LEFT TURN LOUIE
written and illustrated by
Elizabeth O Dulemba
Cover
Endpapers
Title Page
Louie was one of Santa's elves.
Well, he wasn't one of Santa's elves just yet. But he really wanted to be.
So, Louie went to the North Pole to apply for the job.
Unfortunately, Louie took a wrong turn in Iowa and that's when everything went south.
East actually. Louie went east, which sent him all the way around the world until he ended up back in Iowa again. "Drat!"
So, Louie turned around and went west, which meant he went all the way around the world the other way until he ended up right back in, you guessed it, Iowa.
Louie decided to take a Louie (that means turn 'take a left').
Finally, he reached snow. "I made it to the North Pole!" He cheered until…
Louie met a penguin.
That's when Louie realized he wasn't at the North Pole at all. He was at…
the South Pole. (Penguins don't live at the North Pole.)
Santa's workshop was on the polar opposite end of the planet.
Just then, it began to snow. Louie had arrived at the South Pole just in time for summer (which was like winter at the North Pole), and he got snowed in.
But Louie was determined to make it to the North Pole anyway.
So he tried to sled his way out. It was fun, but not very effective.
Louie tried to paddle out. Tap, tap. That didn't work either.
Louie tried to snowmobile out.
But that didn't get him very far.
Louie was stuck.
So the penguins built Louie a nice house out of snow blocks. (At the North Pole, they call those igloos.)
*Interesting factoid: The reason igloos aren't associated with the South Pole is because nobody actually lives there – except for scientists… and Louie.
Louie hunkered down to wait out the summer by doing what elves do best. He started making toys.
*Interesting factoid: Ironically, Louie was a southpaw, which means he was left-handed.
The penguins helped.
They all had fun making toys. But sometimes Louie stared out the window and sighed, "I'm still going to the North Pole. Someday."
The penguins brought Louie hot chocolate and pink snowballs* to cheer him up.
*Factoid: Pink snowballs are pink-dyed coconut cake balls that you buy at a gas station.
Meanwhile, they kept making toys.
Eventually, word got to Santa about this toy-making elf at the South Pole.
[illo note: via Albatross (who spits a toy out of his beak) or seagull (who doesn't want to give it up).]
"Absolutely exquisite work, sir," said the Elf above all elves.*
*"Elf above all elves" - else – get it? *sigh*
One day, when the weather finally broke, Louie had a visitor.
"Ho, ho, ho!" It was Santa!
"Louie, I'd like you to be the manager of my South Pole toy factory!"
The penguins flapped their little flippers and smothered Louie with love.
Louie never made it to the North Pole.*
*Interesting factoid: Except for the occasional business trip and a toy conference where he was invited to speak.
But really, who needs the North Pole, when you have the South Pole, and penguins?
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