The Boy and the Woodpecker

A boy in a mustard-yellow rain jacket and red rubber boots visits the whispering forest each morning before breakfast, carrying binoculars and a green canvas satchel. He watches the busy woodpecker with the bright crimson cap and learns where robins splash and wrens hide. His grandmother, Grandma Rose, tells him that the oldest trees are the best trees of all, full of stories, and he hopes to hear every one the forest has to tell.

One bright morning the woodpecker starts pecking a round hole in a tall, wrinkled old tree, and the boy crouches behind a fern to watch it deepen day after day. When a cheeky russet squirrel peeks out of the finished hole, he understands that a single hole can become a home for many creatures. Wandering slowly, he finds sleepy owls, humming bees and a little bat asleep upside down, each behind its own small doorway. This gentle tale by Çınar BİBER, which can be read on Masalcı Baba, follows his curiosity and careful observation as he shares what he has learned with his village.