THE BOY WITH THE LITTLE MAP
Pages 1–2
There once was a boy who had a map of the whole world.
At least…
he thought he did.
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Pages 3–4
His house was here.
His school was there.
The river was there.
And beyond the hills…
nothing.
“There,” said the boy.
“The whole world.”
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Pages 5–6
The traveler handed him an old compass.
“You have drawn your world,” he said.
“But there is much more to see.”
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Pages 7–8
So the boy packed a little bag,
put the compass in his pocket,
and walked beyond the hills.
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Pages 9–10
He found great cities
filled with tall buildings,
bright lights,
beautiful clothes,
and tables covered with food.
The boy had never seen so much.
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Pages 11–12
Then he found places with very little.
Small homes.
Old clothes.
And not much food at all.
But he still found children playing.
Families laughing.
And people sharing what they had.
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Pages 13–14
He met a man who was very, very old.
The man told him stories from long ago.
Then he met a girl who was very, very young.
She had questions about everything.
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Pages 15–16
The old man taught him to remember.
The little girl taught him to wonder.
And the boy listened to them both.
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Pages 17–18
The boy kept going.
He saw mountains above the clouds.
Oceans that seemed to never end.
Forests taller than anything he had ever seen.
And stars…
more stars than he could count.
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Pages 19–20
He walked through hot deserts.
He played in freezing snow.
He crossed great oceans.
He wandered down streets where he couldn’t understand a single word.
And still…
someone always found a way to smile at him.
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Pages 21–22
The people he met did not all look the same.
They did not dress the same.
They did not eat the same food.
They did not sing the same songs.
They did not live the same way.
At first,
this seemed strange.
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Pages 23–24
But the longer the boy traveled,
the more he noticed something.
Everywhere he went…
people laughed.
People cried.
People dreamed.
People got scared.
And people loved.
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Pages 25–26
And somehow,
the world didn’t seem quite so strange anymore.
It just seemed…
big.
Very, very big.
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Pages 27–28
He saw beautiful places.
He saw imperfect places.
He saw people with much.
He saw people with little.
He saw things he had never imagined.
And everywhere he went,
there was something new to understand.
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Pages 29–30
And with every new place,
his little map grew.
And grew.
And grew.
Until one day…
there was hardly any room left.
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Pages 31–32
So the boy went home.
He crossed the hill.
Walked down his old road.
And opened his bedroom door.
Everything was exactly where he had left it.
But somehow…
everything felt different.
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Pages 33–34
The traveler found him.
“Well?” he asked.
“Did you see the world?”
The boy thought for a moment.
Then smiled.
“I saw some of it.”
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Pages 35–36
That night,
the boy looked out his window.
He thought about the cities.
The little villages.
The mountains.
The oceans.
The old man.
The little girl.
And all the people he had met along the way.
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Final Spread
Once,
the boy thought his little home was the whole world.
Now he knew…
the whole world was home.
A home filled with people he had never met.
Places he had never seen.
Animals he had never known.
And wonders he had never imagined.
It was big.
It was different.
It wasn’t perfect.
But it was beautiful.
And the boy knew there was still so much he didn’t understand.
So he kept his compass.
He kept his map.
And most importantly…
he kept wondering.