The Wonderful World of Rudolpha: The lost button

The children at the North Pole Animal Day Care are decorating paper snowmen. While they cut, paste and color, their teacher, Rudolpha the reindeer, notices that Frost the snowy owl looks sad.

“Is there a problem with your snowman, Frost?” she asks kindly.

“I wanted red buttons but there are just yellow ones left. Yellow’s not a Christmas color!” Frost tells her.

“Yellow is a great color for a snowman,” Rudolpha tells the young owl. “I’ll tell you all the story of Shiver and you’ll see why.” She gathers her students around her and begins to tell the tale.

“Shiver was a young snowman who wore three buttons: a red one, a blue one and a yellow one. One morning, he couldn’t find the yellow one and he was very upset.

“‘Mom! I can’t find my yellow button!’

“‘That’s too bad,’ said his mother. ‘You can wear one of mine, if you’d like.’ She showed him her collection of green and blue buttons.

“‘No! I want my yellow one. It’s my favorite button, and I wanted to wear it with my yellow scarf to the Christmas party tonight!’

“Shiver searched everywhere for his missing button. He looked in his ice fort, in his father’s sleigh that he’d used to play Santa Claus and even in his mother’s frost garden where he’d picked ice-candies. That’s when Flurry, his new neighbor, joined him.

“‘What are you looking for?’ she asked.

“‘I lost my favorite yellow button! I wanted to wear it to the Christmas party tonight.’ Shiver explained.

“‘A yellow button? I found one this morning when I was on my way to the park! There was no one around, so I brought it home to add to my collection. You can come over to see if it’s yours.’

“When they got to Flurry’s house, she showed Shiver her collection of yellow buttons. There were dozens of them, all different sizes and shapes. Shiver’s beautiful button lay on top. Overjoyed, he picked it up.

“Seeing how happy Shiver was, Flurry said, ‘You can take two more buttons to wear to the party tonight, if you’d like. Choose whichever ones you want.’

“And that night, Shiver went to the Christmas party alongside his new friend wearing three beautiful yellow buttons that matched his favorite scarf perfectly.”

Frost is so taken with Rudolpha’s story that he goes back to the craft table and gives his snowman three beautiful yellow buttons and a scarf to match.

Written by Johannie Dufour and Sarah Beauregard
Translated by Cyan Caruso-Comas