On the Day You Were Born

Hello, I'm Sister Colleen and the book
I'm going to read you today is called

On the Day You Were Born, and it is by Debra Fraser.

On the eve of your birth, word of your
coming passed from animal to animal

The reindeer told the Arctic terns, who told the humpback whales,

who told the Pacific salmon, who told
the Monarch butterflies,

who told the green turtles, who told
the European eel, who told the

busy garden warblers. And the marvelous news migrated worldwide.

See the animals? There's the reindeer,
and there's a whale, the terns are birds,

there's fish, and eels and turtles.
Monarch butterflies.

While you waited in darkness,
tiny knees curled to chin,

the Earth and her creatures, with
the sun and the moon,

all moved in their places, each ready
to greet you the very first moment

of the very first day you arrived.
See the sun and the moon?

all of the animals? They were all waiting
for you to be born!

On the day you were born, the round
planet Earth turned toward your

morning sky, whirling past darkness,
spinning the night into light.

See, there's the Earth, maybe that's
you! The birds, these are the continents.

Here's North America, South America,
this is Africa, and Europe and Asia.

Oh, and way on the bottom is Antarctica.
Those are all of the continents in the world.

On the day you were born, gravity's
strong pull held you to the earth,

with the promise you would never float away.

See, look, and there's someone playing,
the flowers. This is like the Earth.

There's grass, there's water, and way
beneath that there's rocks and the earth

in the middle. Gravity is what keeps us
on the earth.

While deep in space, the burning sun
sent up towering flames, lighting your sky

from dawn. until dusk. Look at that
beautiful picture of the sun.

The sun is a star, and that's what gives
the Earth its warmth and its light and

its heat. The sun knew you were coming.

On the day you were born, the quiet
moon glowed, and offered to bring

a full, bright face each month to
your windowsill.

There's the moon. And maybe tonight
you can look out your window

and see the moon. And every month,
the moon changes a little bit

from day to day. It starts off big
and bright and full,

and then there's some days
you can hardly see the moon at all.

But it always comes back.

While high above the North Pole,
Polaris, the glittering North Star,

stood still, shining silver light into
your night sky.

So that's what's called Polaris,
the North Star. It's always North.

There's the continents, and there's a person
with all the different flowers.

On the day you were born, the moon
pulled on the ocean below,

and wave by wave, a rising tide washed
the beaches clean for your footprints.

Look there. The moon is what makes
the water move. If you've ever been

to a big lake or the ocean, and you see
the water come up on the beach

then go back in, that's called the tides.

While far out at sea, clouds swelled with
water drops sailed to shore on a wind.

and rained you a welcome across
the Earth's green lands.

there's the cloud, raining.

On the day you were born,
a forest of tall trees collected

the sun's light in their leaves,
where, in silent mystery,

they made oxygen for you to breathe.

So trees, they take in what's called
carbon dioxide, and they bring out

oxygen for us to breathe. And there's
a little person in the woods.

Look at all those different trees.

While close to your skin and as high
as the sky, air rushed in

and blew about, invisibly protecting
you and all living things on Earth.

We can't see the air or the wind,
but we can feel it. You can see,

if you've ever flown a kite, it blows the kite all around.

On the day you were born,
the earth turned, the moon pulled,

the sun flared, and then, with a push,
you slipped out of the dark quiet

where suddenly you could hear
a circle of people singing

with voices familiar and clear.
Look, there's all different kinds of people

on this page. Maybe you can find the
one that looks most like you.

All these people are different
skin colors. Everybody all over the world

has a different skin color. But we're
still beautiful and wonderful on the inside.

And on the outside.

Welcome to the spinning world, the
people sang, as they washed your new,

tiny, hands. Welcome to the
green Earth, the people sang,

as they wrapped your wet, slippery
body. And as they held you

close, they whispered into your open,
curving ear, We are so glad you've come.

Look, you can see someone holding
a little tiny baby.

And all those people are so glad that
the baby's here.

I bet when you were born there were
people that were very glad to meet you.

That was our story, On the Day You Were Born.

Maybe what you can do is ask a
grown up that you love and you know

what happened when you were born!
Maybe they know when you were born,

or maybe they want to tell you about how
you got your name,

or what you looked like when you
were a baby. You can ask them,

and that's a fun thing to talk about.

And maybe they can tell you about
when they were born.

I loved reading this story to you.

I love this story because it reminds us
that everybody is special.

And everybody has somebody who loves them
very very much.

It was so good to read to you! Bye!