To celebrate the school’s first ever book fair, students at Little Milligan Elementary school got a special visit from the storytellers of Story*Book Fair on Monday afternoon.

Wenny Elrod and Sally Jackson, the founders of Story*Book Fair, shared tales and legends with a theme, “Spring into the Season with Fables and Animal Tales,” with the students assembled in the gym.

To begin the afternoon, Jackson told the students the story of Bear and Crow and what happened when Bear became a little too proud of his new clothes.

As Bear walked through the woods on his way to town, he was signing and bragging about how fine he looked in his new clothes, Jackson said, adding Bear was particularly proud of his new shoes, new shirt and his wonderful new hat.

When Crow heard all the singing and bragging, he decided to play a trick on Bear.

Crow was able to convince Bear that all the best dressed bears in town did not wear the same kinds of clothes that Bear did, Jackson said. Instead, Crow convinced Bear to put shopping bags on his feet, a bed sheet around his shoulders and a cooking pot on top of his head.

When Bear got to town, all of the people in town laughed at him and he realized Crow had tricked him, she said.

The fable tells what can happen to a person who brags too much, she said, cautioning the children not to believe everything a person tells them.

After Jackson’s tale, Elrod shared a Cherokee legend of how the bat came to have wings.

Years and years ago, Elrod said, the animals and the birds were fighting over a piece of territory. The Cherokee people who lived nearby had developed a game called stick ball that they would use to settle grievances to avoid the sorrow and bloodshed of war, adding some of the Cherokee women suggested the animals and birds play a game to settle their fight over the land.

Bear was chosen as captain of the animal team and Eagle was chosen as the captain of the bird team.

As Bear was choosing animals for his team, the tiny little Mouse asked to be allowed to play because he wanted to help end the fighting, Elrod said.

However, Bear told him he was too small and would not let Mouse join the team. Disheartened by not being allowed to join the animal team, Mouse made the long trek up the hill to see if Eagle would allow him to play for the bird team because he really wanted to help end the fighting, Elrod said.

Eagle asked Mouse if he could fly and Mouse replied sadly that he could not. As Mouse turned to walk away, Eagle stopped him, Elrod said. Rather than see Mouse leave in sadness, Eagle decided he would teach Mouse to fly.

With the help of the other birds, Mouse learned to fly using wings made from the bark of a Sycamore tree, Elrod said. Soon Mouse was the fastest flyer on the team.

When the time came for the big game, Mouse was the only person to score any points at all, Elrod said.

At first Bear was angry that he had not picked Mouse for his team, Elrod said, but then Bear became ashamed of his actions for judging Mouse based upon his size.

The moral of the tale, Elrod said, is that no matter a person’s size or what they look like, everyone has special talents.

In addition to telling the story, Elrod also entertained the students by playing a Native American flute.

“This is the kick off for our book fair, our first ever book fair,” Little Milligan librarian Jackie Hatfield said.

Even though the book fair only started on Monday morning, by Monday afternoon the students were already excited about it Hatfield said.

“A lot of the students didn’t know what to expect because we’ve never had one before,” Hatfield said.

But when the students began entering the library and they saw all the books their eyes began to light up, she said.