"Elena's Serenade"
by Campbell Geeslin

Student Edition
Unit 6, pp. 384–400

A fantasy is a made-up story that could never happen. What makes this story a fantasy?

Elena lives in Mexico. Her papa is a glassblower. He dips one end of a long pipe into melted glass and puffs hard into the other end. The glass blows out into bottles, just like that. Elena wants to be a glassblower too. She finds an old pipe and picks it up. But Papa says she is too young. He also says that girls are not glassblowers.
Elena's brother sees that she is sad. He advises her to go to the city of Monterrey. Great glassblowers work there. The next morning Elena dresses in her brother's clothes and takes her pipe with her. She will pretend to be a boy. Then the glassblowers might let her work with them. On the road, she stops to rest. When she blows into her pipe, music comes out. She starts to play "Burro Serenade." Soon Burro trots toward her, saying, "Your song makes me happy. Play it again, and I will take you anywhere you want to go." She tells him she wants to be a glassblower in Monterrey. He says she will be a good one.
They continue toward Monterrey and meet Roadrunner, who is limping. Elena plays a march for him. Roadrunner steps to the beat. As Elena plays faster and faster, Roadrunner stops limping and starts to run. As he speeds off, he tells Elena that she will make a wonderful glassblower.
That night, when they are resting, Burro and Elena see Coyote being chased by other animals. The animals want Coyote to stop his terrible singing. Elena and Burro agree that Coyote's singing is awful. Elena tells him to listen to the tune she plays. It is "Cielito Lindo," and Coyote sings along. The sound is beautiful. When she tells Coyote where she is going, he tells her if she can teach him to sing, she can surely do anything.
Elena and Burro reach Monterrey the next morning. At a factory with a giant furnace of melted glass, Elena asks for a job. The glassblowers laugh. They reply that such a small boy could never blow glass. Elena dips one end of her pipe into the glass. Into the other she puffs out "Estrellita," a song about a little star. She thinks of how her pipe has helped the animals on the road. As she plays, a perfect star forms. It bursts off her pipe and drops into the sand below. Elena plays again and blows out more stars. The men try but cannot make music or stars. They put Elena's stars in the windows and offer her a job. All the children in Monterrey want to buy one of her stars.
One night, while working alone, Elena changes her tune. She plays a song about a swallow that flies over the sea. As she plays, a glass bird grows and grows. Now lonely for Papa and her brother, Elena asks the bird to fly her home. He does, and she falls asleep in her old bed.
The next morning, Elena again disguises herself and goes to Papa. She pretends to be an old man from Monterrey looking for a job. As Papa watches, Elena dips her pipe into the hot glass. She plays "La Mariposa," the butterfly song, and a beautiful butterfly forms and flies off. Papa is amazed. He wishes his daughter Elena could see such a wonderful thing. Elena takes off her disguise, and Papa is even more amazed. They both laugh.
Since then they have worked together every day. Papa blows bottles, glasses, and pitchers. Elena blows out stars, birds and butterflies, and songs that bring them to life.

From Elena's Serenade. Text copyright © 2004 by Campbell Geeslin. Reprinted with permission of Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division. All rights reserved.

Copyright © Pearson Education.