By, Pamela Love

Listen to and follow along with this fun tale about what happens on Somersault Sunday!

Grandpa slid the spatula under a pancake. “Here goes!” He tossed it into the air. A moment later the pancake landed, sizzling, on the hot skillet.

“Why do you flip pancakes like that, Grandpa?” Simone asked. “When Daddy cooks them, he just turns them over.”

“People make pancakes in different ways,” said Grandpa. “But my way is the only way to find out if today is a Somersault Sunday.”

Simone blinked. “What’s that?”

“You mean nobody’s ever told you about Somersault Sundays? Then listen so you’ll know what to do if one ever happens to you.

A long time ago, I was camping by a pond. I made myself a pancake, and flipped it in the air. But it didn’t fall back onto the skillet. It kept on somersaulting, right in front of my face!

And it wasn’t just my pancake that was spinning. A frog jumped off a lily pad, but instead of diving into the water, it kept on turning midair. That must’ve scared a rabbit, which jumped out of the bushes.”

 “Did it somersault, too, Grandpa?”

“It sure did! Over and over it went. By then, I knew it was a Somersault Sunday, and it was up to me to fix it.”

“What did you do, Grandpa?”

“The only thing I could do: somersaults.”

“But how did that fix things, Grandpa? Everything else was doing that, too.”

“Well, the pancake, frog, and rabbit were all going forwards. That meant I had to go backwards. And not just one somersault, I rolled over and over and over until I lost count. Got dizzy, too.”

“When did you stop, Grandpa?”

“When I heard the splat of the pancake, the splash of the frog, and the thump, thump, thump of the rabbit hightailing it out of there. That meant Somersault Sunday was back to normal.”

 By now, Grandpa had finished the pancakes. He stacked them on his and Simone’s plates.

Simone brought the maple syrup. Opening the cap, Grandpa tipped the bottle over his pancakes.

But nothing happened. 

“Wow! Today must be a Stuck Sunday. That’s why the syrup’s not coming out—it’s stuck in the bottle.”

“May I see the maple syrup, Grandpa?” 

Simone unscrewed the cap and pulled away the inside tab.

“We just needed to peel that off. See? Now the syrup is coming out.”

“Thanks, Simone. You know what kind of Sunday this is?”

“No, what?” she asked.

“It’s a Smart Thinking Sunday!”    

Simone laughed.

THE END

About the Author

Born in New Jersey, Pamela Love graduated from Bucknell University and worked as a teacher. (Sometimes she thinks the kids taught her almost as much as she taught them!) Then she worked in marketing before becoming a full time writer. She and her family live in Maryland. Her fantasy novel for children, The Pegasus Potential, is available on Amazon, as is its prequel, The Pegasus Shortcut.  https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B01G670NSO