It was a sad, cold, lonely afternoon for little Edward. He had been sitting in his room down in the cold basement all day by himself. Poor Edward was never able to go outside to play baseball, to play tag, or even to go swimming in the pond with his friends and the other kids in his class at school. His parents never treated Edward very well. They would always yell at him and make him do the chores in late hours of the night, and he didn’t get much to eat when dinner time came along either.
“Why don’t Mommy and Daddy like me?” he said to his tear-streaked reflection in the mirror. He pushed his greasy, longish bangs away from his forehead, revealing a large, fresh bruise near his hairline. “Maybe it’s because I don’t look like them.” “Maybe,” he admitted, his heart breaking with the acknowledgement of the truth, “they can’t love me because I’m not really their kid.”
One day, while little Edward was thinking about how his adopted family had abused him, Edward began wondering where his real parents were. He had always questioned why they had left him, why they had never wanted him to stay in their lives. When little Edward was walking to the bus stop, he decided it was time to find his real family. He was going to run away from home!
Edward and his friends had a little hang-out spot down by the pond where they had a tire swing tied to a tree, a little tree fort with a roughly hewn wooden seat, and a table that had a deck of cards scattered everywhere across it. When little Edward got down to his hang-out spot, he threw his bag down on the ground. He sat next to the tree while facing the pond, hiding himself from the road behind him, and started to cry. As little Edward cried, he heard a little noise from the tall grass on the edge of the pond. The noise began to get a little louder, and it caught Edward’s attention. When he crawled over to the tall grass to see what it was, he saw a green frog. Little Edward couldn’t figure out why the frog was crying, so he decided to ask him.
“What is wrong, little fella?” Edward asked the little frog whose shoulders shook as he sat on the edge of the pond.
This frog had to be the biggest frog Edward had ever seen in his life. It was a darker green color with brown on it. It had black eyes, and its throat always bulged in and out, which, in a way, scared Edward, because he didn’t know if it was normal for the frog to do that.
“Oh, it’s horrible. My family left me because I was too mean to them,” the frog said as he was sobbed terribly.
The boy was puzzled; he couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to leave such a friendly animal like that.
“Why don’t you come with me, little fella? I will help you find your family because I, too, am looking for mine.”
Little Edward and his new friend set out to find the boy a family. Along the way the boy decided he wanted learn a little bit about the frog.
“My name’s Edward,” the seven-year-old muttered shyly as he walked beside his green friend. “What’s yours?”
The frog replied saying that his name was Droopy.
“Well, Droopy, it’s nice to meet you. I really did need a traveling buddy. Where did you come from? Are you headed back home?”
“I am trying to find my family again,” Droopy replied.
While Edward and Droopy were exchanging information and favorite memories along the road, they came to a wooded area where they heard a bird chirping and crying up in its nest.

Little Edward decided he was going to climb the tree to see what was wrong, and to his surprise he saw a baby bird in the nest.
“Hey, little fella, what is wrong?” Edward asked the little bird with bright blue feathers.
“My family left me, and I have just learned how to fly!” the little bird replied in a panicked voice, looking in every directions to see where he should find to find his parents.
“Well, what is your name, Little Bird?” he asked once again.
This bird was a fascinating looking bird. It had bright blue feathers, almost like the sky. The birds’ feathers had a light tint of black to them which must have been from one of his parents. On the bird’s beak there were little red speckles, but they were only on one side of his beak.
“My name is Chirpy,” the bright blue bird replied. “I was named after my grandma.”
“I have an idea,” Edward said after pausing for a minute to think. “Why don’t you come with my friend and me? We are also looking for our parents.”
“Really!” Chirpy said in excitement. “That would be terrific!”
As Edward, Droopy, and Chirpy were all walking toward the major city of New York, they decided to learn a little bit more about the bird. Edward and Droopy took turns asking the bird questions.
“Where are you from?” Droopy asked curiously while sitting in Edward’s hand.
“That nest in that tree back there has been my home as long as I can remember,” Chirpy answered to both of them.
Edward, Droopy, and Chirpy all decided to go on this journey to find Edward’s parents. They had been walking through the countryside for hours asking families if they’d like to adopt this little boy, but everyone said no because the boy was too ugly. Their journey continued through woods, across fields, over rivers and eventually they came to an ant hill where they saw a bunch of bugs arguing with each other.
Edward asked, “What’s wrong?” All the ants said that this caterpillar wants to live with them, but he couldn’t because he’s too slow.
Edward, Droopy, and Chirpy all decided they would take this Caterpillar with them because they too were looking for their families.
Edward, Droopy, Chirpy, and the bug once again all set off the find their families. The three took turns asking the bug questions like what his name was, where he was born, and how old he was. The bug quickly replied by saying that his name is Bugsy, and that he doesn’t know where he was born or how old he was.
This was probably the brightest colored bug little Edward had ever seen in his life. It had bright green skin with bright yellow dots all over his body. The Caterpillar looked really fat which made Edward laugh every time he looked at him.
“How come you look like you have the chicken pox, Bugsy?” Edward asked with a little chuckle.
“They are not chicken pox! My spottiness is just how my skin looks. It’s looked like that for as long as I can remember,” Bugsy quickly replied, embarrassed because Edward had been laughing at him about it. After hearing Edward ask that, the animals began to worry that this kid would begin to act mean to them and not help them out after all.
After seeing all these sad animals that had no families, Edward had been extremely angry about it and questioned himself why anyone would want to hurt these innocent little animals. In fact, he was now bound and determined that he would find a family for everyone. Their journey had taken them into the great city of New York. Here, they now were stopping taxis, delivery trucks, busses, and almost everything and everyone they could, asking people if they were the parents of this kid.
Finally after spending the day helping Edward look for a family, Droopy, Chirpy, and Bugsy all decided to take a break from looking for a family to go sight-seeing. The our of them went to see the Empire State Building, Times Square, and the Statue of Liberty. When they got to the Statue of Liberty, Edward sat down against the wall and began to cry.
“What is wrong, Edward?” asked Droopy, who was puzzled as to what happened that made him cry.
“This is where my mommy and daddy left me when I was young,” Edward said, gasping every now and then, with tears running down his face.
Now the three of the animals all agreed that if he stayed here for a little bit, they’d go out and find him a family. The three animals again traipsed all over the city and even into the countryside asking every single person who walked by if they wanted to adopt a boy who was seven years old. As little Edward was sitting against the wall, looking up at the statue, trying to remember what his parents looked like, and gathering himself, the three animals, Droopy, Chirpy, and Bugsy walked over to him with great news.
“We found you a family, edward!” Chirpy said with great excitement. “They live out in the country just south of here! If we hurry, we can get there before the day is over!”
Everyone was very excited and happy for little Edward. He was finally going to be with a family that would treat him like a family should.
On the way to meet his new family, little Edward and his friends told everyone they saw that he was going to be happy again, that he was going to be loved, and that he was not going to have to worry about being mistreated. The animals wanted a faster way of getting there, so they stopped a taxi and asked the man if he could take them.
“You’re too young to be riding a taxi, kid. Plus, I don’t allow pets in my taxi, they do nothing but leave big messes everywhere!” shouted the steamed driver with his New York accent, a bright red face and a vein in his forehead popping out every so often.
“Please, mister, these are my only friends, and I need to get to this house so that I can have a family again,” whined little Edward from the curb of the street.
“Alright, hop in and I will take you out there, but I swear to God, if any of you tell anyone about this, I am going to get fired, and I’ll be very upset!” the driver shouted yet again with that silly vein still popping out of his forehead.
As the driver was taking Edward, Droopy, Chirpy, and Bugsy out to the house, all four of them were talking about how they would miss Edward and how they only hoped they’d get as lucky as he had in finding a family.
When they got to the driveway of the house, there was a sign in the yard that had a silhouette of a young boy and below it says “Missing Child.” Edward couldn’t believe it. He had found a family that was also looking for a little boy to live with them.
“We’ll go inside and talk to them to make sure they still want you. You wait out here until we come back,” Bugsy told Edward as him, Chirpy, and Droopy walked down the driveway.
Minutes passed as all three animals talked to the family inside. This was a family of three, a mom, dad, and a little girl. Their son had been taken from them, probably kidnapped, years before when they were in New York City sight-seeing. Finally the three came out with a conclusion.
“They’ll let you live here but under one condition, Edward. You must build us homes as well,” Chirpy added.
Edward spent day after day building a bird house for Chirpy to live in, and she finally found a mate. He built a little pond for Droopy who also found a mate. Edward couldn’t figure out what to do to help Bugsy out. The two of them had looked everywhere and went all over the place looking for other bugs that Bugsy could live with, and there was nothing that seemed to work, so finally, Edward just squished him, and forgot about it all.