Storytelling Week 3: Oh, Where Did Sita Go?

Monkey from How Why Where

"Okay kids, it's time for bed!"

"BUT MOM!" whined Marcus and Elizabeth.

"I know, I know, but you have school tomorrow. I need you to be fully rested so you can learn! How about I read you a bedtime story? Which one do you wanna hear? The Prince and the Sandals? Sita the Warrior Princess?"

"How about Oh, Where Did Sita Go?"

"What an excellent choice Marcus!"

The mother went to the kids' bookshelf, humming to herself as she searched for that very special book. "O hear it is!" She exclaimed as she came back to her kids who were already crawling up into their beds. "You guys brush your teeth? Wash your face?" Both Elizabeth and Marcus nodded fervently. "Okay then! Let's get started!" the mother said as she opened the book.


"Monkeys, chimps, and those with ape-life
Our friend Rama is missing his loving wife.

Go forth my friends and bring her back
Otherwise Rama will give me quite the smack"

A day, a week, a month went by
but the search for Sita still came up dry

"You! With the matted brown hair
Explain to me why we haven't found Sita anywhere!"

"My lord Sugriva, I don't know what to say
I am sure we look in every which way

We could not find her in a bog
We could not find her in a log

We could not find her in a house
We could not find her with her spouse

As you can see
We could not find her in a tree

We could not find Sita here or there
We could not find her anywhere!"

"You monkeys are no help
I will just go do it" Sugriva said with a yelp.

Elizabeth, seeming upset, said "Mom, why would Sagreeva be mean to a cute monkey?"

Chuckling to herself at her daughters attempt to say "Sugriva", the mom replied, "It's hard to say sweetie, not all people are nice when they don't get their way."

"I don't like this story anymore mom. I'm tired." yawned Elizabeth. "Can we go to sleep?"

"That is a good idea!"

"But mom," replied Marcus, "you didn't finish the story!"

"It's late enough honey! Besides, now you can have something to look forward to tomorrow! I will finish the story before bed tomorrow."

Marcus looked at his mom with suspicion "Pink promise?"

Smiling to herself, the mom agreed, "Pinky promise."

"Goodnight kids, I love you"

"Love you too mom!" they chorused together as they soon drifted off to sleep and dreamt of monkeys searching for a princess.

Author's Note: For some reason when I read the story "the Armies" and "Sampati" I imagined the monkeys looking here and there and not finding Sita anywhere. After that, I really wanted to try to write this with a Dr. Seuss vibe. More specifically, I was thinking about "Green eggs and ham" and having the monkeys describe where they searched for Sita. I chose the title "Oh, Where did Sita go?" as a spin off to the Dr. Seuss classic "Oh, the places you'll go". It seemed like a fitting title for the story and I feel it really tells the reader what the story will be like before they even start reading it. It was fun to figure out different places Sita could be while making sure everything still rhymed. However, it was more difficult than I thought! This is why the storybook portion is smaller than I had originally planned for it to be. I had to have a mom read it to her kids because I immediately think of my mom reading Dr. Seuss and other books to me as a child. I basically kept to the story of the monkeys searching for Sita. I chose the cartoon of the monkey because I feel like it is a very child friendly image that could easily be found in a children's story.

Bibliography: The Armies from Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913), and the verse portion comes from Ramayana, The Epic of Rama, Prince of India, condensed into English verse by Romesh Dutt (1899) and Sampati from Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita (1914).