Rachel Small: The Story of Cartwheels That Took A Girl To the Ocean

            Rachel Small was the tiniest of all her brothers and sisters. Her shoes were the smallest, her hands were the littlest, and her voice was soft—but full of wonder.
            One morning, Rachel said, “I want to see the ocean.”
            She had read about it in books and watched it on the television. She knew the ocean from stories—especially the ones her grandfather told. Her grandfather was a fisherman and a seashell collector, and he spoke of rolling waves, sparkling water, and the sound the sea makes when it laughs against the shore.
            Rachel’s brothers and sisters had all seen the ocean before. But Rachel had not.
            “It’s too far,” her parents said. “It would take days to get there.”
            “And you’re too tiny,” her father added. “Your feet are much too small to walk all that way.”
            Rachel listened carefully. Then, she smiled.
            Because Rachel believed that small things could do big things.
            One morning, as the sun rose, a soft light slipped through Rachel’s window. The light wrapped around her—warm and gentle—filling her with strength.
            Rachel looked in the mirror and blinked. She was a little taller. Not tall—just tall enough.
            She tried something new. A cartwheel. Then another. Soon, Rachel was cartwheeling through the house, down the path, and onto the long road ahead.
            She cartwheeled past fields and towns, past miles and miles of sky, all the way to the ocean.
            When she reached the shore, Rachel stopped. The waves crashed and shimmered, stretching farther than she could see. High above, a lifeguard watched from his tower.
            Rachel smiled and did one last cartwheel—a perfect round-off—landing with both feet in the sand. She stood very still and listened to the sea.
            Then, she laughed and ran into the waves, up to her knees, splashing and shining. She laughed at every voice that had ever said, “You’re too small.”
            Because Rachel knew the truth.
            She was not too small for anything.
            She was Rachel.
            And her faith was big enough.

Copyright 2015 Jennifer Waters

LOGLINE

When the smallest child in her family is told she’s too tiny to reach the ocean, a determined girl discovers that faith, wonder, and a little magic can carry her farther than anyone imagined.

 

PITCH

Rachel Small is the tiniest of her brothers and sisters, but her dreams are anything but small—especially her wish to see the ocean she knows only from books and her grandfather’s stories. When her parents say the journey is too far and she is too little, Rachel’s quiet faith fills her with courage and strength, and she sets off on an extraordinary cartwheeling journey toward the sea. Along the way, fields, towns, and miles of sky roll past until Rachel finally reaches the shore, where crashing waves prove what she has believed all along: no one is too small to follow a dream when faith is big enough.