The Sleepy Blink

For parents & caregivers

Inside this story

June visits her friend Omar on his family's canal boat, where the floor rocks whenever a duck swims past. She hopes Omar's enormous ginger cat, Parsnip, will sit on her lap the way he 'does his loaf' on Omar's lap every evening. June pats her knees and calls loudly, and Parsnip walks off to Omar. She says he doesn't like her. Then she notices that Omar never calls Parsnip, yet the cat goes to him, so Omar must know something she doesn't. Though unsure his way will work for her, June asks Omar to tell her what Parsnip likes. Omar takes the question seriously. He explains that Parsnip likes it quiet 'like a cushion' and likes a 'sleepy blink', which is cat for hello. His demonstration is so scrunched it looks like a sneeze, which makes June giggle. Then he tells her to wait, because Parsnip likes to do the deciding. June chooses to move to the floor cushion, keep still, blink small and wait. Parsnip blinks back and, in his own time, climbs into her lap. With Parsnip purring, June easily asks a second question: where he likes to be stroked. She learns 'under his chin, not his tummy.' The story ends calmly, with the children trading sleepy blinks over buttery toast as another duck swims home. Asking for help appears as June recognizing what she doesn't know, asking the person who knows, and using that knowledge her own way. Parsnip's choice is respected, the help comes from a peer rather than an adult, and no one praises or rewards her. There is no lecture or moral summary.