By Brooke Reese | Raising Writers 2026 “A Whale of a Tale: Writing a Tall Tale”
One summer afternoon,
Zront Williams was chilling near the trees in his favorite chair. He was 50 feet tall and he wore a shiny gray jumpsuit with tap shoes. His hair was black, his nose long, and his eyes were brown. When he was born he was dancing. When he was dancing, his parents couldn’t get him to stop. He would swing his arms side to side. When he tapped, the birds would sing.
Zront was known far and wide for his tap dancing.
But whenever he was tap dancing, the nearby towns would complain because when he tap danced the earth shook. They complained so much that he couldn’t tap dance anymore unless everybody was sad and didn’t care. Then they asked him to dance to cheer them up.
The trees loved Zront’s dancing, and when he stopped, the trees were sad. In fact, they were so sad that they grew taller with sadness, as they looked over their tops to find Zront, to ask him to dance for them.
As the trees grew taller, looking for Zront, their towering heights made other people sad and frustrated because they used to have a great view of the nearby water, and now it was gone.
One day Zront was sad but he soon realized something; everybody was sad because they couldn’t see the beautiful water nearby and Zront wanted to help them! He couldn’t bear to see his friends and others sad.
So what could he do?
Dance!
He decided to dance so maybe he and they would feel better.
He went outside and stood in front of the trees. He started by dancing slowly, with pop music coming out of his boom box sitting on the ground next to him. He was so happy he could finally dance that he started dancing faster and faster. His body swayed to the beat as his feet tapped. His black shoes were as shiny as a diamond and sparkled like the stars at night. He danced so loud that the trees heard him and they watched him. They were so happy they got up out of the ground, and started dancing with him! Zront realized that when he moved somewhere else, the trees would follow him!
Zront moved to an empty spot where no one lived, and continued to dance. Zront and the trees danced and danced until the trees were so tired that they planted themselves down and made a forest.
Zront and the trees made such a racket that the people stepped out of their houses when they heard an enormous crash that shook the ground. Looking around, they could finally see the view! They said Zront could dance whenever he wanted to. They even threw a dance party for him. That’s how the Sleeping Bear Dunes came to be.
From then on, whenever there was a problem such as a sand storm, Zront would come along and dance. And when he danced, everything and everyone would stop to watch him perform. Nature would be so happy, it would stop whatever it was doing and join in.
After that, Zront became a hero!
After every problem he fixed, there was a huge dance party in celebration of him! He could dance and dance and nobody said a thing to him! Zront had a very happy life after that.