Sam and the Firefly
Sam and the Firefly is a children's book by P. D. Eastman. It was written in 1958.
Plot
Sam, an owl, awakens one night and looks for a playmate, but all the animals are asleep because it is the middle of the night. Sam then comes across a series of flying lights, one of which hits Sam in the head, which is Gus, a firefly. Gus shows Sam the trick he can do, which is he can make glowing lines in midair using his light. Sam is amazed and decides to have fun by having Gus follow him directly as he flies. Sam flies in the shape of several words; Gus finds this fun and decides to do more on his own. However, he has mischief on his mind.
First, he causes several cars to crash at an intersection by displaying "Go left", "go right", "stop", and "go" above. Sam wants to talk to him about this behavior, that it is dangerous and bad; however, Gus abandons Sam as he thinks Sam doesn't know how to have fun. Gus then continues to cause mischief; he causes several airplanes to get crossed up by displaying arbitrary directions, he causes a crowd to occur into a movie theater by displaying "COME IN! FREE SHOW" above it, and he changes a sign of a hot dog stand from "Hot Dogs" to "Cold Dogs", in order to discourage the hot dog maker's customers. The hot dog maker immediately catches Gus in a net and traps him a jar and into his pickup truck. Sam sees this and is determined to save him.
Gus regrets not listening to Sam's warnings about having too much fun. The aforementioned pickup truck stalls on a railroad crossing with a train coming. Sam then destroys the jar containing Gus, which lets him out. Now free, Gus displays the word "STOP" several times in large letters. The locomotive's engineer sees Gus' messages and the truck on the tracks. The engineer applies the brake and stops the train just in time. The hot dog maker and the engineer and brakeman all call Gus a hero, and Gus and Sam fly off into the night. As dawn arrives, they must go back to their homes to sleep, since they are nocturnal. However, Gus continues to visit Sam's tree home every night to play.
External links
- Sam and the Firefly at Open Library