This is Rhea. Welcome to Little Stories for Tiny People.

So my guest today was supposed to be a turtle who lives in the woods near my house. His name

is Carter and I've met him a few times but he's not the most outgoing turtle. We've reached

a point in our relationship where he no longer dives inside his shell as soon as he sees me,

but it's a work in progress. The other day after much persuasion on my part, Carter agreed to

sit in for the story. But at the last minute, a blue J named Marco showed up in my window holding

a leaf with a message scrolled across it. It said, dear Rhea, sorry I'm having a big

feeling kind of a day. I need to stay in my shell. Apologies, Carter, PS, here are some worms for you

to enjoy as an afternoon snack. And at that moment, Marco pulled out some worms. Gross, I'm going

to be sending those back. I love two minds about this, Tiny People. On the one hand, I've totally been

there. Have you? Have you ever just wanted to hide away in your shell? I definitely have. But I

also think it's important to try to work through those feelings. So I really hope Carter comes in

the future and listens to his story. I'll keep trying, Tiny People. Okay, let's get on with the story.

Ava takes the moon. Remember, there are no pictures. You'll have to imagine the pictures

in your mind. You can imagine them however you want. Okay, here we go.

Ava loved to cut paper and cardboard boxes into dolls, dioramas, and brown paper foxes.

She loved to paste cutouts onto big poster boards. In fall, she pasted Google's eyes on the

sides of small gourds. She cut old newspapers into shreds. She cut the tags off the mattresses

of everyone's beds. It calms me, Ava said, when her mother objected, I cut paper, Ava added,

when I feel disrespected. No one could deny Ava had talent, a gift, a rare ability to thoroughly sift

through magazines, flyers, and recycling with speed to find just the right pictures she could

possibly need. So when her mother would object, Ava would simply point to her latest project.

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