SHORT, a curious squirrel, visited the Johnson Center for the Arts Tuesday morning and, in no time flat, SHORT had the youngsters from First Methodist Church in Troy up, laughing and having fun with SHORT.

Twenty-five kids from Sarah Tranum K-4 class and Jessica Speinger and  Elizabeth Radford’s K-3 classes spent a morning of reading, pretending and just having fun together.

Miss Alabama Volunteer, Caroline Clark, a special guest, read the story of SHORT to the youngsters who learned reading is fun for squirrels and it is fun for them, too.

SHORT has fun just pretending and kids can have fun pretending, too. And, pretend they did.

With the encouragement, the youngsters pretended to be … a lion, a squirrel, a bear, a deer, a monkey, a dancer … maybe a dancing doe?  Perhaps, the youngsters didn’t realize that SHORT was showing them that reading is fun, that learning is fun, that pretending is fun and that sharing and friendships are especially special.