Count yourChickensUNICEF

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Meena is a little girl wholives in a village with herparents, her grandmother,her brother Raju and herbaby sister Rani. Mithu, theparrot, is her best friend.In many ways, Meena islike any other little girlyou know. But in someways she is completelydifferent. Share in Meena’sadventures as she laughs,climbs trees, asks questionsand solves problems, and

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shows you all the thingsthat a little girl can do.

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One day, Meena and Mithuwere returning home aftercollecting firewood.

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They had to pass the villageschool on the way. Rajuwent to this school. Meenaand Mithu decided to stopat the school and see whatwas happening.

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They found that the teacherwas telling the children awonderful story.

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Meena and Mithu liked thestory so much that theylistened till the very end.Meena wished so much thatshe could go to school, too.

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Walking back home, Meenapretended that she was ateacher and that Mithu washer student. She taught theparrot to say his name.

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When Meena got home,Raju was proudly tellingtheir father about all thethings he learnt at school.

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Meena looked at theirfather. ’Oh, please, whycan’t I go to school too?’ sheasked.

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’You are needed at hometo help Mother’, said herfather. ’Girls only needto cook, clean and lookafter the house’, added hermother. ’You don’t need togo to school for that!’

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Poor Meena! That night shestood sadly at the window.The school building wasshining in the moonlight.How she wished she couldstudy!

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When she finally fell asleep,Meena had a strangedream. She was in classwith many other girls andboys – and Mithu was theteacher!

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The next morning, Meenawatched sadly as Raju andhis friends went to school.

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She remembered her dreamand sat down to think.Somehow, she must make itcome true. But how?

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Then Meena had awonderful idea. She wouldsend Mithu to school. Andhe could come back andteach her everything helearnt there!

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Mithu sat all morning at thewindow of the classroom.He listened carefully as theteacher taught the 2 timestable.

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And then he flew back homeand taught Meena…

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… Two ones are two Twotwos are four Two threesare six… Soon, Meena wascounting six of everythingshe saw.

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She kept counting herfather’s six chickens.Meena was finally learningarithmetic, just like Raju.

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That afternoon, whenMeena and Mithu werebusy, a thief came creepingup the wall. He stole one ofthe chickens and ran off.

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’Six grains’, counted Meena,’… and six chickens.’ Sheturned to count them oncemore, but there was onemissing.

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Meena was puzzled. Shelooked all around, and that’swhen she saw the thiefrunning away. ’Thief, thief!’shouted Meena, as she andMithu ran after him.

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Soon, half the village hadjoined in the chase.

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’Thief, thief’, squawkedMithu into the thief’s ear.The man was so scared thathe fell backward into thepaddy field.

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And there he stayed untilthe villagers came runningup.

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The village headman wasvery proud of Meena. Heasked her how she hadnoticed the thief and Meenaexplained that she hadcounted the chickens andfound one missing.

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The headman thencongratulated Meena’sparents for sending such aclever girl to school. WhenMeena’s parents said thatMeena did not go to school,the villagers were amazed.’Every child should go toschool’, said the headman.

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’Yes’, said a neighbor, ’mymarried daughter lives faraway, but she can write meletters, because I sent herto school.’ ’My educateddaughter runs her ownpoultry business’, said anold woman proudly. ’I wentto school and can look aftermy baby better’, added ashy, young mother.

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Meena’s parents made a bigdecision. They decided thatMeena would start schoolthe very next day.

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Meena and Raju wereoverjoyed. They dancedwith happiness.

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Everyone was still puzzledabout one thing. Who hadtaught Meena to count?’A friend’, said Meena andgiggled as Mithu announcedproudly, ’My name is Mithu!’

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The next day was Meena’sfirst day at school. She wasso happy. She had caught achicken thief and made herdream come true!

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Meena and Mithu say, ’everychild must go to school!’

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Print this puzzle and solvethis puzzle by placing thepoint of your pencil on dotnumber 1 and drawing aline to dot number 2. Thendraw another line to dotnumber 3 and so on, untilyou have connected allthe dots. After you havedone this, you may useyour crayons to color thissurprise picture.

Brought to you by

Let’s Read! is an initiative of The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia program that fosters young readersin Asia. booksforasia.org

To read more books like this and get further information about this book, visit letsreadasia.org

Original StoryCount your Chickens, author: UNICEF . Released under CC BY-NC 4.0.

This work is a modified version of the original story. © The Asia Foundation, 2020. Some rights reserved. Released underCC BY-NC 4.0.

For full terms of use and attribution, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/