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Page 01
A flash of orange
On a tropical island, Liam and Charlotte followed a reef guide to a tide pool.
The sea had slipped back, leaving a clear window into the reef.
Liam spotted something orange.
A leaf?
The orange thing turned around.
Leaves did not usually have eyes.
Page 02
Now you see it
Out came a little fish with three white stripes.
“A clownfish,” said the guide.
“Where are its enormous shoes?” whispered Charlotte.
Liam giggled.
The fish flicked its tail and vanished into a patch of waving, wiggly things.
Both children stopped giggling.
“Where did it GO?”
Page 03
The wrong map
“Maybe it is lost,” Liam said.
Charlotte opened her notebook. She drew the pool, the fish, and a big arrow pointing out to sea.
Then the clownfish popped out.
One little loop—
and straight back into the wiggles.
Charlotte looked at her arrow.
“That is definitely not following my map.”
Pause & wonder
Why might the clownfish keep returning to the same spot?
Page 04
A very wiggly clue
“What is that wiggly plant?” she asked.
“Not a plant,” said the guide. “A sea anemone. An animal.”
“An animal?” Liam crouched on the dry sand. “With no face?”
“Its tentacles can sting,” the guide said. “We leave it untouched.”
Charlotte stared.
“Then why does the fish keep going IN?”
Page 05
Watch what happens
They watched without reaching into the water.
Out for a tiny bite.
Back to the wiggles.
Out. Back.
Liam grinned.
“It is not looking for the way out.”
Charlotte rubbed out her arrow.
“It knows exactly where it wants to be!”
Beside the anemone, she drew a little house.
Page 06
The little lookout
A bigger fish nosed toward the anemone.
The clownfish darted out.
Quick as a hiccup!
The visitor turned away.
“The anemone shelters the clownfish,” said the guide. “And the clownfish can chase away fish that nibble its home.”
Liam looked at Charlotte.
“A hiding place with its own little lookout.”
Page 07
Two kinds of brave
Charlotte added two arrows to her drawing.
One from the anemone to the fish.
One from the fish to the anemone.
“Different jobs,” she said. “Same team.”
“Like us,” said Liam. “I spotted the fish.”
“And I drew a completely wrong map.”
“You changed it.”
Charlotte smiled. “That part was good.”
Page 08
A secret to keep
When the guide said it was time, they left the pool just as they had found it.
That evening, two new neighbors joined their Wonder Wall.
One wore stripes.
One wore wiggles.
Underneath, Charlotte wrote:
SOME FRIENDS HELP IN DIFFERENT WAYS.
Liam left room for another picture.
“What else is hiding in plain sight?”