Zola Notices Everything

  Noticing small things

Zola found the first firefly of the summer

Zola standing very still at dusk beside a hedge, watching small lights rise from the grass

Everybody else was looking at the barbecue. Zola was looking at the hedge.

She'd been standing very still for about four minutes — which, if you are six, is a long time — when one small green light blinked on near the bottom of the leaves. Then another. Then a whole slow constellation of them, drifting up out of the grass like the garden had decided to have its own sky.

“How did you even see that?” her dad asked.

Zola shrugged. “I was being quiet.”

That's the whole trick, really. The noticing kids often find the good things first, because they're the ones still looking when everyone else has moved on.

Try it this week: Stand somewhere outside and stay still for two whole minutes. What turns up?

Zola's word hunt

Five words from this story are hiding in the grid. They read across → and down ↓ — never backwards. Tap the first letter, then the last letter.

G
R
A
S
S
S
U
B
F
I
R
E
F
L
Y
V
S
P
F
O
U
V
Z
Z
U
D
D
E
Z
G
B
L
M
G
B
K
O
X
N
E
M
C
R
V
L
M
P
J
E
X
S
S
A
H
A
J
R
H
E
D
G
E
G
E
  • ZOLA
  • FIREFLY
  • HEDGE
  • GRASS
  • SUMMER

Meet the books Free calm-down cards

← Zola picked the quiet table at a birthday party