Marcel, the White Faced Monkey

Written by Melissa Ellenburg, Volunteer

This is one of 3 children’s stories written by the 16 year old Ellenburg Triplets.  Their 3 stories will become a a book to be sold by KSTR to teach children the importance of saving the rainforest.  It will be available next year.  

There once was a monkey named Marcel. He lived in a beautiful rainforest filled with perky parrots and colorful flowers. Marcel was very happy here. He swung in the trees and ate fruit and bugs all day long. 

One, day big monsters made out of metal came to the rainforest and started cutting trees down. They made loud roars and scared Marcel and all his friends and family. The people driving the machines said, “We need these trees to make paper and all kinds of things.” 

So the monkeys let them stay, but the people started taking too much. Soon all the beautiful trees and flowers were gone! Marcel trembled in his tree while he tried to figure out what he could do. 

Marcel got all his friends together and they planned ways to get the people and the machines to leave them alone; he even got his friend Tally the Toucan to help. 

The monkeys swung down from their trees during the workers’ lunch break and threw fruit at them while Tally and the other toucans swooped down and stole their keys. 

The monkeys and toucans thought they won and were celebrating when the workers found extra keys and kept cutting! Their plan didn’t work! Marcel had to try something different. 

Some of Marcel’s monkey friends distracted the workers by playing with their pots and pans while Marcel stole all their lunch boxes and Tally popped all the tires! Marcel thought, “This one HAS to work!” But, the next day, the people were back cutting the trees down again. 

One day a little girl was hiking through the forest and she saw what was happening to the monkeys. She realized that people have to be careful about what they take from the rainforest, or it will all be gone before we know it. 

The little girl got her friends and family together and they wrote letters to the mayor, the governor and even the president! Then the government people got together and made rules that wouldn’t let people take so much anymore. 

Soon the rainforest was beautiful and happy again, and so was Marcel. But that little girl can’t keep the rainforest healthy without our help. It’s up to us to do our part to keep the rainforest plants and animals happy and safe.