invited everyone for a ride in his picnic basket.
Can you guess why?
A warm sun to dry them off.
Exactly.
Russ took the sticky sticks out of the picnic basket to make room for his friends.
Did Little Frog go into the picnic basket?
Oh, yes.
Little Frog jumped in the basket first with a ribbit.
Ribbit.
And then Little Cricket hopped in with a... Chirp, chirp.
And then Little Mouse.
Squeak, squeak.
And Little Duck.
Oh, yes.
Little Groundhog climbed into the basket, too.
But it was getting pretty crowded, so he had to squeeze in.
Rush picked up his basket filled with all of his friends and flapped his wings.
Flap, flap, flap!
To fly up, up, up!
He flew closer to the sun.
His friends liked how it felt.
And there weren't any ice pops for the sun to melt.
It's nice to feel the warm sun when you don't have to worry about ice pops melting.
It sure is, JJ.
The warm sun dried the animals' fur and feathers.
And Russ's friends were so happy to get a lovely ride in the sunshine.
They forgot they had gotten sticky at all.
They cheered.
Woo-hoo!
Good question, JJ!
On the way down from their basket ride, Russ swooped by an apple tree so every friend could pick an apple for the picnic.
Mmm, yum!
Yummy!
The end!
We heard a story!
Yes, it's true!
And I helped tell it, too!
We listened, imagined and made some rhymes for Cocomelon Storytime original podcast produced by Moonbug Entertainment.
