Ollie the Shark
Once upon a time...
There was a little hammerhead shark named Ollie. His eyes were on the sides of his wide head. Ollie could see what was beside him, but he had a blindspot - Ollie couldn't see what was right in front of his nose. The other little sharks teased Ollie; they laughed at the shape of his head and said that he would never be good at hunting fish because of his blindspot.
When the sharks went out to hunt fish to eat, they didn't let Ollie go with them. Ollie was all alone and very hungry. He decided to go out all by himself to find some fish to eat. Ollie swam very close to the bottom of the ocean, and as he swam he moved his head back and forth scanning for fish. Ollie learned how to use his shark sense to detect fish - even in his blindspot. All sharks can do this, but Ollie's wide head makes him even better at it than the sharks with pointy noses.
The other sharks in the big hunting party traveled together. When the fish saw a large number of sharks, they all swam away. The sharks had to chase them down to get something to eat. Each shark in the hunting party only got a few small fish to eat and they were exhausted from chasing the fish. Meanwhile, Ollie was hunting by himself. The fish did not swim away from him because they thought they could hide from just one shark. Because of this, Ollie actually caught and ate more fish than the other sharks. And because he didn't have to chase them down, Ollie could hunt much longer than the other sharks without getting exhausted.
Ollie grew bigger and stronger than all the other sharks because he was catching and eating more fish on every hunt. The other sharks asked Ollie if they could go with him to hunt so they could eat more too. Ollie said, "When I wanted to hunt with you, I was teased and left behind. I was hungry and alone. I only hunt alone."
Ollie left the group of sharks to live and hunt alone in a different part of the ocean. One day, while he was hunting, Ollie detected something in front of him. He thought it was a large fish, so he opened his mouth and swam toward it but then he heard, "Ollie, wait! I'm a shark!" Ollie stopped and closed his mouth. He turned his head to see who was there. Ollie never hunted fish with another shark nearby, so he never had to worry about accidentally biting someone.
As he turned, he saw that it was a tiny hammerhead. The shark introduced himself, "I'm Toby. I don't know how to hunt yet, and I don't have anyone to teach me. I don't want to be all alone. Could I follow you and see how you do it?" Ollie remembered what it was like to be small, and hungry, and alone. He wanted to help Toby, so he said, "Yes. Stay by my side, where we can always see each other, and I will teach you."
Ollie taught Toby how to move his head side to side and use his shark sense to find fish hiding in the sand. They hunted together and became good friends. Now when Ollie looks around, all he sees is his friend Toby who wants to be there with him.
The end.