The Girl and the Peacock

Maya lives in a small house with a red roof at the edge of town. Every morning, she puts on her yellow rain boots, takes her green satchel, tucks a red pencil behind her ear, and runs to the garden to see her friend Raja, a proud peacock with a bright blue neck and a long train of shimmering green and gold feathers. Maya sits on a flat rock with her notebook and writes down everything Raja does, drawing his crest, his white eye patches, and his blue eyespots. When Raja spreads his feathers into a giant fan and shakes them, Maya wonders why he shows off and what his display might mean.

Determined to find out, Maya watches Raja every morning and afternoon, recording what he eats, where he walks, and how often he shakes his feathers, until her notebook is full of notes and pictures. Her teacher, Ms. Carter, notices the notebook and invites her to share her findings with the class. Maya reads about peafowl and learns that the fan is made of long feathers called a train, and that a peacock spreads and shakes them to look big and strong and to communicate with other peacocks. The tale can be read on Masalcı Baba. Written by Çınar BİBER, it follows Maya from quiet observation to the moment she stands before her classmates with her poster board and red pencil.